Welcome back to Thoughts of a Sports Addict. After a looooooonnnnnggggg delay, I've finally decided that now is the time to post some thoughts. Why now? Because I'm attempting to watch a complete Red Sox game and figure that even though it's the fifth inning I probably still have another three hours to crank out a column.
Anyways, I'm tempted to change the title of the blog to Thoughts of an NBA Addict because let's be honest, I'm probably never writing about anything other than NBA basketball. Maybe I'll throw out a quick one on March Madness or give my thoughts on potential draftees but that's as far off of the NBA as I'll go.
So let's see, since the last time I published an entry the Heat won the finals, Ray Allen broke my heart, Steve Nash joined the Lakers, and Dwight Howard is a Net.....wait sorry he's on the Lakers......oh wait no he's changed his mind again and he's been traded to the Flint Michigan Tropics to play with Jackie Moon (still won't sign an extension though). I never thought ANYONE could upstage Lebron's "Decision" but at least he made a decision and got it over with in one day, Dwight has turned the last two seasons into the equivalent of the Iranian Hostage Crisis for the NBA. So please Dwight, speaking as someone who is probably in the top .001% of NBA fans in the entire world, just pick a spot and let yourself be traded there, this has to stop. Even as a Celtics fan I don't care if the Magic trade Dwight to the Heat for Joel Anthony, Juwan Howard, and the rights to the Dolphins, just please send him somewhere else.
Now let me go ahead and surprise everyone by saying that I'm perfectly fine with Lebron James raising the Larry O'Brien Trophy. Yes, he gets the benefit of EVERY call, carries himself with the utmost arrogance, and has the words "Chosen One" tattooed on his back but for this season he deserved to win the championship. I remember watching him in game 6 against the Celtics, as he hit jumper after jumper after jumper and proceeded to rip my heart out, thinking that this is the way I've always wanted to see him play. The biggest problem I ever had with Lebron was that he was wasting his talent and it offended me. Having missed the Jordan era, just bad luck being born too late, I felt that Lebron was my chance to experience what it was like. For the first 8 years of his career it didn't really work out that way though. Lebron didn't have the killer instinct that Jordan had, wasn't the closer that Jordan was, and certainly didn't carry himself with the supreme confidence that seemed to ooze out of MJ's every pore. He was robbing me of my chance to be able to sit my grandkids on me knee someday and tell them about how I saw Lebron James dominate the NBA, just like Michael, Larry, Magic, Kareem, and Bill Russell had done before him. My biggest fear when Lebron went to Miami was that he'd win a title playing second fiddle to Dwyane Wade, proving that Lebron was more Scottie Pippen than Michael Jordan.
But this year something changed. Lebron came out in the playoffs and dominated to a level that I've never seen before. He was everything I've ever wanted him to be, taking over in the clutch, hitting big shots, and playing lock down defense. Unfortunately he decided to have this coming out party against my favorite team in the Eastern Conference Finals......so I'm still not a fan but at least now I can tell myself that I'm ok with him winning the championship. Now that we've decided that Lebron is indeed the Michael Jordan of the Heat, that would make Dwyane Wade the Scottie Pippen and Chris Bosh the Toni Kukoc. Bosh being Kukoc is actually a lot closer than you'd think, with both being in the 6'10" range and left handed........well I suppose that's where the comparison probably stops.
.........Now we move on to a topic that has been pretty hard to deal with. I'll let the video speak first.
Before I rip on Ray Allen for the decision he made, let me first say, thank you. Thank you for helping my favorite team win a championship in 2008, thank you for always playing hard and being in shape, thank you for hitting more game winning shots than I can count, thank you for crossing over Sasha Vujacic so badly that he almost cried, and thank you for helping to make the Celtics relevant again.
I'll never forget watching Ray Allen hit his first game winner in a Celtics' uniform against the Bobcats. We stole the inbounds pass, Ray ended up with the ball and nailed the shot. I'll never forget when the picture went out and I had to listen to Tommy and Mike describe the game winner Ray Allen hit against Toronto. How could I not remember forever when Ray made the most clutch lay up I've ever seen to secure a victory in the Game 4 comeback against the Lakers in Los Angeles? Even the next season when KG was hurt and the Bulls put up a huge fight in the first round series agains the Celtics, Ray hit big shot after big shot to put down the Bulls in 7 games. Then another trip to the finals in 2010 featured Ray breaking the record for threes in a finals game as the C's came agonizingly close to a second title in three years. Ray was at times incredible in a Celtics' uniform and I will never forget that. He made me jump out of my seat so many times that I eventually decided to just not sit down during the end of games.
And then he broke my heart......
I'll never understand how anyone could do what Ray did. In fact I've never known of another player to sign with the team that just beat his team in the playoffs, let alone the team that is the main rival. If KG had decided to just retire and Ainge was set on blowing up the team it would be understandable but when KG came back and the Celtics began to reload it seemed only natural for Ray Allen to return. However, he could not have done more to spite the Celtics. He signed with the Heat for half the money that the Celtics were offering and a role that is similar, or perhaps even less than, what Boston was offering. Ray Allen effectively spit in the face of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and every other teammate that he played with last year (although to be fair he probably would like to actually spit in Rondo's face). I know people like to argue that Ray was justified in what he did and he may have been, that's not what I'm interested in, my interest is in why he would leave. Imagine for a moment that Ray had stayed in Boston and retired at the end of his contract. In 2016 we get the incredible moment of Ray, Pierce, and KG coming back to the Garden to have their numbers retired together and a chance to soak in the adulation of the crowd one more time. Ray goes down as a Celtic legend and beloved New England figure, having also gone to college at UConn. In reality he gave all that up to be a mercenary, a hired gun, for the Heat. He'll get no credit if the Heat win another championship, at least no more than Mike Miller, Mario Chalmers, Udonis Haslem, or any other role player got this year. It's sad for me to think that when Ray Allen finally does retire, he will belong to no franchise. He was a Buck for the first five years of his career, a Supersonic for the next five years, then a Celtic for five years, and finally a member of the Heat. The two teams he had a chance to have his number retired for, the Celtics and Sonics, are no longer options. The Sonics were moved to Oklahoma City and are now known as the Thunder and Ray just torched his bridge with the Celtics.
Alright, well that's enough for now be sure to check back often though because I'll be breaking down the Celtics new players, Courtney Lee, Jared Sullinger, Fab Melo, Jeff Green, and maybe one or two more.
Thanks for reading, be sure to leave a comment, become a fan of this blog, and follow me on twitter @joshviola19.
-Josh
