Mark Jones's Boston Celtics fan blog

I came to a realization this past July 4 weekend. There have been some great players to suit up the jersey of a Boston team. Be it any team, at just about anytime, there have been great players.

The Bruins, Celts, BoSox and Pats can brag about their legends. Oh, sure, sure, Los Angeles, Houston, New York, Chicago and many other cities can claim to own the “best evers”. Jordan reigned in Chicago. The Kings of NHL fame can speak of Gretzky. Where did Reggie Jackson play? Well... everywhere. (Granted, he wasn’t the greatest, but you got the point).

What about Boston? Some may argue that Bird was the greatest, or that Roger Clemens, prior to his drugs and womanizing, got his start in Fenway. But, if you examine the level of talent to grace the various sports and sports franchises, you may not find many greatests, but many greats.

Continue reading "The Legends"

Last time, we looked at a brief rundown of Celtics draft history. The good, the bad, and the severely questionable, each team has a checked history. That said, lets quickly investigate some picks made, then we’ll see about the Celtics’ choices.

Derrick Rose went to Chicago first. Now, they are overloaded at guard, leading many to think Kirk Hinrich is on the block.

Michael Beasley is a Heat. As pompous as I think this one is, he may be a good fit for a team needing muscle. But where does that leave Udonis Haslem?

OJ Mayo was traded... on draft day. Drafted by Minne-snota, he was sent to Memphis for Kevin Love. Both went with veterans, like Antoine Walker and Mike Miller. But neither draftee will probably have an impact next season.

Now, the C’s took JR Giddons from New Mexico in Round One, and Bill Walker from Kansas State and a Turk named Semih Erden.

Continue reading "The Draftees"

I love draft night. If I could afford cable television or knew someone who had it, I would be glued to it. The Celtics have a very mixed draft history, however. Here is a sample of the awesome picks they had since the premier draft in 1957:

Sam Jones,

John Havlicek,

JoJo White,

Dave Cowens,

Paul Westphal,

Cedric Maxwell,

Larry Bird,

Paul Pierce, and so on. Likewise, a small list of noodle-scratcher type draft picks, begging the question of which now-illegal drug were they on at the time:

Greg Kite (biggest Celtics noodle-scratcher),

Michael Smith,

Acie Earl,

Eric Montross,

Jerome Moiso, and in like manner, some draft picks that went wrong one way or another:

Len Bias (died),

Reggie Lewis (died),

Continue reading "When it gets Draft-y..."

When Larry, Kevin, and "Chief" strolled off the court after the 1986 Finals, no one knew that the organization would not taste that gold ball for another 22 years. The team went to the 1987 Finals, but then Magic took over, and yada yada, it is now 2008 and Boston has finally won it all.

While other sports writers look at the "what ifs" of the Celts (you know, Len Bias, Reggie Lewis and such), we need to look into the future, and see what may happen next year.

Please note: I am not a medium or a seer. I just take sometimes educated, sometimes wild guesses, and see how far off I can be.

Ray Allen: Now that everyone in the sports broadcasting world has hopped onto the "Allen is not dead" bandwagon, he will be even more deadly next year. Sagging defenses will give him his daylight to shoot, and tight "D" will get him good passes to good interior players.

Continue reading "A Look.. to the Future!"