Major Embarrassment

Celtics legend Bob Cousy is not too happy with US Basketball coach Steve Kerr:

Bob Cousy speaks out about Steve Kerr not playing Jayson Tatum: ‘This is an embarrassment’

Celtics legend Bob Cousy turned 96 Friday and had a lot to say about US Olympic men’s basketball coach Steve Kerr not playing Jayson Tatum in Thursday’s critical 95-91 semifinal victory over Serbia in Paris.

“This isn’t just a snub,” Cousy said from his Worcester home Friday morning. “This is an embarrassment for that poor kid all over the [expletive] world. The Olympics have gotten that big. Everyone’s going to think that there’s something wrong this this kid.”

Thursday’s benching vs. Serbia — a game in which the US trailed by as many as 17 points — marked the second time Kerr has chosen not to play Tatum for a single minute in the Olympics. The US plays France Saturday in the gold-medal game.

“Somebody from Boston should stand up for this kid,” Cousy said. “In my judgment, this is going out of your way to embarrass one of your players.

Make that two players, as Tyrese Haliburton got fucked over as well.

The Only Winning Move Is Not To Play

That's Shank's opinion (one that I share) about Boston not getting the 2024 Summer Olympic Games:

Not hosting the 2024 Summer Olympics is the best thing that never happened to Boston

Billionaire Charles Dolan almost bought the Red Sox in 2001. We have seen what he and his family have done to the Knicks. We dodged a big bullet there.

Bob Kraft almost moved the Patriots to Hartford in 1998. Kraft announced that it was a done deal. Fortunately, it was only a threat, and the Patriots never left Foxborough.

The list goes on. The Red Sox almost traded for Alex Rodriguez in the winter of 2003-04. The Celtics almost re-signed Kyrie Irving three years ago.

Oh, and back in 2015, Boston actually made a bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics. Seven months after the US Olympic Committee designated Boston as the American city best equipped to bid for the Games, we withdrew our application. The 2024 Games will take place in Paris.

At least Shank's consistent with this opinion.

Shank On Boston 2024, Part IV

Shank's been having quite a blast these past few weeks, from DeflateGate to the epic suck that so far has been the 2015 Boston Red Sox season. He now half rewrites the same No To Boston 2024 column for the third, or fourth, or even fifth time. In all this excitement, I can barely keep count myself!

We need a volcano.

The 1908 Summer Olympic Games were originally scheduled to be held in Rome. The Rome 1908 committee (I believe it was fronted by Stephano Pagliuca and Giovanni Fish) secured the bid for the IV Olympiad and everything was all set until Mount Vesuvius erupted on April 7, 1906, burying Rome and Pompeii in volcanic ash. The IOC relocated the Olympic Games to London.

At this hour, Boston needs some molten lava to stop the madness around the 2024 Olympic bid.

In six short months, Boston 2024 has become a punchline. Someday folks will look back at this misguided effort and compare it to “Gigli,” the PT Cruiser, and Google Glass . . . one more bad idea from the early part of the 21st century. Boston 2024 needs to be put out of its misery. The sooner the better.

Here's an interesting tidbit:

Still, the folks running Boston 2024 don’t seem to like us. Last Monday they bailed on meeting with the Globe’s editorial board because they did not want news people attending the meeting (on an off-the-record-basis), which had been planned for two weeks.

That tells you one or two things - the Boston 2024 organizers don't want you to know certain things, and from that, you shouldn't trust them as far as you can throw them.

As a reminder, this is one issue where DSW agrees with Shank. Read the rest of the column for other interesting nuggets.

Both Sides Of His Mouth

Wow - this column is classic Shaughnessy! The U.S. Olympic Committee is looking for a chump loser host city for the 2024 Summer Olympics and for some ungodly reason, chose Boston as the potential host city.

Let's hear more from Shank, still catching his breath:

The winning streak continues. The High Renaissance of Boston sports is extended, perhaps all the way to 2024, which would represent the full first quarter of the 21st century.

It’s not just about the Patriots, Red Sox, Celtics, and Bruins anymore. The United States Olympic Committee Thursday selected Boston as the city that America will put forward for consideration as the host for the 2024 Summer Games.

Two years from now, the International Olympic Committee will select a host city from among a field that is expected to include Rome, Paris, Berlin . . . and Boston, the Sports Hub of the Universe.

Funny, that's not what he was saying six months ago:

Stop the madness. Please. Can we have no more noise about the Olympics coming to Boston in 2024? Can we cease and desist with the preposterous notion that this is a reasonable, fiscally-feasible project?

We do not need the Summer Olympics. We already are a world-class city. What we need is bridge repair, housing, better public schools, an improved MBTA, and programs for the disenfranchised. We need better ways to get in and out of our city. We do not need an event that would strangle us financially and logistically for decades.

So, like our former Senator John Kerry, he was against it, before he was for it!

Examined logically, nothing that Shank raised as concerns has happened in those six months - no bridges were repaired, no schools got better, no improvements on the MBTA - that would cause a rational person to change his opinion on this issue. And then there's Shank...

But wait! What's this bit, further down today's column?

And yet the committee selected Boston, a clogged city with a cranky constituency, no downtown stadium, and a well-oiled resistance (I remain a card-carrying member) to the wild and crazy notion of hosting the Olympics.

So, now he likes the idea of Boston hosting the Olympics, but just not the event itself. Got it!