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Boston Celtics

Beantown Relishes Franks

July 18, 2010 at 1:06 am by Thomas Halzack

Ouch. Couldn’t resist.

I just want to acknowledge and bid a welcome to Lawrence Franks to the Boston Celtics as their new assistant coach.

He takes the slot left open on Doc Rivers staff created by the departure of defensive guru Tom Thibodeau. Mr. Thibs is now in his very first head coaching position with the talented Chicago Bulls.

Larry Franks started off as an NBA head coach with the New Jersey Nets with a 13-0 winning streak, an NBA record to start a coaching career. He was fired after the Nets began last season 0-16.

You win some – and you lose some more.

In between, he distinguished himself as a pretty good coach, taking the Nets to 4 straight playoff appearances before dropping back to consecutive 34-48 seasons.

At one time the youngest head coach in the league, now 39, Franks is still very young and has 6 full seasons and parts of 2 others on his resume.

Last Season – Lost

After the Nets got rid of Vince Carter, you could see that things would be very tough for the Nets last season. Youth, multiple injuries and general lack of depth of talent would build the event horizon of the Nets black hole season (12-70). Not even light could escape. Time stood still as the Nets lost game after game. I would not judge Franks on the 0-16 start to the season that got him fired.

Known to be a very hard worker who concentrates on defense (like Thibodeau), and a potential candidate for other head coaching positions, he looks to be a good acquisition for the Celtics.

Hey, he got more out of Mikki Moore than anyone else ever could. That has to count for something.

Seriously, it will be interesting to see him takeover a very important role that belonged exclusively to the man that was the architect of the Celtics’ defense.

Larry Franks to Boston….

It is a natural….Franks and Beans.

Thomas Halzack

Celtic fan since the latter years of Bill Russell’s unprecedented run. Played (not very well) lots of ‘school lot’ ball growing up on the mean streets of Stratford. Okay, so Stratford doesn’t have mean streets. Loved the game then. Still do. With a Stevie Wonder jump shot, I prided myself on defense. And pretty good passing. Though witnesses have yet to come forward to corroborate those statements. B-ball is the most interesting game in the world, requiring the widest variety of mental and physical skills of any major team sport ever created. The games within the game multiply its attraction. Birth of a Blogger About six years ago, I discovered internet message boards for Celtic fans. Four years ago, in cooperation with the Connecticut Post, we created CelticsCentral. The timing was fortuitous. As a writer with press credentials, I observed up front the Celtics amazing run to their 17th championship banner. I now write for Celticsblog.com, as well, one of the top sites for Celtic basketball information. I have written for CelticsStuffLive at Wicked Good Sports, Comcast Sports Net –New England. My writing has also appeared on Bleacherreport.com and Foxsports.com (Court Awareness) Agree or disagree, but feel free to join me in the conversation.

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Posted in General | 4 Comments

4 Comments »

“Franks and Beans.”

It’s sad, how the mighty have fallen and you don’t even have the excuse the MSM guys have, that they don’t write their own headlines… ;>)

Comment by JB — July 18th, 2010 @ 6:04 am
lol

egads! – you’re trying to say that isn’t a good headline?

You cut me to the quick!

Perhaps a little more mustard….

T

Comment by Thomas Halzack — July 18th, 2010 @ 8:31 am
I was looking high and low for a article title with some frankness to it, while acknowledging Boston’s baked commodity, and finally found it. Nice job!

Comment by ManchvegasBob — July 20th, 2010 @ 7:14 am
ahhh, yes. Cursed by a terrible sense of humor. May the literary gods forgive me. or worse yet…

maybe I’m on ‘a roll’ –

arghhh!…close my mouth!….can’t…stop…making…puns

Comment by Thomas Halzack — July 20th, 2010 @ 8:58 am