The Off Day: Bobcats/Celtics Postmortem

I’ve come down a bit from last night’s 5 point slam on the Celtics.  I tweeted the following to the venerable Bill Simmons of ESPN:  @sportsguy33 suck it! RobertoGato.com I didn’t even talk about how much I hate you or your team!

I actually did, but in the preview post and not in the Halftime or Post-Game.  It was a really gratifying win.  One where everyone contributes and beats a good team (Best in the East) at long odds (+4.5 at home with the other team on leg #2 of a back to back).  I had a mini-debate with a friend of mine, fellow fan, back when the Bobcats were “rumored” to be in some 8 step plan to acquire Chris Paul and Carmello Anthony in the off-season.  It was bizarre but the debate we had was sort of telling.  I posed the question “Would you rather have a three peat with a “Big 3″ that you don’t really like if they weren’t on your team or one awesome year and a championship behind a team of also-rans that played together as a team?”  It was sort of like saying, do you like the Miami set-up or would you prefer Larry Brown’s days in Detroit?

I’d prefer the Detroit scenario.  I just don’t like the 3 huge stars that are just supposed to win because of who they are.  I would like to see a team grind it out and play solid defense, share the ball and have everyone contribute top to bottom.  If you’ve got two guys in the top 5 in scoring, one guy who keeps pace about 8 points per game back and then a group of scrubs who are treated like “The Other Guys,”  where’s the fun?

I guess the closest thing we have now to that Detroit team are the Celtics.  Although, they aren’t a hodge podge of mid-level talent put together to do well, instead the Celtics are a group of aging stars who share the ball and find the best shot and play great defense.  But they’re seriously total dicks.  (Am I allowed to say that on Fansided?)  Kevin Garnett is total scum.  He truly is and it’s sad.  He was one of those workaholic players for his time in Minnesota, a great athlete who did the right things on the court.  Now, that he’s lost a step, he plays this dirty, chippy, psudo-intense brand of basketball that no one can stand outside of New England (and the frontrunners in every city but New York, Chicago and LA that buy up tickets when they come to town, don’t get me started down that road).

Ray Allen, as much as I appreciate the work ethic and determination to be great at shooting the basketball, he has this sneer and cockiness that seems a bit unwarranted and out of place.  Paul Pierce, another guy who has given himself a nickname, has the same thing, with an added level of Drama Queen thrown in for good measure.  Who gets carried off a court, taken to the locker room in a wheel chair and comes back to play?  He’s the anti-Jay Cutler! Rondo, to throw him in for good measure, always seems disassociated and distant, like he’s trying to look like he could care less.  They’re just not like-able, from the All-Stars to the Big Babies, Kendrick Perkins, Nate Robinson, all the way to their useless white guys who get a minute of playing time here and there to appease the racist fanbase of the area.  If you don’t believe Boston is a racist city, ask Bill Russell.

Look, not throwing dirt on their grave or whatever you want to call it.  The Bobcats won and it feels great because of the disdain that I feel and I know was shared in the Chat Room over at BobcatsPlanet.com last night.  It’s also really, really nice to see guys like Shaun Livingston do well.  18 points out of a guy who was out of the league, basically, 2 years ago.  He’s come all the way back from blowing up his knee to play well last year in Washington, to being picked up and given, by some estimations, a big contract for where he is, to playing well against the 2nd best team in the league.  His confidence has grown since he’s been here, hell add him to the list of Paul Silas led resurrected careers and seasons.

I also want to make the point that the ‘Cats didn’t win despite Stephen Jackson.  He took himself out of the game, plain and simple.  His mind was elsewhere and he let his feelings show, came out today and acted like a petulant child, had nothing to say about it and moved on past it.  It’s a bit ridiculous that one guy gets picked on by the referees.  I think they know walking into the arena that “Oh boy, it’s a Stephen Jackson night.  I’m not gonna let that guy get away with anything!”  But rise above it.  Be a professional!  Silas didn’t have much to say about it after the technical against Dallas.  I thought what he said was brilliant.  He said “Normally, I just take him out and try to cool off and them put him back (in),” Silas said. “He’s an important part of the team and without him we’re not nearly as good. But when he gets into the referees, that’s not good.”  He went on to say “I’m no psychologist” or something along those lines.  It’s all inside Jack’s head.

So yeah, he got tossed.  But you know what?  Dwight Howard has just as many technicals, as does Amar’e Stodumire and no one is out there questioning if they’re crazy and what they need to do to reign it in.  Then again, as I go back and forth with this, they don’t have the history that Jackson does.  He went up into the stands that night in Auburn Hills.  He has a lengthy section of his wikipedia page under the heading “Reputation.”  Although written from a defensive standpoint, it should be noted that the author(s) of the page felt the need to make a huge point of how “alright” Jackson is.

The Bobcats won, that’s basically all that matters.