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The Ticker
7 days ago

Painful Reminders (Part I): The Celtics Drafted JaJuan Johnson Instead of Jimmy Butler

On June 23rd, 2011, Brian Robb and I stood around a high top bar table in Tommy Doyle’s in Kendall Square.  Before us lay one of the biggest mounds of buffalo chicken wings I had ever endeavor to make disappear.  These 25 cent flappers- one of the few indulgences afforded to the participants of our [...]

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7 days ago

Chris Wilcox: 2012-13 Final Grade

There are a number of contextually-appropriate ways to craft this post. One would be to forgo words entirely, and represent Chris Wilcox’s entire season with a series of videos. That would involve one part of this: For every eight parts of this: Note the headline on that second clip. Someone was so amused/enraged by Wilcox’s [...]

12
8 days ago

Rajon Rondo’s 2012-13 Final Grade

Here’s a sweeping general statement involving super specific statistics that may or may not mean anything: In the 1423 minutes Rajon Rondo played this season, the Boston Celtics were outscored by 1.3 points per 100 possessions. When he sat (including all contests after he tore his ACL), Boston was better than their opponents by 1.8 [...]

93
9 days ago

Avery Bradley Elected to NBA All-Defense Second Team

Avery Bradley has been a standout defender for the past couple seasons…in the regular season anyway. Now he has a trophy to prove it. The NBA announced this afternoon that the third-year guard has been elected by coaches around the league to the second-team all-NBA defensive team for the first time in his career. Bradley [...]

13
12 days ago

Paul Pierce’s Contract: Dispelling The Myths and Stating The Facts

The first domino to fall this offseason is Paul Pierce’s contract. Until Danny Ainge figures out what he’s doing there, little else matters. As we wait for this decision, we also must face the rest of the offseason, which means it is also rumor season. With that time of year, comes plenty of information floating [...]

42
12 days ago

Final Grade: Avery Bradley (C+)

In his third year in the league, in which promising players often make brash leaps from benchwarmer to starter, from starter to star, Avery Bradley took a big step back. But his regression might be deceptive. When he returned to the Celtics’ lineup on January the 2nd after two in-season months recovering from offseason shoulder [...]

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Shaquille O’Neal Is Retiring

The news comes straight from the horse’s mouth, as O’Neal posted the brief video announcement on his Twitter account just moments ago. Here’s the text of his video: You can watch the video posted on Tout.com

“We did it. Nineteen years, baby. I thank you very much and that’s why I’m telling you first: I’m about to retire. Thank you. Talk to you soon.”

We’ll have plenty of time to further reflect on one of the greatest careers in NBA history, but in the short term, this shouldn’t come as any sort of surprise to Celtics fans.

In a way, Shaq hurt the C’s prospects this year more than he helped, not because of anything he should be specifically blamed for. Rather, Shaq played so well with the starting five on the onset of the season, that the performance was impressive enough for the team’s front office to rely on Shaq’s iffy health down the stretch. Unfortunately the 39-year-old’s frame was unable to hold up.

Through the first half of the season however, he gave us plenty of entertainment both on and off the floor, as a crucial part of one of the most entertaining Celtics locker rooms in history. The whispers will undoubtedly remain (like they did with Sheed) about Shaq returning for one last March/April run if we have basketball next season, but for now let’s pay tribute to one of the most dominant centers ever to play the game.

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