Late-Night Notebook: The “Ticket Stub,” Calling out Q-Rich, On Hate and Bias
Posted by Zach Lowe on Apr 19, 2010
• Glen Davis is resurrecting the “Ticket Stub” nickname as he preps for a possible start in Game 2 (via Marc Spears at Yahoo!):
“The ‘Ticket Stub,’ he’ll be ready,” Davis said. “I just can’t wait to help them. The ‘Ticket Stub’ loves to fill big shoes.”
For the record, yes, Davis is talking about the Ticket Stub in the third person. Even though he is the Ticket Stub.
• Will Davis or Sheed start in KG’s place? Doc was coy today at practice, according to the Herald (via CB). I still say it should be Davis, only because he’s a much better match-up for Michael Beasley at the four. Sheed and Perk are not quick enough to guard Beas. Save Sheed for when Miami brings Joel Anthony off the bench. Just my take.
• Also via Spears, KG had this to say about his suspension:
” My elbow wasn’t deliberate. But the league does what it has to do to set a tone and I respect [that] and now it’s time to move on and get back to a wonderful series.”
Come on, KG. The elbow wasn’t deliberate?
• Also on the KG incident: Doc Rivers believes Quentin Richardson deserved a suspension (ESPNBoston, via Celtics Town):
“But if your really want to stop the fights, you gotta suspend the agitator, too. I think right now, the agitator gets fined, the retaliator gets suspended in all these things.”
My initial reaction was to dismiss Doc’s take as homerism. After all, Q-Rich (or any member of the Heat, actually) has the right to walk over to the sideline in order to take the ball out, and that is, after all, what Richardson claimed he was doing when the press asked him to explain himself, right?
But then I watched the clip of the incident again.
Here’s a still taken as Q walks over toward Pierce:
See, there’s Q, and he’s just looking for the ball so he can take it out of bounds, right?
Hey, wait. I see the ball. It’s in the referee’s hands about 10 feet to Richardson’s right! Wow!
Either Q-Rich didn’t see where the ball was or he concocted a bogus explanation for what he was doing on the sideline.
Please understand: I am not a blind homer. I wrote over the weekend that KG would be suspended for his elbow, that he deserved to be, and that he acted with a lack of self-control in committing an act worthy of a suspension during the playoffs.
And I don’t think Richardson deserved a suspension. I’m just not buying his story about taking the ball out bounds.
• Speaking of Q-Rich, a bunch of C’s bloggers, with Red’s Army leading the way, are calling for a massive show of good-natured sports fan hate to be directed at Q during Game 2. Loscy has some cool movie poster-themed graphics to fuel the anti-Richardson venom.
• Over at Ball Don’t Lie, Kelly Dwyer laments that KG has too often behaved like something of a jack ass during his three seasons in Boston. And KD is a huge KG fan; Dwyer ranked Garnett the second-best player of the 2000s, behind only Tim Duncan. Here’s KD on KG:
There was the woofing from the Boston bench during the playoffs last season, an embarrassing display. There’s the incessant trash talking and harrassment sent the way of — yeah, I’ll say it — European players almost as a rule. There was the time he made Glen Davis cry on national TV because he wasn’t happy with Davis’ defensive rotations in a game the C’s were up 20.
He’s right about the playoffs last season. I felt embarrassed because of KG (and for him) when he was ranting and raving on the sidelines. And KD is also right (in an excerpt not included here) to blame KG for jeopardizing an entire season’s worth of work with one dumb elbow to Quentin Richardson’s face.
Don’t get me wrong: I love KG as a basketball player. And I love the Celtics. But that doesn’t mean I have to love everything about KG’s conduct over the last three seasons. Being a fan—and a blogger—does not mean you give up your critical judgement.
I mean, if you think the way KG blew off A.J. Price and Tyler Hansbrough during the off-season was anything but rude, I don’t know what to tell you.
He’s a great player. He works harder than anyone in the league. And most of the time, I don’t have any problem with the way he behaves at all.
But KG has a side to him that is aggressive and unpleasant. And Q-Rich brought it out in Game 1.
Now the C’s have to go out and win Game 2 without their leader.
And you know what? I think they will.
• And you know what else? I absolutely love KG’s response to Joakim Noah labeling KG—wrongly, mind you—a “dirty player.” (Via Spears):
“Tell Joakim Noah to keep it in Cleveland,” Garnett said, “and worry about Shaq.”
Awesome.
More tomorrow.
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