February 28, 2023 • 49 mins
Coming out of the All-Star break, co-hosts Marc D’Amico, Sean Grande and Abby Chin sit down together to look back at the first half of the Celtics’ season. The group starts by discussing Joe Mazzulla’s impressive handling of the team through his challenging circumstances, and getting the team to turn the page. From there they switch gears to dive into the depth of the team, including Derrick White’s impact. Throughout the episode, the trio bounces around talking about the importance of the one seed for a long playoff run, their favorite moments thus far, the All-Star game, and Jayson Tatum’s chances of winning MVP.
2:48 - Obstacles To Begin The Season
7:30 - Joe Mazzulla’s Impressive Transition
16:44 - Derrick White’s Impact
22:52 - Learning’s From Last Year’s Playoff Run
25:10 - Importance Of The Number One Seed
27:10 - Favorite Moments Of The Season
37:03 - Jayson Tatum And Jaylen Brown In The All-Star Game
42:11 - Jayson Tatum’s MVP Chances
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome everyone. This is View from the Raptors today. We're
bringing in a man who hails from basketball country life
is funny. Okay, go don't go there. Not yet. Well,
we talked about it now. The Bust One boys is
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it's like where you came from. Yeah, we're all older
than we think. We are always Gold League Gray baby.
(00:23):
All right, another week, another episode of You from the Raptors.
Behind the scenes with the Boston Celtics. This episode is
gonna be a little bit different. We're not necessarily diving
into the typical storylines that we have in past episodes,
but we are diving deep into something, and that is
the first half of the NBA season. We're gonna do
a season rewind. It's myself, Sean Granny, and Abbey Chin
(00:44):
and we're gonna be sitting right here in the Celtics
front office in downtown Boston reliving all of the top
moments from the first half of the season, a little
bit of all Star talk and a little bit of
talk about what's to happen the rest of the season
as the Celtics pursue yet another NBA championship. So we've
got that coming your way. We also want to remind
you to rate, subscribe, and review. That's very important to us,
(01:07):
so please do that, and without further ado, we'll let
you jump in right into the conversation. It's myself, Sean
and Abby rewinding through the first half of the Celtics season.
All right, we are here at Celtics headquarters at one
hundred Causeways Streets. Sean, Grandy, Abby Chin back for another
episode of You from the Rafters behind the scenes with
the Boston Celtics and guys. We're recording this during All Stars,
(01:28):
so we want everyone out there to know we do
have a few games to be played before this airs,
but there is a lot to talk about from the
season and a lot of good things that we need
to talk about for this season. Sean, what has stood
out to you the most about the first What do
we got fifty nine games that have been played at
(01:48):
this point, forty two and seventeen tops in the league.
Can I say, for all the awesome guests that we
have that it's finally nice to just kick back and
be us here and we don't have to worry about
being overly polite to somebody and welcoming somebody in that
we can just finally stretch our legs out and talk
about this season, and hey, three seasons in and we
(02:09):
get to use all of the time to ourselves, which
I know is in term of the right now, which
is not ideal, but I think when we and the
All Star break is useful for the thirty thousand foot
view right because we never get it day to day.
You're just out of the next game and out of
the next flight and out of the next city. The
amazing thing to me is that if you had said
(02:31):
in the middle of August that the Celtics would have
the best record in the league by a half game
at Jason Tatum would be having this amazing year, that
the Celtics would be there were the title favorites in
the middle of August, and they are where they are.
None of this would be a surprise. But then you
factor in the three back to back body shots that
(02:52):
the Celtics took, Gallinari gone, Rob Williams lost for the
third of the year, and then the unthinkable, essentially on
the eve of training camp, a coaching change that nobody
could possibly have imagined happens, and yet the Celtics have
performed as if none of those three things have happened,
and that may be the most amazing thing sixty games in.
And it's not even just that stuff, Abby. I mean,
(03:14):
we've gone and everyone loved the stat when I centered out,
But when the Celtics come back from All Star and
you know, God forbid, at this point, they're going to
be fully healthy, They're going to have all their guys.
But heading into All Star, they've only had one game
this season where all five of their starters started the
opening tip, which is insane. That they lead the league,
yet they've had to navigate all of these injuries. Derek
(03:36):
White to start a fifty one to fifty nine games
and he's supposed to be a reserve. It's incredible. And
that even accounts for the amount of minutes that Jason
Tatum is playing. He has been phenomenal this season. We
all know an MVP caliber season. But I think what
stands out to me and Sean you kind of prefaced
it is that these guys have come back on a
(03:57):
mission that Emay News could have shaken this group to
its core, but they instead came together and it's something
that Brad Stevens pointed out in his press conference talking
about making Joe Missoula the head coach, taking away the
interim tag is that he has been able to bring
this group together. They have their eye on one goal
(04:18):
and everyone is working towards that, willing to sacrifice do
whatever it takes to get to that one goal. And
the message has remained the same from the beginning of
training camp when there was that dark cloud over everything
that was happening too now in the All Star Game
and then coming back from the break, and so to me,
that's what has stood out is that these guys have
(04:38):
been unwavering in that mission to get back to the
NBA Finals and overcome great teams, elite teams imposed their will.
That's the history of the league. And this is a
team that was what twenty eight and seven to finish
last year with a plus fifteen scoring differential. And I've
been saying absolutely absurd, dominant run and obviously going to
the finals, and yet in O eight the team wins
(05:01):
the championship. And everybody told them all summer there's gonna
be a letdown, You're gonna fall back, you can't have
the dominant season you have and what happened. They started
twenty seven and two with a nineteen game win streak.
They imposed their will, and there was an element of that.
This team wasn't as dominant. This team hasn't been as
dominant as last year's team was in the second half
of the year, but there was an element of running
(05:22):
off to the start they did, sort of running away
from the league in the historic offensive start. That reminded
me of that, and that just when everybody said, everybody,
the experts, quote unquote, the NBA world history, everything we know,
says there's going to be a fallback, and instead it
went in the other direction. It reminded me of the
title defense season and the first thirty games of eight
(05:42):
o nine. That surprised you though, sure of course it did,
because nobody knew what to expect. Listen, you guys are there, Listen, Abby,
you were in the building the first preseason game. That
was a strange, odd day. It was heavy in the building.
It felt weird. Media Day it was weird, of course,
Media Day was it fare right, it was, I mean,
(06:04):
it was going to have the building where we're sitting.
It was weird. But what made that especially is that
there were nineteen thousand people. Because in Boston preseason games
sell out too. There were nineteen thousand people all participating
in the weirdness of this strange vibe of what's happening here.
And Max and I came on and we did our
our ten minute little thing on what had happened, and
(06:25):
we wanted to put it in a place because we
didn't want to just you can't just start the broadcast.
Here's the first game of the year, and up coach
Joe Massoula calls time out. I'm sorry, what who so
you had to and wait time out? That didn't happen.
The Celtics, by the way, had like the best offensive
rating out of timeouts. People don't acknowledge that. Right. Well,
now he has to call more now because he had
(06:46):
the best offensive rating out of timeouts. I think that
I'll always remember that day when you when you go
to your office where you've been well, I guess they
told us about two thousand times at Max and I
haven't done it. When you go to your office two
thousand times and then the one thousand, nine hundred and
eighty first time you go, it feels completely different than
(07:06):
the one nine hundred and eighty that came before. You're
going to remember that day, and here we are. Everyone
just played through it. Everyone just did their jobs, and
pretty soon it was back to work and everybody was
focused on what it is they had to do. And
two months later you look up and you're twenty one
and five with the best offense in the history of ever. Yeah,
(07:27):
and that's what's been so remarkable about it to me.
And this is we're on the outside, We're not inside
that locker room. And I think that that was something
really important for Joe to do from the beginning, was
to allow those guys to feel the pain of I mean,
basically losing someone who they were very close to an
emay and not that he is gone gone, but he
(07:47):
is not an everyday fixture in their life. But it
does feel like nothing has changed. I mean, not that
much is different. The Celtics went and practiced and followed
the practice planned that they were going to practice from
day one anyway, And I know the players have felt
a little bit more emotional and have been vocal about that.
But for us on the outside, what I'm trying to
(08:08):
say is it just feels like the ship keeps rolling.
There's nothing it doesn't feel that different after that first
preseason game, once everything was addressed, it was handled after
the press conferences were done, but moved on and it's
been all about basketball ever since. The three things I
mentioned he made, the Gallanri injury, the Rob Williams injury.
None of those three things erased the sound that Jason
(08:31):
Tatum and Jaylen Brown and everybody heard across the hall
in the locker room after Game six of the Finals
when another team, only the second team ever to do it,
the Lakers in eighty five and Golden State last year,
the only team's ever to win the championship in Boston,
and that sound of them celebrating across the hall was
(08:54):
a louder noise and something that reverberated more in the
heads of the guys in the room heard it than
the three things I talked about that people thought would
alter their season. That is what is driving their season,
not those three things. And on top of that, you
hear the sounds, but you also see the visuals because
I know you two both remember where the press room
(09:15):
is right that the Celtics have to talk in after
every single game, including Game six of the NBA Finals,
in that back hallway. All of the Warriors players with
their goggles on, with their champagne and hands are passing
through right by the Celtics media area to go to
their after party, which was in Big Night Live, which
is attached to TD Gardens. So the Celtics players in
(09:37):
the moments after losing the finals had to watch these
guys walk back. I know I felt it when these
guys are wearing their goggles. I remember Jordan Pool walking
by and I'm like, oh my god, why can't we
be wearing these goggles? But I know they had. Don't
forget this too. Jannis and the Bucks all heard the
Celtics celebrating in that same hallway after Game seven two,
and I'm sure they're going to take that with them
(09:58):
from the meeting. We know, I mean, we know it's
it's destined to happen. Yeah, I will say, Miami, the
locker rooms very separate, I don't think. Right we go
to hum so you mentioned and you mentioned the kind
of turnaround there from the Friday where we all find
(10:20):
out the head coach has suspended. Joe Missoula is coming
in as the interim coach. And this is the friday
before training camp in the moment. I remember going out
to the HOURBIC Center, sitting down. I actually got a
few moments to talk with Joe that day before his
press conference, And in my mind, I mean, here's a
team that's pursuing a championship, coming off of Game six
(10:40):
of the Finals. The expectations are so high, and in
my mind, I'm just wondering, is this going to derail everything?
Because you only had forty eight hours I guess seventy
two hours before training camp started. I just didn't know
how a team would be able to recover from that.
But in hindsight, when I look back, part of me
(11:01):
thinks that actually might have been a good thing, that
it was a short amount of time that they had
to turn around, because it forced everyone to mentally dial
in and like not allow it to derail them. I
don't know, if you guys roll the pool yeah and
swim yeah, to compartmentalize too. I think NBA players have
a unique ability to be able to compartmentalize what is
important in that moment, and to live in that moment,
(11:23):
and to be able to perform on the stage in
that moment. And so I think that you're right, that's
a good point that they didn't have time to dwell
on it. They didn't have time to think about what
is going to be different, what is going to change,
what's the life going to be like now? And to
the lament, the moment right like the loss of email.
Like all these guys were close. They didn't have time
to be sad or upset or mad or any of that.
They had to turn the page a job to do.
(11:45):
But like you said, those first conversations with Joe as
the head coach to me and I had covered Joe
in the summer league that he coached two seasons prior,
and so we were like I knew him, We were closely,
not that close though, and I didn't know what to
expect on that first media day, but he was there
when from my first conversation with him, he was so confident,
(12:08):
So he didn't He doesn't feel pressure. It doesn't feel
like he feels pressure in the way that I feel pressure.
That it makes me nervous and I get edgy and
I get very anty. Are you nervous right now? No? No?
Are you sure? I don't think so. Although this is
the first time I've done this, so yeah, getting used
to it. Um don't like that knock over. Don't knock
(12:28):
that mic over either. He was nervous. Yeah, I'm stumbling
over my words. He was so confident and in control
and knew exactly what he wanted to say and who
he wanted to be, And that gave me so much
confidence in him. After my first conversation with him at
media day, I said, Oh, it's gonna be fine. The
remarkable thing about it was how quickly he did it
(12:50):
with This is what I would say to people from
the outside when they would say, one on Earth is
going on? Who's Joe Missoula? Is that Maybe Joe Missoula
was destined to be the next Eric Spolsure. Maybe he
was destined in a couple of years to get First
of all, he was a finalist. Will got the job
in Utah with Danny, but Joe was right there. Joe
was right there in the conversation to get that job.
(13:10):
So maybe Joe was going to be a coach somewhere
else and he was gonna be the next big thing.
But because it happened this way, all of a sudden,
this is gonna be Who's Joe Massoula? And all of
a sudden He's promoted to this job. Maybe in a
year or two. He was going to be an NBA
head coach somewhere anyway. But the remarkable thing is that
knowing Joe and listen, we've all known Brad for years,
and Joe and Brad have I don't. I don't like
(13:32):
to use the word mindset because Joe's used it enough
for everybody. It's like you're Joe massoula Bingo card, right,
is like mindset and spacing and all the you know
all the above to get your full Joe Bingo card.
He these guys are all based A lot of us
are on preparation and how we go about and how
could he possibly have been prepared? When you're an NBA
(13:52):
head coach, you're thinking about your team on May sixteenth,
You're thinking about your team on July eighth, You're thinking
about your team on August first, and how you're going
to come. And this is the most remarkable thing about
it was that offseason of preparation. It goes into being
a head coach, or the managing a baseball team or
being an NFL head coach is a year round, twenty
four seven job, and to have to coach your first
(14:14):
game essentially hours after becoming the head coach, and then
just going from there. That is, to me, the most
remarkable and overlooked part of it was that he did
not have the ramp up that this didn't happen in June,
that had happened a couple of days before camp. It's
a great point because I think the first preseason game
was like two days after camp. I mean, it was
(14:34):
right away so abby. We rewind to that Friday, and
the thing that stood out to me is I didn't
know what was going to happen with with Joe. I
didn't know how he was going to react to this situation.
Then you get to Monday, it's media day. At that point,
there's still so many questions that I'm wondering in my head.
I know everyone else's. But then that first day of
training camp, when he stood in front of all of
(14:55):
the media and I know you were there, that's when
I knew this guy has got what it takes, because
he just didn't seem flustered now at all. I mean,
that's the first day running an NBA team, and obviously
he had the history of coach in the summer league team,
but it's a different animal when you're actually running the
real team, and he just there were no nerves. He
answered every question perfectly. And to go through that media
(15:18):
day days after this whole situation unraveled, and then to
come to day one of training camp and not say
a single word that he shouldn't have said. That's when
I knew. I'm like, Okay, this guy's ready for this
because I can't comprehend how he did that. He may
regret talking about that he's still driving his minivan, which
he is still driving, but that will be used against him.
(15:38):
I think for a while, the Royal family, it is.
He wasn't a unique position though as well. Let's not
get in trouble here, okay about because he had those
pre existing relationships, I'm not sure. I think everyone kind
of everyone on the outside said who is Joe Missoula,
But the players knew who Joe Massoula is. My favorite
story from last season was Derek White when he arrived
(16:00):
in that trade and his mind was just all over
the place because he'd never been traded before in his life,
and then after coming from San Antonio, where he'd known
one thing the whole time of his NBA career, they
sent him to Joe Missoula to learn the offense and
to get a handle on things. And so these pre
existing relationships I think enabled Joe to be the coach
(16:21):
that he is and to garner their respect in the
locker room that he's been able to and and like
we have been talking about getting everyone on the same
page and going towards the same mission of being an
NBA player, is the work you put in that nobody sees.
Joe Massoula had lived with these guys for that ninety
(16:42):
nine percent you mentioned Derek White. Can we segue right
into that, because Derek White has been the savior in
my opinion of this team the season. I mean, obviously,
Jason playing at an an MVP level, He's going to be
the first player in Celtics history to ever average thirty
or more points in a season, and it's gonna happen.
(17:02):
It's gonna happen, no doubt in my mind. But Derek
White is the guy. Without Derek White, there's no chance
that the Celtics are where they are, no chance. Fifty
one starts out of the first fifty nine games, and
he has been awesome, shooting basically thirty nine percent from
three doing everything the Celtics need on a nightly basis
in a multitude of ways, depending on who's missing, right, Like,
(17:25):
that's who has stood out to me in terms of
being able to keep this team on track. Shoon plays
every game in the load management era. He's played every
game since he was here, you know, every regular season
game since he's been traded here he has played. And
I think in the load management era, the teams that
are going to have success are the teams that have depth,
that are gonna plug in different guys that you know
(17:46):
you You started by saying, isn't this amazing that the
Celtics have done this with the starting five only playing
one game together. It's not that unusual anymore. That's the
way it is in the NBA. But the Celtics have
the best record in the league because they are they
have the depth, and they are equipped to deal with that.
The best teams now aren't going to be the teams
that have the two best players in the regular season
that there are going to be the teams that are
(18:07):
go six, seven, eight deep, that can manage their way
through the inevitable injuries, through the inevitable load management. And
I want to disrespect Kyrie by using that term. They
you have to manage what the NBA is now, and
the Celtics have built a team that, particularly in the backcourt,
that has the ability to do that. I think that's
what Derek White epitomizes is just how deep this team is.
(18:28):
And you ask them, they know, they believe they are
the deepest team in the NBA. And it has shown
over that last week going into the All Star break,
missing Marcus Smart, Jalen Brown, Rob and al In and
out of the lineup, I mean without four or five starters,
and the Celtics continue to win, continue to get it done.
It's juda guys like Derek White, we haven't mentioned. We will,
(18:49):
I'm sure Malcolm Brogden. But also I mean we got
to give credit to Brad Stevens for the additions and
just I won't do that. By the way, picking can't
you don't like you. It's not just it just pains
me too much. It's a it's after nine years, it's
physically I just can't. It was just too much. Why
he left, that's right, Yeah, we couldn't take it anymore.
(19:09):
That's why as the day, the day it all happened,
the day he was no longer the head coach whatever.
I just texted him, I said, listen, if you want
to get out of the pregame thing, there were other
ways to do it, just let me know. Yes. But
I mean, that was a brilliant move on his part.
And the fact that Derek is such a connector and
a guy who can, like you said, give you exactly
(19:30):
what you need. If he is playing eight minutes, he
goes out and he is give the term balls of
the wall. I mean he can say that. I can
say that, Um, he plays hard and gives you exactly
what you need, whether that's on the defensive end or
the offensive end. And he that's so rare. And I've
talked about this with scal a lot. The versatility that
(19:51):
Derek White has, and it's not just a versatility on
the court playing guarding one through five. It's also the
versatility of roles that he can come in off the bench,
he can be a starter, and he can give you
exactly what you need. Do you win, Mark, You need
guys who are have reached a point in the NBA
where they now winning is more important than their own
individual role. And that was everyone wants to put it
(20:14):
on Kyrie. But the fundamental flaw of the twenty nineteen
team that was what it was, was there were too
many young players that had not established their place in
the NBA, which the league it almost forces you to
do it by definition. Can you play in this league?
Who are you in this league? What is your role?
Derek White has already done that. We didn't see it
because it happened in San Antonio. But Derek White got
(20:36):
his contract, he established who he was in the NBA.
Now he's here to win. Malcolm Brogden has established who
he is in the NBA. Now he wants to win.
Blake Griffin is long since established who he is in
the NBA. Now he's here and he wants to win.
That is how you do it in the league. You can't.
This is why teams that are primarily built on young
players on that first NBA contract don't have deep playoff success.
(20:57):
That's a big, big part of it, and it's what
this team had as in it. Again, you cannot say
Derek White without thinking of that characteristic What is this
team going to be? When Malcolm Brogden and Derek White
are coming off the bench. It just blows my mind
that the Celtics aren't going to have these two guys
who I think the game before the All Star Break
they combine for like fifty one points or something like that.
(21:19):
What do you think this team can be with those
two guys coming off the bench. It's insanity, what a luxury.
But also if those two guys are coming off the bench,
that means that you're starting five is healthy. What's going
to happen between now and then? And that's the point
of what we're saying is having these different pieces that
you can plug in, everybody does the same thing. You're
(21:41):
doing it now, we all do the same thing. Wow,
imagine when everybody gets here, it's going to be great.
That's not how life. What life is. What happens right
when you're busy making other plans. So there's you know,
something will happen to Boston or Milwaukee or Philadelphia. As
we're sitting here talking now, something is going to happen
that we can't will have imagined that we'll alter the
(22:02):
course of one of those teams futures this year. The
point is that instead of thinking about man, imagine what
it'd be like if they were all together? Is knowing
that you haven't had them all together, and you still
can win anyway. I have to imagine what it's going
to be like with them all together. Though, right we're
three quarters of the way through the season. I have
to think, cross my fingers everything, knock on wood, kick
(22:22):
the wood. I'm hoping that we've gotten all of that
stuff out of the way by this point. Right, There's
only I wouldn't go that far, but I would say
that that is the whole point of all of this,
the load management, though being overly cautious with Rob Williams
when he feels even a tinge in his ankle. I mean,
he's been the bubble wrap all year. Yes, and keep
him there, Keep him there, and let's say Jayson Tatum
(22:44):
for some more minutes too while we're at it. I
don't know, let's play him flood Marcus Smart take as
long as he wants with that ankle. Just get to
the playoffs. And I think that that's something that I
had never experienced. A run to the Vinyls. It is long.
It's two and a half more months of basket, and
it's not just basketball. It's the most intense basketball that
you've ever played in your life. And you have to
(23:05):
do it and bring it and bring that focus every
single night, and so whatever it takes to get there
in any modicum of health. I am all four that
that's a great point Abby made, because when people think
of the New Big Three era, they think of it
as a six years right, twenty seven to twenty thirteen,
(23:25):
But really it was seven years because they that team
played almost a full season of playoff games with the
two runs to the finals and the conference finals in
twenty twelve. And as Abby just said, those aren't miles
on your car. Those are uphill all terrain vehicle miles
that beat you up. So those add a lot of
(23:46):
you know, that adds a lot to it. It's not
thirty playoff games, are not thirty regular season games. It's
it's essentially another full season. And that's why remember when
Al did what he did last year, which was amazing
at his age to play all those minutes and go
to the finals. Remember he had basically had the year off.
You know, Oksey said, Lesten go home. They like locked
him out of the practice so he could just take
(24:08):
the year off. So he was fresh going into it,
and you're almost the Celtics are trying to do here
is short of replicate that with al where a couple
of games who've seen playoff al this year, I'll see
it against like Milwaukee. But for the most part, the
only time you want to see playoff al is when
it's time for playoff al. Which makes the fact that
this team, again, as we record, this is a top
(24:30):
the NBA even more important. That they've been able to
sustain the level of play you mentioned this earlier. They've
sustained winning while getting all of these guys rest throughout
the season, so that hopefully in the long run, there
will be more gas in the tank this time around
than there was last year after they were fighting. I mean,
we talk about the playoffs as an uphill battle. How
(24:52):
about coming back from that start that they had was
a seventeen and twenty eighteen and twenty one whatever it
was that they had the whole second half of the
season and they had to fight up hill just to
get back to where they wanted to be. And the
other thing, I don't know, ab if you with me
on this, because I've started I started talking about him
in the last telecast before they all start break that
one of the things about listen home Court advantage is great,
(25:12):
and you're gonna want it. But there's a second factor
here with the number one seed in the East, which
is with the trades that Brooklyn made, if you sort
of dropped Brooklyn out of the top four, it's starting
to look like a three headed monster atop the East.
So therefore that number one seed Boston, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, one
of those teams is going to avoid the other two
(25:33):
in the second round. And that's where yeah, because sometimes
in a best case scenario, you think you're gonna have
your starting five all year, you think you're gonna have
your microphone for the entire podcast, but you don't. You
have to work and you have to work around Aby.
How many times is that Mike fallen onto your lap today?
That's the third that's my fault. Anologize for that we
(25:55):
were missing one of our mic holders. But no, I
mean it's a great point on and I think that
the Celtics are I mean, obviously they're top of the
league right now, but they're well positioned to snag that
top seed, especially if they're able to stay healthy during
these final twenty three games. I keep saying it, and
whatever happens with you know, with these playoff matchups happens.
(26:18):
I couldn't help but think when the Celtics made the
choice and it was the obvious choice to make at
the time to sort of punt the game away in
Milwaukee and to not play guys in the game before
the All Star break, that was the obvious choice to you. Well,
that's maybe being kind. It wasn't the obvious choice to me.
When that choice was by the staff decided that was
the obvious choice. I could not help but think from
(26:41):
a poetry standpoint, from a basketball god standpoint, that the
Bucks chose to punt the game away on the final
game of the season last year, and it cost them
home court advantage in Game seven was in Boston instead
of in Milwaukee, which it you know, easily could have been.
I will say bad for the Celtics. Well, that's we
don't know, but that was again rolland Ice. That's why
(27:03):
you and I are sitting here doing podcasts and people
to make decisions, make decisions. We'll see how it all
plays out. Um, you mentioned that game when when we
were preparing for this and we were all thinking about
our favorite moments of the game. You prepared the season slightly,
not much interest. But when I'm thinking back throughout the
whole season, tons of highs, only a few lows, But
(27:26):
it stuck out in my head that that game was
actually my favorite moment of the season. A loss in Milwaukee,
I did think part of another one because I felt like, yeah,
I don't think good. I mean, if you're throwing Christmas Day,
look at the two games against Milwaukee for contrasting reason. Yeah,
but you look at that game and it just felt
(27:46):
I don't know if if in my fourteen seasons here,
fifteen seasons, that I've felt that positive I mean for
a loss ever, because it just felt like everyone on
this roster was just more proof. Everyone on this roster
is ready at all times. And when you've got that
type of depth and you've got that type of mindset,
(28:07):
I think that just shows. I mean, it's one of
the most important factors that you can take into the
playoffs because you're going to run into all sorts of
challenges in friction and whatever you want to call it.
The fact that they were able to step in and
play at that high level against what many people believe
might be the other top challenger in the East, against
(28:28):
them basically fully healthy without Bobby Porters, but that that
stood out to me, that was my favorite moment of
the season. Like I said, I that the feeling in
the locker room after that game did not feel like
a loss at all. In talking to guys, and the
confidence that that gives guys like Jason Tatum and Jaylen
Brown and Marcus Smart to be able to be comfortable
(28:50):
in taking those assigned times off, I think is really important.
But it also I couldn't I couldn't bring that my
favorite point because it was a lost. There are no
moral victories. This is Boston. It's all about winning a championship.
And it's also we've seen it with the Celtics, and
that there is a letdown when you find out that
a team's best players are not playing true and we've
(29:12):
seen it with the Celtics, and so to me, there
was no question forty piece from Drew Holiday to win
that game. Yeah, but the Bucks rolled out there. I
mean they were not on top of their game, I
would say from the jump. And so when they really
buckled down and took it seriously and understood the challenge
that actually laid before them, they got it done. But
I do think that that was that was such a
(29:34):
fun game. It was cool to see Al back in
Milwaukee where he is just incredible. Man, Yes at all times,
and yeah, that game was just really fun to be
a part of. From the jump, What was your other
top moment? I think it was the win over Philadelphia
without every before that. Yeah, I mean, I personally did
(29:57):
not give the Celtics a chance in that game, knowing
they were going out up against Joel embat and James
Harden without Al Horford and and Rob Williams. There's no
They're starting without their starting front court, and great Williams
went out and then Jalen went out miss the entire
second half. To get that win, I think was and
you know, the Celtics are already in the head of
(30:18):
the seventy six ers, especially Joe LMBA. We didn't say that,
and I said that I did, and Marcus Martin, the
head of James Harden, I also said that. Then. To
get that win dropping the confetti, I'm just staying quiet
over here. To get that win in that fashion, I
think was huge, and especially because Philadelphia came in. They
(30:41):
were the hottest team in the East at that point.
They were rolling, had won nine of their last head, Yeah,
eighteen and twenty, and for the Celtics to basically shut
them up was pretty gratifying. I don't think Doc enjoyed
that moment. First of all, Mark, you weren't if you
that was the the loss you felt best about. You
definitely weren't here in two thousand and seven when we
were feeling about losses every single night, because that was
(31:04):
the idea of looking at Greg Oden and Kevin Durant
feeling good about losses every single night, and there were
allot of them to choose from, you know, seven, I
think back in the first half of the year, it's
really an amalgam of moments where I could see Jason
Tatum looking as if he were Neo in the matrix
(31:24):
and everything was. There were moments when he knew, I'm
the best player on the floor. I can impact this game.
I can do whatever I want, whether you know it'd
be against Charlote. There was a game in Detroit early
in the year, actually both games in Detroit this year
where he just he almost like looked around and said,
I'm the best player on the floor. I can do
whatever it is I want to do, and it is right,
(31:47):
and it is you know when you see that this
was a kid who came in at that you know,
nineteen years old, and you and I'm still nineteen. You
and I just marketed the podcast looking back at the
Philadelphia series. When people get to that the that Jason Tatum,
you forget the rookie year that he the difference that
he makes on and off the floor, the numbers are insane.
(32:07):
Al his rookie year outled the Celtics and plus minus
by a small margin. Every other year it's been Tatum
by a large margin. And the moments that he's had
this year, we talk about how many times if you
used the MVP type of year thing that he's having,
But those come in moments when you look at him
on the floor and say, there are a lot of
moments even you know, doing the telecast and I'm thinking it,
Scal says, what are we watching here? And I'm thinking,
(32:29):
and I'm going to say it next time he does it,
Which is what we're seeing is parts of the highlight
tape we're going to be looking at on Jason Tatum
day at the Garden in fifteen years. That's what we're
looking at. We're looking at these moments when he realizes
that he is one of the best players in the
world and that he's dominating. But individually, it was a
separate Jason Tatum moment that is mine only because in
(32:52):
a year in which, as Abby can attest, it has
been an unprecedented year of us multitasking. Abby has done it,
has done it. Obviously, I've been doing it. We've been
doing him back and forth. You don't, but you sit
here and you oversee all of us. Do you know?
I said, Abby and I are jumping back and forth
TV one night radio the next night, We're going back
and forth. Was a night at a moment I decided
(33:15):
to be a cinematographer at the same time I was
doing play by play and where I was really lucky
we got I wouldn't been able to do this if
I have been doing TV, but we got Mike to
come down to Charlotte and do those games, which allowed
me to be on radio for those games. And my
wife and son were at the Martin Luther King game
when Jason Tatum was going for fifty at the end
of the game, and my wife and son were sitting
(33:36):
eight ten rows in front of me, and so I said,
I can do this because I knew that my son
was losing his mind where in his Jason Tatum Jersey
as this was happening, he knew we got a chance
to see it. So I got my phone out and
I was shooting video of the two of them while
I was calling, you know, Tatum up the floor, left
side going for fifty, because I knew my son was
(33:57):
going to have sort of an epic reaction to it.
Now I've got the moment on video of my sons
seeing it happened, and then you could sort of hear
me in the background trying to try to call it
as it happened. So but it was just such pure
joy from Jack, you know, oh excited, You know what
it's like then, and you know, my son has not
(34:18):
had the life that most kids have living behind the curtain.
And you know, my favorite story with my son was,
I flew back here after Game one last year of
the Finals, picked him up, flew him back out to
San Francisco for Game two the Red Sox. And all
places in all the world, where were the Red Sox
that weekend? They were out there in Oakland. So he
goes to the Red Sox game in Oakland on Sunday afternoon.
(34:38):
Then he goes to Game two of the NBA Finals
in San Francisco. We fly back with the families on
the charter, and so the next morning he I literally
got him to school on time on Monday morning. And
when he gets to school and the other kids said, hey,
did you see the game last night? He go, yep,
I was there, may or may not have here. Look
at my phone. See these photos. No one sent these
(34:59):
to me. But the pure you know what the best
part listen, not going down the road to being a parent,
but these moments of joy that Celtic fans of all
experience this year. To watch them through the eyes of
a kid, and my son's eleven. Now, so there's a
different Now. He really understands when Jason and Jalen are
doing this thing. And when he, you know, felt it
was up. Wasn't up lating enough to see the All
(35:20):
Star game board. I told him the next morning. You
didn't let him stay up. He was not with me
my friend that night. So therefore different rules in different houses. Yeah,
we stay up late to see historic sports moments, you know,
and this half of the family. But to be able
to tell him, oh yeah, by the way your guy
set an All Star Game record and was the MVP
of the All Star Game and you just see the eyes.
(35:40):
This goes back to when I say, this is why
documenting these moments, having the job I have matters. It
really brings it home when you see your son when
you're hand in the box score from the playoff game
the night before with at five years old, when his
favorite player, Isaiah Thomas, and he looks at the box
score and goes across to the column and sees fifty
something point and his eyes, just a little five year
(36:02):
old eyes pop out of his head. That's when you
realize these moments are important and why when the Celtics
have the best record in the NBA, we shouldn't be
thinking about three losses on a road of Golden State
in the finals, or what is ahead of us, or rather,
if you can't enjoy these moments that many other basketball
fans and many other cities will never have. There are
(36:22):
twenty franchises at least maybe more that have never come
close to having a calendar year like the Celtics had
in twenty twenty two. Forget seventeen championships that forget you know, Charlotte, Sacramento,
all these other these teams have never had a year
like that which he won sixty plus games and had
a double digit scoring diffretchil So whatever is ahead. My
(36:42):
point about the first half of the season is enjoy
every single night because when people talk about Bird McHale
and the original Big Three, they remembering getting to watch
every night, and it's the same thing in the Jay's
era or whatever we're gonna end up calling it of Hey,
what time is the Celtics game on tonight? I want
to watch, want to be there at the Garden to
see these guys play. Well, that's what let's talk about
(37:03):
the All Star Game because to me, that's what made
it so much fun. It was clear, even in the
first half with Jalen coming off the bench, that the
Celtics have two of the best players in the NBA.
Jason Tatum on the floor. I know Lebron put on
a show in that first half in those minutes he
was on the floor, but Jason was right there with him.
And then any time I mean Jalen checking in with
(37:25):
that mask for the first time, you could tell there
was some adjustment there. And by the way, with the mask,
I didn't know they were allowed to wear a black mask.
Didn't thought wore that. He did, Okay, so it's they're back.
But just those early moments with Jalen after he got
used to the mask and he was dunking all over
(37:45):
the place, launching threes, and then what we got to
see in the second half was so special. And I
know a lot of people asking for defense in the
All Star Game, and I do not care for anything.
No one get hurt that that's the goal. Score as
many buckets as you want. Let's do lay up lines,
that's what you want, because that is entertaining as hell.
And I loved every minute of that, and it just
showcased the season that Jason and Jalen are having this season,
(38:08):
and they have been incredible. Sean. Two things, You've got
more of a photographic memory than I do, and that's
not saying much, but I don't remember. I can tell
you what the Celtics dating Denver in two thousand and three,
but I don't know where my car keys are, so
I don't know that. That's all. It's important things where
your priorities. So when I was watching Jalen and Jason
(38:30):
go back and forth, We've seen some iconic moments with
players having individual matchups. M Jane Colby comes to mind.
I mean Lebron in Coolby going at each other in
the All Star Game. We've seen it before, We've seen
teammates go at each other before, but that that was
like multiple minutes of a game where they were going
back and forth and it just seemed like everyone else
(38:52):
was standing back and saying, the show. These guys deserve
their moment. Let's watch the show. And boy did they
put on a show that was awesome to see. And
I love the fact that Jalen got his moment too,
because he borderline deserved to be a starter in that game,
didn't quite make it as a starter, but he's having
an absurd season and that's the best part. I mean,
(39:15):
getting to watch that number one that was my first point,
was incredible. But I also love the fact that both
of these guys out of the Jay's have their moments
where everyone watching the TV can say, Okay, that's that guy,
and then Jalen might take over and everyone watching can say, well,
that's that guy. And this happened in the NBA Finals,
now it happened in an NBA All Star game. I
(39:35):
think it just shows just where this team is set
up moving forward, that there's two one a's on this team.
But I also think that this season is different, and
even the runs starting from the second half of last season,
is that they have been able to play together and
are thriving on the floor together. I feel like early
on it was so much your turn, my turn, yea,
and now figured it out. Yeah, we're seeing it. And
(39:57):
twenty seven games where they've each scored twenty five plus
that's never happened before in the NBA before the All
Star break, and that that's what's scary. What is scary
for the rest of the league. Mark not not just
Derek White and Malcolm Bradden coming off the bench, but
the fact that those two have figured it out and
how much they are thriving together on the floor has
(40:19):
been an incredible transformation to the point where even though
things externally are set up to find division and define stories,
Kobe and Shack won championships and that's arguably the greatest
tandem ever, certainly one of them. However you want to
phrase it or make those arguments which everybody likes to
do these days, Kobe and Shack was the thing all
(40:41):
the time, Kobe and Shack and the rivalry Kobe and Chack,
and there's no you can't do it here because it
doesn't exist. And that's really there are I've said a
million times, with everything Jalen Brown accomplishes in his basketball career,
you're going to be prouder of a Celtics fan years
from now about what he accomplishes off the floor in
(41:01):
his life. But let's not overlook how he is dealing
with this situation now where he is an elite player
in the world. He would be the best player on
most teams in the NBA. But Jason, Jason is in
his time right now where he is a top three
MVP candidate where he's having this moment and there's never
there's never an issue, there's never a secondary thing that
(41:24):
comes out of it. Because these guys, again going back
to being across the hall after Game six, you know
they just want to win. They know what they want
and it's going to take that All Star Game moment.
In our job, like Abby and I come to the
ballpark every night, we might get to document history. Something
special could happen. There are those rare moments when you
(41:45):
know it as it's going on, you know, as Jason
and Jalen are doing that thing. You know years from
now we'll be talking about that that night in the
All Star Game, and that again, that's sort of the
beauty of what we do. Thank God they both made
those shots right, each of them give and given them.
I just call it out the Peyton Pritchard now or
that you can roll with that. You brought it up.
(42:07):
This is gonna be the last thing that I gotta
throw out there is Jason Tatum is a top three
MVP candidate this season. What do you think he needs
to do to get up to one? Is it possible?
I tend to think that it's not going to happen,
and I think it would require I'll defer to you, Abby,
(42:27):
but I think the Celtics would have to win the
NBA regular season by an extraordinary margin. They have to
run away and hide. And I again, ironically, after what
I just said to me, it occurred to me. There
were a lot of moments this year where it occurred
to me. The biggest obstacle to Jason Tatum winning the
MVP is how good Jaylen Brown is. Because he has
a right, because Joel embiid, I forget. I mean, Yokis
(42:50):
just clearly in the driver's seat and he should be.
And what I said at the beginning of the years,
he's won twice with Denver being in the middle of
the pack, they're gonna win the West running away. So
I had no problem, unlike a lot of people, Well,
you can't win three in a row, because that's historic.
If Yokis is the best player, he deserves to win
three years in a row. Joel Embiad has sort of
defined MVP seasons to me, and that you think about
these games where Joel Embiad has forty and twenty four
(43:10):
and the Sixers are winning by like three, Yeah, he
needs to do this for the Sixers to win these games.
So to me, there's that durant to me, with the
injury kind of falls out of it regardless of what
he does in Phoenix, but that to me, I think
the Jalen presence and the fact that if it's not Yoki,
voters feel and Bead has been the guy on the
outside looking in and it's almost like it would be
(43:32):
his turn. If not Yoki, I think that hurts Tatum,
and this year puts Tatum in the position of where
embiad is now almost like it's his turn at some
point to win it in the future. I also think
it's a little bit of and we hear this a lot,
is that the thing that elevates a player to a
superstar level is that he makes the guys around him better.
(43:53):
And that's a part of Jason's game that has been developing,
continues to develop and is the best it's ever been.
But once he regular literally starts getting and that's something
that Emio Dooka said early on last season. He believes
that Jason is a player who can be getting racking
up triple doubles out of regular basis. And I think
that that's kind of the missing piece for Jason in
that ascension to the ultimate MVP conversation is making his
(44:19):
teammates better, and he does. He is so good at
making the right basketball play. And the amount of hockey assists,
if you accounted for those, I think would be huge.
But I do think that that is a part of
it where if you don't watch every single game and
see the mastery that he has is something that if
you just look at a box score, you say, oh,
(44:39):
Jason had five assists last night, you know, to go
along with his forty points, and he's making the right
basketball play, but so is everyone else. And I think
that that's a testament to the Celtics offense and a
testament to this team. But it's another factor when if
you're not paying attention, you could miss it. He's also
he said, he's so good at those things. He's also
(45:00):
good at being humble. And I know that if he
does not win it this year, it's no sweat off
his back, like he's gonna move on and he's gonna say, hey,
whoever won it deserved to win it. But it's also
going to give him some motivation in the offseason to
try to come back and get it the next season.
And the fact that he's in the conversation at nineteen
years old, I would imagine that by the time he
(45:20):
reaches Nudge Kid. But at twenty four, if he's in
the top three of the MVP voting, you know one
is coming his way if all things you know, granted
that he remains healthy, but it's common that's just a
matter of when. Again, one of the things about the
Celtics historically there are no scoring champions. You know, MVPs
is individual things, so people don't care. How about instead
(45:42):
of baby bigger than Jason Tatum being or not being
the MVP this year, is the fact that there is
now you cannot argue against the fact that he has
put together one of the four or five best resumes
in the history of the game for players under twenty
five years old. That can't be argued. He's climbing that
oring list. He's the first ever too. He's the youngest
(46:02):
player to make a thousand threes. And not to mention
there are players that put up big numbers like this,
he is combined putting up these big numbers with a
trip to the NBA Finals and multiple trips nowt of
the conference finals. So put together, look at the resumes
of players under twenty five, the elite of the elite, Durant,
Kobe Shack, Jason Tatum is in the conversation with these guys.
(46:25):
We don't know what twenty five to thirty to thirty
to thirty five is going to look like. But among
the all time greatest players in the history of this
game that was in meted by James nay Smith, Jason
Tatum is one of the best under twenty five players
to ever play period period. And by the time this
episode airs, we're gonna be a few days ahead of
his twenty fifth birthday. He will maybe by the time
(46:48):
this airs are shortly thereafter, he will become the number
seven scorer of all time in the history of the
league before the age of twenty five. And think about
that and a couple of the guys on it, because
I've been I've been you know, you guys know, I've
been pipping that list for a while and we've been
running it on TV and whatever. That Some of those
guys on that list are high school guys. Obviously, Johannis
didn't play the year in college, Devin Booker did, Kevin
(47:09):
Durant did, but and Shack obviously played at LSU. But
there are guys on that list, Kobe among them that
did not play, you know, so among these, I think
fourth maybe on that list of guys that actually played
in college. Crazy crazy, well, and we gets every single night.
We'll keep doing that the rest of the season. But
a lot of fun things that we got to rewind
(47:31):
and look back on so far in the season. I
have a question for you, what do you got set?
Because historically it has never happened before. What I talked
about would Abbey doing, I'm doing what Max is doing,
You're watching, you're taking in TV and radio before. This
is never we talk about player at depth and playing
multiple positions and positions. Well, this isn't a historic year
(47:51):
in terms of Celtics broadcasting as far as people being
I mean, where's that's the most flowers for being able
to on no notice, jumping from one to the other,
and you know, where's all that. This is an historic
part of the season. It wasn't on your little rundown
sheet this The flowers are happening now to both of
you carry multiple, multiple roles, bouncing back and forth. It's
(48:13):
everything you already said. I think you gave the flowers
out to yourself. Jowers. This is the job TI man,
tell us where to go and the words. I can
say this anyone who's watching or listening, if you tune
into the radio or the TV, you never you're gonna
hear one no matter what any given night, which you're
gonna get And hopefully this gives me we need one
(48:35):
of those Twitter accounts like who's doing the Celtics can tonight?
Like and then it's just who's announcing. Yeah, it's kind
of like the Celtics starting lineup. It is very much
you don't know the rotating door and you ask us, hey,
who's gonna start toime. We just give you the we'll
announce it, give you the Joe one word answer. You'll
find out thirty minutes before we're pre get start, we'll
have to show someone out, someone else on TV or
radio today. We're gonna we're gonna work her out before
(48:56):
the game, and then we'll make a decision someone out there.
We'll fire up that Twitter account. It's going to happen now.
But now this has been great, Let's look forward to
the second half of the season, which is really the
final twenty three games and hopefully this team makes a
long run. So that's episode four, season three of You
from the Rappers, and see you guys next week with
another episode
Welcome everyone. This is View from the Raptors today. We're
bringing in a man who hails from basketball country life
is funny. Okay, go don't go there. Not yet. Well,
we talked about it now. The Bust One boys is
the crazy story, not actors. The crazy thing. To me,
it's like where you came from. Yeah, we're all older
than we think. We are always Gold League Gray baby.
(00:23):
All right, another week, another episode of You from the Raptors.
Behind the scenes with the Boston Celtics. This episode is
gonna be a little bit different. We're not necessarily diving
into the typical storylines that we have in past episodes,
but we are diving deep into something, and that is
the first half of the NBA season. We're gonna do
a season rewind. It's myself, Sean Granny, and Abbey Chin
(00:44):
and we're gonna be sitting right here in the Celtics
front office in downtown Boston reliving all of the top
moments from the first half of the season, a little
bit of all Star talk and a little bit of
talk about what's to happen the rest of the season
as the Celtics pursue yet another NBA championship. So we've
got that coming your way. We also want to remind
you to rate, subscribe, and review. That's very important to us,
(01:07):
so please do that, and without further ado, we'll let
you jump in right into the conversation. It's myself, Sean
and Abby rewinding through the first half of the Celtics season.
All right, we are here at Celtics headquarters at one
hundred Causeways Streets. Sean, Grandy, Abby Chin back for another
episode of You from the Rafters behind the scenes with
the Boston Celtics and guys. We're recording this during All Stars,
(01:28):
so we want everyone out there to know we do
have a few games to be played before this airs,
but there is a lot to talk about from the
season and a lot of good things that we need
to talk about for this season. Sean, what has stood
out to you the most about the first What do
we got fifty nine games that have been played at
(01:48):
this point, forty two and seventeen tops in the league.
Can I say, for all the awesome guests that we
have that it's finally nice to just kick back and
be us here and we don't have to worry about
being overly polite to somebody and welcoming somebody in that
we can just finally stretch our legs out and talk
about this season, and hey, three seasons in and we
(02:09):
get to use all of the time to ourselves, which
I know is in term of the right now, which
is not ideal, but I think when we and the
All Star break is useful for the thirty thousand foot
view right because we never get it day to day.
You're just out of the next game and out of
the next flight and out of the next city. The
amazing thing to me is that if you had said
(02:31):
in the middle of August that the Celtics would have
the best record in the league by a half game
at Jason Tatum would be having this amazing year, that
the Celtics would be there were the title favorites in
the middle of August, and they are where they are.
None of this would be a surprise. But then you
factor in the three back to back body shots that
(02:52):
the Celtics took, Gallinari gone, Rob Williams lost for the
third of the year, and then the unthinkable, essentially on
the eve of training camp, a coaching change that nobody
could possibly have imagined happens, and yet the Celtics have
performed as if none of those three things have happened,
and that may be the most amazing thing sixty games in.
And it's not even just that stuff, Abby. I mean,
(03:14):
we've gone and everyone loved the stat when I centered out,
But when the Celtics come back from All Star and
you know, God forbid, at this point, they're going to
be fully healthy, They're going to have all their guys.
But heading into All Star, they've only had one game
this season where all five of their starters started the
opening tip, which is insane. That they lead the league,
yet they've had to navigate all of these injuries. Derek
(03:36):
White to start a fifty one to fifty nine games
and he's supposed to be a reserve. It's incredible. And
that even accounts for the amount of minutes that Jason
Tatum is playing. He has been phenomenal this season. We
all know an MVP caliber season. But I think what
stands out to me and Sean you kind of prefaced
it is that these guys have come back on a
(03:57):
mission that Emay News could have shaken this group to
its core, but they instead came together and it's something
that Brad Stevens pointed out in his press conference talking
about making Joe Missoula the head coach, taking away the
interim tag is that he has been able to bring
this group together. They have their eye on one goal
(04:18):
and everyone is working towards that, willing to sacrifice do
whatever it takes to get to that one goal. And
the message has remained the same from the beginning of
training camp when there was that dark cloud over everything
that was happening too now in the All Star Game
and then coming back from the break, and so to me,
that's what has stood out is that these guys have
(04:38):
been unwavering in that mission to get back to the
NBA Finals and overcome great teams, elite teams imposed their will.
That's the history of the league. And this is a
team that was what twenty eight and seven to finish
last year with a plus fifteen scoring differential. And I've
been saying absolutely absurd, dominant run and obviously going to
the finals, and yet in O eight the team wins
(05:01):
the championship. And everybody told them all summer there's gonna
be a letdown, You're gonna fall back, you can't have
the dominant season you have and what happened. They started
twenty seven and two with a nineteen game win streak.
They imposed their will, and there was an element of that.
This team wasn't as dominant. This team hasn't been as
dominant as last year's team was in the second half
of the year, but there was an element of running
(05:22):
off to the start they did, sort of running away
from the league in the historic offensive start. That reminded
me of that, and that just when everybody said, everybody,
the experts, quote unquote, the NBA world history, everything we know,
says there's going to be a fallback, and instead it
went in the other direction. It reminded me of the
title defense season and the first thirty games of eight
(05:42):
o nine. That surprised you though, sure of course it did,
because nobody knew what to expect. Listen, you guys are there, Listen, Abby,
you were in the building the first preseason game. That
was a strange, odd day. It was heavy in the building.
It felt weird. Media Day it was weird, of course,
Media Day was it fare right, it was, I mean,
(06:04):
it was going to have the building where we're sitting.
It was weird. But what made that especially is that
there were nineteen thousand people. Because in Boston preseason games
sell out too. There were nineteen thousand people all participating
in the weirdness of this strange vibe of what's happening here.
And Max and I came on and we did our
our ten minute little thing on what had happened, and
(06:25):
we wanted to put it in a place because we
didn't want to just you can't just start the broadcast.
Here's the first game of the year, and up coach
Joe Massoula calls time out. I'm sorry, what who so
you had to and wait time out? That didn't happen.
The Celtics, by the way, had like the best offensive
rating out of timeouts. People don't acknowledge that. Right. Well,
now he has to call more now because he had
(06:46):
the best offensive rating out of timeouts. I think that
I'll always remember that day when you when you go
to your office where you've been well, I guess they
told us about two thousand times at Max and I
haven't done it. When you go to your office two
thousand times and then the one thousand, nine hundred and
eighty first time you go, it feels completely different than
(07:06):
the one nine hundred and eighty that came before. You're
going to remember that day, and here we are. Everyone
just played through it. Everyone just did their jobs, and
pretty soon it was back to work and everybody was
focused on what it is they had to do. And
two months later you look up and you're twenty one
and five with the best offense in the history of ever. Yeah,
(07:27):
and that's what's been so remarkable about it to me.
And this is we're on the outside, We're not inside
that locker room. And I think that that was something
really important for Joe to do from the beginning, was
to allow those guys to feel the pain of I mean,
basically losing someone who they were very close to an
emay and not that he is gone gone, but he
(07:47):
is not an everyday fixture in their life. But it
does feel like nothing has changed. I mean, not that
much is different. The Celtics went and practiced and followed
the practice planned that they were going to practice from
day one anyway, And I know the players have felt
a little bit more emotional and have been vocal about that.
But for us on the outside, what I'm trying to
(08:08):
say is it just feels like the ship keeps rolling.
There's nothing it doesn't feel that different after that first
preseason game, once everything was addressed, it was handled after
the press conferences were done, but moved on and it's
been all about basketball ever since. The three things I
mentioned he made, the Gallanri injury, the Rob Williams injury.
None of those three things erased the sound that Jason
(08:31):
Tatum and Jaylen Brown and everybody heard across the hall
in the locker room after Game six of the Finals
when another team, only the second team ever to do it,
the Lakers in eighty five and Golden State last year,
the only team's ever to win the championship in Boston,
and that sound of them celebrating across the hall was
(08:54):
a louder noise and something that reverberated more in the
heads of the guys in the room heard it than
the three things I talked about that people thought would
alter their season. That is what is driving their season,
not those three things. And on top of that, you
hear the sounds, but you also see the visuals because
I know you two both remember where the press room
(09:15):
is right that the Celtics have to talk in after
every single game, including Game six of the NBA Finals,
in that back hallway. All of the Warriors players with
their goggles on, with their champagne and hands are passing
through right by the Celtics media area to go to
their after party, which was in Big Night Live, which
is attached to TD Gardens. So the Celtics players in
(09:37):
the moments after losing the finals had to watch these
guys walk back. I know I felt it when these
guys are wearing their goggles. I remember Jordan Pool walking
by and I'm like, oh my god, why can't we
be wearing these goggles? But I know they had. Don't
forget this too. Jannis and the Bucks all heard the
Celtics celebrating in that same hallway after Game seven two,
and I'm sure they're going to take that with them
(09:58):
from the meeting. We know, I mean, we know it's
it's destined to happen. Yeah, I will say, Miami, the
locker rooms very separate, I don't think. Right we go
to hum so you mentioned and you mentioned the kind
of turnaround there from the Friday where we all find
(10:20):
out the head coach has suspended. Joe Missoula is coming
in as the interim coach. And this is the friday
before training camp in the moment. I remember going out
to the HOURBIC Center, sitting down. I actually got a
few moments to talk with Joe that day before his
press conference, And in my mind, I mean, here's a
team that's pursuing a championship, coming off of Game six
(10:40):
of the Finals. The expectations are so high, and in
my mind, I'm just wondering, is this going to derail everything?
Because you only had forty eight hours I guess seventy
two hours before training camp started. I just didn't know
how a team would be able to recover from that.
But in hindsight, when I look back, part of me
(11:01):
thinks that actually might have been a good thing, that
it was a short amount of time that they had
to turn around, because it forced everyone to mentally dial
in and like not allow it to derail them. I
don't know, if you guys roll the pool yeah and
swim yeah, to compartmentalize too. I think NBA players have
a unique ability to be able to compartmentalize what is
important in that moment, and to live in that moment,
(11:23):
and to be able to perform on the stage in
that moment. And so I think that you're right, that's
a good point that they didn't have time to dwell
on it. They didn't have time to think about what
is going to be different, what is going to change,
what's the life going to be like now? And to
the lament, the moment right like the loss of email.
Like all these guys were close. They didn't have time
to be sad or upset or mad or any of that.
They had to turn the page a job to do.
(11:45):
But like you said, those first conversations with Joe as
the head coach to me and I had covered Joe
in the summer league that he coached two seasons prior,
and so we were like I knew him, We were closely,
not that close though, and I didn't know what to
expect on that first media day, but he was there
when from my first conversation with him, he was so confident,
(12:08):
So he didn't He doesn't feel pressure. It doesn't feel
like he feels pressure in the way that I feel pressure.
That it makes me nervous and I get edgy and
I get very anty. Are you nervous right now? No? No?
Are you sure? I don't think so. Although this is
the first time I've done this, so yeah, getting used
to it. Um don't like that knock over. Don't knock
(12:28):
that mic over either. He was nervous. Yeah, I'm stumbling
over my words. He was so confident and in control
and knew exactly what he wanted to say and who
he wanted to be, And that gave me so much
confidence in him. After my first conversation with him at
media day, I said, Oh, it's gonna be fine. The
remarkable thing about it was how quickly he did it
(12:50):
with This is what I would say to people from
the outside when they would say, one on Earth is
going on? Who's Joe Missoula? Is that Maybe Joe Missoula
was destined to be the next Eric Spolsure. Maybe he
was destined in a couple of years to get First
of all, he was a finalist. Will got the job
in Utah with Danny, but Joe was right there. Joe
was right there in the conversation to get that job.
(13:10):
So maybe Joe was going to be a coach somewhere
else and he was gonna be the next big thing.
But because it happened this way, all of a sudden,
this is gonna be Who's Joe Massoula? And all of
a sudden He's promoted to this job. Maybe in a
year or two. He was going to be an NBA
head coach somewhere anyway. But the remarkable thing is that
knowing Joe and listen, we've all known Brad for years,
and Joe and Brad have I don't. I don't like
(13:32):
to use the word mindset because Joe's used it enough
for everybody. It's like you're Joe massoula Bingo card, right,
is like mindset and spacing and all the you know
all the above to get your full Joe Bingo card.
He these guys are all based A lot of us
are on preparation and how we go about and how
could he possibly have been prepared? When you're an NBA
(13:52):
head coach, you're thinking about your team on May sixteenth,
You're thinking about your team on July eighth, You're thinking
about your team on August first, and how you're going
to come. And this is the most remarkable thing about
it was that offseason of preparation. It goes into being
a head coach, or the managing a baseball team or
being an NFL head coach is a year round, twenty
four seven job, and to have to coach your first
(14:14):
game essentially hours after becoming the head coach, and then
just going from there. That is, to me, the most
remarkable and overlooked part of it was that he did
not have the ramp up that this didn't happen in June,
that had happened a couple of days before camp. It's
a great point because I think the first preseason game
was like two days after camp. I mean, it was
(14:34):
right away so abby. We rewind to that Friday, and
the thing that stood out to me is I didn't
know what was going to happen with with Joe. I
didn't know how he was going to react to this situation.
Then you get to Monday, it's media day. At that point,
there's still so many questions that I'm wondering in my head.
I know everyone else's. But then that first day of
training camp, when he stood in front of all of
(14:55):
the media and I know you were there, that's when
I knew this guy has got what it takes, because
he just didn't seem flustered now at all. I mean,
that's the first day running an NBA team, and obviously
he had the history of coach in the summer league team,
but it's a different animal when you're actually running the
real team, and he just there were no nerves. He
answered every question perfectly. And to go through that media
(15:18):
day days after this whole situation unraveled, and then to
come to day one of training camp and not say
a single word that he shouldn't have said. That's when
I knew. I'm like, Okay, this guy's ready for this
because I can't comprehend how he did that. He may
regret talking about that he's still driving his minivan, which
he is still driving, but that will be used against him.
(15:38):
I think for a while, the Royal family, it is.
He wasn't a unique position though as well. Let's not
get in trouble here, okay about because he had those
pre existing relationships, I'm not sure. I think everyone kind
of everyone on the outside said who is Joe Missoula,
But the players knew who Joe Massoula is. My favorite
story from last season was Derek White when he arrived
(16:00):
in that trade and his mind was just all over
the place because he'd never been traded before in his life,
and then after coming from San Antonio, where he'd known
one thing the whole time of his NBA career, they
sent him to Joe Missoula to learn the offense and
to get a handle on things. And so these pre
existing relationships I think enabled Joe to be the coach
(16:21):
that he is and to garner their respect in the
locker room that he's been able to and and like
we have been talking about getting everyone on the same
page and going towards the same mission of being an
NBA player, is the work you put in that nobody sees.
Joe Massoula had lived with these guys for that ninety
(16:42):
nine percent you mentioned Derek White. Can we segue right
into that, because Derek White has been the savior in
my opinion of this team the season. I mean, obviously,
Jason playing at an an MVP level, He's going to be
the first player in Celtics history to ever average thirty
or more points in a season, and it's gonna happen.
(17:02):
It's gonna happen, no doubt in my mind. But Derek
White is the guy. Without Derek White, there's no chance
that the Celtics are where they are, no chance. Fifty
one starts out of the first fifty nine games, and
he has been awesome, shooting basically thirty nine percent from
three doing everything the Celtics need on a nightly basis
in a multitude of ways, depending on who's missing, right, Like,
(17:25):
that's who has stood out to me in terms of
being able to keep this team on track. Shoon plays
every game in the load management era. He's played every
game since he was here, you know, every regular season
game since he's been traded here he has played. And
I think in the load management era, the teams that
are going to have success are the teams that have depth,
that are gonna plug in different guys that you know
(17:46):
you You started by saying, isn't this amazing that the
Celtics have done this with the starting five only playing
one game together. It's not that unusual anymore. That's the
way it is in the NBA. But the Celtics have
the best record in the league because they are they
have the depth, and they are equipped to deal with that.
The best teams now aren't going to be the teams
that have the two best players in the regular season
that there are going to be the teams that are
(18:07):
go six, seven, eight deep, that can manage their way
through the inevitable injuries, through the inevitable load management. And
I want to disrespect Kyrie by using that term. They
you have to manage what the NBA is now, and
the Celtics have built a team that, particularly in the backcourt,
that has the ability to do that. I think that's
what Derek White epitomizes is just how deep this team is.
(18:28):
And you ask them, they know, they believe they are
the deepest team in the NBA. And it has shown
over that last week going into the All Star break,
missing Marcus Smart, Jalen Brown, Rob and al In and
out of the lineup, I mean without four or five starters,
and the Celtics continue to win, continue to get it done.
It's juda guys like Derek White, we haven't mentioned. We will,
(18:49):
I'm sure Malcolm Brogden. But also I mean we got
to give credit to Brad Stevens for the additions and
just I won't do that. By the way, picking can't
you don't like you. It's not just it just pains
me too much. It's a it's after nine years, it's
physically I just can't. It was just too much. Why
he left, that's right, Yeah, we couldn't take it anymore.
(19:09):
That's why as the day, the day it all happened,
the day he was no longer the head coach whatever.
I just texted him, I said, listen, if you want
to get out of the pregame thing, there were other
ways to do it, just let me know. Yes. But
I mean, that was a brilliant move on his part.
And the fact that Derek is such a connector and
a guy who can, like you said, give you exactly
(19:30):
what you need. If he is playing eight minutes, he
goes out and he is give the term balls of
the wall. I mean he can say that. I can
say that, Um, he plays hard and gives you exactly
what you need, whether that's on the defensive end or
the offensive end. And he that's so rare. And I've
talked about this with scal a lot. The versatility that
(19:51):
Derek White has, and it's not just a versatility on
the court playing guarding one through five. It's also the
versatility of roles that he can come in off the bench,
he can be a starter, and he can give you
exactly what you need. Do you win, Mark, You need
guys who are have reached a point in the NBA
where they now winning is more important than their own
individual role. And that was everyone wants to put it
(20:14):
on Kyrie. But the fundamental flaw of the twenty nineteen
team that was what it was, was there were too
many young players that had not established their place in
the NBA, which the league it almost forces you to
do it by definition. Can you play in this league?
Who are you in this league? What is your role?
Derek White has already done that. We didn't see it
because it happened in San Antonio. But Derek White got
(20:36):
his contract, he established who he was in the NBA.
Now he's here to win. Malcolm Brogden has established who
he is in the NBA. Now he wants to win.
Blake Griffin is long since established who he is in
the NBA. Now he's here and he wants to win.
That is how you do it in the league. You can't.
This is why teams that are primarily built on young
players on that first NBA contract don't have deep playoff success.
(20:57):
That's a big, big part of it, and it's what
this team had as in it. Again, you cannot say
Derek White without thinking of that characteristic What is this
team going to be? When Malcolm Brogden and Derek White
are coming off the bench. It just blows my mind
that the Celtics aren't going to have these two guys
who I think the game before the All Star Break
they combine for like fifty one points or something like that.
(21:19):
What do you think this team can be with those
two guys coming off the bench. It's insanity, what a luxury.
But also if those two guys are coming off the bench,
that means that you're starting five is healthy. What's going
to happen between now and then? And that's the point
of what we're saying is having these different pieces that
you can plug in, everybody does the same thing. You're
(21:41):
doing it now, we all do the same thing. Wow,
imagine when everybody gets here, it's going to be great.
That's not how life. What life is. What happens right
when you're busy making other plans. So there's you know,
something will happen to Boston or Milwaukee or Philadelphia. As
we're sitting here talking now, something is going to happen
that we can't will have imagined that we'll alter the
(22:02):
course of one of those teams futures this year. The
point is that instead of thinking about man, imagine what
it'd be like if they were all together? Is knowing
that you haven't had them all together, and you still
can win anyway. I have to imagine what it's going
to be like with them all together. Though, right we're
three quarters of the way through the season. I have
to think, cross my fingers everything, knock on wood, kick
(22:22):
the wood. I'm hoping that we've gotten all of that
stuff out of the way by this point. Right, There's
only I wouldn't go that far, but I would say
that that is the whole point of all of this,
the load management, though being overly cautious with Rob Williams
when he feels even a tinge in his ankle. I mean,
he's been the bubble wrap all year. Yes, and keep
him there, Keep him there, and let's say Jayson Tatum
(22:44):
for some more minutes too while we're at it. I
don't know, let's play him flood Marcus Smart take as
long as he wants with that ankle. Just get to
the playoffs. And I think that that's something that I
had never experienced. A run to the Vinyls. It is long.
It's two and a half more months of basket, and
it's not just basketball. It's the most intense basketball that
you've ever played in your life. And you have to
(23:05):
do it and bring it and bring that focus every
single night, and so whatever it takes to get there
in any modicum of health. I am all four that
that's a great point Abby made, because when people think
of the New Big Three era, they think of it
as a six years right, twenty seven to twenty thirteen,
(23:25):
But really it was seven years because they that team
played almost a full season of playoff games with the
two runs to the finals and the conference finals in
twenty twelve. And as Abby just said, those aren't miles
on your car. Those are uphill all terrain vehicle miles
that beat you up. So those add a lot of
(23:46):
you know, that adds a lot to it. It's not
thirty playoff games, are not thirty regular season games. It's
it's essentially another full season. And that's why remember when
Al did what he did last year, which was amazing
at his age to play all those minutes and go
to the finals. Remember he had basically had the year off.
You know, Oksey said, Lesten go home. They like locked
him out of the practice so he could just take
(24:08):
the year off. So he was fresh going into it,
and you're almost the Celtics are trying to do here
is short of replicate that with al where a couple
of games who've seen playoff al this year, I'll see
it against like Milwaukee. But for the most part, the
only time you want to see playoff al is when
it's time for playoff al. Which makes the fact that
this team, again, as we record, this is a top
(24:30):
the NBA even more important. That they've been able to
sustain the level of play you mentioned this earlier. They've
sustained winning while getting all of these guys rest throughout
the season, so that hopefully in the long run, there
will be more gas in the tank this time around
than there was last year after they were fighting. I mean,
we talk about the playoffs as an uphill battle. How
(24:52):
about coming back from that start that they had was
a seventeen and twenty eighteen and twenty one whatever it
was that they had the whole second half of the
season and they had to fight up hill just to
get back to where they wanted to be. And the
other thing, I don't know, ab if you with me
on this, because I've started I started talking about him
in the last telecast before they all start break that
one of the things about listen home Court advantage is great,
(25:12):
and you're gonna want it. But there's a second factor
here with the number one seed in the East, which
is with the trades that Brooklyn made, if you sort
of dropped Brooklyn out of the top four, it's starting
to look like a three headed monster atop the East.
So therefore that number one seed Boston, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, one
of those teams is going to avoid the other two
(25:33):
in the second round. And that's where yeah, because sometimes
in a best case scenario, you think you're gonna have
your starting five all year, you think you're gonna have
your microphone for the entire podcast, but you don't. You
have to work and you have to work around Aby.
How many times is that Mike fallen onto your lap today?
That's the third that's my fault. Anologize for that we
(25:55):
were missing one of our mic holders. But no, I
mean it's a great point on and I think that
the Celtics are I mean, obviously they're top of the
league right now, but they're well positioned to snag that
top seed, especially if they're able to stay healthy during
these final twenty three games. I keep saying it, and
whatever happens with you know, with these playoff matchups happens.
(26:18):
I couldn't help but think when the Celtics made the
choice and it was the obvious choice to make at
the time to sort of punt the game away in
Milwaukee and to not play guys in the game before
the All Star break, that was the obvious choice to you. Well,
that's maybe being kind. It wasn't the obvious choice to me.
When that choice was by the staff decided that was
the obvious choice. I could not help but think from
(26:41):
a poetry standpoint, from a basketball god standpoint, that the
Bucks chose to punt the game away on the final
game of the season last year, and it cost them
home court advantage in Game seven was in Boston instead
of in Milwaukee, which it you know, easily could have been.
I will say bad for the Celtics. Well, that's we
don't know, but that was again rolland Ice. That's why
(27:03):
you and I are sitting here doing podcasts and people
to make decisions, make decisions. We'll see how it all
plays out. Um, you mentioned that game when when we
were preparing for this and we were all thinking about
our favorite moments of the game. You prepared the season slightly,
not much interest. But when I'm thinking back throughout the
whole season, tons of highs, only a few lows, But
(27:26):
it stuck out in my head that that game was
actually my favorite moment of the season. A loss in Milwaukee,
I did think part of another one because I felt like, yeah,
I don't think good. I mean, if you're throwing Christmas Day,
look at the two games against Milwaukee for contrasting reason. Yeah,
but you look at that game and it just felt
(27:46):
I don't know if if in my fourteen seasons here,
fifteen seasons, that I've felt that positive I mean for
a loss ever, because it just felt like everyone on
this roster was just more proof. Everyone on this roster
is ready at all times. And when you've got that
type of depth and you've got that type of mindset,
(28:07):
I think that just shows. I mean, it's one of
the most important factors that you can take into the
playoffs because you're going to run into all sorts of
challenges in friction and whatever you want to call it.
The fact that they were able to step in and
play at that high level against what many people believe
might be the other top challenger in the East, against
(28:28):
them basically fully healthy without Bobby Porters, but that that
stood out to me, that was my favorite moment of
the season. Like I said, I that the feeling in
the locker room after that game did not feel like
a loss at all. In talking to guys, and the
confidence that that gives guys like Jason Tatum and Jaylen
Brown and Marcus Smart to be able to be comfortable
(28:50):
in taking those assigned times off, I think is really important.
But it also I couldn't I couldn't bring that my
favorite point because it was a lost. There are no
moral victories. This is Boston. It's all about winning a championship.
And it's also we've seen it with the Celtics, and
that there is a letdown when you find out that
a team's best players are not playing true and we've
(29:12):
seen it with the Celtics, and so to me, there
was no question forty piece from Drew Holiday to win
that game. Yeah, but the Bucks rolled out there. I
mean they were not on top of their game, I
would say from the jump. And so when they really
buckled down and took it seriously and understood the challenge
that actually laid before them, they got it done. But
I do think that that was that was such a
(29:34):
fun game. It was cool to see Al back in
Milwaukee where he is just incredible. Man, Yes at all times,
and yeah, that game was just really fun to be
a part of. From the jump, What was your other
top moment? I think it was the win over Philadelphia
without every before that. Yeah, I mean, I personally did
(29:57):
not give the Celtics a chance in that game, knowing
they were going out up against Joel embat and James
Harden without Al Horford and and Rob Williams. There's no
They're starting without their starting front court, and great Williams
went out and then Jalen went out miss the entire
second half. To get that win, I think was and
you know, the Celtics are already in the head of
(30:18):
the seventy six ers, especially Joe LMBA. We didn't say that,
and I said that I did, and Marcus Martin, the
head of James Harden, I also said that. Then. To
get that win dropping the confetti, I'm just staying quiet
over here. To get that win in that fashion, I
think was huge, and especially because Philadelphia came in. They
(30:41):
were the hottest team in the East at that point.
They were rolling, had won nine of their last head, Yeah,
eighteen and twenty, and for the Celtics to basically shut
them up was pretty gratifying. I don't think Doc enjoyed
that moment. First of all, Mark, you weren't if you
that was the the loss you felt best about. You
definitely weren't here in two thousand and seven when we
were feeling about losses every single night, because that was
(31:04):
the idea of looking at Greg Oden and Kevin Durant
feeling good about losses every single night, and there were
allot of them to choose from, you know, seven, I
think back in the first half of the year, it's
really an amalgam of moments where I could see Jason
Tatum looking as if he were Neo in the matrix
(31:24):
and everything was. There were moments when he knew, I'm
the best player on the floor. I can impact this game.
I can do whatever I want, whether you know it'd
be against Charlote. There was a game in Detroit early
in the year, actually both games in Detroit this year
where he just he almost like looked around and said,
I'm the best player on the floor. I can do
whatever it is I want to do, and it is right,
(31:47):
and it is you know when you see that this
was a kid who came in at that you know,
nineteen years old, and you and I'm still nineteen. You
and I just marketed the podcast looking back at the
Philadelphia series. When people get to that the that Jason Tatum,
you forget the rookie year that he the difference that
he makes on and off the floor, the numbers are insane.
(32:07):
Al his rookie year outled the Celtics and plus minus
by a small margin. Every other year it's been Tatum
by a large margin. And the moments that he's had
this year, we talk about how many times if you
used the MVP type of year thing that he's having,
But those come in moments when you look at him
on the floor and say, there are a lot of
moments even you know, doing the telecast and I'm thinking it,
Scal says, what are we watching here? And I'm thinking,
(32:29):
and I'm going to say it next time he does it,
Which is what we're seeing is parts of the highlight
tape we're going to be looking at on Jason Tatum
day at the Garden in fifteen years. That's what we're
looking at. We're looking at these moments when he realizes
that he is one of the best players in the
world and that he's dominating. But individually, it was a
separate Jason Tatum moment that is mine only because in
(32:52):
a year in which, as Abby can attest, it has
been an unprecedented year of us multitasking. Abby has done it,
has done it. Obviously, I've been doing it. We've been
doing him back and forth. You don't, but you sit
here and you oversee all of us. Do you know?
I said, Abby and I are jumping back and forth
TV one night radio the next night, We're going back
and forth. Was a night at a moment I decided
(33:15):
to be a cinematographer at the same time I was
doing play by play and where I was really lucky
we got I wouldn't been able to do this if
I have been doing TV, but we got Mike to
come down to Charlotte and do those games, which allowed
me to be on radio for those games. And my
wife and son were at the Martin Luther King game
when Jason Tatum was going for fifty at the end
of the game, and my wife and son were sitting
(33:36):
eight ten rows in front of me, and so I said,
I can do this because I knew that my son
was losing his mind where in his Jason Tatum Jersey
as this was happening, he knew we got a chance
to see it. So I got my phone out and
I was shooting video of the two of them while
I was calling, you know, Tatum up the floor, left
side going for fifty, because I knew my son was
(33:57):
going to have sort of an epic reaction to it.
Now I've got the moment on video of my sons
seeing it happened, and then you could sort of hear
me in the background trying to try to call it
as it happened. So but it was just such pure
joy from Jack, you know, oh excited, You know what
it's like then, and you know, my son has not
(34:18):
had the life that most kids have living behind the curtain.
And you know, my favorite story with my son was,
I flew back here after Game one last year of
the Finals, picked him up, flew him back out to
San Francisco for Game two the Red Sox. And all
places in all the world, where were the Red Sox
that weekend? They were out there in Oakland. So he
goes to the Red Sox game in Oakland on Sunday afternoon.
(34:38):
Then he goes to Game two of the NBA Finals
in San Francisco. We fly back with the families on
the charter, and so the next morning he I literally
got him to school on time on Monday morning. And
when he gets to school and the other kids said, hey,
did you see the game last night? He go, yep,
I was there, may or may not have here. Look
at my phone. See these photos. No one sent these
(34:59):
to me. But the pure you know what the best
part listen, not going down the road to being a parent,
but these moments of joy that Celtic fans of all
experience this year. To watch them through the eyes of
a kid, and my son's eleven. Now, so there's a
different Now. He really understands when Jason and Jalen are
doing this thing. And when he, you know, felt it
was up. Wasn't up lating enough to see the All
(35:20):
Star game board. I told him the next morning. You
didn't let him stay up. He was not with me
my friend that night. So therefore different rules in different houses. Yeah,
we stay up late to see historic sports moments, you know,
and this half of the family. But to be able
to tell him, oh yeah, by the way your guy
set an All Star Game record and was the MVP
of the All Star Game and you just see the eyes.
(35:40):
This goes back to when I say, this is why
documenting these moments, having the job I have matters. It
really brings it home when you see your son when
you're hand in the box score from the playoff game
the night before with at five years old, when his
favorite player, Isaiah Thomas, and he looks at the box
score and goes across to the column and sees fifty
something point and his eyes, just a little five year
(36:02):
old eyes pop out of his head. That's when you
realize these moments are important and why when the Celtics
have the best record in the NBA, we shouldn't be
thinking about three losses on a road of Golden State
in the finals, or what is ahead of us, or rather,
if you can't enjoy these moments that many other basketball
fans and many other cities will never have. There are
(36:22):
twenty franchises at least maybe more that have never come
close to having a calendar year like the Celtics had
in twenty twenty two. Forget seventeen championships that forget you know, Charlotte, Sacramento,
all these other these teams have never had a year
like that which he won sixty plus games and had
a double digit scoring diffretchil So whatever is ahead. My
(36:42):
point about the first half of the season is enjoy
every single night because when people talk about Bird McHale
and the original Big Three, they remembering getting to watch
every night, and it's the same thing in the Jay's
era or whatever we're gonna end up calling it of Hey,
what time is the Celtics game on tonight? I want
to watch, want to be there at the Garden to
see these guys play. Well, that's what let's talk about
(37:03):
the All Star Game because to me, that's what made
it so much fun. It was clear, even in the
first half with Jalen coming off the bench, that the
Celtics have two of the best players in the NBA.
Jason Tatum on the floor. I know Lebron put on
a show in that first half in those minutes he
was on the floor, but Jason was right there with him.
And then any time I mean Jalen checking in with
(37:25):
that mask for the first time, you could tell there
was some adjustment there. And by the way, with the mask,
I didn't know they were allowed to wear a black mask.
Didn't thought wore that. He did, Okay, so it's they're back.
But just those early moments with Jalen after he got
used to the mask and he was dunking all over
(37:45):
the place, launching threes, and then what we got to
see in the second half was so special. And I
know a lot of people asking for defense in the
All Star Game, and I do not care for anything.
No one get hurt that that's the goal. Score as
many buckets as you want. Let's do lay up lines,
that's what you want, because that is entertaining as hell.
And I loved every minute of that, and it just
showcased the season that Jason and Jalen are having this season,
(38:08):
and they have been incredible. Sean. Two things, You've got
more of a photographic memory than I do, and that's
not saying much, but I don't remember. I can tell
you what the Celtics dating Denver in two thousand and three,
but I don't know where my car keys are, so
I don't know that. That's all. It's important things where
your priorities. So when I was watching Jalen and Jason
(38:30):
go back and forth, We've seen some iconic moments with
players having individual matchups. M Jane Colby comes to mind.
I mean Lebron in Coolby going at each other in
the All Star Game. We've seen it before, We've seen
teammates go at each other before, but that that was
like multiple minutes of a game where they were going
back and forth and it just seemed like everyone else
(38:52):
was standing back and saying, the show. These guys deserve
their moment. Let's watch the show. And boy did they
put on a show that was awesome to see. And
I love the fact that Jalen got his moment too,
because he borderline deserved to be a starter in that game,
didn't quite make it as a starter, but he's having
an absurd season and that's the best part. I mean,
(39:15):
getting to watch that number one that was my first point,
was incredible. But I also love the fact that both
of these guys out of the Jay's have their moments
where everyone watching the TV can say, Okay, that's that guy,
and then Jalen might take over and everyone watching can say, well,
that's that guy. And this happened in the NBA Finals,
now it happened in an NBA All Star game. I
(39:35):
think it just shows just where this team is set
up moving forward, that there's two one a's on this team.
But I also think that this season is different, and
even the runs starting from the second half of last season,
is that they have been able to play together and
are thriving on the floor together. I feel like early
on it was so much your turn, my turn, yea,
and now figured it out. Yeah, we're seeing it. And
(39:57):
twenty seven games where they've each scored twenty five plus
that's never happened before in the NBA before the All
Star break, and that that's what's scary. What is scary
for the rest of the league. Mark not not just
Derek White and Malcolm Bradden coming off the bench, but
the fact that those two have figured it out and
how much they are thriving together on the floor has
(40:19):
been an incredible transformation to the point where even though
things externally are set up to find division and define stories,
Kobe and Shack won championships and that's arguably the greatest
tandem ever, certainly one of them. However you want to
phrase it or make those arguments which everybody likes to
do these days, Kobe and Shack was the thing all
(40:41):
the time, Kobe and Shack and the rivalry Kobe and Chack,
and there's no you can't do it here because it
doesn't exist. And that's really there are I've said a
million times, with everything Jalen Brown accomplishes in his basketball career,
you're going to be prouder of a Celtics fan years
from now about what he accomplishes off the floor in
(41:01):
his life. But let's not overlook how he is dealing
with this situation now where he is an elite player
in the world. He would be the best player on
most teams in the NBA. But Jason, Jason is in
his time right now where he is a top three
MVP candidate where he's having this moment and there's never
there's never an issue, there's never a secondary thing that
(41:24):
comes out of it. Because these guys, again going back
to being across the hall after Game six, you know
they just want to win. They know what they want
and it's going to take that All Star Game moment.
In our job, like Abby and I come to the
ballpark every night, we might get to document history. Something
special could happen. There are those rare moments when you
(41:45):
know it as it's going on, you know, as Jason
and Jalen are doing that thing. You know years from
now we'll be talking about that that night in the
All Star Game, and that again, that's sort of the
beauty of what we do. Thank God they both made
those shots right, each of them give and given them.
I just call it out the Peyton Pritchard now or
that you can roll with that. You brought it up.
(42:07):
This is gonna be the last thing that I gotta
throw out there is Jason Tatum is a top three
MVP candidate this season. What do you think he needs
to do to get up to one? Is it possible?
I tend to think that it's not going to happen,
and I think it would require I'll defer to you, Abby,
(42:27):
but I think the Celtics would have to win the
NBA regular season by an extraordinary margin. They have to
run away and hide. And I again, ironically, after what
I just said to me, it occurred to me. There
were a lot of moments this year where it occurred
to me. The biggest obstacle to Jason Tatum winning the
MVP is how good Jaylen Brown is. Because he has
a right, because Joel embiid, I forget. I mean, Yokis
(42:50):
just clearly in the driver's seat and he should be.
And what I said at the beginning of the years,
he's won twice with Denver being in the middle of
the pack, they're gonna win the West running away. So
I had no problem, unlike a lot of people, Well,
you can't win three in a row, because that's historic.
If Yokis is the best player, he deserves to win
three years in a row. Joel Embiad has sort of
defined MVP seasons to me, and that you think about
these games where Joel Embiad has forty and twenty four
(43:10):
and the Sixers are winning by like three, Yeah, he
needs to do this for the Sixers to win these games.
So to me, there's that durant to me, with the
injury kind of falls out of it regardless of what
he does in Phoenix, but that to me, I think
the Jalen presence and the fact that if it's not Yoki,
voters feel and Bead has been the guy on the
outside looking in and it's almost like it would be
(43:32):
his turn. If not Yoki, I think that hurts Tatum,
and this year puts Tatum in the position of where
embiad is now almost like it's his turn at some
point to win it in the future. I also think
it's a little bit of and we hear this a lot,
is that the thing that elevates a player to a
superstar level is that he makes the guys around him better.
(43:53):
And that's a part of Jason's game that has been developing,
continues to develop and is the best it's ever been.
But once he regular literally starts getting and that's something
that Emio Dooka said early on last season. He believes
that Jason is a player who can be getting racking
up triple doubles out of regular basis. And I think
that that's kind of the missing piece for Jason in
that ascension to the ultimate MVP conversation is making his
(44:19):
teammates better, and he does. He is so good at
making the right basketball play. And the amount of hockey assists,
if you accounted for those, I think would be huge.
But I do think that that is a part of
it where if you don't watch every single game and
see the mastery that he has is something that if
you just look at a box score, you say, oh,
(44:39):
Jason had five assists last night, you know, to go
along with his forty points, and he's making the right
basketball play, but so is everyone else. And I think
that that's a testament to the Celtics offense and a
testament to this team. But it's another factor when if
you're not paying attention, you could miss it. He's also
he said, he's so good at those things. He's also
(45:00):
good at being humble. And I know that if he
does not win it this year, it's no sweat off
his back, like he's gonna move on and he's gonna say, hey,
whoever won it deserved to win it. But it's also
going to give him some motivation in the offseason to
try to come back and get it the next season.
And the fact that he's in the conversation at nineteen
years old, I would imagine that by the time he
(45:20):
reaches Nudge Kid. But at twenty four, if he's in
the top three of the MVP voting, you know one
is coming his way if all things you know, granted
that he remains healthy, but it's common that's just a
matter of when. Again, one of the things about the
Celtics historically there are no scoring champions. You know, MVPs
is individual things, so people don't care. How about instead
(45:42):
of baby bigger than Jason Tatum being or not being
the MVP this year, is the fact that there is
now you cannot argue against the fact that he has
put together one of the four or five best resumes
in the history of the game for players under twenty
five years old. That can't be argued. He's climbing that
oring list. He's the first ever too. He's the youngest
(46:02):
player to make a thousand threes. And not to mention
there are players that put up big numbers like this,
he is combined putting up these big numbers with a
trip to the NBA Finals and multiple trips nowt of
the conference finals. So put together, look at the resumes
of players under twenty five, the elite of the elite, Durant,
Kobe Shack, Jason Tatum is in the conversation with these guys.
(46:25):
We don't know what twenty five to thirty to thirty
to thirty five is going to look like. But among
the all time greatest players in the history of this
game that was in meted by James nay Smith, Jason
Tatum is one of the best under twenty five players
to ever play period period. And by the time this
episode airs, we're gonna be a few days ahead of
his twenty fifth birthday. He will maybe by the time
(46:48):
this airs are shortly thereafter, he will become the number
seven scorer of all time in the history of the
league before the age of twenty five. And think about
that and a couple of the guys on it, because
I've been I've been you know, you guys know, I've
been pipping that list for a while and we've been
running it on TV and whatever. That Some of those
guys on that list are high school guys. Obviously, Johannis
didn't play the year in college, Devin Booker did, Kevin
(47:09):
Durant did, but and Shack obviously played at LSU. But
there are guys on that list, Kobe among them that
did not play, you know, so among these, I think
fourth maybe on that list of guys that actually played
in college. Crazy crazy, well, and we gets every single night.
We'll keep doing that the rest of the season. But
a lot of fun things that we got to rewind
(47:31):
and look back on so far in the season. I
have a question for you, what do you got set?
Because historically it has never happened before. What I talked
about would Abbey doing, I'm doing what Max is doing,
You're watching, you're taking in TV and radio before. This
is never we talk about player at depth and playing
multiple positions and positions. Well, this isn't a historic year
(47:51):
in terms of Celtics broadcasting as far as people being
I mean, where's that's the most flowers for being able
to on no notice, jumping from one to the other,
and you know, where's all that. This is an historic
part of the season. It wasn't on your little rundown
sheet this The flowers are happening now to both of
you carry multiple, multiple roles, bouncing back and forth. It's
(48:13):
everything you already said. I think you gave the flowers
out to yourself. Jowers. This is the job TI man,
tell us where to go and the words. I can
say this anyone who's watching or listening, if you tune
into the radio or the TV, you never you're gonna
hear one no matter what any given night, which you're
gonna get And hopefully this gives me we need one
(48:35):
of those Twitter accounts like who's doing the Celtics can tonight?
Like and then it's just who's announcing. Yeah, it's kind
of like the Celtics starting lineup. It is very much
you don't know the rotating door and you ask us, hey,
who's gonna start toime. We just give you the we'll
announce it, give you the Joe one word answer. You'll
find out thirty minutes before we're pre get start, we'll
have to show someone out, someone else on TV or
radio today. We're gonna we're gonna work her out before
(48:56):
the game, and then we'll make a decision someone out there.
We'll fire up that Twitter account. It's going to happen now.
But now this has been great, Let's look forward to
the second half of the season, which is really the
final twenty three games and hopefully this team makes a
long run. So that's episode four, season three of You
from the Rappers, and see you guys next week with
another episode
Host
Marc D'Amico
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