Doc Rivers, on with Dennis and Callahan this morning as he is every week during the season, shed some light on KG's knee, other injuries that impacted the team, and how the team will progress moving forward.
On whether KG's knee is more serious than was reported:
"I don’t think there will be much more (than reported). I think it will be the strained tendon and the bone spur. What they started thinking at the end was that maybe the bone spur had something to do, maybe it started rubbing against the tendon and that’s what kept it inflamed. But they don’t know that. That’s just an assumption."
On other injuries that affected the team and will need to be addressed:
"Ray Allen had a hamstring problem throughout the Orlando series that was not getting better. Paul had some bone spurs that may need to be removed as well. (Kendrick Perkins) may have to have a procedure on his shoulder… In Ray’s case, I thought his hamstring was bothering him a lot. That could have had an effect on him (during the Magic series)."
On the future of he and Thibs with the C's:
on himself: "I have every intention of coming back".
on Thibs: "I hope he’s not back…(The 76ers job) will be a tough one to get. Tom’s not a good guy – he’s a great guy. And he’s a terrific coach. So I’m really pulling for him."
So, let's give a quick rundown of what we've learned:
1) It sounds like all the Celtics really knew was that KG's knee was effed up. There was no specific injury that people were keeping under cover. At no point was he "done for good" and they weren't telling us. If what Doc is saying is true, it sounds like it was really bothering him, and they kept trying it out, and the tendon was too inflamed for him to go. It also sounds like removing that bone spur will be the key to a clean bill of health for the big ticket.
2) Ray's hamstring was bothering him, which surely impacted his shooting (and allowed JJ Redick to stay with him). Paul Pierce had bone spurs in his knee, and may require surgery. We at roomofzen could tell Paul was not healthy, and were wondering about his knees very early in the postseason. I'm not the least bit surprised to learn that. Anybody could tell he was not healthy. Finally, Perk's shoulder, which the trainers were always working on before and during games, clearly didn't affect his overall game. However, I do wonder if there were times (for example, missing three straight layup tries in one posession in game 7) where the combination of the pain and the fatigue was too much for the big man. Luckily, these all sound like issues that can be cleared up in the offseason, and can have all these guys back and as good as new by the pre-season.
3) Doc is a committed family man and his family lives in Orlando, so I always worry about whether or not he will come back. It's great to hear that he'll be back. I truly believe he proved himself to be the best coach in the NBA this season. As far as losing Tom Thibodeau goes, it will be tough. I am going through a similar crisis with my New York Giants losing Steve Spagnuolo. But, this is the circle of life in professional sports. Doc has to be behind him, and so do we. If Doc were trying to convince him to stay, Thibs would start to resent him anyways. Good luck to him. And, besides, as we saw in 2007, it's more about the players than anything. As long as KG is back, I have faith that this team will play some serious D.
On today's snowed in Super Bowl week edition, Babcock and I breakdown the matchups between the Steelers and Cardinals, review some of the prop bets available for Sunday's showdown, offer some creative marketing ideas for the 43 strip clubs (as reported by the AP) within the Tampa city limits, and make our bold predictions as to which team will hoist the Lombardi Trophy (and, unlike our last episode, we actually disagree).
We also concede that Kurt Warner is more than just a figure for us to mock, remember some of Babcock's harder years, make our predictions as to how the Eastern Conference will shake out in the NBA, and ponder the identity of the Phoenix Suns.
We also discuss 2001 Odyssey, which according to the AP article is a Tampa Strip club with a space ship shaped VIP room on top of it. Here is a photo:
Apparently Sonic does exist:
Also, here is the story of Bernie Notte, the 43 year old Mons Venus waitress who pulling her stilletos out of the closet in order to bring in the super bowl week cash.
Friends, there is so much I wish to share with you tonight.
First, another wild weekend in the NFL much to the chagrin of the Guru. With my second consecutive 2 for 5 week of picks (although, having the Patriots cover the spread by 31 points is really alright with me, in fact I may have to pick against them in the future to continue my plan of reverse psychologizing them into a playoff spot) my grasp on plus .500 against the spread hangs tightly at 16-14 on the year.
As someone who associates with what one might consider "Wagering Gentlemen" I know firsthand that this season has proven difficult to say the least. (Sidenote: I have yet to meet a chick who has put money on a football game, although I find that extremely hot for some reason). But there is always fun in speculation and fun is what we are all about here at roomofzen.
In no particular order of importance:
1) The Patriots looked very good last night. The defense was playing with a swagger that I have not seen for quite sometime. Honestly, I expected the Broncos to put up a lot of points against the Pats secondary (which stepped up big time), and I thought that the New England offense would continue to struggle. Wrong on both counts. It didn't hurt that the Broncos defense was horrific at everything except sacking the quarterback. When the Pats D Line gets fired up there isn't a better more imposing defensive front in football. When they don't bring the intensity, they have been more or less average. I heard some interviews on WEEI today that confirmed a conscious effort on the part of the defense to play with what Richard Seymour called "A Sense of Purpose". Moving forward the Pats are going to have to adjust to competing without veteran safety and all around badass Rodney Harrison, who appears to be done for the season, and possibly for good. I'm going on record right now in the third paragraph of the Tuesday Night Extravaganza as saying that Harrison is deserving of a spot in the Hall Of Fame, for what its worth.
I suck at Photography, that's the Celtics I swear.
2) Over the weekend I had the opportunity to check out the Boston Celtics Open Practice at the Tsongas arena in Lowell. I had been to the Tsongas arena twice in my life. Once during a high school basketball tournament and the other time was to see a Korn concert. It was at this concert that I first sighted a man that became known simply as "The guy who wears the Undertaker costume and moshes" amongst my friends. For a good three years we saw this guy, who had a striking resemblance to the wrestler but was obviously not him, at every River Rave, Ozzfest, and rock concert we went too. Anyway, I hoped to see him there, instead I was graced with the presence of an uninspired Darius Miles. Let this be known: Darius Miles is a poor substitute for a guy who looks like the undertaker and wears the undertaker costume to concerts throughout Massachusetts. (Not surprisingly, Miles was released the next day). The team ran through some drills in front of a couple of thousand fans, did some defensive footwork, and then Doc gets on the microphone and thanks everyone for coming. That was about it. In all the practice lasted roughly 45 minutes.
In a striking show of solidarity, fans refused to leave the arena despite the pleas of ushers and venue staff who obviously had something to do Saturday afternoon repeatedly yelling at everyone to leave. I had hoped that by some stroke of luck the whole thing would consist of a game of knockout at one end of the court and a dunk contest at the other. Hey, dare to dream. I found the experience interesting, and it really drove home the fact that the defending world Champs would be taking the floor a week from tonight. Roomofzen will have several representatives at the game. I'm fucking pumped. Also, Perk looked lean and mean...lookout Eastern Conference bigmen.
3) It has been a while since we have received any reader questions for our sporadic "The Oracle Speaks", and this is a call for submissions. We're not begging here, but we all enjoy hearing from you. (This is my token "Its all about the Fans!" post of the month, but hey, it is.)
4) We have several new items in the Roomofzen store. As a reminder (for those of you who cannot read) we will be making a donation shortly to the American Cancer Society with proceeds from our merchandise sales. While our stuff isnt as popular as, say, the Vern Troyer sex tape, it is more family friendly and less likely to turn chicks off.
5) I was thinking about how unfortunate it is that Tony Kornheiser is a cohost of Monday night football. I really think that they miscast him for this role. Kornheiser doesn't have the humor or the football knowledge to occupy the third chair with the very talented and competent team of Tirico and Jaworski. I'm not calling for Dennis Miller or John Clayton to be the third guy (Miller clearly didn't work since comparisons between a good defensive play and some obscure piece of historical political trivia are essentially wasted on the audience (and generally NOT funny), and Clayton's insider knowledge would probably delve too deep to hold the interest of casual fans who make up a sizable portion of the target audience). Is this Tony's fault? Not really. There doesn't seem to be an established role for him. Should he tell a joke? Should he admit to knowing something about the game? Nobody seems to know, especially Kornheiser. This has led to the excruciating "explain the obvious at all costs" technique that is becoming his staple. This works for Madden, but Madden also really knows the game of football. I love Kornheiser on PTI, and most people would agree that he does an excellent job there, but MNF is clearly not his scene. SO.... It is time to move on. And seeing as how I have got my soapbox I am going to recommend comedian Artie Lange to be the new third wheel for Monday Night Football. Anyone who listens to Howard Stern knows Lange. Some may even recall some of his fine films "Dirty Work" and "Beer League". Sure he is a recovering Heroin addict and admitted gambler but I think he could shine in this role. He has a good knowledge of sports in general and would actually be funny. That's my vote. I'm sure that network executives are at this moment totally involved in not giving a fuck what I think.
Finally, Roomofzen is coming closer and closer to obtaining Podcast technology. Once the stars have aligned we will be taking our little blog here to the next level. Just imagine listening to LaRocque and I going over our weekly picks while riding the T next to a hot coed. She will be thinking, "man I bet that guy is listening to something really badass". She will be right. Also, she will find you irresistible. Tell her you know all about the Babcock Report and Foil in the Oven. Chicks totally go for that stuff. Those chicks pictured above are avid readers, otherwise I definitely wouldn't post a picture of them on this site.
ESPN is pushing Rick Reilly so aggressively that it is reminiscent of the way the WWF or the WCW operated after signing a big name wrestler away from one another.
- Both LaRocque and Babcock recently commented upon how frustrating it is to listen to almost every show on WEEI, other than Dale and Holley. I'm on board with that. In fact I've almost entirely replaced sports talk radio with a number of daily podcasts. However, there is one point I want to make. It does not bother me so much that the Big Show operates as it does. I just can't get over the fact that it is so popular.
- I don't need people to talk during the home run contest. In fact if they just played some good music and let guys hit home runs I'd be all set.
- That last point brings me to a bigger issue. Over the last several years we've seen an explosion of blogs. I'd attribute this to two developments:
1. The technology has developed to the point that anyone can get an opinion out there. Attracting readers and building a following is tough, yet not impossible.
2. In general people know a lot about sports. We're not talking high-end physics, game theory, or internal medicine here. A lot of my friends have played competitive sports almost their entire lives. So when guys like Peter Vecsey (listen to the Bill Simmons podcast when he was a guest) act like they are bigger than the games, it gets old fast. Along those lines I don't mind that Chris Berman is a caricature of himself at this point as he gets by entirely on his schtick. It is what it is. I only ask that he stops pretending to accurately predict the picks on NFL draft day when we all know someone is telling him who will go. That's a reasonable request.
Ultimately the blogging revolution has sent the message that people from all walks of life can contribute insightful, well thought out arguments, opinions, and coverage. As people have increasingly found their own voices ESPN has throw more talking heads at us. On occasion this works. I consistently learn from Ron Jaworski and Peter Gammons. However, their work is rare. In reality a lot of us are simply looking for highlights from ESPN. You know like back in the mid 90s. Yet as several members of ROOMOFZEN have previously noted, SportsCenter is hard to watch. This is difficult for guys in their mid to late 20s who used to consider it one of their favorite shows. This is not intended to be an "ESPN sucks rant" of which there are plenty already. To be fair I read ESPN.com a lot, consider ESPN news a good source of highlights, crack a smile when one of the anchors says, “(insert baseball player’s name) has 99 problems but a pitch ain’t one” after a home run, and realize that ESPN does a lot of things well. Having said all that I was disappointed in a few of the network's decisions:
5. Network policy that prevents employees from appearing on non-ESPN radio shows. Come on now.
4. Probably 2 summers ago now, SportsCenter ran some fake press conferences where Steve Phillips pretended to be a GM for MLB teams and answered questions about what those teams needed to do. I distinctly remember Buster Olney waving in a crowd of journalists and asking questions. This is ironic because Olney is a real journalist and a good one at that. As a side note Olney’s full name is Robert Stansbury Olney III. I’ll be honest I don’t see the Buster thing. The nickname Buster should be reserved for guys like Vince Wilfork. By the way if you don’t believe me or I didn’t explain it that well – read this.
3. SportsCenters’s day in every American state. Probably happened 2 summers ago too.
2. The TitleTown campaign that is going on as I type this.
1. The death of Baseball Tonight. I recognize that Peter Gammons had to step away for health reasons. And the whole Harold Reynolds situation was a debacle. Regardless that show is not what it used to be. I could go on but this does the trick.
Ultimately these examples are in line with the direction of the network. And much like WEEI, ESPN is as popular as ever. So I don't know what to say.
The handsoap on the bathroom sink has appeared to be completely empty for about a week now. Every time I finish going to the bathroom, I think "oh shit, I should have brought in a new thing of soap." And yet, every time it pumps out soap as if it were completely full. It's really amazing.
oldie but a goodie:
As you probably already know, Weeksy and I had a great meal at the Cleveland Circle Chipotle last Thursday. I'm a big believer that "you never get a second chance to make a first impression" is just as relevant to the relationship between burrito establishments and people as it is to the relationships that people have with each other. Because I believe this, I was happy to meet Jim and prevent him from making any rookie mistakes that might forever taint his image of this fine burrito chain. It's not that I think the burrito wouldn't have been good if he had gone with a different set of ingredients. But, someone who goes in with no prior knowledge is most likely not going to maximize their enjoyment. The corn is the best example of this. Thanks to Ted (who chaperoned me on my first trip), I have never had a burrito at Chipotle without corn. It probably wouldn't be bad. But, it would be lacking a certain element that I notice and enjoy every time I eat there.
Anyways, we've had a lot of burrito talk this week. I won't discuss any more about the food that we ate. You can scroll down for that. Instead, I want to rehash some of the sports conversations that we had during the meal.
Now, for those of you who don't know, Weeks is Jim from Green Bandwagon , which is a much more well established site than the roomofzen. He is a great person to talk basketball, and really all sports in general, with. Our meeting (I call it a staff meeting whenever I get together with the other people on the site) came the day after James Posey signed with New Orleans, which naturally drew most of our conversation to basketball. We sort of brushed over it, agreed that it sucked, agreed that we'd both like Tony Allen and Eddie House back, and moved on.
Some issues upon which we touched (note, some day we hope to have a podcast. For now, this will have to suffice):
Sick footage of a young Dimebag Darrell (see Ted's post two below mine). From Dimevision volume 1:
1) Michael Beasley: You're probably tired of hearing me rant and rave on my soap box about how Michael Beasley was the best player in this year's draft. Well, I'm not going to stop. Weeksy and I expanded on this for quite a while, and agreed that the Derrick Rose seemed to be a product of media hype more than anything else.
Here were the main points of our discussion:
A) The notion that the Bulls should take Rose because "this is a point guard league" is based on very flawed logic. Every expert who said that followed it with "take a look at what guys like Chris Paul and Deron Williams are doing in this league." Well, Chris Paul and Deron Williams are two of the best players in the NBA. Sure, if Rose turns out to be as good as them then it will all work out. But, even then, why is this a point guard league? I feel like one person said it, and then it just caught on until everybody was saying it. One of the biggest knocks on the Celtics heading into the season was that point guard was a weak spot for them. They won the NBA championship. The team they were playing against had a point guard that is old as can be.
Look at what Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady, and Dwayne Wade have done. Why isn't this a 2 guard league? The point is that you need to have a well rounded team in order to be successful. The Bulls have a very full back court, and have Kirk Hinrich locked up for quite a long time. It seems to us like Beasley would have made sense.
B) Everyone has knocked Beasley's defense, but again the media have allowed the legend of his defensive shortcomings to spiral a little bit out of control. We both watched him play quite a few times last year, and he never stood out to either of us as a guy that can't defend. In fact, we both think that he seems like he will do just fine playing team defense in the NBA. The best example of a college player who I knew would struggle playing defense in the NBA was Charlie Villanueva. He was very lazy about rotating, and seemed to always be on a different page than his teammates.
Now, Villanueva was a UCONN guy so I watched him play a lot more than I watched Beasley. But, I have seen nothing to indicate to me that Beasley will be a liability on the defensive end. He might not be an all-NBA defender, but he certainly has the ability to play team defense. And, when you add his offensive abilities to that, you end up way ahead of where you started.
C) Jim has the summer off, and has been able to take in more summer basketball than I have. He assures me that seeing what Beasley has done so far in the summer league only makes it more clear that he is going to be an impact player right away.
D) Do we even need to talk about the character thing more? Practical jokes in the locker room....every team has somebody who does them to some degree. As long as fire arms and lubricant are not involved, I don't think it's a problem. Of course, there is the switching schools thing. But, I just want to point one thing out. If any of us had changed high schools, potential employers might have legitimate reasons to wonder why. But, when you are an athlete like Beasley, coaches from other high schools probably call you ALL THE TIME to try and recruit you. And, unlike many of us, he actually had legitimate reasons to consider changing high schools. He was probably always on the lookout for the best place to get exposure.
At this point, we went off about how most guys that get passed for character issues despite freakish ability end up fine. We talk about how Warren Sapp went twelfth and Randy Moss went 21st.
We then keep talking about how absurd it is that Randy Moss went 21st.
"Didn't they watch him play? What the fuck is wrong with them? He wasn't human in college!"
"But, remember, he's so good that it doesn't LOOK like he's running fast."
"Yeah, but don't they have combine numbers? Isn't it there job to know if he's so good that he doesn't look like he's running fast?"
"Dallas passed on him. When has Dallas ever been worried about character issues?"........On and on we went.
As a side note, isn't it strange that Warren Sapp went 12th, Randy Moss went 21st, and yet Lawrence Phillips went 6th. Of the three, I really think Phillips had the most legitimate character questions. And, I think we can all agree that he didn't exactly "pan out".
Anyways, by the end we were sure that Chicago had made a mistake. Weeksy finished it of by saying "by the time the season is about half-way over, I think everyone is going to be wondering how they talked themselves into Derrick Rose."
2) Remember when the Bulls Refused to Part with Luol Deng?
So, somewhere in here I mention that Villanueva left college too early, and we get into guys who either left college early or should have gone to college. I assert that Gerald Green should have gone to college. He is extremely talented, but far too undeveloped. Unlike Beasley, who can find ways to score while being double teamed, Green doesn't know how to score when someone has him squared up. He may have developed this in college. The transition from dunking over high schoolers to the NBA was not a smooth one for him.
Anyways, Jim says that he thinks Deng could have used another year. He then says "remember how the Bulls wouldn't trade him last off-season no matter what?" For some reason I thought that this was the funniest thing. The Bulls faded into obscurity so fast last season, that their whole storyline was completely forgotten. But, remember how firm they were on not giving up Deng. Paul Pierce was out there in the spring. Kobe was out there until the fall. There were real chances for them to make a move there. But, they literally would not part with Luol Deng under any circumstances. It seems funny now, partially because I had forgotten all about it. Probably a good move for them. Kobe wasn't very good this year.
3) WEEI sucks.
This conversation was very refreshing for me to have. And, I have made a lot of changes in my life since it happened. I now realize that I was driving around in a prison that I created for myself. There are no laws that say I have to listen to sports radio when I drive, especially if it sucks.
We agreed on the following points:
- Dennis and Callahan barely even talk sports. I don't like listening to them. Some assert that it's because they are conservative and I am liberal but it's not (although they are very dismissive of opposing points of view). It's not. I have no problem with people that have different views than me. I do, however, have problems with people that advertise a sports show and deliver me something totally different.
- We like Dale and Holley. In fact, they are the only legitimately good daytime show on WEEI. And, for this, they are mocked incessantly by Dennis and Callahan and also by the Big Show guys.
- The Big Show is absurd. Weeksy believes that the Big O could be good at his job if he cared more about it. I'm not necessarily sure if I agree, but I do agree that he is a million times easier to listen to than Steve DeOssie, Fred Smerlas, or Butch Stearns. I can't handle Tony Masserotti either. We both remembered the spring of 2007, the day after Paul Pierce had made statements that he didn't want to be part of the rebuilding process, when it was very clear that nobody besides Ordway had any idea about the state of the Celtics. Now, granted the people they had on were baseball and football people (I believe Smerlas was on because it was draft weekend) but IT IS THEIR JOB TO BE ABLE TO TALK ABOUT THIS STUFF!
And the Whiner line, the goddamn whiner line. It sucks. It's not funny. It's the same people saying the same shit every day. Jim thinks it could work as a weekly thing, maybe every Friday. I'm willing to concede this. Some of those jokes might be less not funny if I only heard them once a week.
- Mikey Adams is entertaining. That's about all I'll say.
Here, I mention that the Big Show guys mock Mike and the Mad Dog all of the time. It pisses me off because I know that WFAN is a much better station than WEEI. On top of that, Mike and the Mad Dog do a MUCH better job of talking sports in a knowledgeable way that reflects actual preparation. And, they talk about sports from all over the country. Weeksy agrees that Mike and the Mad Dog is far superior to the Big Show. I knew it already, but it feels good to hear someone who is a fan of all Boston teams say it.
Then, we wonder how in the world this could be the nation's top rated sports radio network. Sure, there are tons of Boston fans and they love their sports, but don't we have standards?
This is when I start to realize that music is a better option for me than Dennis and Callahan or the Big Show. I've been much happier since.
I was just listening to SI's Ian Thomsen on the radio with Michael Holley. He really helped to clarify things for me. Yes, Cassell has been bad. Yes, he'd like to see Eddie House some more. Yes, the rotations have been somewhat troubling. But, this series boils down to one thing: The Big Three has only been the Big One so far. Thomsen put it very clearly "in order to win in the playoffs, youre best players need to play great." Pierce and Allen need to step up. As much as we'd all like to point fingers at Doc and at Sam, we have to face the facts. Our big time players are not stepping up. If the Big Three play the way they can, none of this other stuff is going to matter. I'm fired up.
Great move by the Sox to have Buckner back to throw out the first pitch. This guy was a great player, and he was much deserving of that ovation. Let's remember, this team is still yet to lose on American soil, and frankly I'm not worried in the least. The energy feels great right now, and I think these guys are about to go on a tear.
I'd like to pass on and agree with this thought from Gary in Deerfield (sent in on Monday): "Listening to Dennis and Callahan this morning the day after Charlton Heston died is worse than the day Reagan died. At least Reagan was the President."
--I agree Gary, I had them on for 15 minutes that morning, and ten of those minutes were spent on the movie Ben-Hur. From what I heard, that sounds like a movie I might skip.
Great to know there's still footage like this out there:
And, while we have videos involving Jesse Michaels, Common Rider was also sick, Last Wave Rockers is a solid album...
