Not much to read in today's piece. It looks like Dan wrote most of this piece before the game and stuck a paragraph in about the game. He would have been stuck if the Celtics managed to win, but it was a safe bet, though, that they would lose to the Heat.
This column is a chance to reel off a bunch of stats and complain about the current state of the Celtics. Nowhere does he bother to offer any analysis beyond their abysmal record or to suggest how things could be improved. That is Dan's analysis for you. About as deep as a puddle.
Dan also takes this opportunity to trot out some of his distant and irrelevant cast of characters. This time it is Clive Rush and Butch Hobson. Some of the graybeards who post can tell the young whippersnappers all about these two. I am guessing most people under thirty had to look these two up.
But the most annoying dated reference for this writer was "Thanksdad", referring to Paul Gaston, the owner when the Celts last went into the tank. Dan's use of it always has a connotation of a moral failing, as if anything Gaston did was tainted by the fact that he happened to inherit his wealth. I realize fans don't like him for his time as owner, but how he got his money isn't relevant to his decisions. I would like to know what Dan expected Paul Gaston to have done with his family wealth. It's a fact of life for some people and not a sign of moral weakness.
Note: In second to last sentence changed "inheritance" to "family wealth" and fixed typos.
Love this site, but as a 'greybeard' I must comment on a few things here. Calling Paul Gaston 'Thanksdad' was perfectly appropriate then, and still is now; he didn't inherit the Celtics job, it was given to him. And he was completely clueless the entire time. While many owners of pro teams are also clueless, he continued to pretend that he was not, much to the umbrage of Boston sports fans. He pretended to have earned the position, or at least be qualified for it, and he hadn't. Dan had it right.
ReplyDeleteAlso, by the time I was 15 I was well versed in the histories of such players as Honus Wagner, Mordecai 'Three Finger' Brown, Walter Johnson, Red Ruffing, and many others from 'before my time'. If the under 30 set these days claims that someone like Butch Hobson (Sox star starter, dirt-dog style player as beloved a fan favorite as Trot Nixon has been in his time here, and then the Sox's Manager less than 20 years ago....) is someone who needs to be 'looked up' then something is wrong with the aforementioned fans. And we greybeards didn't have the internet, or even computers, in our prehistoric past....
As for the NBA.....gave up on it years ago. When we transitioned from the 'team' play of the Bird and Magic era to the cult of personality of the Jordan era the league lost all of its appeal for me and many others. Haven't watched an NBA game in probably 10 years. And I don't feel as though I have missed anything at all.
Autopilot...thanks for the feedback and comments...
ReplyDeleteAs for your last paragraph, I am migrating to the same point...I just don't enjoy the NBA anymore.
My favorite part of today's Shaughnessy column was the lead paragraph...
"It's all rubber-necking now. The fabled Boston Celtics are a roadside pileup -- 16 cars long -- and fans can't resist slowing down to look at the carnage."
Substitute "fabled Boston Celtics are" to "Shaughnessy's writing career is" and we might be on to something
chris c,
ReplyDeleteA couple of points.
The Gaston family has every right to run their businesses as they want. If Don Gaston did not want his son running the Celtics, then he wouldn't be. I just find it cheap and cynical that Dan would use 'Thanksdad' to attack the owner of the Celtics when the same thing happens in privately owned businesses all the time. Again, attack the decisions he made and not the fact that he comes from a wealthy family.
I agree that fans should know Butch Hobson. And part of him learning about him is continued references to him in the media. But the references were 29 and 36 years old (And Clive Rush is a dated, minor reference, regardless of your age). Time to find some new references.