Saturday Morning

It is easy to just chalk last night up as another unimpressive win for the Celtics. They didn't play particularly well, and the league's worst team took them right down to the wire. But, there are a couple things that we need to keep in mind. The first is that the Timberwolves are never easy to beat. I can remember going with Riley to a Sunday afternoon matchup against Minnesota last season. The Celtics played one of their best games of the season, and yet they still needed double overtime to pull out the win because Ricky Davis was continuously hitting three pointers and then taunting the crowd. The fact that three of Minnesota's starters last night were wearing Celtic Green a year ago (and that there were two more ex-Celtics that saw significant time off the bench) made this more than just a normal game. In fact, I would bet that Al Jefferson was more emotional playing in Boston last night than he has been in any of Minnesota's previous games this season, home or away.



The second thing that we have to remember is that the significance of KG's performance last night cannot be understated. The guy that left with an injury, came back out and begged his way back into a seemingly meaningless game, and then provided an emotional lift to the Celtics' defensive effort as well as a steal on the Wolves' final possession is worth everything that we gave up for him and more. Look, this guy had no reason to go back out there. An abdominal strain is not that serious, but nevertheless, I really don't think there are a lot of guys that would have been begging their coaches to put them out there even though their team's trainer advised against it. KG is a special player. I've always known this, but I can't help thinking about it everyday and reminding myself how great it is to have him playing for my favorite team. I can't wait to see him fuel us in the playoffs, pushing us to pull out wins even when we're not playing our best. Honestly, I feel like he's been a Celtic for his entire career.




Moving on to football, I want all of you to check out this video. I love Charles Barkley. He was my favorite player when I was a kid. He's my favorite analyst in all of sports. He once had me thrown out of a bar in North Carolina, and I still count that as one of the greatest nights of my life. So, I couldn't be happier to hear him make that Super Bowl pick.

Finally, there is a great piece by John Clayton outlining the incompetence of Al Davis. The reports that he was calling for Lane Kiffin's resignation (going so far as to draft a letter of resignation that Lane only needed to sign) infuriated me. Honestly, this guy is the worst owner in sports. He trades for Randy Moss and then promises his fans that he is going to make positive changes, and instead he bring in Art Shell so that he can fire him a second time and passes on Drew Brees to sign Aaron Brooks. I really thought the Raiders took great strides this season, and I can't help but feel like giving Kiffin more time to continue implementing his system with this young team is the Raiders best option. The WORST possible thing would be to bring in someone new and start the re-building process again. This would totally kill the morale of the players and fans. Davis seems to think that if he keeps changing coaching staffs, he can somehow bypass the re-building process and return the Raiders to glory. Unfortunatly, this is impossible.

Perhaps I am biased, because I am a huge Randy Moss fan, but I can't understand why everybody was so frustrated with the lack of motivation that Moss had to work for Davis. There are workers out there all over the world that are working in a less than motivated manner because they feel like their boss is incompetent. Moss is no different. Look at how his motivation changed when he was signed by Robert Kraft and the Patriots even though he was making less money. You can't say that players shouldn't be motivated by money and then turn around and say "that guy should be motivated no matter what because he's making 9 million dollars this season!". It doesn't work both ways. Moss was unhappy in Oakland because he felt that the people in charge were putting him in a position where it was impossible to be succesful. He then took a 2/3 pay cut this season to go somewhere where he could be succesful, and look at the way his motivation has changed despite the pay cut. Guys like Moss truly embody Davis' famous "commitment to excellence" creed. Without these players and the Raiders fans refusing to accept Davis' incompetence, there may never be hope for this Raiders franchise.



the most overblown story in sports history.