“The Association” Episode Two: Stray Observations

Posted by Hayes Davenport on Jan 23, 2011 1533716 commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fcelticshub.com%2F2011%2F01%2F23%2Fthe-association-episode-two-stray-observations%2F%22The+Association%22+Episode+Two%3A+Stray+Observations2011-01-23+22%3A00%3A35Hayes+Davenporthttp%3A%2F%2Fcelticshub.com%2F%3Fp%3D15337

No momentum lost from the first episode. Just a wire-to-wire joy. I’ll embed it again for easyness of browsing.

1:45 – This opening about how the Celtics are like the North End and Southie is pretty flimsy architecture to me. The C’s have the league’s fourth-highest payroll. Maybe Wellesley and Weston would have worked better for this purpose?

“The Boston MetroWest area is bookended by two towns. (Shots of dogs running in the Weston Town Green and women in yoga pants eating frozen yogurt in Wellesley). They have their differences (show that the Weston Town Hall has columns in front but the Wellesley one doesn’t). But they have one thing in common: they’re rich and old. This year’s Celtics team is much the same.”

I get that the gritty neighborhood stuff is supposed to capitalize on the whole “Boston Noir” thing that everyone loves now, but seems like that’s a trend nearing its decline. We’re this close to seeing a heist movie where Donnie Wahlberg and Lenny Clarke rob the Christian Science Mother Church.

3:12 – Whoa!!! Ray looks unbelievable, physically! Dude is cut like American education budgets! He’s always been in great shape, but he has kind of a Bruce Lee thing going on now, ab-wise. Is he a well-known object of desire for women looking for husband material? I feel like he isn’t somehow. Is it the ears?

4:16 – What a great scene of Paul taking over practice, then demanding that the coaches add an extra half hour because he “ain’t gonna stop.” I think he knows the cameras are on, and that this is part of his great PR reclamation project after his dark years, but I see no problem with that.

5:20 – I like the way Luke hugs his seat back like a baby koala bear here. The bit on him that follows is excellent: really captures the endless internal monologue he probably goes through as he tries, perhaps futilely, to fit in. It’s weird, and this is based on a very brief clip, but it seems like Doc might not be helping that much. “This is gonna sound crazy,” Doc says as he draws up a play in practice. “But I’m gonna give a lob to Luke. I don’t know if you can dunk, but you can lay it in.” I get that Doc hasn’t been crazy about Luke’s play at times, but he’s only hurting the team by going after him. And yes, Doc: Luke can dunk. You should know that.

7:30 – Kind of sad that Perk thinks Gasol had “11 or 12″ offensive rebounds in Game 7 when he had 9. He wants to take more blame for that loss than he deserves.

9:40 – Nothing better than watching an NBA player watching an NBA game exactly like you watch it. This Shaq sequence during the Sixers finale is my favorite of the series so far. Same goes for the deleted scene of Big Baby watching highlights.

14:09 – Staying with Baby, let’s get into his now-famous pregame meal of spaghetti and pancakes. He halfheartedly passes it off as “carbo-loading” to give him energy before the game. Energy! Eating those two things together would shut my body down completely for hours if not a full day, and I’m pretty sure that goes for athletes, too. I learned this from J.R. Giddens’s twitter, where he posts pictures of all the crazy huge meals he eats in Europe and captions several of them with references to how the meal is going to put him to sleep, particularly spaghetti. Glen Davis is not forcing this meal down in order to make himself perform better at basketball. He’s much too excited when the room service man arrives for that to be true. He just straight up likes food. And he seems to be playing at a manageable weight now so I don’t care. Wouldn’t it be great if he started to tweet food pics Giddens-style though?

20:00 – Sam Jones shows up for the obligatory Celtics alum commentary. I appreciate how much the C’s legends like this team…between Jones, Hondo and Tommy they all seem to genuinely respect what the modern players are doing, even though you could just as easily expect them to put down these Celtics for not carrying themselves the way the old school did. Still, none of the old guys can resist comparing today’s Celtics to the 60s teams, even if it is favorable. I’d rather here about how the game has changed, not how it’s the same, because it’s definitely not the same. But lines like that are probably driven by ESPN producers, of course.

21:19 – Luke promises his Mom he’s going to Mass on Christmas. Seconds later, Luke motions for the cameraman to shut it off before he plays Little Big Planet on PS3 in his hotel room for the rest of the day.