Dammit All

I can't believe it happened to us again! It's like ten years ago all over again. They trick us into sitting through an atrocious season with the promise of riches at the end of the rainbow, but in the end there is no pot of gold. All my dreams of Greg Oden gone in a flash. Well not really a flash, they managed to prolong my pain for a whole half hour, milking a quick two minutes of lottery results into an entire program which ended in pain. I've been pining for Oden for more than a year now, but in the last month had worked to the point where I was willing to settle for Kevin Durant. Now all we are getting is the scraps. Not only do we not get one of the big two but we don;t even get our first choice of the leftovers. I can't even really accept it yet, it's not quite the level of pain that I felt when the Pats lost to the Colts but I do have the same feeling that I can;t believe the dream is over. It seemed like our destiny, but in the end it was not to be. So what now?

I think you could make a strong case for the Celtics being the worst franchise in the NBA in the last fourteen years, (more specifically, the time since Reggie Lewis' death.) The fact that there is even such a thing a Celtics fan base is simply a testament to how great there were before the '90s. There have been four times where it was actually possible to be a Celtics fan after the Lewis tragedy. The best time being their run in 2003 when they made it to the Eastern conference finals and they were only minutes away from going up 3-1 over the Nets before the refs took over the game with some dubious offensive foul calls. The second best time for Celtics fans was Antoine Walker's brief comeback in 2005 when he helped Paul Peirce to the Atlantic division crown. Aside from those two "high points" the best times for Celtics fans have been the runs they made at the number one pick in '97 and now in '07. It's a sad state of affairs when the Duncan and Oden sweepstakes pass for two of the more exciting times in recent history. So as a loyal Celtics fan, I beg them, do it right this time. No more trading for veterans who can lead them to the upper end of mediocrity. Be patient with your young players, let them develop before you trade them for quarters on the dollar. Don;t trade this draft pick for a mid-level veteran, look at the big picture and make becoming a contender your actual goal. If there's anything worse than watching your team become a laughing stock, it's being a laughing stock when the league has players like Chauncey Billups, Joe Johnson and Brandon Roy who should be Celtics but the management lost in short-sighted deals.

After wiping away my many tears, I've decided that the Celtics need to to draft Yi Jianlian. I saw some video of him working out and he looks like a tremendously athletic 7-footer. When I was watching the video my exact thoughts were, "It's two bad we don;t have a second lottery pick this year so we could take Yi along with Oden." Well now he is my prime target. Of course, given the way things have gone the last few years, he'll be drafted in the third or fourth slots. I was also thinking how great it would be to have a pick in the twenties, they could take a flyer on my favorite project, Sean Williams, but sadly the Celtics traded their second pick in the disastrous draft night last June. Anyway, for now I'm gonna stand by my C's, but if they trade this pick for a crappy veteran, I'm really close to giving up on them as it is. The organization has been very shaky for a long time. I don;t trust Danny Ainge to do anything besides drafting. I don;t trust Doc Rivers to do anything aside from losing to get more ping pong balls, and I don;t trust the owners to understand anything about the game of basketball. One last thing I had to mention, everyone has been saying the Celtics tanked this year, and they tanked back in 97. No team tanked more obviously that year than the San Antonio Spurs. David Robinson sat out the last quarter of that season despite being healthy, yet somehow, no one ever calls them out, they tanked their way to a dynasty, but somehow the Celtics are the bad guys.

On the subject of Tim Duncan, is it possible that he is actually underrated? Very few people refer to him as the best player in the NBA. You hear a lot of Kobe or Dirk and you used to hear about KG, but Duncan is my choice, and I don;t even think it's that close. He carries his team to the upper echelon every year. In my mind Parker and Ginobili would just be average players on a different team, but because they play with Duncan and in that Spurs system, they're mistakenly thought of as all-stars. He just wills this Spurs team to greatness, and I can;t imagine them not winning the title this year.

One final sports note to cheer me up, and any other Boston fan. The Sox won tonight to go back up by 10.5 over the Yanks, which is of course very sweet, but the sweetest thing is tomorrow night Schilling will probably plunk the lip-gloss wearing A-Roid for his shoulder block into Dustin Pedroia tonight in the 8th inning. As if I needed any added reason to watch a Sox-Yanks game, tomorrows could be a little more fun than usual. Don;t forget to duck Alex.

That's all I've got for now, I'll be back soon with some entertainment thoughts, 'til then...

-Bender Out