DHL Dan CCX - Underwhelming Competition

With the Boston Celtics in the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals, Shank's a little worried about the competition:

The competition thus far isn’t helping the Celtics prepare for a title run, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while waiting for some serious basketball competition …

▪ Seriously. I’m ready for the Celtics to start the playoffs now.

Bring on the Knicks, Pacers, Nuggets, Mavericks, or Timberwolves. Let’s see some nail-biting, down-to-the-wire, blood-and-thunder basketball. The Celtics’ upcoming run through the conference finals and NBA Finals should be wildly entertaining.

Certainly these upcoming series have to be better than the boring matchups we watched in the first two rounds as the Celtics toppled tomato cans from Miami and Cleveland. How did the Fort Wayne Pistons and Washington Generals not wind up on Boston’s dance card?

In Round 1 against Miami, the Celtics had leads of 34, 29, 28, and 37 points in the games they won. In Round 2, their average margin of victory was 15 points and they lost Game 2 by 24.

Let me ask … were any of you on the edge of your seat, or otherwise entertained for one perfunctory second of those two series? It’s always great to see the locals advance, but this was dreadful competition. Those were series that only Johnny Most, Tommy Heinsohn, Sean Grande, and Scal could love.

The level of competition, one way or the other, is out of the hands of the Celtics. I don't see any reason to make an issue out of it, but there's your take if it really matters.

DHL Dan CCIX - Underwhelming

A formulatic beginning to what looks to be a mailed-in effort by the Shankster:

Celtics-Knicks and Bruins-Rangers? The Boston-New York playoff duels would be good times, and other thoughts.

Picked-up pieces while dreaming of Celtics-Knicks and Bruins-Rangers in simultaneous conference championships at the two Gardens …

▪ Celtics-Knicks. Bruins-Rangers. Boston-New York. The New (1995) Boston Garden and the vintage 1968 Madison Square Garden. The Sports Hub vs. The Fan. Matt Damon vs. Spike Lee. Williams vs. DiMaggio. Real clam chowder vs. Manhattan clam chowder. “Cheers” vs. “The Honeymooners.”

When you start a column out like that, you get the feeling that this is indeed a DHL delivery, first class.

DHL Dan CCVIII - The Porzingis Effect

Shank considers the impact of Celtics center Kirstaps Porzingis' calf injury during the playoffs:

Wondering about the Porzingis effect on the Celtics’ chances, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while wondering if the Celtics can win a championship without Kristaps Porzingis …

▪ As the Celtics prepare for a Round 2 Tomato Can, one can’t help but wonder how they’ll fare if forced to play the conference finals and (presumably) NBA Finals without Porzingis.

The Big Fella suffered a soleus strain in his calf in Game 4 against the Heat Monday and is on the shelf indefinitely. Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo sustained a similar, non-contact injury April 9 against the Celtics and did not play again prior to the Bucks’ elimination by the Pacers Thursday night.

Watching Porzingis limp off the court in Miami, I thought of the 68-win Celtics of 1972-73, who were stopped in the conference finals by the Knicks after John Havlicek injured his right shoulder fighting through a Dave DeBusschere pick in the third game of that seven-game series. Hondo missed Game 4 entirely and came off the bench in the final three games, but he was a shell of himself and scored only 4 points when the Celtics were routed at home in Game 7.

DHL Dan CCVII - Drafting Drake Maye

The New England patriots selected the North Carolina quarterback third overall in Thursday's NFL Draft, so let's see how Shank likes the pick:

Drafting Drake Maye feels very much like a Patriots ownership selection, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while remembering when the Cubs playing at Fenway would have been a really big deal . . .

▪ After the botched Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba in 1961, President John F. Kennedy said, “Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.”

Strap yourselves in for the Drake Maye Experience.

In the final years of the magnificent, two-decade Tom Brady/Bill Belichick/Bob Kraft championship run, there was a lot of emphasis on legacy, on who would get the most credit for nine Super Bowls, six Lombardis, and an unmatched run of NFL dominance.

Once Brady left for Tampa, the Patriots’ narrative pivoted dramatically. Since the beginning of the 2019 season, it’s been all about carving up the blame pie. Who’s most at fault for a 29-38 record in four seasons without a playoff win? Who gets the blame for 4-13 in 2023?

The post-Brady decline of the Patriots gave birth to a wave of books and documentaries, each assigning blame and/or credit to the coach, the owner, and sometimes even the departed GOAT. It got really messy this spring with “The Dynasty,” a Kraft vanity project (described by one wiseguy as RKK’s “home movie”) that pretty much pinned all the bad stuff on the evil Hoodie.

DHL Dan CCVI - Harry Sinden On The Bruins

Shank talks to the former Boston Bruins coach / GM / Mr. Everything:

Getting Harry Sinden’s take on the Bruins’ playoff chances, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while watching Red Sox defense videos to the tune of the Benny Hill theme song …

▪ The Bruins are in the playoffs again. What does Harry Sinden think of their chances?

“They’re definitely a contender,” says the 91-year-old Bruin-in-Winter. “I’m not on top of the team, but from what I’ve seen, they are a reasonable contender. I think they have a good chance to advance. I couldn’t call them the No. 1 team, but they’re going to give anyone a heck of a time.”

A player, head coach, general manager, and Boston Garden king of hockey, Sinden first came to the Bruins organization as a player/coach in Kingston, Ontario, in 1961. Today he watches games on TV from his home north of Boston, and as “Senior Advisor to the Owner and Alternate Governor,” he ranks fourth on the team masthead, trailing only owners Jeremy and Charlie Jacobs, and team president Cam Neely. Sinden traded for Neely in 1986, and drafted today’s GM, Don Sweeney, in 1984.

DHL Dan CCV - Everything To Prove

In today's Picked Up Pieces column, Shank states what most people have been saying all season about this year's Boston Celtics:

These Celtics still have everything to prove, and other thoughts

Picked up pieces while waiting for the playoffs . . .

⋅ NBA teams have been playing an 82-game schedule since the 1967-68 season. In that time, the Celtics have won 66 or more games three times.

With Dave Cowens as league MVP, the Green won 68 in 1972-73, but failed to win the NBA championship because John Havlicek hurt his shoulder during the conference finals and Boston lost Game 7 at home to the hated Knicks.

In 1985-86, with a four-man-rotation frontcourt of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, and Bill Walton (plus Hall of Famer Dennis Johnson and Danny Ainge at guard), the Celtics won 67 regular-season games, went 50-1 at home (including Hartford games and playoffs), and won the NBA championship. In my opinion, that was the greatest NBA team of all time. Certainly the most fun to watch.

In 2007-08, the Ubuntu Celtics — led by Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen — won 66 games and crushed the Lakers in a six-game championship final. It is the only championship the vaunted franchise has won in the last 38 years.

That sets the tone for the rest of that part of the column - win or else!

Another Terry Francona Column

The former Red Sox skipper shares his thoughts on the 2004 World Series champions and other things:

On eve of a return to Fenway, Terry Francona reflects on ’04 Red Sox, the state of baseball, and retirement

Former manager Terry Francona will join players from his 2004 ball club when the Red Sox honor their curse-bustin’ champs while celebrating the lives of Tim and Stacy Wakefield at the Fenway home opener Tuesday afternoon.

“It’s unbelievable that it’s been 20 years,” Francona said. “The best thing about it are the memories. I’ll be so happy to see so many people, particularly [former coach] Brad Mills. But the Wake thing is what I think is really special. When Pam [Sox vice president Pam Kenn] asked me to come back for this, it took me about two seconds to say yes.”

His favorite memory of the 200-win knuckleballer?

“There’s a lot when you’re around somebody that much,” said Francona. “One thing that shows you what kind of a guy he was is Game 3 of the 2004 ALCS against the Yankees [a 19-8 loss that put the Sox down, 3-0], when we were just getting beat up. And here he comes up the tunnel with his spikes and his glove, and he said, ‘I can go suck up some innings.’

DHL Dan CCIV - The Larry Lucchino Column

Former Red Sox general manager Larry Lucchino passed away earlier this week. Shank's here to deliver the eulogy:

Boston baseball was well served by Larry Lucchino, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while pondering the life and times of Larry Lucchino …

▪ He was the last of a kind — a personable, hard-charging baseball executive who demanded results, never suffered fools, and most of the time made things better for fans. He should be in Cooperstown simply for Camden Yards (which changed everything about the fan experience in every ballpark built after 1993), and he could have been commissioner of baseball, but Boston was best served because Lucchino ran the Red Sox from 2002-15.

The Sox haven’t been the same since he “retired,” and you can be sure Lucchino wouldn’t have tolerated the “let the fans eat cake” message ownership delivered in the recent non-full-throttle offseason.

Larry Lucchino. Think Harry Sinden with a law degree. Think Red Auerbach brawling with NBA owners at Board of Governors meetings. Think Tommy Lee Jones as Deputy Marshal Samuel Gerard in “The Fugitive.”

High praise indeed!

It's clear Shank 'sampled' many of his previous columns about Lucchino, and I'm still amused by his use of 'the Nixon White House' when the first thing Shank ever said to me was whether I was recording the phone call. I'll give him some credit for briefly mentioning the conflict / falling out he eventually had with Lucchino and didn't completely duck any of the bad stuff, unlike his shameless Bill Buckner eulogy.