The Fire Sale

This will go down as one of the worst trades in sports history:

Jaylen Brown for Paul George: 40 cents on the dollar, and one of the worst trades in Boston sports history

Stupefying.

What is going on with the Boston Celtics?

In a town with three teams who are regularly second-guessed and sometimes openly mocked — hello, 2026 Red Sox — the Celtics have been our standard of excellence, smarts, and stability.

Sure there have been some low moments. The Sidney Wicks-Curtis Rowe days were rough, and fans still cringe at memories of the Rick Pitino and M.L. Carr eras. But by and large, the Celtics have been on the right path, giving us reason to believe they’re readying to hang another banner from the Garden rafters.

Not today.

News broke Wednesday night that the Celtics had shipped 29-year-old superstar Jaylen Brown to their forever-rival Philadelphia 76ers for 36-year-old Paul George and a raft of future draft picks — firsts for 2028 and ’31, and a pair of seconds — that will have no immediate impact.

I'm not even sure it's 40 cents on the dollar - The Brown / George contracts are in the same range so there's no salary relief here, an ostensible reason to trade away Jaylen Brown's max contract. I supose the thinking here is not having to give Jaylen a max contract extension when you also have Tatum in a max contract.

The Hate Watch?

I don't know about the rest of you, but that's not something I'm into. Then there's this guy:

Even though the Celtics bowed out of the NBA playoffs, there’s plenty of incentive to watch the Knicks

Picked-up pieces while thinking there should be a racehorse named “Tartabull’s Throw” . . .

⋅ The historically much-harpooned New York Knicks are in the NBA Finals, which might make some of you envious.

Fear not. It’s going to be a fun fortnight of hate-watching.

Even though the Celtics (a higher seed than the Knicks) bowed out of the NBA playoffs four weeks ago, there’s plenty of incentive to follow the Knicks as they attempt to win their first NBA championship since Richard Nixon was president.

Mocking the Knicks has been a local sports tradition for most of the eight decades of NBA history.

Your Celtics and the New York Knickerbockers were two of the original 11 franchises (along with the Washington Capitols, coached by 29-year-old Red Auerbach) when the Basketball Association of America was formed in 1946. The league became the NBA in 1949.

With the Boston Celtics out of the playoff picture, note how the team is all yours now. Thanks, Shank!

Next Up On The Boston Coach Chopping Block

The Boston Celtics predictably lose a playoff series after launching three pointers like they were bombing Dresden:

Stubborn Joe Mazzulla and his Jayson Tatum-less, three-obsessed Celtics got the fate they deserved in Game 7

Hello darkness.

The sounds of silence will be heard on Causeway Street over the next few months now that the Bruins and Celtics have been eliminated on back-to-back nights at the West End barn.

Exactly when did TD Garden become our Tomb of Doom? Let the record show that starting April 21, the Bruins and Celtics lost six consecutive home playoff games, ending their seasons with a thud on the first weekend in May.

Saturday night it was the Jayson Tatum-less Celtics succumbing to their ancient rival Philadelphia 76ers, 109-100, losing in infuriating fashion as a hail of Boston’s 3-point shots clanged off Garden rims down the stretch.

Any bets on when spreadsheet coach Joe Mazzula gets booted? I was hoping for midnight last night.

DHL Dan CCXCIV - Careful What You Wish For

As the Boston Celtics begin their playoff run this year, Shank's hoping they meet up with the team that defeated them last season in the second round:

Here’s hoping for a Celtics-Knicks rematch in the playoffs, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while waiting for the Celtics in the NBA playoffs again …

The drudgery is almost over. The regular season ends Sunday night at the Garden against Orlando, and the playoffs start next weekend.

Thursday’s regular-season game No. 80, a steel-cage-match loss to the Knicks at Madison Square Garden, was a nice tease for what’s ahead. It felt like the first playoff game of 2026. The first half had 10 lead changes and seven ties. Playing without Jaylen Brown (Achilles tendinitis), the Celtics fell behind by 13 in the second half, rallied to take a 7-point lead, then lost by 6 when Josh Hart went all Andrew Toney in the final seconds.

Wouldn’t it be great if the Celtics and Knicks meet in the second round of the playoffs just like last year? These original league franchises have played one another 575 times, including 15 playoff series, and it was the Knicks who ended Boston’s season last May in six unsightly games, after Jayson Tatum blew out his Achilles in Game 4 at MSG.

No, it wouldn't be great - if the Celtics continue to chuck up dozens and dozens of three point shots, they'll losego cold for a few games like they did last year and lose the series again.

DHL Dan CCLXXXIX - No Limits

In this week's Picked Up Pieces column, Shank lets the Boston Celtics general manager hype their championship chances just a wee bit:

‘I don’t put a ceiling on us ever’: Celtics president Brad Stevens not surprised his team is playing so well this season

Picked-up pieces while hoping Olympic hero Jack Hughes restores his two front teeth …

⋅ Do the Celtics have a chance to win the NBA championship this season?

“I don’t put a ceiling on us ever,” answers team president of basketball operations Brad Stevens, the man who tore down, then rebuilt Boston’s roster after Jayson Tatum tore his Achilles and the Celtics were bounced from the playoffs last spring.

A lot of us (me, for one) figured the Celtics would hover near .500 this season and be candidates for the lame, postseason play-in tournament.

Wrong. They are a legitimate NBA contender. They’ll go into Sunday night’s home game vs. the 76ers with a record of 39-20, second only to the Pistons in the Eastern Conference. Tatum is clearly coming back and this dreaded “bridge season” suddenly presents a real opportunity to return to the NBA Finals.

Well, that's if Tatum makes a comeback this year; I'm not sold on that.

DHL Dan CCLXIV - Happy Birthday, Cooz!

In this week's Picked Up Pieces, column, Shank celebrates Bob Cousy's 97th birthday:

Celtics legend Bob Cousy talks turning 97, the Green without Jayson Tatum, Caitlin Clark and the WNBA, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while wondering if I can see downtown Providence if I stand on the head of Tom Brady’s statue at Gillette . . .

⋅ Bob Cousy turned 97 Saturday.

That doesn’t stop him from hanging out with his longtime friends for dinner, cocktails, and conversation every Thursday night in Worcester.

“We’ve been doing it for over 30 years,” says Cousy. “We solve all the problems of the world. And I’m not even the oldest member. Two weeks ago, we had a cake for my accountant, who’s two weeks older than I am.”

Cooz’s Thursday ritual includes a shrimp cocktail, a cup of chowder, and a couple of Beefeaters on the rocks with a twist.

“Occasionally, I’ll stray and have a third, but my daughter, Ticia, she keeps an eye on me from the next table.”

DHL Dan CCLIX - Talent Needed

Shank's weekly column longs for the return of Red Auerbach and his renowed trading prowess:

Longing for good old days of Celtics trades for championship-caliber talent, not payroll flexibility, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while cursing the first person who uttered “payroll flexibility” …

Remember way back in June 1983 when Red Auerbach traded lumbering center Rick Robey to the Phoenix Suns for controversial guard Dennis Johnson? That was in the good old days when Red’s cigar was just a cigar and an NBA trade was just a trade — a debatable swap of talents.

I miss those days. Sure, there were often forgettable draft picks tossed into the deals, and occasionally some petty cash changed hands, but for the most part it was talent for talent and fans enjoyed making a case that the Celtics had maybe given up too much or (more likely with Red) won the deal and acquired a better player who’d help win another banner. Hello, DJ.

We loved it. Through the years, the Celtics traded Paul Westphal for Charlie Scott, Cedric Maxwell for Bill Walton, and let’s not forget Red’s Mormon grandson, Danny Ainge, swapping Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes, Gerald Green, Theo Ratliff, Sebastian Telfair, and two future first-rounders for some guy named Kevin Garnett in 2007. A horse for five ponies and two picks. It was beautiful. It was sports. It was fun.

DHL Dan CCLIV - Loserville?

In this week's Picked Up Pieces column, Shank compares two eras in Boston sports history, with the current era somehat lacking by comparison:

Does the Celtics’ sudden downward spiral mean Boston will soon go from Titletown to Loserville, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while wondering if we’re witnessing The Curse of Steve Pagliuca . . .

⋅ Life happens fast when you invest energy and emotion in the fortunes of local sports teams. You go to bed one night in Titletown, USA, then wake up in Loserville.

Remember those dark days of no championships from 1987-2000? It got so bad we actually hosted a Stanley Cup celebration for Ray Bourque at City Hall Plaza in June 2001 because Bourque finally won the Cup after the Bruins traded him to Colorado!

Hello darkness, my old friend. I’ve come to talk with you again.

It looks like we can send out the duck boats for servicing. Replace all parts. It doesn’t matter if materials get held up in the supply chain. There’ll be no parade down the Champs de Boylston next month. It looks like Copley’s Canyon of Heroes will be quiet for many years to come.

Staying Alive, For Now

Yeah, I've been slacking with the timeliness of recent posts, but here's Shank's column from when the Celtics were still sort of, kind of in the 2025 NBA playoffs:

The Celtics heard the rumblings that their season was as good as over and responded loudly in Game 5. Anybody have a bloody sock?

They heard the rumblings about the end of their championship window, and new ownership coming in to break up the band, and the odious prospect of losing a conference semifinal series to the Knicks in five frustrating games.

They knew they’d have to play without their heartbeat franchise forward, Jayson Tatum, who suffered a season-ending ruptured Achilles’ tendon Monday night in New York.

So what did they do?

The defending world champion Boston Celtics came home to their Causeway Street Gym and told the hoop world that they are not dead yet. Summoning their 3-point weaponry (22 for 49), they overcame a 9-point first-half deficit and thrashed the Knicks, 127-102, in Game 5 to move a suddenly scintillating series back to Madison Square Garden on Friday night.

...where they got destroyed because they rely on the three point shot to win games and that style of play finally bit them in the ass.

You Were Saying?

Last week Shank was saying the Knicks / Celtics series should be a cakewalk for the Green Team. A few games later, he's singing a different tune:

What in the name of David Tyree is going on here? This Celtics-Knicks series is beginning to look like a Giant upset.

Shock and awe.

Seriously.

I mean, what in the name of David Tyree is going on here? When did the 2024-25 New York Knicks become the 1978 New York Yankees? When did Josh Hart and Jalen Brunson become Bucky Dent and Aaron Boone?

And when did Joe Mazzulla morph into Grady Little?

The Knicks Wednesday came back from yet another 20-point, third-quarter deficit and beat the Celtics, 91-90, to take a 2-0 series lead back to Madison Square Garden Saturday afternoon.

This means the defending world champion Boston Celtics have put themselves into a must-win game in the second round of the 2025 NBA playoffs. No NBA team has recovered from a 3-0 playoff deficit and the Celtics will be carrying a lot of mental baggage into Madison Square Garden.

DHL Dan CCLI - Must See Basketball?

I think that's what Shank's trying to sell us here:

Celtics-Knicks in the playoffs (for the 16th time) is what Basketball America wants to see, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while wondering if the betting odds have changed on Pete Rose’s chances for Cooperstown now that commissioner Rob Manfred is considering lifting Rose’s lifetime ban from baseball …

⋅ Celtics-Knicks. It’s official. Game 1 on Causeway Street Monday night.

It’s a playoff series Basketball America wants to see.

The Knicks’ coach is Tom Thibodeau, who won a ring as one of Doc Rivers’s assistants with the world champion ubuntu Celtics in 2008. New York’s best player — indeed its best player since Cambridge’s Patrick Ewing — is Jalen Brunson (40 points, including a 3-point game-winner with 4.3 seconds left in the clincher in Game 6 against the Pistons Thursday), son of Rick Brunson, who played at Salem High School before playing for John Chaney’s Temple squads against John Calipari’s UMass powerhouse.

The modern-day Knicks can’t beat the Celtics and it bothers them. They lost four of five to Boston last season, went out and reloaded (Karl-Anthony Towns, Mikal Bridges) in the offseason, then came back and lost four of four to the Celtics this season by an average of 16 points.

In other words, it's shaping up to be a series the Celtics should win with relative ease. Is that really what 'Basketball America' wants to see, or just Celtics fans?

All About Advancing

Shank warps up the Celtics - Magic series:

It took longer than it should have, but Celtics finally found their game and advanced

The world champion Celtics beat the pedestrian Orlando Magic, 120-89, in the Causeway Street gym Tuesday to advance to Round 2 of the NBA playoffs. Boston will play either the Knicks or Pistons in the conference semifinals (New York leads that series, 3-2).

I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t wait to get these Orlando bums in the rearview mirror. The Magic are rugged and have some good young players (particularly Paolo Banchero), but they were a 41-41 team and supposed to be a mere speed bump on the Celtics’ road to banner number 19.

It was, therefore, somewhat annoying when the Celtics lost Game 3 in Orlando last Friday.

Making matters worse, the Celtics couldn’t hit a three and fell behind by 9 points in Game 5 Tuesday. Boston trailed, 49-47, at intermission and made . . . zero . . . 3-point baskets in the first half. It was as if Marcus Smart and Greg Kite were back in the house.

The Celtics will have to win more games like that.

DHL Dan CCL - Titletown?

Remember when Boston sports teams were winning all those titles and going deep into the playoffs? Shank sure does:

We’re used to titles, and let’s face it, right now the Celtics are all we’ve got, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while thinking hard about the Celtics, Red Sox, Patriots, and Bruins . . .

⋅ When all four of our main professional sports teams are good, this can be the best time of the year. Remember those April/May/June springs when the Celtics and Bruins were deep into the playoffs, the star-studded, big-market Red Sox were jousting with the Evil Empire, and the Tom Brady Patriots were reloading at draft time, bound for yet another AFC Championship showdown with the Colts, Steelers or Ravens?

We lived so well so long.

The New England sports world is very different now.

The once-stable Patriots are coming off back-to-back four-win seasons, working with their third coach in three years, and selected Will Campbell, an offensive tackle (whee!), with the No. 4 pick in the draft Thursday night. The Bruins just failed to make the playoffs for the first time since 2016, and this fall will have their fifth head coach since 2017 (unless interim coach Joe Sacco is retained). The Red Sox have been a .500 team and finished last three times in five seasons since trading Mookie Betts in 2020, and they go into this weekend one game over .500.

DHL Dan CCXLIX - It Don't Come Easy

In thi week's Picked up Pieces column, Shank weighs in on the 2024 - 2025 Boston Celtics and their chances of repeat championships:

Since the dynasty of the ’60s many Celtics teams have failed to repeat, so this won’t be easy, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while wondering if DOGE recruited its staffers from Driveline …

Your 2024-25 Boston Celtics are hoping to win back-to-back NBA championships.

Larry Bird, Robert Parish, and Kevin McHale never did it. Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen couldn’t do it. Dave Cowens and Jo Jo White couldn’t get it done, either.

No. The only Celtics teams to win consecutive championships were the Bill Russell-led teams of the 1960s.

And they did it a lot.

Put it this way: When I walked into first grade at Groton Elementary School in September 1959, the Boston Celtics were defending NBA champs.

DHL Dan CCXLVI - Change Of The Guard

The Boston Celtics were sold on Thursday for $6.2 billion dollars, a record for a professional franchise in the United States. Shank, of course, has a few questions about the deal:

Why not Pags? It seems odd that Steve Pagliuca’s Celtics ownership bid was turned down, and other thoughts.

Picked-up pieces while doing the math on a $360 million investment that turned into $6.1 billion . . .

⋅ Why not Pags?

This is the takeaway after Thursday morning’s news bomb, fan agita, official corporate statements, and private equity high-fiving that went on after the Globe’s Adam Himmelsbach broke the story that the Celtics have been sold to an investor group led by complete unknown William Chisholm — a North Shore native who went to Dartmouth and has pledged to “work to bring more championships home to Boston.”

Swell.

So here’s just one little question?

“Why not Pags?” I followed. “Seems to check all the boxes and would make fans super comfortable.”

“Our goal was always to take the best bid from a suitable buyer, and that’s what we did,” responded Irv Grousbeck.

So, there you go. The Chisholm group made the best offer, according to Irv Grousbeck.

And that’s that.

But this isn't as straightforward as it seems:

Pagliuca issued a statement shortly after it was learned he didn’t get the team early Thursday, stating, in part, “We made a fully guaranteed and financed offer at a record price . . . We had no debt or private-equity money that would potentially hamstring our ability to compete in the future. We have felt it was the best offer for the Celtics . . . ”

The Grousbecks did not feel that way.

The Globe has learned that the Chisholm bid was higher than Pagliuca’s.

Not seeing the offer sheets, and not knowing which package had more guaranteed financing, it’s impossible to measure the offers. That is what the Grousbecks do.

Also contributing to the muddy waters - it's not much of a secret Steve Pagliuca and Wyc Grousbeck aren't friends, to put it mildly. I think that's playing a big part in this one.

Hail To The Chief!

It's been a while since we heard from Boston Celtics legend Robert Parish, and it's not entirely positive:

Decades later, Robert Parish reveals in Celtics doc why he chose to sit out Larry Bird’s legendary fight with Dr. J

There’s new information on a very old Boston sports moment.

Celtics Hall of Fame center Robert Parish is acknowledging he harbored bad feelings toward legendary teammate Larry Bird, and demonstrated his disappointment by letting Bird take a beating in a landmark brawl with Julius Erving and the Philadelphia 76ers during a regular-season game at the Old Garden way back in November 1984.

“This is the first time anybody’s hearing this,” Parish says in a new HBO documentary on the Celtics (first episode airs next Monday). “This was the only time that I didn’t feel a closeness to Larry . . . [because] after I was beefing about contracts with the Celtics [in 1983], to be honest, Larry didn’t support me.”

Who cares? Why give fresh air to this old topic now?

Because this is Boston and this is Larry Bird and everything from back then still matters now. The Chief’s somewhat distant relationship with his starry teammates has always been mysterious. Parish snubbed the team-sponsored reunion of the 1985-86 Celtics in 2016 and has been scarce around TD Garden since retiring.

Well, now it's out in the open, for better or worse...

Playoffs?

That's Shank's tone after watching the Boston Celtics so far this year:

Can we get to the playoffs already? This year’s Celtics might be even better than last year’s.

The defending world champion Celtics have played only one quarter of their regular-season schedule. We still have four weeks left in 2024.

I have only one question: When do the playoffs start?

Sorry. I know the NBA regular season is a marathon, not a sprint. I know there are critical games left in the quest for the coveted NBA Cup; the idle Celtics were eliminated Tuesday night. I know we are supposed to take a deep breath, hope everyone stays healthy, and monitor the NBA readiness of Neemias Queta and Drew Peterson.

Not me. I watch the 2024-25 Celtics when I think they might be in for a close game or playing a team that could be a speed bump in the quest for Banner No. 19.

Also, to ponder their place among the greatest Celtics teams of all time.

Banner Night II

Shank covers the first home gane for the 2024 - 2025 Boston Celtics:

From Bob Cousy to Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, Celtics history is second to none

Born in 1946, winners of multiple championships in every decade from the 1950s through the 1980s, the Boston Celtics and their extra large family gathered on Causeway Street to raise the franchise’s 18th championship banner Tuesday night before opening their season on the parquet floor with a 132-109 massacre of the New York Knicks.

It was a night to honor Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and the other Celtic champs who shredded the NBA in a 16-3 playoff run that concluded just four months ago.

Tatum (37 points in 30 minutes, and he was 8 of 11 on 3-pointers) and Brown (23 points, 5 of 9 on threes) picked up where they left off as the Celtics hit a record-tying 29 from long range against the punch-drunk Knicks.

“I can honestly say, you’re the best fans in the world and let’s do it again,” Tatum told the crowd before the 2024 NBA champs took turns pulling on ropes to raise the banner.

DHL Dan CCXXVI - Banner Night

In this week's installment if the Picked Up Pieces column, Shank takes a look at the 2024 - 2025 Boston Celtics:

As Banner Night approaches, the Celtics look stacked, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while hoping we somehow wind up with Mac Jones vs. Drake Maye for Sunday breakfast . . .

▪ Tuesday night in the Causeway Street Gym, we’ll interrupt our regularly scheduled programming/nonstop kvetching about the Patriots, Red Sox, and Bruins in order to bring you . . . Banner Night!

That’s right, boys and girls. Banner Night, just like the earlier part of this century when Boston was king of the sports universe, awash in confetti, pumping the duck boat tires every other year for a pomp-fueled promenade down Boylston Street’s Canyon of Heroes.

Your Boston Celtics will be raising their 18th championship flag to the Garden rafters at 7 p.m. Tuesday, moments before their Opening Night joust with the new-and-improved New York Knickerbockers.

Everybody who’s anybody will be there, including all key members of the 2023-24 NBA champs who bludgeoned the league last season, winning 80 of 101 games, including a 16-3 playoff run.

DHL Dan CCXV - For Sale

A few weeks after winning their 18th banner, the owners of the Boston Celtics are getting out while the getting is good:

Who’ll be next to own the Celtics, how long will it take, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while watching the USS Constitution take its annual victory lap . . .

▪ The Celtics just won a championship, Jayson Tatum got his extension, the whole band is back for next season, and it looked like everything was coming up Green around here.

Then, wham! The Celtics announced that the franchise is for sale. The team statement said the Grousbeck family, which holds the majority stake, has decided to pursue a sale “for estate and family planning considerations.”

It’s seismic sports news. We’ve had ownership stability for almost the entirety of this successful century. The Bruins have been owned by Jeremy Jacobs for 49 years, Bob Kraft bought the Patriots in 1994, and John Henry’s group took over the Red Sox in 2002. Irv Grousbeck and son Wyc took control of the Celtics in December of that same year.

And just in case you thought Shank's lost a bit on that ol' asshole fastball (Beetle on 98.5 The Sports Hub pointed this out this morning) ...

In conversations with some sources close to the situation, I’ve come away convinced that soon-to-be-90-year-old H. Irving Grousbeck is the one driving this sale and that 63-year-old son Wyc (one of four children of Irving Grousbeck) — managing partner, governor, and CEO of the Celtics, and always identified as the team’s owner — actually owns a relatively small stake in the franchise.

H. Irving Grousbeck — still teaching at Stanford Business School — has been the money behind the group since the beginning. (Forbes lists “Irving Grousbeck and family’s” worth at $1.8 billion.) There’s every indication that the billionaire rarely seen at Celtics games is motivating this sale in an attempt to get his affairs in order.

He made his fortune as cofounder of Continental Cablevision and is no doubt interested in ongoing negotiations for the NBA’s media rights. A nine-year deal is set to expire at the end of next season and the new deal, reportedly close to $76 billion, will have considerable impact on franchise values.

I emailed the elder Grousbeck late Wednesday, requesting comment on my assertions, and he responded Thursday with a polite no comment.

When I texted Wyc with, “You OK if I say your personal stake in the team is less than 2 percent?” he answered, “We hold as a family — all unified . . . We are a family and I also have a Celtics family is my comment. Thanks.”

I wonder what prompted Shank to try and pull Wyc's pants down like that? Time will tell, and I'll post something on it once it hits the news.