Boston Celtics

West Virginian Men's High School Basketball State Championships are a funny thing when your best friend gets ejected for excessive celebration after a dunk. Getting in a knife fight at a bar that ultimately results in being picked as the last pick in the first-round of what is pegged as one of the most intriguing draft classes of the new millennium might seem unfortunate at first, but looking back at the overall journey shows how it could not have happened any other way. Guys with high character tend to transmit their tendencies on to the troubled minds who fill up 12th, 13th and sometimes even starting roster spots. This is the Boston Celtics in 2009: Can a winning formula be improved upon? Is there such thing as a winning formula in sports? Will Bill Simmons find a new and amusing way to crush my soul?

With that in mind, I will pontificate the near future of your 2007-2008 NBA champs:

There is no reason Boston shouldn't win the Atlantic Division, handily, thereby giving them a good shot at pole position again for a serious playoff run.

Will their old core stay healthy enough all season?
-Many a sportswriter has taken issue with the erratic substitution "patterns" that Coach Rivers employs. I must agree; consistency cannot come from inconsistency. I think there is a good chance that the regular seasons comes up all roses for the C's this year, but the playoffs will be a different matter. Also, there will be less mercenaries showing up this time around, with guaranteed roster spots for Bill Walker and J.R. Giddens. The ghost of Scot Pollard just pawned his championship ring for a Rita's Water Ice.

Will the young players continue developing at such a high level?
-Everyone has been sleeping on the progress of Glen Davis; I, for one, think he is due for a great statistical season. What about our fine friend Tony Allen, another athletic, hard-working wing who will most likely work his way back in to the rotation. Rondo, while never entering the Paul/Williams PG debate, can continue to flash hardware and laugh all the way to the bank. Kendrick Perkins is entering his 5th season, yowza. The rookies, if healthy, should get a nice insulted, loving, ubuntu-infused environment by which to show their stuff. Gayness abounds.

Why is Boston so easily vilified?
-The oppressive waves of national advertising campaigns aimed at deifying KG and his cohorts that any regular NBA viewer was subject to had the opposite effect on most people I knew, not from New England. The only epic aspect to that title run was the way in which they gave games away to lesser teams. No matter what anyone says ATL had no business even trying to compete in that first series. It's easy to rally behind so many other NBA squads, for chrissakes I was cheering for the Lakers in June, anything is possible for non-Boston fans looking to reconcile the anger in their petty, jealous hearts.

Album of the Week:

B.B. King and Bobby "Blue" Bland
Together for the First Time
read about it here: and if anyone would like a copy let me know, I have to rip it off of vinyl.