Celtics Central

Well not really.

Though I did do some stream fishing in April and May.

But I’m taking some ‘downtime’ and might not post for a week or two.

If I get any earthshaking news or ideas, I’ll put it here. Otherwise, I will see you all after I catch a
couple of weeks of R&R.

The Celtics’ 17th championship has finally set in. In fact, it is has finally set in that Kevin Garnett is a Celtic.

I’m going green in 2 ways – as a Celtic fan and in saving my words for when they might mean a little more.

Talk to you all in 2 weeks or so. It goes quicker than you think.

Thanks for reading!

T

No one mentioned it.

I think writers were afraid they would jinx things. Not just players are superstitious.

I’m talking about Injuries with a capital I.

The Celtics won because of every reason that has been mentioned….and one more. They stayed healthy enough to keep the team in tact for the duration. I wanted to say something about that all year long. But I thought that as soon as I do……you know. I didn’t want to get blamed. Neither did any Celtic beat writer it seems.

So let me finally say it. The Celtics avoided any major injuries to key players for the year.

There were some swerves, some speed bumps, a few traffic slowdowns, minor detours and a couple of rest stops on the Celtic road to success. But there wasn’t a major player ‘gone down’ for much of the season.

Remember last season? The Celtics amassed 311 games missed due to injury in their version version of the Young and the Defenseless. Led by Wally Szczerbiak’s 52 games in Wallyworld’s version of As the Ankle Turns, followed by Tony Allen’s 48 games out of commission for the show called ‘Was That Dunk Really Necessary?’, and the piece d’resistance, Paul Pierce’s Stress Reactions of the Rich and Famous, Delonte West looked downright healthy with only 12 games missed due to injury.

This season, when it mattered so much more, the Celtics managed only 86 games missed due to injury. 33 of those were attributed to Scot Pollard. That is a very good number for an 82 game season. Now, that’s not saying that players weren’t playing hurt this season. They most certainly were. There was one very good reason why. Championship aspirations will do that to a player. Doc and Kevin Garnett have both alluded to the fact that not all injuries were made public.

More impressive, even the injuries they did have did not stop the Celtics train. Most amazing was the team’s 7-2 record with Kevin Garnett out with an abdominal strain. The sound you hear was another criticism crashing to the floor. They could even win without team anchor Kevin Garnett.

Ray Allen missed exactly 5 games due to ankle injuries, though he had ankle surgery in the off season.

Of note, Paul Pierce did not miss a single game due to injury. He missed one game for ‘personal reasons’. That is amazing because we all know that Paul took a pounding this year and more so in the play-offs between injuring his ankle and his knee.

One thought…how would you have liked to have been the Celtics trainer who checked Pierce out in the locker room of the game that Paul was wheeled out of?

You have to make a snap judgement on how hurt he is and how much more he could hurt the knee by playing. The wrong decision could affect a career of one the game’s biggest stars. I’m absolutely sure Head Trainer Ed Lacerte knows exactly what he is doing. Still….those must have been anxious moments for Mr. Lacerte and anyone else who was involved in the decision.

If you could get a glimpse of the training, massage, and therapy room before and after each game, you would get just an inkling of how much stress and punishment these players put their bodies through to entertain us for 48 minutes and to earn their money. Some reading this may laugh at that notion. But make no mistake. Something called ‘NBA shape’ is a real concept. Young players, semi-retired players, off season players will all use that term. It is not to be taken lightly. These players are, for the most part, in fantastic shape.

As the year wore on, there were post games in the locker room that James Posey looked like he had come through a war as he sat there and gathered his thoughts and rested his body before showering. He missed only 6 games all year, 3 due to sprained finger and 2 because of back spasms. The way James throws his body around the court you would expect far worse. James Posey is a gamer.

It took PJ Brown nearly a month to get in NBA shape, and the progress was subtle. Though his timing was off, he looked pretty good from the start. Big Baby had to work up to it. Pollard never quite got back to it.

Doc kept the three stars relatively healthy by getting each of them some rest and watching minutes carefully all year long. Still, any NBA team is one twisted knee or ankle away from finding out how good #2 on the depth chart really is. It is hard to prevent those things from happening.

The biggest off season story influenced by injury is Tony Allen. He himself will admit the psychological aspect of recovery is just as important as the physical. The thought of re-injuring his knee played a part in his ability to recover from it. Tony looked healed and ready to move forward in his brief appearances in the play-offs. Still, we haven’t seen the Tony that existed before the dunk that sideswiped down his promising career.

Next year, may we hope that the Celtic team stays as healthy as this years’. It is almost a requirement to win a championship…like defense and team oriented play.

So let this be the article that is ‘Banned in Boston’ again next season. Page 32, paragraph 3, line 7 says ‘off season articles don’t count’ when it comes to jinx talk.

A healthy Celtic team will be even more dangerous next year with a season under their belt.

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Please know that I’m not done writing about the Celtics this season. But I wanted to thank Gary Rogo, Sport Editor, and the Connecticut Post for allowing me to bring news of the Boston Celtics to the fans in southwestern Connecticut by way of the Celtics Central blog on the Connpost.com website this season.

What a season it was.

I knew it would be a special ride. I never allowed myself to think it would end the way it did. Just too perfect. I hope you have enjoyed the ride as much as I have. The Boston Celtics gave us plenty of entertainment on their magical march to a national championship. The way it was done would make Red Auerbach and Bill Russell proud. Three tremendous talents, team first, and defense always.

I tried a few different styles of writing here before settling on a combination of exposition, analysis and opinion. Different articles emphasized degrees of each. It’s been a blast.

The internet is a growing medium. One day it may supplant print entirely. That day may appear before I move on to the next world. Web content will at least become as important as the printed page in the not too distant future. My generation still reads newspapers. I just turned 55.

Those 20 years younger probably do not read newspapers regularly. Each generation after them will be more like them than they will be like me. They will get their news from TV satirical talk shows and the internet for the most part. It is an electronic generation far more than any one before them.

I feel that I am in some small way, a part of that movement.

I hope you have bookmarked this page and made it one of your regular stops each day. I tried to offer something fresh on most days. I’ve learned how hard that is to do. I hope I have succeeded more than I have failed.

I don’t expect everyone (or anyone) to agree with everything I write. They are my thoughts alone.

I did get much more serious about how I watched a game this season. The tendency of most fans is to follow the ball and pay attention to the offensive side of things. Much of what happens in a game happens away from the ball. Much of the story is what happens on the defensive end. I’ve made a real effort to see the whole play at each end of the court. I watch games so much differently now.

There were times I was so intent on ‘off the ball’ play, I had to ask someone else who just scored the basket. That’s what happens when you are keying in on a match up or two.

Player rotation and ball movement are just two of many different things you look for. I was much more aware of both.

There is an ongoing argument over whether basketball is complicated or simple. The simple answer is it is both. The complicated answer is, it depends on what you are talking about.

The best answer is that informed experts can be wrong, uninformed fans can be right…and vice a versa. Everyone has an opinion in the sports world. Step up and make your case. That is what it is all about.

I tried to be as informed as I could and I tried to ‘get it right’ as much as I possibly could. I hope I presented my thoughts in an informative and entertaining way. I hope I did a good enough job for you to want to see what I had to say on a regular basis.

This season is winding down. The 2008 NBA Draft will take the spotlight soon. Off season rumors of moves and actual moves will come to pass. The Celtics will have decisions to make and so will some players. I will keep you abreast of it all as much I can.

So…thanks to Doc Rivers and the Celtics for bringing back the Title. Thanks to the Connecticut Post and Gary Rogo for bringing detailed Celtic analysis to its readers on an almost daily basis.

Let’s do it all again next season!

(this was written right after the clinching 6th game)

Talk about turning around misfortune.

The Boston Celtics just erased any doubts about which team is the very best in the NBA. It wasn’t even close. They inflicted their purposeful vengeance upon the heavily favored and long time rival Los Angeles Lakers in a play-off game clinching record 39 points. The final score: 131 to 92.

In a single year, make that a year and a single month’s trades, they went from the depths of despair after drawing only the 5th best pick in the NBA draft after finishing with the 2nd worst record in the NBA. Drafting 1st or 2nd meant a potential franchise player in Greg Odom or Kevin Durant. Anything after that meant more development time.

Time was not something Celtic team star Paul Pierce, nor Executive Director of Basketball Operations Danny Ainge had a lot of. Danny was named to his position on May 9, 2003. The team was moving backwards and getting younger every year. People scratched their heads. Vision? How about derision? Danny knew it takes time to turn a ship around, but he was running out of time.

29 year old Paul Pierce’s patience with Danny’s rebuilding and ‘asset accumulation’ was wearing out and he knew his window of opportunity to win an NBA championship was starting to narrow. Danny did as well. Get me help or trade me, was Paul’s message. It was a moment of truth for The Truth and Danny.

Two godawful seasons of 24 wins after 33 wins, was preceded by 19 years of championship drought. Winning a league champion is an enormously difficult task. But we are talking about the Celtics. Think New York Yankees when you think Boston Celtics. It is just not supposed to happen that way to the league’s legendary franchise. This is the league that Bill Russell and Red Auerbach built.

Ainge opted to try to trade for another star or two to support Pierce, instead of trading him away and go for a full blown youth movement. That decision was monumental and course changing for the Celtic franchise. Amazingly, it would lead to the construction of a team that would fashion together this storybook season culminating in the franchise’s 17th NBA title one year later.

Two decisive trades and the franchise’s reversal of fortune was in motion.

1) On draft night June 28th he traded the 5th pick, oft injured sharp shooter Wally Szczerbiak, and fan favorite guard Delonte West to the Seattle Supersonics for Ray Allen, one of the league’s top offensive players and their 2nd round pick, power forward Glen “Big Baby” Davis.

2) On July 31st, he made “the trade” that made the NBA earth stand still. Sending 5 players and 2 number one draft choices to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the largest single player trade in NBA history, he acquired league jewel Kevin Garnett. The Big Ticket was the most athletically gifted player the league has ever seen at 7’ feet tall. They bought the Ticket to ride. Ride him they did. Garnett was the player that would be the cornerstone of a new destiny for the franchise.

Ironically, the ever loyal Garnett had rebuffed a Celtic trade in the previous month. The addition of Ray Allen and the knowledge that Wolves’ owner Glen Taylor wanted to rebuild, moved Kevin Garnett to reconsider. He called Danny to tell him he now wanted to come to the Celtics. He realized this team, with Ray Allen and Paul Pierce, would provide the best possibility for him to try to win an NBA title. None of them had won a ring in their careers. That common motivation and singular goal would mean everything.

Call it a Sequence of Fortunate Events. But you could see the plan. The funny thing is that right away Boston became a magnet for other players. Danny’s follow up sequence of moves put the rest of the cast in place.

The choice of role players was critical. They would ultimately play large roles in making it all happen. Outside shooting specialist Eddie House was added on August 9th. Forward, defensive specialist, three point shooter and NBA title veteran James Posey was added on August 27th. Then there were the late acquisitions. Veteran point guard Sam Cassell and semi-retired forward/center PJ Brown were added. Both proved to be pivotal acquisitions.

We witnessed a relentless march through the NBA. We were witness to the single biggest turnaround in NBA history. The team’s early commitment to defense was surprising and the singular difference between this team and all others. It was the way to attain an NBA Championship ring. Corny things like ‘team first’, losing egos, and new words like ubuntu were sprouting. NBA players and coaches talk about those things all of the time. Few ever mean it.

Kevin, Paul and Ray’s embrace of each other, when removed from the final game at the 4:01 mark was the moment they played 108 grueling games this year for. Mission accomplished.

My only question is how anyone could have favored the Lakers at all, let alone heavily?

The Celtics’ difficult march through inferior teams in the east was enough to convince the experts that they couldn’t beat the potent Lakers. The Lakers sliced through the west in a conference considered far superior. Golden State, a 50 win team was unable to even crack the play-offs.

Three individual legacies were on the line. Yet, outside of Boston, there were more believers at an athiests’ convention than there were in sports circles about the Celtics chances.

It all changed in 3 hours and exactly 48 game minutes later on Tuesday evening. Fittingly, Boston won their 17th World Championship at home after blowing a chance to win on the Lakers’ floor on Sunday night.

Three Celtic players, two of them new this season, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen cemented their Hall of Fame credentials and their legacies forever in a single game. They dispelled a mountain of questions, criticisms, and doubts about how good each of them were.

All three performed magnificently throughout the play-offs, with Paul Pierce’s anchoring performance at both ends of the floor earning him the Finals MVP Award.

He now joins other Celtic greats and can stand shoulder to shoulder with them knowing he helped put another banner up in the rafters.

“These are the guys, the (John) Havliceks, Bill Russells, the (Bob) Cousys,” Pierce said. “These guys started what’s going on today with those banners. They don’t hang up any banners but championship ones, and now I’m a part of it. And just all the years talking to Bill and John and Cousy, finally I just feel like we’ve come out of that shadow and created our own. Now we can stand up and look at them eye-to-eye and say, ‘Hey, we accomplished it, too.’ ”

Well said and well done by the captain of the 2008 NBA World Champion Boston Celtics.

A lost lottery turned into paradise found for the Celtic organization.

I’m glad we could share the journey together, fellow believers. The very fact that it was done at Phil Jackson’s and Kobe Bryant’s expense made it all that much sweeter.

Soak up the moment.

No one mentioned it. I think writers were afraid they would jinx things. Not just players are superstitious.

I’m talking about Injuries with a capital I.

The Celtics won because of every reason that has been mentioned….and one more. They stayed healthy enough to keep the team in tact for the duration. I wanted to say something about that all year long. But I thought that as soon as I do……you know. I didn’t want to get blamed. Neither did any Celtic beat writer it seems.

So let me finally say it. The Celtics avoided any major injuries to key players for the year.

There were some swerves, some speed bumps, a few traffic slowdowns, minor detours and a couple of rest stops on the Celtic road to success. But there wasn’t a major player gone down for much of the season.

Remember last season? The Celtics amassed 311 games missed due to injury in their version version of the Young and the Defenseless. Led by Wally Szczerbiak’s 52 games in Wallyworld’s version of As the Ankle Turns, followed by Tony Allen’s 48 games out of commission for the show called ‘Was That Dunk Really Necessary?’, and the piece d’resistance, Paul Pierce’s Stress Fractures of the Rich and Famous, Delonte West looked downright healthy with only 12 games missed due to injury.

This season, when it mattered so much more, the Celtics managed only 86 games missed due to injury. 33 of those were attributed to Scot Pollard. That is a very good number for an 82 game season. Now, that’s not saying that players weren’t playing hurt this season. They most certainly were. There was one very good reason why. Championship aspirations will do that to a player. Doc and Garnett have both alluded to the fact that not all injuries were made public.

And more impressive, even the injuries they did have did not stop the Celtics train. Most amazing was the team’s 7-2 record with Kevin Garnett out with an abdominal strain. You sound you hear was another criticism crashing to the floor. They could even win without team anchor Kevin Garnett.

Ray Allen missed exactly 5 games due to ankle injuries, though he had ankle surgery in the off season.

Of note, Paul Pierce did not miss a single game due to injury. He missed one game for ‘personal reasons’. That is amazing because we all know that Paul took a pounding this year and more so in the play-offs between injuring his ankle and his knee.

One thought…how would you have liked to have been the Celtics trainer who checked Pierce out in the locker room of the game that Paul was wheeled out of? You have to make a snap judgement on how hurt he is and how much more he could hurt the knee by playing. The wrong decision could affect a career of one the game’s biggest stars. I’m absolutely sure Head Trainer Ed Lacerte knows exactly what he is doing. Still….those must have been anxious moments for Mr. Lacerte and anyone else who was involved in the decision.

If you could get a glimpse of the training, massage, and therapy room before and after each game, you would get just an inkling of how much stress and punishment these players put their bodies through to entertain us for 48 minutes and to earn their money. Some reading this may laugh at that notion. But make no mistake. Something called ‘NBA shape’ is a real concept. Young players, semi-retired players, off season players will all use that term. It is not to be taken lightly. These players are, for the most part, in fantastic shape.

As the year wore on, there were post games in the locker room that James Posey looked like he had come through a war as he sat there and gathered his thoughts and rested his body before showering. He missed only 6 games all year, 3 due to sprained finger and 2 because of back spasms. The way James throws his body around the court you would expect far worse. James Posey is a gamer.

It took PJ Brown nearly a month to get in NBA shape, though the progress was subtle. Though his timing was off, he looked pretty good from the start. Big Baby had to work up to it. Pollard never quite got back to it.

Doc kept the three stars relatively healthy by getting each of them some rest and watching minutes carefully all year long. Still, any NBA team is one twisted knee or ankle away from finding out how good #2 on the depth chart really is. It is hard to prevent those from happening.

The biggest off season story influenced by injury is Tony Allen. He himself will admit the psychological aspect of recovery is just as important as the physical. The thought of re-injuring his knee played a part in his ability to recover from it. Tony looked healed and ready to move forward in his brief appearances in the play-offs. Still, we haven’t seen the Tony that existed before the dunk that brought down his promising career.

Next year, may we hope that the Celtic team stays as healthy as this years’. It is almost a requirement to win a championship…like defense and team oriented play.

So let this be the article that is ‘Banned in Boston’ again next season. Page 32, paragraph 3, line 7 says ‘off season articles don’t count’ when it comes to jinx talk. A healthy Celtic team will be even more dangerous with a season under their belt.

The levy held. The floodwaters were averted. The Celtics were 2-0.

I feel compelled to report something that happened that “Night to Remember”. By coincidence, there is a book about the Titanic of that title.

I haven’t seen what I’m about to relate anywhere in Celtic Nation and it’s worth one article anyway.

The Celtics emphatically beat down the Lakers – absolutely no doubt about it. No longer would Ray, Paul, and Kevin be called into question for their heart, their brains, their basketball IQ, their clutchness. The bully was beaten back. Three large monkeys were seen jumping off of their backs and jumping onto three Lakers backs. Those buggers are hard to get rid of.

The national experts including the PHDs of number crunchers like Chad Ford, and John Hollinger all picked LA to win. The two mentioned had the Lakers in 6.

Okay. Okay. I know you have already heard that.

But here is something you haven’t heard or seen in print that I know of, anyway.

I can’t tell you how many times, before the 6th game, that I heard that the Celtics “had better win tonight because we don’t want a game 7 against this team.”

Multiple times from multiple people – all east coast people.

And here is something else I don’t think is in print anywhere on the east coast anyway. Most people weren’t sure the game was locked up until the lead was ridiculous.

Doc Rivers kept the three stars in until the 4 minute mark and everyone was darn glad of it. It wasn’t just for ‘celebrating with the guys that brought the team there’ either, though they will tell you that. It was simple. Neither team proved they could hold a lead in this series.

I even was wondering if the lead was safe in the 3rd quarter. When it hit 30 I relaxed. But that is amazing in and of itself. When the Celtics letdown..or let up, they can lose 24 points in 7 minutes.

It is not that the Lakers were ever considered the better team by those who uttered those thoughts. I don’t think anyone who followed this Celtic team regularly thought the Lakers would
win this series. Not one.

But the Celtics game 2 meltdown was not forgotten. A 24 point lead disappeared in 6 minutes. For those whose memories have gotten worse than their grandmothers’, that was an astounding feeling, too. Watching the Lakers get within 2 points, a single basket, right near the end, made the following thought embrace my entire being…”My God, they might lose this game.”

The Celtic team was one basket away from being the Lakers, instead of beating the Lakers. We all know the good guys finally put a stop to it and pulled out a win in a game that had no business whatsoever being that close. But that game was not forgotten.

Neither was the idea that a game 7 with Kobe Bryant would not be a given win for this Green Juggernaut. No one wanted it.

As Cassius said, “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”

Or in this case, our stars’ selves.

“We’re happy because we won, but we definitely learned a lesson,” Pierce said after game two.

Still one might wonder if they truly did. They’ve given up other leads this post season. It is not like this was the first time. A careless Rondo or Pierce showboat pass that gets picked off. Defenders not getting out to the guard 3 point shooters as quickly. Hasty Celtic perimeter shots that don’t go in. Suddenly, a beaten team gets life.

Here are my thoughts on both situations:

1) If the Celtics lost game 2 after being up by 24 – would they have lost the series? Would their collective confidence have disappeared into the Bermuda (Laker) triangle of that devastating letdown?

My answer is not yes, but isn’t a definite no either. It seems that this team is it’s own worst enemy at times. Too cocky with a lead. They seemed to get better and better against the odds as the play-offs wore on. But they almost needed to know that every basket counted for them to perform at the top of their abilities.

2) What if they sent it the reserves earlier in game 6? Would the Lakers have made a run and a game out of it?. Probably. That’s how it has gone in this series. Paul Pierce said at half time that the Celtics would not let the lead disappear in the 2nd half. They would come out with even more energy than the first half. They did this time. The Green Machine opened up the throttle and ran right over the Lakers. The Kobes wilted quickly. The Celtic starters and bench were not to be denied on this night. But I couldn’t help but think how large of a lead would be ’safe’ for far too long into the final game.

You see, there was a tipping point in game 2 when the Celtics were a basket away from approaching the rest of the series in a completely different light. They could have been even at 1-1 going into LA.

If you think I’m now going to say that would changed who the winner was – I’m not. I don’t even think that the Celtics would have lost this series if that game 2 meltdown occurred. This Celtic team is that good. I think they would have probably won the first game in LA, to be honest. They would have regained their home court advantage. This team is that good when it is focused.

But boy, there were times that they didn’t make it easy on us watching those games, did they?

Thanks for the thrills, but thanks for the final convincing win even more. We fans needed that.

And oh yeah…I would have been fine with a game 7, too. The Celtics would never lose that many times to this Laker team. Never. The only thing that could beat this team was Celtic injuries. But there were more than a few others at that game who weren’t so sure. Game 6 – Game 7, this Celtic team would be Champs. It was only a matter of which game. Thanks for one less late night.

Thanks for finally playing well for 48 minutes. No other team can compete with you when you do – contrary to what the experts thought. This team was its biggest adversary at times. No other team can stop them when they are right.

If you haven’t seen this, Brian Scalabrine has some questions of his own for the experts. Enjoy….

http://mvn.com/nba-celtics/2008/06/18/espn-not-so-expert-after-all/

Louisiana Tech University produces talented NBA big men from time to time. Karl Malone of yore and Paul Millsap of recent years are NBA bigs from the school. Current Celtic P.J. Brown, the Big Cat, is another La. Tech graduate and NBA long timer.

P.J. hopped on the Green Machine bus a little over halfway through the season and helped drive it to an NBA Championship, his first after 15 years in the league….including a half of year out of it, sitting back home, chilling in Slidell, Louisiana eating shrimp, mud puppies, muffalattas, po-boys, and jumbalaya.

Long Road for P.J. to a Title
6′ 11″ 225 lbs, forward/center P.J. Brown began his NBA career in 1993 as a 2nd round pick of the New Jersey Nets. He played for the Nets for the first three years of his career. He moved on to Miami for 4 years, then the Hornets for 7 years, before retiring from the Bulls after a less than happy season last year.

For a player who has averaged 10.5 points over his career to have earned $70 million dollars over his career, he must be doing something very right.

His bread and butter is defense, rebounding, including hitting the offensive boards (he is 3rd for career in the NBA among active players and 21st all time), and still has a reliable mid range jumper as Celtic fans found out. He hit it with pressure in the play-offs. P.J. Brown was tailor made to play on a team like the 2008 Celtics. There was a job opening for back-up center once Scot Pollard was put on the shelf. Paul Pierce and Ray Allen were the human resource department persuading him to apply within.

The 15 year veteran, 3 time All Defensive 2nd Teamer signed with the Celtics for a bargain basement $474, 285 in order to have a chance to play for a championship ring.

Talked out of retirement by Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, for one more chance to play for the elusive NBA ring, P.J. ended up making the right decision and entered into NBA history by earning its highest honor – World Champion. He was more and more instrumental in Celtic victories as the play-offs wore on and Kendrick Perkins began nursing a few injuries. His defense, occasional offense, and calm on-court demeanor proved invaluable, especially in the early rounds for the younger Celtic players.

I’ve been through it all. I thought my composure would be big for this team. I just go out there and be P.J. you know what I mean? I come out with my game and just try and do the best that I can.

P.J. has now played in 107 play-off games in his career. Fully 26 of them, almost a quarter of his entire career’s totals, were from this post season with the Celtics. Coming in with 81 games experience in the post season would count for a lot, as we would find out.

Thoughts on this final game?

It started out rough at first. But then it seemed like our defensive intensity got higher and higher. We made everything tough on them. Every shot they took, we made it hard. Everything Kobe took, wasn’t easy.

At one point, Kobe came down and made an aggressive spin move on you. You made a great recovery with that block. Tell us about that.

He was determined to put that shot in my face. I guess Kobe was saying you’re old and you can’t jump no more. But I still have length. I’ve got long arms, so I just tried to stay in front of him, use my defensive principles and stay between him and the basket. When he went up, it was good timing, and it was a good play for us.

P.J. is 3rd among active players in fouls and that also was part of his job this post season as well. Many were the time, when the Celtics needed to lay a hard one on someone. It was Brown doing the deed.

After being congratulated on winning his first Championship PJ was asked if, a year ago, he ever expected to be standing here now as part of a world champion team…

Not in a million years. I would say my career was about as close to being over as it could possibly be. And (if) it wasn’t for the chance meeting with Paul and Ray in New Orleans, I wouldn’t be standing in front of you.

When I made the decision to come, there were no guarantees. Nobody said the Boston Celtics would end up being world champions. There were a whole bunch of other great teams out there. Going along this path, it’s been a roller coaster this whole post season. It’s been awesome man. I just feel grateful, man, and I’m just blessed to be here tonight.

Do you plan on coming back here to this team?

I have no idea. If it comes to that, and I decide to came back, this is option A. I would look no other place but here first. I prefer to leave it at that for right now.

So, PJ is just going to enjoy the moment and the milestone he has finally reached as a 38 year old player.

Obviously, if P.J. decides to send feelers out to the Celtics, he would want to earn a bit more than the bargain basement money he signed for this year. How and where Wyc and Danny decide to spend their money for next season’s team will involve some tough decisions and maybe a little more out of pocket money. The returns generated from this year’s luxury tax penalty team couldn’t have been better. Or maybe they will be.

The TV ratings were up about 50% percent over last year and the final game earned a 10.7 share, the highest since 2000. A portion of any and all monies earned are distributed back to teams in the revenue sharing agreement.

The Celtics say they will sell about about 1,000 more season tickets next year than they made available this year. Kevin Garnett’s jersey is the NBA’s number one selling item. Celtics gear sales generally, will only increase. It’s a good time economically for the league and the Celtics in particular.

Perhaps there are a few sheckles more for a player like P.J. Brown