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13 hours ago

Rondo Replacing Johnson on All-Star Team

The Herald got it right from Rondo’s agent. According to his agent, Bill Duffy, the Celtics point guard has been named to the Eastern Conference All-star roster, presumably to replace Joe Johnson, the injured Atlanta Hawks guard. This would be Rondo’s third all-star appearance. Nice birthday present for RR, who probably should have been selected [...]

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3 days ago

Comments Deleting?

We apologize if your comments are being deleted (provided that they are not offensive). We are looking into why this is happening. We also want to apologize for the lack of a game thread for last night’s game.  We had a premonition that the Celtics would play that poorly and thought if we pretended the [...]

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7 days ago

5 Questions With Greg Monroe

I talked with Detroit star forward Greg Monroe prior to the Celtics-Pistons game on Wednesday night.  Here is what the 2nd year big man out of Georgetown, who is averaging 16.4 points, 9.7 rebounds, 2.5 assists per game had to say. 1. Just your 2nd year in the league, but playing so well, were you disappointed [...]

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8 days ago

Call for Responses: 5-on-5

Readers! Last week’s responses to the 5-on-5 questions were really, really great. We had way more qualified answers than we were able to use. So we’re going to keep doing it! FOREVER. Here are this week’s questions: 1. Are you concerned about Rondo’s media boycott this week? 2. The trade deadline is less than a [...]

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11 days ago

5 Questions With Ronnie Brewer

I talked with Chicago starting guard Ronnie Brewer prior to the Celtics-Bulls game on Sunday.  Here is what the 6th year man out of Arkansas who is averaging 7.6 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 2.1 assists had to say. 1. You guys have a lot of the same players back from last year’s team which was [...]

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13 days ago

5 Questions With Josh McRoberts

I talked to Los Angeles back up big man Josh McRoberts prior to the Celtics-Lakers game Thursday night at the Garden.  Here is what the former Duke Blue Devil, who is averaging 2.9 points and 3.8 rebounds in his first year in LA, had to say. 1. How have you guys been able to deal [...]

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Best Jiri Welsch Highlight Mix Ever (Spice Girls Division)

I’ve seen basically every video on Youtube except a couple, but somehow this highlight reel of Jiri Welsch’s NBA career had evaded me…until today, a day that I will henceforth consider to be my birthday. The video is set to “Goodbye,” a lesser single from the Spice Girls’ third album, released in 1998. Jiri Welsch left the NBA in 2006. This video was uploaded in late 2009. Hold your questions.

It basically has every piece of footage of Jiri Welsch ever to pass through a curved lens, including autograph sessions, media interviews, and shootarounds. Everything about it is excellent. Get ready for five minutes you’ll wish you could have back…to watch this highlight mix again!

Probably the best part is at 2:28–right as Sporty (it sounds like Sporty to me) kicks into the chorus and sets up the mix to go into emotional hyperdrive, we get a close-up of Jiri running in slow motion down the court, his hair bobbing almost in rhythm. Just the most incredible combination of image and sound in history.

(IMPORTANT: when the end credits roll and the music fades out, that does not mean the video is over. Stick around for an 100% unironic epilogue highlight of Jiri stealing the ball, going coast-to-coast, and missing a two-handed dunk. You’re welcome.)

But I’m really just using the discovery of this highlight mix as an excuse to remind everyone that Jiri Welsch was essentially the key to Boston basketball’s foreseeable future. For realsies. Click the jump.

I just don’t want people to forget that Jiri Welsch was traded for Rajon Rondo. The Celtics sent him to Cleveland for a 2007 first-round pick, which they in turn traded to Phoenix for the rights to Rajon Rondo during the 2006 draft. That’s it. There’s pretty much a one-for-one relationship between Jiri Welsch and Rondo, in terms of Celtics transactions.

Jiri was actually pretty good in that one 2003-2004 season, when he started 68 games and the Celtics still made the playoffs because the NBA couldn’t wrangle up anyone else on short notice. He was probably that awful team’s best long-range shooter, and could rebound serviceably for a guard. I mean, as far as Czech basketball players go, he was the second coming of George Goddamn Zidek.

But Jiri, still just 31, is now playing in the outermost reaches of darkest Spain. Rajon Rondo is the single most important player on the Boston Celtics.

Take a second to give thanks: for that trade, sure, but mostly to the NBA for letting sentimental Czech people use its copyrighted footage for whatever they want.

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