Let's You And Him Fight!

Remember when I was mentioning a few years that Shank wouldn't be doing his weekly broadcasting gig at 98.5 The Sports Hub for much longer (and by implication he wasn't getting along with Marc 'The Beetle' Bertrand and Scott Zolak)?

Shots fired!

OK now, Beetle? https://t.co/lWw7YILfmf

— Dan Shaughnessy (@Dan_Shaughnessy) January 2, 2022

Turn On A Dime Dan, A Continuing Series

After the New England Patriots placed a beatdown on the Jacksonville Jaguars 50-10 yesterday, Shank sees a resurrection of sorts:

Mac Jones is breaking down walls every step of the way. It’s as if he was invented by Bill Belichick

Rookie Wall?

Don’t be ridiculous. Mac Jones played a 13-game championship season at Alabama in 2020, where he was subjected to the same rigors and scrutiny he’s experienced during his terrific NFL rookie season.

When the Patriots lost a couple of games before Christmas, there was predictable noise that Jones had run out of gas at the tail end of the NFL’s 17-game regular season. He wasn’t allowed to throw the football on a windy night in Orchard Park, N.Y., and followed that with a couple of losing efforts, throwing four interceptions combined against the Colts and Bills.

For a full week after the loss to Buffalo, we heard about another brick in the Rookie Wall, the first-year Wailing Wall, and Foxborough’s Wall of no sound. Sports radio yakkers urged Jones to “take down this Wall.’’

It was one week ago when Shank was all but burying the Patriots and now expects us to believe otherwise.

Sam Jones, R.I.P

Another Boston Celtic great has passed away:

With Sam Jones’s death, Bob Cousy loses another beloved Celtics teammate

Bob Cousy got the call early Friday. New Year’s Eve. Another teammate was gone.

Sam Jones.

“I just got off the phone with Satch,” Cousy said from his Worcester home Friday morning. “I told him not to look over his shoulder.

“Now we’re down to just three. Satch [Tom Sanders], Russ [Bill Russell], and I are holding up the float, I guess. The last thing I said to Satch was that I’m going to have my lonely New Year’s Eve drink tonight at 6 o’clock and I’m going to hoist it to Sam. I told Satch he should do the same and he said, ‘I won’t have mine till 10,’ and I said, ‘By 10, I will have been asleep for an hour.’ ”

Not So Hot Stove League

Since Major League Baseball's currently under a lockout, Shank (co-author of his book) talks to former Boston Red Sox manager Terry Francona about other baseball stuff:

Catching up with Terry Francona, who plans to be back in the Cleveland dugout

It is the end of 2021, the middle of baseball winter, and all of our Hot Stoves are Ice Cold.

So here’s a little baseball for you. Here’s what’s going on with Terry Francona — the best manager in Red Sox history — who was fired by the Sox exactly 10 years ago.

Francona averaged 93 wins in his eight seasons at Fenway, winning two World Series, taking the Sox to the playoffs five times, and playing in front of a full house every night. After the 2011 chicken-and-beer collapse, Francona gave way to Bobby Valentine, who gave way to John Farrell, who gave way to Alex Cora.

Cora was one of Francona’s Red Sox players. So were future managers Dave Roberts (Dodgers), Kevin Cash (Rays), Gabe Kapler (Giants), Rocco Baldelli (Twins), David Ross (Cubs), and Mark Kotsay (A’s). You can say that Francona’s managing tree has borne more fruit than Bill Belichick’s coaching tree. Cora, Cash, Roberts, and Kapler all managed in the playoffs in 2021.

Mirage

With the New England Patriots losing two games in a row, Shank thinks the previous success of the team was all bullshit:

Turns out, Patriots as Super Bowl contenders was just a mirage

It was fun while it lasted.

This is not to say the Patriots can’t rally in the final two weeks (they have the 2-13 Jags at Gillette next weekend), then go on one of those magical wild-card playoff runs. Theoretically, they still can get where they want to go.

But not even Zo or the Full Rochie would dare predict a Super Bowl or a deep playoff run for these 2021 Patriots. Not now. Not after what we just witnessed. Not for a team that couldn’t get Josh Allen off the field in a 33-21 home loss. Not for a team that evidently can’t play from behind. Not for a team that just got manhandled by the Colts and Bills in back-to-back games.

DHL Dan CLXIV - The 'Mea Culpa' Column

Or - The One Where Belichick Gives Shank An Out:

In the spirit of the season, there are more than enough apologies to go around, and a few other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while laying out cold cuts and chips for Sunday’s big game in Foxborough . . .

A wee bit too early for that, isn't it? And why isn't he doing a traditional Buffalo Bills recipe (as I will) for the game, Buffalo Wings?

Pro tips here - a) cook the wings on the grill, not in the oven; b) coat the wings with flour & paprika so as to help prevent the wings from drying out; and c) your blue cheese recipe can be a mix of shredded blue cheese (I use Danish blue cheese) and sour cream, with a pich of mayonnaise.

▪ As you are no doubt aware, Bill Belichick on Monday apologized to reporters for his miserable news conference after losing to the Colts. Belichick’s remarkable act of contrition filled us with the spirit of Christmas.

Taking cues from the greatest coach of all time, let me take this opportunity to apologize to those who may have been offended in this space over the course of 2021.

Sorry, Ed Davis. There was no need to poke fun of you week after week about “cracking the case” of the David Ortiz shooting in the Dominican Republic. It was never personal. You are a great guy and a much-respected cop.

Do I detect just a bit of tongue-in-cheek sarcasm here?

Jackie Bradley Jr.? It was not necessary to highlight your .163 batting average on a weekly basis (but he did anyway - ed.). I’m pretty sure the metrics show that you were just unlucky. Welcome back to Boston, dude. We look forward to all the great catches in center field.

UMass football? Can’t say I’ve been wrong about this, but it’s certainly not the players’ fault and perhaps we don’t need to keep reminding everyone that Division 1 was a mistake. Sorry.

Mindful that space is precious, let’s bundle other personalities who perhaps misunderstood my attempts at constructive criticism.

In the spirit of Belichick, here’s a massive mea culpa to Garrett Richards, Sean McDermott, Tiger Woods, Sam Kennedy, Aaron Rodgers, Danny Ainge, the Cheatin’ Houston Astros, all soccer owners who attempted to form a Super League, J.D. Martinez, Naomi Osaka, everyone at NESN, Bob and Jonathan Kraft, Kyrie Irving, Craig Kimbrel, John Calipari, the New England Revolution, Brad Stevens, Megan Rapinoe, the anti-vax Red Sox, Geno Auriemma, Tom Werner, Rob Manfred, Ortiz, and Cam Newton.

I could go on, but there’s a big game coming up and we don’t want this apology to last longer than the Beatles’ “Get Back” documentary.

Can you imagine how long this coulum would be if Shank offered up apologies of questionable sincerity that go back decades? What if he 'apologized' for slagging the likes of Roger Clemens, Nomar Garciaparra, Pedro Martinez, Johnny Damon, Theo Epstein (AKA the infamous 'Dirty Laundry' column), Bill Buckner, Carl Everett, and Jeff Stone, just off the top of my head?

Now that obligatory and insincere apologies are out of the way, let's get back to cricizing athlethes, shall we?

▪ Nice job by selfish anti-vaxxer Cole Beasley exercising his “personal freedom,” which makes him unavailable for the Bills’ biggest game of the season. Fellow unvaxxed receiver Gabe Davis will also be out for Buffalo Sunday.

First - this is disingenuous - Beasley's not on the sidelines for not getting the 'vaccination'; he's out because he's contracted the virus. Is Shank not aware that vaccinated people can contract and spread the Wuhan Flu just like the unvaccinated? There are many concerns why someone won't go for a 'vaccine' - potential blood clots, myocarditis, heart arrythmia (since your heart's inflammed after myocarditis) and what might not be currently known about these 'vaccines'. I for one will not be getting any more 'vaccines' based on these facts, having suffered multiple 'cardiac events' as my doctors euphemistically call them; I'll wait for full FDA approval before the next one. Also consider - I got an MMR booster vaccine (Measles, Mumps & Rubella) two years ago, about fifty years after receiving the first one. Now that's a vaccine, not this 'booster' flu shot stuff, which is how this virus is currently shaking out.

Here's a shocker - Shank knows about other bands besides the Beatles & the Rolling Stones:

▪ Former Dodgers All-Star center fielder Brett Butler went to the same high school (Libertyville in Illinois) as Marlon Brando and Adam Jones, the guitarist for Tool.

Here's Tool's Danny Carey behind the drumkit wearing a Larry Bird jersey.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Long Time Coming

Shank's columns mostly come after a loss by the New England Patriots, so to the surprise of no one, here's the latest:

It was a long time coming, but Colts got a measure of revenge not only beating, but outcoaching, Patriots

Remember all that fun we had mocking the Buffalo Bills and their fans after Bill Belichick cut their meaty hearts out in Orchard Park a couple of weeks ago?

Yeah, that’s pretty much how Indianapolis Colts fans are feeling today.

“It was a big [expletive] deal,’’ longtime Indianapolis media member (print and TV) Bob Kravitz said after the Colts beat the Patriots, 27-17, Saturday night. “To have the Patriots continually outplay, outsmart, and out-bully the Colts has been a blow to the local psyche. This felt cathartic in a way that the 38-34 AFC Championship game in 2006 was cathartic.’’

Here in the Hub of the Universe, ridiculing the Colts has been a parlor game since the days when Tom Brady and Peyton Manning first dueled at the beginning of this century.

This one is notable for its lack of venom and animus usually reserved for coach Bill Belichick and / or owner Robert Kraft. It's actually a solid column but he should retire some Shankisms, at least in my opinion.

The Ime Udoka Column

Shank writes a pretty good column about the coach of the Boston Celtics:

Last June, a small but powerful Celtics contingent flew to New York to interview Nets assistant Ime Udoka for Boston’s head coaching vacancy.

In a conference room at co-owner Steve Pagliuca’s Bain Capital offices, they noshed on veal parmesan, meatballs, and linguine as Udoka described his winding journey and his vision for this team. Then co-owner Wyc Grousbeck asked a simple question that left Udoka stumped.

“What are your hobbies outside of basketball?”

Udoka has never considered a life outside of basketball, and he has never wanted to.

This was a man who skipped his school prom to play in late-night pickup games. Who took graveyard shifts loading trailers for FedEx just so it wouldn’t disrupt his training sessions. Who returned to practice with the Portland Trail Blazers the day after his father’s sudden death.

For Udoka, basketball is all-consuming and fulfilling and essential. So his answer to Grousbeck’s question may have sounded overdone, but it was honest.

“For me,” he said, “there’s nothing else.”

DHL Dan CLXIII (Part Deux) - Stirring The Pot Again

By most accounts, Danny Ainge resigned from the Celtics as head of basketball operations six months ago on his own accord. This being Boston, arguably the most negative sports media town in the country, Shank questions this premise:

Danny Ainge says he wasn’t pushed out by the Celtics when he ‘retired,’ and other picked-up pieces from the sports world

Picked-up pieces while listening to Mitch Miller and the Gang singing Christmas carols (why do they sound so angry?) . . .

I had an enjoyable “exit interview” with Danny Ainge Thursday, one day after it was announced that he was taking a position in the front office of the Utah Jazz.

Why did he abruptly “retire” from the Celtics in June?

“I just felt like I needed a break, well before the playoffs started,” said Ainge. “And I also felt like the team was in great hands. When I decided to walk, I didn’t think that Brad [Stevens] would take over my spot. I thought that Brad would still be coaching. I just wanted to get away from the game for a while, and I’ve done that for seven months and I feel reenergized and I have a unique opportunity to work with a good friend [Jazz owner Ryan Smith]. This is a much different role [than in Boston]. It’s a much lesser role. It happened quickly, over a period of a couple of days when I finally showed a little interest with Ryan.”

Note the selective use of quotes, all the better to create some doubt.

When Ainge “retired” he was asked about perhaps working in Utah down the road and answered, “Nothing is going on there . . . I honestly haven’t thought about what’s next. I don’t have any urgency or anything planned.”

On Thursday he said, “I honestly didn’t know back then. I was prepared to be done for good and find something else. I’ve had other opportunities. I just really haven’t been willing to listen until just recently.”

At this point in our conversation, I felt a need to address local speculation that Ainge might have been nudged by Celtics ownership when he “retired” after the team was routed by the Nets in the playoffs.

“Just for the record, were you pushed out of Boston?” I asked.

“No,” Ainge said with a laugh. “Are you serious? Do you seriously think that, or is that just like some commentary?”

It wouldn't surprise me a bit if Shank, in spite of this conversation, continued to push the notion that the Celtics gave him the bum's rush out the door in some fashion.

DHL Dan CLXIII - Shooters

Shank gets down to some serious ball sucking on a recent basketball 'record'"

Shooting is why we love basketball, and no one has ever done it better than Stephen Curry

False premise; I used to like pro basketball for more than the shooting.

Love of basketball starts with shooting.

Line up a bunch of 6-year-olds in front of a kiddie hoop. Roll out the balls. Watch the kids aim and throw the balls toward the little hoop. It’s as instinctive as reaching for the first chocolate chip cookie you’ve ever seen.

Shooting the basketball is what we first love about the game.

In this spirit, we love the long-distance bombers; guys who can fill it up from downtown. For some of us, this goes back to Bill Sharman, Sam Jones, “Jack the Shot” Foley, Jerry Lucas, Calvin Murphy, and Pistol Pete Maravich. Some of us think Larry Bird is the best shooter we’ve ever seen. Others might choose Lou Hudson, Reggie Miller, Glen Rice, Dirk Nowitzki, Ray Allen or Kevin Durant.

But now there’s Stephen Curry — the greatest shooter of all time.

Stephen Curry has made more three pointers than anyone else; that in and of itself doesn't make you the 'greatest shooter'. I'm bored to death watching nearly half the shots (40.2% of all shots that happen in the 'modern' NBA game are three point shots) being jacked up from downtown and I can barely watch it anymore. Your mileage may vary.

Thar She Blows - A Clive Rush Sighting!

We know Shank has certain go-to references when he's making a point, and this point is evident - the current Buffalo Bills coach sucks:

As an NFL coach, Sean McDermott is Clive Rush (look it up, young people).

— Dan Shaughnessy (@Dan_Shaughnessy) December 12, 2021

Just to make it easy on those 'young people', here's a link to the former Patriots coach.

DHL Dan CLXII - Retroactive Praise

Nearly a week after his previous column and four days after a Patriots win, Shank absorbs enough of the local takes on the Patriots / Bills game on Monday night to 'heap' some praise on Bill Belichick:

The Bills game was truly a Bill Belichick special, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while wondering if Sean McDermott sticks pins in a Bill Belichick doll before going to sleep at night . . .

I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed a Patriots game as much as Monday night’s throwback special in Orchard Park. Wish the Patriots had come out wearing leather helmets with no facemasks for the second half. As Matt McCarthy of 98.5 The Sports Hub tweeted, “We’re officially one dropkick away from this being Bill’s favorite game he’s ever coached.”

Watching the Patriots’ beefy offensive linemen control the game with 33 consecutive running plays, I wondered if that’s what it looked like when Belichick was a center and Ernie Adams a pulling guard for undefeated Phillips Academy (Andover) in 1970. Milt Holt was Big Blue’s star quarterback and later played at Harvard, but the football brains in the Andover huddle were the senior center and guard who studied interior line blocking and knelt at the altar of the single-wing offense.

...

The Hoodie has reclaimed his title as Greatest Ever. He’s on a collision course to face Tom Brady in February’s Super Bowl. He’s found his new franchise quarterback. He’s got his two sons on his staff and once again appears to be getting everything he wants from his owner. Belichick should be good for at least 10 wins a year for the foreseeable future. Shula has to be in his sights.

Apparently Belichick wasn't the 'Greatest Ever' a mere three months ago. Funny how a seven game winning streak can change perceptions.

DHL Dan CLXI - Getting It Wrong In Advance?

Shank jumps on another hot-take type of bandwagon:

Revisiting that Patriots-Buccaneers Super Bowl prediction, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while the Bills Mafia gets lathered up for the first-place-again Patriots in Orchard Park Monday night …

▪ As one who is routinely wrong, let me mention that I’m no latecomer to the suggestion that the Bill Belichick Patriots could wind up facing the Tom Brady Buccaneers in Super Bowl LVI Feb. 13 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif.

Go back to the Globe’s “NFL Season Picks” that were posted online Sept. 8 and you’ll see me predict that the Patriots would go 11-6 and make it to the Super Bowl, where they’ll beat Tampa Bay in “the greatest event in the history of sports.” Colleague Chad Finn also had the Buccaneers and Patriots in the final, but he picked Brady to win the big game.

Speculation about a Patriots-Buccaneers Super Bowl was a topic this past week after New England knocked off top-seeded Tennessee while the Brady Bucs got back on the winning track in Indianapolis. Data analytics website Football Outsiders stated that going into Week 13, Patriots-Buccaneers is the most likely Super Bowl matchup, with a 9.9 percent chance of happening.

Suicide Solution?

Shank writes about a potential upcoming work stoppage in baseball, which is always less harmful in the offseason:

The good news about Major League Baseball’s imminent lockout is that it has created an artificial free agency deadline for many teams looking to improve in hopes that therewill be a full 162-game season in 2022.

As of now, unless there’s a labor agreement between owners and the Players Association, all MLB business closes at midnight Wednesday. As a result, we’ve seen a frenzy of signings by aggressive teams intent on improving their chances for 2022.

Through Monday, there had been 16 free agent player agreements with guarantees of more than $20 million (no big splashes for the “deliberate” Red Sox, who spent the last few days buying an NHL team). In the past month, MLB owners have pledged more than $1.4 billion in guaranteed contracts, almost $1.2 billion since Friday.

I remember a few vague stories about a work stoppage / strike during the year and didn't take much stock in them, given that the game was / still is losing viewership / popularity and anything like a stoppage now would affect (read - hurt) all sides. Cooler heads have this one resolved well before spring training starts.

Not So Hot Takes, By Dan Shaughnessy

With the Patriots winning yesterday's game against the Titans, Shank focuses on Mac Jones and one key aspect of the current football season:

Mac Jones can take the hits, make the plays, manage the game — and play in the cold

Mac Jones keeps checking the boxes, passing the tests.

Managing the game. Check. Completion percentage. Check. Pocket presence. Check. Taking the hits. Check. Inspiring teammates. Check. Winning close games. Check.

Now a new one. Mac Jones Sunday showed he can play in a cold weather game, too.

This wasn’t Patriots vs. Titans at Gillette in January of 2004 (windchill, minus 10 degrees) when Tom Brady and Co. beat the Titans, 17-14, in a playoff rock fight. It wasn’t the Snow Bowl Tuck Rule Game against the Raiders. It wasn’t Orchard Park, N.Y., in December (that’ll be next week).

But it was near freezing with snow showers in Foxborough and privileged folks in the red seats stayed inside by the big fireplaces while Jones completed 23 of 32 passes for 310 yards and two touchdowns in a 36-13 demolition of Mike Vrabel’s top-seeded Titans. Jones was sacked twice, but didn’t have to do much after a spectacular 41-yard touchdown pass play to Kendrick Bourne made it 26-13 with five minutes left in the third.

One game's an awfully small sample size, but we'll know more next week at Buffalo.

DHL Dan CLX - Now With More Duende!

Shank recalls a few good local sporting moments:

Recalling some great Boston ‘duende’ moments, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while wondering if Mike Vrabel has any rule-book trickeration in store for Bill Belichick …

▪ In this space last weekend, we asked for submissions of Boston sports “duende” moments, like the Kyle Schwarber mock ovation when the Schwarb made a clean play in the playoffs, and the famous “Beat LA” chant at the Old Garden in 1982.

The response was overwhelming. Dozens of you fondly recalled the Red Sox home opener in 2005, when all the Yankees were booed during introductions right up until closer Mariano Rivera received a standing ovation for his role in the 2004 playoffs (Rivera blew the save in Game 4 when Dave Roberts triggered a comeback for the ages with the Stolen Base Heard ’Round the World).

There were plenty of other great suggestions, some too dated, arcane, or difficult to prove.

Some duende nuggets that made the cut: Ray Bourque giving his No. 7 jersey to Phil Esposito and switching to No. 77 when Espo was honored at the Old Garden in 1987; a long standing ovation for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar when he set the NBA field goal record at the Old Garden in 1984; TD Garden fans singing the national anthem a capella before the first Bruins game after the Marathon bombings; Fenway fans chanting “steroids” at Jose Canseco in 1988, long before anybody knew it was true; Cape Cod families annually opening their homes to host college baseball players for Cape League summers; Globe Pulitzer winner Stan Grossfeld getting the photo of bullpen cop Steve Horgan making a perfect “W” by raising his arms next to an upside-down Torii Hunter when David Ortiz’s homer changed the 2013 ALCS.

DHL Dan CLIX - Belichick Is Back

Shank does some backtracking on the Patriots coach...

Bill Belichick is right back to being, well, Bill Belichick, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while waiting for the Bills to lose to the Colts and restore the Patriots to the top spot in the AFC East …

▪ In short order, we have seen the rightful restoration of the legacy of Bill Belichick. The waves in Nantucket sound were getting choppy around Hoodie’s “VIII Rings” boat in early October. The Patriots were 1-3, coming off the heels of 7-9 with Cam Newton last season. Meanwhile, Tom Brady was a Super Bowl champ — looking good to do it again this season — and the Belichick haters had their day.

Belichick never won anything without Brady … The whole dynasty was because Bill had Tom … Belichick the GM failed Belichick the coach … The Patriots were just another team … Hubris and arrogance will get you every time …

So - pretty much what Shank was saying two months ago!

Another Excerpt From Shank's Latest Book

The Boston Globe published a little more from Shank's book on the Larry Bird era Celtics:

Book excerpt: Remembering the first Celtics-Lakers NBA Finals of the Larry Bird era

The Celtics host the Lakers Friday night at TD Garden (wotta coincidence! - ed.) , and any renewal of one of the great NBA rivalries always conjures memories of their historic matchups.

With that in mind, this has been excerpted from “Wish It Lasted Forever — Life With the Larry Bird Celtics” by Dan Shaughnessy. Copyright ©2021 by Dan Shaughnessy. Reprinted by permission of Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

The Bird-Magic Finals of the NBA’s golden 1980s — the Celtics and Lakers met three times in a stretch of four seasons between 1984-87 — were like the Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier title fights. The first of the three Bird-Magic bouts came in 1984 after the Celtics beat the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference finals, while the Lakers advanced in the West against the Phoenix Suns.

CBS was ecstatic. Boston-LA meant that Larry Bird and Magic Johnson would be meeting in a championship event for the first time since NBC set unbreakable ratings records with its broadcast of the Bird-Magic NCAA Final in 1979. At least one of them had been in the NBA Finals in each of their first four NBA seasons, but this was the first championship series featuring both.

The Celtics and Lakers were the Yankees and Dodgers of pro basketball. They’d played in seven NBA Finals from 1959 to 1969 with Boston winning every one. Lakers fans were haunted by the 1962 finale, when Frank Selvy’s potential series winner clanged off the rim at the Boston Garden. LA general manager Jerry West experienced what he called the low point of his life when the Lakers couldn’t beat Boston in 1969. A Celtics-Lakers Final in 1984 meant that the league’s two showcase franchises accounted for 60 percent (23 of 38) of all NBA crowns in the first four decades of the league’s existence. (In the COVID summer of 2020, the LeBron James Lakers won their seventeenth NBA crown, finally tying the Celtics for most championship banners.)

DHL Dan CLVIII - The Tuna Speaks

Shank caught up to the former New England Patriots coach and gets his opinion on a few things:

Picked-up pieces while stacking cordwood …

▪ Bill Parcells was the last Patriots coach to turn his team over to a rookie quarterback. In his first season as New England’s head coach (1993), the Tuna put the ball in the hands of No. 1 overall pick Drew Bledsoe and watched the Patriots lose 11 of their first 12 games. The Patriots finished with a four-game win streak, made the playoffs a year later, and went to the Super Bowl in Bledsoe’s fourth season.

Fast-forward to 2021 and Parcells likes what he is seeing from Bill Belichick’s Patriots and rookie quarterback Mac Jones.

“I’ll tell you something,” Parcells said from his Florida home. “I thought last week’s Patriots game was superb. I liked their time of possession [32:29]. That’s my kind of game right there. I really like that.

“The guy [Jones] is taking care of the ball and you had control of the game from beginning to end. You can’t ask anything else of a quarterback. If you can play like that, you’re going to win a lot of games. I really think they’ve got a good chance. I really do.

What's Old Is New Again

It seems Shank wrote a book about the 1980's era Boston Celtics recently, and now there's an excerpt or two making the rounds. Here's part of one of them:

During the 1985 Eastern Conference Finals against Philadelphia, Bird’s ever-crooked right index finger was newly mangled and swollen.

The day before Game 5, Bird practiced with his right hand taped in a web-like fashion. His ring and pinky fingers were wrapped together, as were his middle and index fingers. At the end of practice, he stopped on his way to the locker room and took questions.

“Larry, you can’t play in a playoff game with your hand taped like that, can you?” I asked.

“You never know,” he teased. “It’s a different feeling. I don’t like anything taped because then it just doesn’t feel like it usually does. It’s difficult to shoot when you have something on your hand. Although I don’t think Greg Kite has anything to worry about. He could wear a cast.”

“But seriously,” I pushed. “You’re not going to tape it like that for the game tomorrow, are you?”

“Scoop, I could tape my whole hand up and make more shots than you.”

...

The worse I got, the better he got. Bird made 46 of his last 50. He made 73 of 80 after figuring it out in the first two rounds. He made 86 of 100 free throws with a taped fist. I made 54.

“You owe me $160,” he said.

Seems a few details were left out of this 'excerpt', like - 'how'd Bird's hand get injured?' and 'did Shank actually cough up $160 to Larry Legend?' First question first:

Larry was MVP in ’84, ’85, and ’86, and the height of his powers was ’85. He was on the cover of Time magazine and it was a big deal. That’s when he had the 60-point game in New Orleans against the Atlanta Hawks. So, we found out later he’d gotten in a barroom fight in downtown Boston, down by Faneuil Hall. It was a bar, I think it was called Chelsea’s. Larry had come to the defense of a teammate, or some issue, and doing the old-school Indiana thing he swung at a guy and he messed up his hand. And he was taping it at practice, and it was a very odd-looking kind of a web-taping, splitting his hand into two sets of fingers.

And question #2 - Dan Shaughnessy, cheapskate!

HIMMELSBACH: So wait, you expensed the $160 that you lost in a shooting contest?

SHAUGHNESSY: Yes, and evidently the IRS frowns on the word ‘wager’ in expense accounts, (because it's a personal expense, maybe? - ed.) because it bounced back and they said ‘You cannot put ‘wager’ in an expense account.’ So I just made it eight $20 lunches with [Celtics center] Robert Parish. We just substituted.