DHL Dan CXLIV - Make Them Pay

A few weeks ago everyone was up in arms about the Ime Udoka situation. Today's complaint - the Celtics aren't getting anything in return, and we know how Red Auerbach would've handled things:

Celtics are breaking their own precedent on Ime Udoka compensation, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while remembering when Patriots-Colts and Brady-Manning was appointment television …

▪ The Celtics must really want Ime Udoka out of their lives. It’s pretty clear that Udoka — even after the disgrace of bad behavior that earned him a one-season suspension in Boston — is of great value to the Brooklyn Nets.

And yet it looks like the Celtics are willing to part with Udoka without asking for compensation from a conference rival.

I know these are different times and far different circumstances, but Red Auerbach would never have done such a thing. If the Nets wanted a guy who was under contract to the Celtics, Red would have made the Nets pay. Even if Red didn’t want the guy around anymore.

Let’s go all the way back to the 1969-70 season when 41-year-old Bob Cousy was coaching the Cincinnati Royals and reluctantly agreed to come out of retirement to help the cash-strapped team sell a few tickets. Coach Cousy hadn’t played a game in seven years but agreed to lace ‘em up to help the struggling franchise.

“Not so fast,” said Red, who was rebuilding the Celtics after the retirement of Bill Russell. The Celtics still owned Cousy’s NBA rights; he was on their “retired” list. He could not play for another team without their permission. So Red demanded compensation.

“How do we know Cousy isn’t better than ever at 41?” asked Red. “Like Gordie Howe and Pancho Gonzalez?” (Tom Brady hadn’t been born yet.)

The Royals grudgingly parted with 6-foot-7-inch forward Bill Dinwiddie to grant the Cooz his “freedom.”

That's right, folks - a 'precedent' set 52 years ago and not since that time by completely different people involved (not to mention what Udoka's been accused of) is not being followed. Sorry - that 'reasoning' fails my logic test.

Trippin'

That's the only explanation I have for Shank's latest column.

It was long past midnight and I was in a pretty deep sleep when I smelled the cigar smoke wafting out of my cluttered office on the second floor of my house. Somewhat alarmed, I rubbed my eyes and tiptoed into the dark room, where I could see the shady outline of a short, bald man sitting in the raggedy old brown chair that my dad loved.

The orange glow at the tip of his familiar-smelling Hoyo de Monterrey was the only light in the room.

“Is that you, Red?’’ I asked as I took a seat in the darkness, across the room from him.

“You’re damn right it is,’’ he said. “I had to come back to tell somebody how much I like this team. And you’re one of the only guys I remember who’s still around.’’

“Thanks, Red,’’ I said. “I’m honored. We miss having you around, but this has been a fun bunch and fans really love them.’’

Fortunately, these types of columns are few & far between.

Once In A Blue Moon

The day before the Boston Celtics exercise the third overall pick in the 2016 NBA draft, we witness a very, very unusual event - a decent column by Shank:

At times like this we need Red Auerbach.

Red always knew what to do. Red was thinking at a higher level than the other guys. Red knew how to pick the pockets of the other general managers. Red knew how to get a better player with a lower selection.

As we sit here on the threshold of the 2016 NBA Draft — with the Celtics in need of help and holding the third overall pick — it is comforting that we have Red’s basketball progeny calling the shots.

Danny Ainge is Red Auerbach’s basketball son.

A bit of a stretch, but Shank does a good job explaining why in the rest of the column.

This part stood out for me:

Still, Red was bloodless, a forefather of the Bill Belichick method.

So in Shank's eyes - Red = good; Bill = bad.

The first comment sums up the column nicely:

OK, what have you done with Dan! Who really wrote this...

Seeing Red

The Patriots are winning, and while taking the AFC East was hardly unexpected, making it to the AFC Championship (and now, to the Super Bowl) certainly wasn't high on most preseason prognostications.

And no one loves the hard-working underdog more than Shank, who for some reason still believes (his impression of what makes up) a good attitude is a more important ingredient for success than, say, talent.

So in today's piece Bill Belichick, blessed with both smarts and an abundance of Tom Brady, the best quarterback of his generation, is compared to Red Auerbach, who coached in an era where it was not unusual to substitute one future Hall of Famer for another. In The CHB's words, the two coaches are "brothers of the whistle and clipboard."

Yikes.

Butchered metaphor aside, The CHB is now praising the Patriots coach for "more than just being smarter than everybody else and winning the mind games," noting Belichick's lack of sentimentality, hyper-focus, and, oh yeah, propensity for winning.

All of which begs the question, if winning is so important -- which, by the way, is why Shaughnessy is feting Belichick -- why has The CHB chosen to write piece after piece droning on over such red herrings (get it?) as coin flips, (not) talking to the media, and wardrobes?

Like The CHB, it's simple, really.

Because. He. Doesn't. Know. Sports.

He Passes on Writing Worthwhile Rondo Column

The CHB's attempt at characterizing Rajon Rondo, who returned to the Boston Garden for the first time since his December trade, is as off the mark as one of his subject's free throws.

Here's the lede: "After all this time, after all these years, we still know almost nothing about Rajon Rondo."

Well, no.

We actually know quite a bit. As The CHB's far superior colleague Gary Washburn writes in a far superior column today, "Rondo ... adores glitches, shakeups, tremors." Clearly, Rondo wasn't excited about playing with the second team, and it showed in the box score.

Comparing Rondo to Paul Pierce, a completely different type of player, Shank writes, "Pierce was different. Pierce fulfilled his potential on the court. When Pierce was traded, we knew we had seen his best. With Rondo, we are not so sure."

Again, no. Rondo's a four-time NBA All-Star who has led the league twice in assists and one in steals. He was occasionally capable of putting the team on his back, but frankly, just because a guy scores 44 points in one game does not mean he's a 44-points-a-game scorer. And if it does, then Eric (Sleepy) Floyd is a Hall of Famer.

Then there's a contrived segue to the trade of now Celtics GM Danny Ainge about a million years ago. In his first game back, Ainge apparently was thrown by the presence of Celtics patriarch Red Auerbach at courtside. To borrow the cliche, Red Auerbach hasn't walked through that door in years, and (much as I like him) Brad Stevens is no Red Auerbach.

Like one of Rondo's errant no-look passes, this column is a total throwaway.

The NBA Draft

The Celtics hold the #6 and #17 picks in tonight's NBA draft. Shank talks about the draft... by waxing nostalgic:

SPRINGFIELD — I am standing here in the uppermost Honor Ring of the planetarium-like Basketball Hall of Fame, looking at the images of all the great Celtics and thinking about how they were acquired in the days of Red Auerbach, when the draft was a little less sophisticated than it is today.

Hmmmm. There’s Bill Russell. He was pretty good. Red first heard about Russell from Bill Reinhart, who was Red’s college coach at George Washington. During the 1953-54 NCAA season, Russell’s San Francisco Dons crushed GW in a tournament in Oklahoma City. Russell was only a sophomore, but Auerbach got reports on the kid from Reinhart and his West Coast friends, Pete Newell, Freddy Scolari, and Don Barksdale.