Sean Grande is the voice of the Celtics for the Boston Celtics Radio Network. Sean joins the program to chat about the team's 50-point blowout over the Warriors in Boston, how impressive this season is, and why the Celtics look like champions. Twitter: @SeanGrandepbp
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00:00 in one of the great literary films, right, of our era, the great, the Muppet Christmas Carol.
00:00:04 Scene, right, in which Gonzo and Rizzo basically say, "Listen, this is too scary for us. We'll
00:00:11 meet you at the finale." All right? That's my feeling right now. You want to be playoff,
00:00:15 playoff people, and it's all the world's going to come crashing down? Meet us in May. We'll see you
00:00:20 there. In the meantime, all you can do is play the schedule in front of you, and no one has played an
00:00:26 82-game schedule better to this point in Celtics history than this team. Celtics Beat is powered
00:00:32 by PrizePix, the exclusive daily fantasy partner of the CLNS Media Network.
00:00:36 What's up, everybody? Welcome in. New addition to Celtics Beat. As you may have just heard off
00:00:44 the top, welcome to the family, PrizePix. Great to have you here with CLNS, and I look forward to a
00:00:50 long and prosperous relationship, obviously, and we'll talk a little bit more about PrizePix a
00:00:55 little bit later on in the show. But the most important thing, obviously, as it concerns you,
00:01:00 the listener, the viewer, is all that is going on and all that is right in the world of the
00:01:06 Boston Celtics. 11 straight wins, we come to you on the heels of just an absolute throttling,
00:01:13 throttling, dismantling, embarrassment at the TD Garden of the Golden State Warriors, a team that,
00:01:22 as Draymond Green, Steph Curry, and others said, after on the Warriors side, this is what we used
00:01:26 to do to teams. Well, the Celtics, they were up by 40-some points at halftime, won the game
00:01:32 by more than 50, third 50-plus point victory of the season as we sit just beyond the all-star
00:01:38 break at this point, and the Cs rested, relaxed. I mean, nobody of note really played after
00:01:45 halftime. Celts kept their starters out just a little bit longer, but the reserves got a whole
00:01:49 lot of time. It was just a ton of fun, great experience, obviously, if you were there at
00:01:53 the Garden today. And one guy who most certainly was, and he was bringing you the action across
00:01:57 the Sports Hub and the Celtics radio network, as he always does, Sean Grandy. Great to have
00:02:02 Sean back on the show here with us. Been a little while. We've got a lot to talk about
00:02:06 concerning the broadcast in part, but mostly the Celtics, obviously, and what is going on
00:02:12 with this team. Sean, first and foremost, and we can get to some of the historical significance
00:02:17 of what is going on with this team and how incredible it's been, what it must be like to
00:02:22 call these games for you. This team is out to a 48-12 record, just never mind running away with
00:02:28 the East, running away with the entire NBA as things stand right now, but for regular season
00:02:33 purposes. But I mean, what, as you watch this unfold on a daily basis, and you are someone who's
00:02:42 very good at living in the moment and sort of just encapsulating all that we have in front of us,
00:02:48 while some people like to sit and just kind of wake me when we get to the playoffs, and that's
00:02:53 when it really matters. But what has been building here that just seems to be getting better and
00:02:59 better and better by the day to where this team, truly, I know anyone can be beaten, clearly,
00:03:04 but this team just has that aura of unbeatability about it on a night-to-night basis.
00:03:12 I called every game every second in 2008. This is the most storied franchise in the history of the
00:03:17 game. And they've, through 60 games, outperformed all of the Celtics teams that have come before.
00:03:23 It is that simple. It is, that cannot be argued anymore at this point. It's funny, you keep
00:03:28 waiting for the high point, right? You keep waiting for the peak and then for it to drop off.
00:03:33 And two years ago, when the Celtics made that unbelievable run and they were beating the living
00:03:38 heck out of people, I think statistically it wasn't there as much in people's heads because
00:03:41 they had had the 500 start, they were under 500 right in January, but that team finished 28-7
00:03:47 and outscored teams by 15 a game over the final 35. It was unprecedented what that team did over
00:03:53 35 games, but there was that moment, right? They finally went from 11th to first and Rob Williams
00:03:58 got hurt in that Sunday night game against Minnesota. And they were really good after that,
00:04:02 but they were never quite the same again. And you keep waiting for that moment to happen. Oh,
00:04:07 that peak, the beat down of Brooklyn. That's going to be the, that game in my obscene Thursday night
00:04:13 game in Miami, like the best offensive game, best true shooting game, like since they've
00:04:17 been keeping track of that stat, you keep waiting for these high points. And now what you're doing
00:04:22 is documenting every night they're playing at this unprecedented high level offensively.
00:04:28 And it continues and they do it again and again. And again, one thing I haven't had a chance to
00:04:32 look up, they've averaged 1.19 points per possession, which is basically a lead leading
00:04:37 number, not anymore, the way the game is being played, but they've done that in every game of
00:04:42 the 11 game win streak in every game they have played at an elite offensive level. So I hear
00:04:49 what you're saying. We'll get to the playoff people. Cause I've started going to come in the
00:04:52 tumble block on all of the, well, they haven't done in the playoffs. If you're, if you're of
00:04:58 that mindset, there's a, in one of the great literary films, right. Of our era, the great,
00:05:04 the Muppet Christmas Carol scene, right. In which Gonzo and Rizzo basically say, listen,
00:05:11 this is too scary for us. We'll meet you at the finale. All right. That's my feeling right now.
00:05:15 You want to be playoff, playoff people, and it's all the world's going to come crashing down.
00:05:20 Meet us in May. We'll see you there. In the meantime, all you can do is play the schedule
00:05:25 in front of you. And no one has played an 82 game schedule better to this point in Celtics history
00:05:31 than this team, which now, as you guys know, has the fifth best scoring differential
00:05:35 in the history of the game and the four teams above them all on the championship.
00:05:41 We're officially at the point. And, you know, if you know this, we've talked a lot about it,
00:05:46 Sean, I certainly don't need to tell you it's, you know, part of it is the, the way the industry
00:05:51 works now that the media industry where it's, it's much more hot takey type discussion,
00:05:58 conversation than it is, you know, nuanced conversation. I know this is a mind blowing
00:06:05 statement on my part, but you know, it's, so it's not a surprise when you hear like Stephen
00:06:10 A. Smith, I don't know if you caught it, but you know, he said post game on a NBA countdown that
00:06:16 the Celtics like this game specifically for him, solidified the fact that the Celtics have no
00:06:23 excuse, none, not to win a championship, something that, you know, Kendrick Perkins,
00:06:29 of course, former Celtic, former champion here was on set emphatically agreed. He's been saying
00:06:34 it for a while. You had Bob Myers, who was an architect of all those warriors, championship
00:06:39 teams. He was on set agreed. There's no excuse. We have had all sorts of people locally have been
00:06:45 saying this for a while. It's the whole, you know, I just think there is a difference and, and
00:06:50 call me nuts. I think there's a difference between saying this team has achieved so much to a
00:06:55 certain point and has so much experience and, and, and all these, you know, near obviously got to the,
00:07:02 the championship against the warriors and, and I wouldn't call it a choke, but it was certainly a
00:07:06 blown opportunity last year, you know, failed to live up to everyone's expectation. Now this year,
00:07:12 you could look at it as many people are and say, it's, it's not finals or bust. It is championship
00:07:19 or bust it's banner 18 or bus for this team. And I don't even fault people for feeling that way
00:07:25 for looking at it and saying anything less than a title is, is, you know, a failure or a
00:07:30 disappointment. People like to use those words. That's fine. I don't, I, I will not condemn that,
00:07:34 but where you sit there and say, and maybe I'm just splitting hairs, maybe it's semantics,
00:07:39 but when you sit there and say that this team has no excuse, I immediately point to a couple of
00:07:45 things. One it's March. I mean, March just started March just started. And, and sure, if they look
00:07:53 like this, you know, just roster composition wise, everyone's healthy in April, May, June,
00:08:00 I'll agree with you. They are the best, the most, the deepest team, the most dangerous team
00:08:04 in the NBA. I'm with you. Let's do it. Go hoist that thing, but look no further than what,
00:08:10 you know, just happened to Jalen Brunson and the Knicks today. And I don't look at the Knicks as a
00:08:15 championship threat or anything like that, but Brunson is their best player. He is yet another
00:08:20 guy on that New York team to go down. And it, we don't know the severity of it as we talk right
00:08:25 now, but it didn't look good. The, the Celtics that you said this before we came on any team
00:08:30 is just that one injury away. I don't know how anybody can look at it and just say, you know,
00:08:35 how does this team possibly not win a title? Well, how about Jason Tatum? Heaven forbid suffers a
00:08:40 season ending injury on April 1st. That's that's how this team doesn't win a title. So I, I just
00:08:48 think the whole conversation, I know people have like, you know, airtime to fill across TV, radio,
00:08:53 whatever, but I just think the whole conversation is so stupid because you can't, you can't account
00:09:00 for health. You can't predict health. You just hope for the best at that point in time.
00:09:05 The question of course is how would they lose if the Celtics don't win the championship? How does
00:09:11 it happen that they don't lose? Did the Sixers get in, be back healthy, play the Celtics in the
00:09:16 first round and knock them out because the Celtics don't play well. That's one thing.
00:09:20 Does Porzingis and Tatum get hurt? And that leads to a series. The two best Celtic teams
00:09:26 that didn't win, they had amazing regular seasons. The number one team of all time was 1973. The team
00:09:30 that has the franchise record for most wins. They didn't win as Havlicek got hurt in the semifinals
00:09:35 and Dean Memminger came in and won game seven for the Knicks and the Knicks went on to win the
00:09:39 championship right in 1973. The second time they beat the Lakers. And the other scene was 2009
00:09:44 when Kevin Garnett got hurt. So we have no idea. Listen, that's the only hot take theater you can
00:09:49 do on the Celtics right now. The other thing that's happening slowly and you guys have probably
00:09:53 picked up on it is the raising of the bar. Now, if the Celtics don't get to the finals, not only is
00:10:00 it a failure, now they have to do it easily. Now, if they're going six games or more in these series,
00:10:06 that's the new hot take on the Celtics is now they have to get to the finals easily. That's
00:10:11 the new home, but we better raise the bar and make it more complicated and have more things.
00:10:16 And all of that is fine. When the time comes, the time comes. We, I have been doing this for a long
00:10:22 time. This is 23 years with the Celtics. And I have never seen a year in which every single day
00:10:27 seems to be about preparation for what is coming in the postseason. And when we talk about a Joe
00:10:33 Mizzoula press conference, Joe Mizzoula battling with the media, it's not about now. It's about
00:10:38 when you lose game three in the second round in Madison Square Garden, and you go down to one,
00:10:43 to the Knicks. And then all these people that have nothing to say right now, all come flying
00:10:48 out of the woodwork and Joe Mizzoula can't coach and Jason Tatum can't win a big game and all these
00:10:52 narratives. Can you imagine what are people going to do with themselves that the Celtics win?
00:10:56 Because all this Jason Tatum stuff and the Joe Mizzoula stuff, it all, it all vanishes and go
00:11:02 away, goes away. In the meantime, all we can do is point out subtle things like our national people,
00:11:08 as we're talking at Sunday night, our national people on Monday, going to call out Steve Kerr
00:11:13 and go at him for pulling the starters out. Because two months ago, I was at a game in
00:11:19 Milwaukee when Joe Mizzoula pulled all the starters out when the Celtics were playing
00:11:23 their fifth game in seven nights and had played overtime the night before. And Joe Mizzoula got
00:11:27 killed. How can you quit on the game and pull the starters out? Steve Kerr did the exact same thing
00:11:32 today. Both coaches were exactly right to do it. But it's that sort of little subtle treatment.
00:11:38 It's the same thing. What's the other narrative all year we've heard? They don't win this game
00:11:42 last year. They don't win this game last year. You know what that is? That is a shot at Joe last
00:11:47 year. It's a shot at the maturity of Tatum and Brown. It's a shot at Marcus Smart. It's all in
00:11:52 that. You know why the Celtics are winning a lot of these games they didn't win last year? Because
00:11:55 they got a seven foot three guy in the middle that you can't stop, that they didn't have last year.
00:12:00 Okay. That's the primary reason. One of the main reasons this team has taken a huge step forward.
00:12:04 So narratives are fun. I'm not a hater on hot take theater. I love it. I'm fascinated now how
00:12:10 JJ Redick is going to walk in both those worlds now on the lead team on NBC and then can he do
00:12:17 both of those things? Because that is the difficulty for people like me. I understand
00:12:23 the hot take theater world. I could speak that language if I chose to, but I'm on the other side
00:12:28 of that world. So I get it. I love it. Stephen A is the best to ever do it. And he's awesome and
00:12:37 the hardest working man in show business. But that is the other 21 hours of the day. And there's
00:12:42 programming that has to air and people that have to be paid and ads that have to be sold. But for
00:12:49 the three hours when real life is happening, when the games are actually happening, you got to call
00:12:54 what you see. And what's happening right now is nobody ever wants to say, "Oh, the 86 Celtics are
00:13:00 the greatest team of all time. And if the Celtics don't win the championship this year, they're
00:13:03 going to go into that same list, right? With 73 and 09. But if they keep this up and they win the
00:13:10 championship, I wasn't here for 86, but I was here for 08. And this team was stride for stride,
00:13:17 but now they've gone past it. We'll see what we're going to see in the spring. And maybe
00:13:24 this is the year things break for the Celtics the way they broke for Denver last year.
00:13:27 And you have bad luck the other way. In Toronto, when they won the championship,
00:13:32 Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant, both go down in the finals. You think some kid in Toronto
00:13:38 takes his championship, pen it down when he looks at it on the wall and goes, "Yeah, that was nice
00:13:43 that we won, but whatever." You think they do that? They don't do that. They think Denver,
00:13:48 Denver last year had statistically the easiest path to a championship of all time. You think
00:13:53 that's what people think when they raise the banner and they have the parade and Mike Malone's
00:13:57 partying without a shirt on? You think they're going, "Yeah, but we had kind of an easy path
00:14:01 to the final." It's actually the exact opposite. What they do is they sit there and say, "See,
00:14:05 this is what happens when Jokic has all his healthy guys around him finally. We go up, we win."
00:14:11 All you can do is all you can do. And that's, you put a team that's got a chance to win
00:14:15 and history, if the Celtics do win, history is going to look at what Brad Stevens did.
00:14:22 How many people are going to walk away from a team that easily could have won game seven last
00:14:27 year if Tatum doesn't turn his ankle and go to the finals and make significant changes to it?
00:14:32 That takes some rocks to do. So I just told, my message tonight is if you can't enjoy these 82
00:14:42 games before the 83rd game, and you guys know this too, back me on it because it's something
00:14:49 that I believe strongly, feeling the air around here, I think the Bruins last year plays into
00:14:56 some of what is going on. And them having this amazing historic regular season and then losing
00:15:02 in the first round, I think that further damaged the psyche around here. And there's an element of,
00:15:09 you know, there's the negative people, there's also the fear about what could happen in the
00:15:12 playoffs. So what if they don't win after this great regular season they have? And as Max always
00:15:17 said years ago, scared? Get a dog. I mean, you can't be scared going to battle with the guys
00:15:24 you have on this team right now. This should be bringing on. As they've approached this six-game
00:15:29 stretch of national TV games and high-profile games, like, really? This is the tough part of
00:15:34 schedule? Bring it on. Football season may be over, but the action on the floor is heating up.
00:15:39 Whether it's a tournament season or the fight for a playoff home court, there's no shortage of high
00:15:45 stakes basketball moments this time of year. Get in on the excitement with Prize Picks,
00:15:51 America's number one fantasy sports app, where you can turn your hoops knowledge into serious
00:15:57 cash. Testing my skills on Prize Picks this season is the most exciting way to play daily fantasy
00:16:04 sports. If you have the skills, you can turn $10 into $1,000 with just a few taps. Prize Picks is
00:16:12 really simple to play, and I can make my picks and submit my entry in less than 60 seconds.
00:16:18 Download the app today and use code CLNS for a first deposit match up to $100. Use the code
00:16:24 CLNS for the first deposit match up to $100. Pick more, pick less. It's that easy.
00:16:31 Yeah, the biggest thing that drives me crazy is the people that can't,
00:16:38 like, get any excitement out of this team until the playoffs happen. They're like,
00:16:42 "Well, you know, playoffs have a bit different time." Like, you know,
00:16:44 they have to prove this to me in the playoffs is my favorite. It's like,
00:16:48 okay, so we can't enjoy what I'm currently watching on TV every three or fourth night
00:16:54 on the schedule. I think this has been an enlightening experience in some different
00:16:59 ways, but like, especially lately, it's just a really good snapshot of what good basketball on
00:17:05 both ends of the floor looks like, and I loved, shout out to Jared Weiss, who was on the show last
00:17:10 week. I love this piece about Joe and the stuff that Joe talked about in terms of how transition
00:17:16 fuels both sides. The game isn't just one court and the other court. A lot of the in-between
00:17:22 stuff dictates what happens on both ends. It was really, really fascinating, and this team has been
00:17:26 just so fun to watch. I guess, again, the people are like, "Hey, wait, this is a different team."
00:17:33 Right? If this was the same team as last year, where you're like, "Well, yeah, sure, you know,
00:17:37 we got to prove it to me in the playoffs." Sure, that's fine, but this is a way different team.
00:17:41 The addition of Porzingis, as you mentioned, John, is, I mean, it can't be overstated. It's
00:17:48 really made this team really unguardable if they're really hitting. Versus, go ahead.
00:17:53 No, I was going to say, one of the things we romanticize about is, John, because I don't
00:17:56 want to, I don't want you to skip by that point. If you look at the sixth year, the new big three
00:18:00 era, as I called it, right? It's from 2007 to 2013. The Celtics won in the first year.
00:18:06 With that weight, with that backpack off, they never had that on their shoulders, right? The
00:18:12 one that this team has, because they've been close in different incarnations, the Jays, whatever this
00:18:16 area is. They've been close and they haven't won, so that pressure builds up. The Celtics won that
00:18:21 first year, and these teams, the last couple of years for the Celtics, have blown away the 2010,
00:18:27 2011, 2012 Celtics. It's not even close, but because they won that championship,
00:18:33 that weight was off. Yeah, they should have won in 2010, and they could have won the second,
00:18:36 and they didn't. That whole dynamic, I think, is fueling what you're talking about, which is people
00:18:41 not appreciating what's going on here, that there are 25 teams in the NBA that have never
00:18:48 gotten close to having any kind of regular season like the one you're having now. Because, again,
00:18:53 part of who we talked about generationally, right? With six Super Bowls, I don't know,
00:18:57 maybe one day they'll do a 10-part documentary about the Patriots football league. The Bruins
00:19:02 having this record season, and their Stanley Cup win, the Red Sox, the unthinkable happening four
00:19:08 times in the last 20 years, and the Red Sox winning the World Series, it's changed the dynamic here.
00:19:13 From when I first came back from Minnesota, when they were celebrating just going to the
00:19:18 conference finals, right? In '02, there was a big one-ever parade for that team, and now,
00:19:23 if the Celtics lose in the conference finals this year, people are going to lose their minds,
00:19:28 if that happens, when it's hard to get to the final eight out of 30. It's hard, really hard,
00:19:33 to get to the final four out of 30. Championship or bust is fine, but you can't play a playoff
00:19:40 game on March the 4th. If you're not enjoying these two weeks, and you're not... Max always
00:19:45 makes fun of me, because some of the big games, I used to rub my hands together, like, "All right,
00:19:48 here we go." If you can't enjoy Thursday night, and what that's going to be, and the only game,
00:19:55 where there were probably two games left in the whole schedule, where there was going to be angst
00:19:59 if the Celtics lost. The first one was the Sunday afternoon game, right, against Golden State,
00:20:03 and the Celtics squeaked by that test. Just squeaked by, by a 58-point lead at some point.
00:20:09 And the Thursday game at Denver, and that, you watch, if the Celtics lose by a single point,
00:20:14 Thursday night in Denver, that's all you'll get the rest of the way. Yeah, it was a great regular
00:20:19 season, this, but man, they can't beat Denver. Even Bill Simmons put it out today, right?
00:20:23 Denver's still the team to beat. Okay, that's all cool. That's fine. But I remember all through the
00:20:29 2015, 2014-15 season saying to Max and everybody, "Golden State's going to win. They're going to win,
00:20:36 because they are playing like a championship team. They were the number one defensive team that year
00:20:39 that people forget about, but people couldn't picture it, because they hadn't won. You could
00:20:44 not picture them winning." And so, you have, all I've said all year, repeatedly, over and over again,
00:20:51 is the Celtics have checked all of the boxes. And the end of that sentence is, they've checked all
00:20:57 of the boxes of teams that go on to win the championship. So all you can do, they have
00:21:02 literally not only passed every test, they have destroyed pretty much everything that has been
00:21:08 put in front of them through 60 games. So if you're a Celtic fan, you shouldn't be afraid of
00:21:12 the playoffs. You should be saying, "When can they start?" Totally. And you go back to that Denver
00:21:18 game really quickly, only because you're going to be backing me up on this. They lost barely to
00:21:22 Denver the first time, and what drove me crazy was the stuff after it about how, "Oh, they didn't
00:21:28 move the ball." But if you actually watched the game, and Sean watched the game more than most
00:21:33 of the people that commented on that-- - They missed 20 layups that night. They missed 20 layups and lost by two.
00:21:38 Okay? - That drove me nuts. Sorry, Kaufman. I just, I'm still like hung up on that. - Oh, I mean, I do
00:21:45 want to keep going with the Denver component to this conversation. It's not just Bill Simmons.
00:21:50 You know, I've seen some other people say something similar, but the reverse side of that, that I've
00:21:57 heard from so many people, and that these are mostly, you know, Boston media people, or just
00:22:02 fans, quite frankly. You know, I just, I keep hearing about how the Celtics are so head and
00:22:09 shoulders above everybody else in the NBA, which, you know, statistically you could look at and say,
00:22:15 "Sure, and the way they're playing, all right." I mean, I can't really argue it, but when you get
00:22:22 into a seven-game playoff series, I think you have to consider everything. And the fact that, obviously,
00:22:28 Denver was just there and just did it. Jokic is the best player in the world. He is the frontrunner
00:22:35 for MVP. That is no slight on Jason Tatum, who is, you know, elite in his own right, a top three,
00:22:41 if not top five player. And, you know, at some point in time, in all likelihood, we'll win an
00:22:46 MVP, and hopefully we'll win a finals MVP. And in a dream world, that's this year. That would be
00:22:52 wonderful. But I feel like there's a little bit, maybe not from Simmons and some of the others of
00:22:58 that ilk, but certainly around here locally, there's a certain amount of really just sort of
00:23:04 taking everybody else, especially a team like Denver, lightly and for granted. You know, you
00:23:10 want to take like Minnesota or OKC or an injury-plagued Phoenix or the Clippers or, you know,
00:23:18 Philly with, even with Embiid, he's historically not figured it out against Boston, you know, the
00:23:24 Bucs, and they've looked a lot better since the all-star break. But, you know, you want to
00:23:29 question like Doc's playoff record and will they, you know, get into a serious lead and blow it?
00:23:35 Like you can put holes in everybody. That's fine. I just, I don't know how you can look at Denver,
00:23:41 if healthy, and say, ah, they're head and shoulders above the Nuggets. Are you kidding me?
00:23:46 Like, I absolutely think, one, I think if the Celtics had won that game seven and reached the
00:23:52 finals last year, I don't know how it would have played out, but I can tell you my money would
00:23:56 have been on Denver. I think the Nuggets would have won that series. This year, I would go the
00:24:00 other way. I would pick Boston based on what we've seen so far, but I don't think it's a walk in the
00:24:05 park as you, you know, alluded to earlier. I don't think it'd just be easy. I mean, do you feel like
00:24:11 people are taking Denver for granted here? I think there's a little bit of that. I think it really
00:24:15 depends on who you talk to, because again, I don't think people, people here are locally saying that
00:24:20 people are, don't take Denver seriously. They're not really watching the NBA now, but to this point
00:24:27 through 60 games, the Celtics have been head and shoulders above Denver because they've been head
00:24:31 and shoulders above everybody else. And by the way, Oklahoma city and Minnesota had played head
00:24:34 and shoulders above Denver. Denver's found a way to win close games and they're great. And the dude
00:24:39 is an all time, all timer, easily could win MVP every year. They were a great team. And when it
00:24:46 comes down to it again, when I talk about the Celtics in these series and how you have to feel,
00:24:51 I put it this way. We just talked about that game, that Denver game, they lost and the Celtics
00:24:54 going to lose playoff games. Of course they are. They're going to have bad three point shooting
00:24:58 nights and lose as a result. And people are going to lose their mind when the sellers go 22 for 45.
00:25:03 Nobody says a word about the three point shooting, but when they have the game and they go 10 for 41,
00:25:08 oh, they take too many threes because they don't take too many when they don't go in.
00:25:12 The self is going to have that. Yes. But you have to understand this is going to have to happen
00:25:17 four times in a seven game series. The Celtics have to be really bad. Offend not medium,
00:25:24 man, mediocre. They have to be bad offensively to lose games. This is playing out now with the
00:25:29 offensive rating. I think one Oh nine is the number, which is not a good number. And the
00:25:33 Celtics, once they get to one on nine to like 43 and one this year, when they shoot 32% from three,
00:25:39 which is a bad number, there's something like 44 and three, these crazy numbers,
00:25:43 the Celtics have to have a bad offensive night or really bad one to lose. They will,
00:25:47 and it's going to happen and people are going to lose their minds, but it's going to happen four
00:25:51 times in a seven game series. And by the way, some of these East teams are really good. Like I said,
00:25:55 these are going to be, if, as I said, in that it's imaginary scenario with the Knicks come up
00:26:00 and win a game in Boston, you know what Madison square garden is going to be like, if it's one,
00:26:05 one going back to MSG for game three, they, their people are so hungry for it down there. I think I
00:26:11 can tell you right now, like Mike Breen and I are two of many, many people that have been dreaming
00:26:15 about a New York, Boston playoff series for a while. It looked like maybe it'd be the conference
00:26:19 finals, but with the injuries, obviously New York is dropping back in the pack. And I get people
00:26:24 are scared to death. By the way, the one team you haven't mentioned is the one that keeps people up
00:26:28 at night around here, which is Miami. But again, that's because I treat them like Beetlejuice,
00:26:33 Sean. I don't want to say their name. I don't say their names. Oh, you know what? The Butler's just
00:26:37 going to walk through the door. Let me take care of it for you. Jimmy Butler, Jimmy Butler, Jimmy
00:26:41 Butler, you cannot be afraid anymore because if they go, if they're going to sell this, you're
00:26:47 going to lose, they're going to lose. But man, if you can't just get on the bandwagon and enjoy this
00:26:52 ride, enjoy what's coming up. This team has been preparing for those moments for that series,
00:26:57 for everything that's coming all year. So bizarre things happen, injuries happen, strange things
00:27:03 happen with the uncontrollables, right? You control the controllables. I just hope people can
00:27:10 snap out of all of the championship success here in New England in the last two decades
00:27:15 and try at least to enjoy these last six weeks of a season that people are going to be looking
00:27:21 back on because you know how this works now. 20 years from now, when Deuce Tatum has a bad
00:27:26 playoff game, they're going to be like, "Oh, he's not his dad. His dad never had a game." Whereas
00:27:32 now in real time, people go after Tatum. Tatum had a rough playoff game, whatever it was, a couple
00:27:37 of years ago. And I remember somebody complaining about it. And I listed nine games, nine individual
00:27:43 games that a player had had. Two for 12, 4.6 turnovers, three for 14 minus whatever. And they
00:27:51 were nine games that Paul Pierce had during the 2008 playoffs in which he was finals MVP.
00:27:58 So all that stuff gets erased. Larry's bad games get erased because he won championships.
00:28:04 Paul Pierce's bad game, that '08 team suddenly could do no wrong. Called every minute that year.
00:28:09 They had a three-game losing streak after the All-Star break and then went down 18 in the fourth
00:28:13 game in Portland before they came back and won. They lost three out of four to Washington. They
00:28:18 lost three straight games to that Gilbert Arenas team. And these things happen, not to mention what
00:28:23 happened in the playoffs when they went, what did they go, 31 and 10 on the road in the regular
00:28:28 season and then lost the first six road playoff games. So the standards now, when I heard the
00:28:35 people last week say, "Well, Celtics better. They better win these series in four or five games in
00:28:39 the East." I'm like, "Do you have any idea how hard this is?" I hope we all hold ourselves to
00:28:45 the same standards. I'm glad all your kids get A-pluses in every report card in every class.
00:28:53 That's the high standard that you live your life. But I hope people can enjoy a little bit of this
00:28:58 fun and show business here over the last 22 games because this team is too much fun not to.
00:29:03 Because all you have to do is take your cue from the bench. I don't think Jalen Brown has smiled
00:29:09 as much in his life as he has smiled over the last four months. Like Christoph Porzingis,
00:29:15 he's MVP for that. He's got Jalen Brown smiling every night. It's amazing. It's fun to watch. And
00:29:21 I hope people are enjoying it. That's all. - Do you think Brad's getting enough credit
00:29:28 in that sense? Not just from the on-court fit, which has clearly worked out almost beyond
00:29:34 imagination, but the fit of personalities and just how well that he has brought this group together.
00:29:42 Some people will always look at that stuff as like a shot at Marcus Smart. And he'd occasionally,
00:29:47 he'd have that, a brotherly, a sibling relationship with Jalen Brown. Sometimes
00:29:52 they butted heads and other, but they still speak glowingly of each other. And I do believe there's
00:29:58 a love there. So like none of this has to do with Marcus Smart. Take that away completely. It's more
00:30:03 about just, man, this group, this locker room, I mean, there is an infatuation with one another,
00:30:10 to your point. - Well, I'll say this. If the Selvicks win 16 playoff games, everybody's
00:30:15 going to get enough credit for the rest of their life. Joe will, and Brad will, and you're going
00:30:20 to be, these are going to be made men forever and ever and ever, if it does end up happening. But
00:30:27 who knew when Brad got the coaching job by a press release, right? In July of 2013, we didn't know.
00:30:35 We thought, wow, this could work out. Who knew he'd become, and it didn't take long to figure out,
00:30:40 he was going to become a great coach in the league. When the GM thing happened and the Danny
00:30:44 thing happened after 2021, we were all disconnected anyway, because that was like heart of the
00:30:49 pandemic, right? Which is, we're almost four years away from that day in Milwaukee when the world
00:30:54 ended and we're all sort of reliving it now. That who knew what Brad, how he was going to do
00:31:02 in this job. I always thought one day, I didn't think it was going to be that day.
00:31:06 I always thought one day, I wonder if he's going to do this and have success at it.
00:31:09 And is he going to be able to make the cold, hard decisions, including trading Marcus Smart
00:31:14 with a half hour deadline before, in that Porzingis thing when the Brogdon physical didn't
00:31:19 work. And listen, history is going to record that, that whole, the diagonal, the switch,
00:31:26 the pivot off Brogdon to Marcus Smart, and then Drew Holiday suddenly becoming available later.
00:31:32 This has got a chance to be one of these legendary things we're going to remember.
00:31:36 There's two things I've talked about. There's that. And there's, I think we just had today
00:31:41 as we're talking, it's March 3rd, which is the anniversary of Kevin McHale,
00:31:45 breaking the single game scoring record, which Larry was talking about earlier.
00:31:51 As he views it the day that he realized he was no longer starting for the ball.
00:31:58 And here we are, I stare up at number 32 right now. And I realized it's quite possible that
00:32:04 Kevin McHale is going to be the second most important McHale in the history of the Boston
00:32:09 Celtics franchise. Pause, two, three, four, because McHale Prokhorov is the guy that made that deal
00:32:15 with the Nets in 2013 to give the Celtics Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum. And maybe just maybe
00:32:22 we're going to take 32 down and put Prokhorov's name up right in that spot.
00:32:27 Yeah. So, you know, you have 23 years of perspective here. I lived through '08 and
00:32:36 all those playoff runs and the finals in 2022. I know very well what could be coming. And so
00:32:41 you want to document each of these moments as they happen that, okay, the answer to the Celtics
00:32:50 just became the first team in NBA history to win three games by 50 points in the same season.
00:32:55 The Celtics, who had 258 point leads or 358 point, 56 point leads in franchise history,
00:33:02 had now done it twice in the last six games. The response to that is not, well, let's see
00:33:07 them do it in the playoff. No, that's not the response. The response is, wow, that's unbelievable
00:33:12 what they've done today. Al Horford, I put a tweet out today when Al got the 14,000 points. He's one
00:33:16 of nine first ballot Hall of Famers to hit these statistical milestones, right, in the last 50
00:33:22 years. Tatum and Jay, you know, in the new big three era, it seemed like every night we were
00:33:28 documenting, hey, Ray Allen just passed this guy and Kevin Garnett's now 14th on the scoring list.
00:33:32 Well, now Jason just passed Antoine Walker on the Celtics list. Jaylen is going to get to
00:33:38 10,000 points before the end of the year. He said also he's about to get his 1,003. I've got a great
00:33:44 number that I'm not going to spill right now, but when he gets that 1,003, keep an eye out on your
00:33:49 Twitter, @XTWXMachine for that because it's unbelievable statistically what these guys done.
00:33:55 And then the biggest one of all, when we get deep in the playoffs, and they will go deep in the
00:33:59 playoffs, is how old was Michael Jordan when he won the first championship? How old was LeBron
00:34:05 when he finally won a first championship? And Jason Tatum is a 26-year-old and Jaylen Brown is 27.
00:34:14 So imagine if they win now, they're winning it early. They're winning early compared to these
00:34:20 other guys. I thought about this earlier today, and it was just funny that this has gone this
00:34:25 direction. Is Jason Tatum, Steph Curry getting hot, and Andrew Wiggins being the best version
00:34:33 of himself that away from being Dwayne Wade because he would have won a 24, D. Wade won a 23?
00:34:40 Yeah, I don't think there's that. Listen, I think you guys and I have had this before.
00:34:43 I've said if Jason and Jaylen win one championship, no championships, or five championships,
00:34:50 they're always going to know that 2022 is when they should have gotten. And it got away for
00:34:54 a variety of reasons. Tatum wasn't great in the finals. To what degree he's still being punished
00:34:58 for that, I don't have any idea. Wiggins was, look at Wiggins now, right? He's going through the
00:35:03 personal issues. He was really struggling in the first half of this year. Steph went crazy. It was
00:35:08 actually Jaylen that was Celtics best player. Jaylen going into the second half of game four
00:35:11 was the MVP of the final. Celtics are up two games to one going to the second half of game four
00:35:16 in a close game. And at that point, Jaylen was the best player. He was the MVP in that series.
00:35:21 And then Steph was Steph and Wiggins was Wiggins. And that's all part of the learning curve, right?
00:35:27 But no doubt. And that's why it's the same thing I'm talking about, about Toronto winning and Denver
00:35:32 winning last year. Nobody remembers the little details of guys who get it. Nobody's going to
00:35:37 remember. I mean, people in Boston will remember Jason Tatum turning his ankle on the first
00:35:40 possession in game seven last year, but that'll always be Miami coming and winning game seven
00:35:45 and winning on the road in game seven, just as the Celtics had done the year before. That was
00:35:51 the story that, you know, the story last year was the Celtics have to finish their story, right?
00:35:55 They've got an unfinished business from Golden State celebrating in their locker room when everyone
00:36:00 forgot it was the Celtics who had celebrated in Miami's locker room in game seven, the conference
00:36:06 finals. And that ended up being the full circle story with Miami coming back and winning. So of
00:36:10 course the margin is just, it's so thin usually with all these championships, unless you have a
00:36:16 team that is so historically good. What if instead of losing, what if instead of choking, as the
00:36:24 experts will say, what if instead of finding a way to lose or having the nerve, the temerity to go
00:36:30 six or seven games in some of these series on the way to the championship, what if they don't?
00:36:36 What if the Celtics don't go six or seven games in these series and end up rolling through as some
00:36:42 of these teams? I know everyone, I get to be like, "Grant, you don't say it. Don't say it out loud."
00:36:47 Stop being scared. Start facing the fact that while it's possible that the Celtics will lose
00:36:52 in the playoffs, and it's possible they'll win and scratch and claw, we've got to face the fact
00:36:57 that the possibility exists that maybe this isn't going to be that difficult, that they are right
00:37:03 now playing at a historical level of teams that didn't really struggle on their way to a
00:37:08 championship. But that's a possibility too. So why not, instead of being afraid of what could happen,
00:37:12 be excited about what could happen. I do want to piggyback off of Kaufman for just a second,
00:37:18 because you asked how impressive is the Brad Stevens stuff. John, you've gone through, I would
00:37:25 say, a couple of new coaching faces entering the league as head coaches for the first time.
00:37:32 How impressive is it what Joe Mazzullo is doing right now? Because I don't think he's getting
00:37:36 nearly enough credit for some of the stuff that they're doing on both ends. And he won't...
00:37:40 Before you answer that, it's more than that, Ev. I still have people actively in my Twitter
00:37:46 mentions saying how bad Joe Mazzullo is. That's going to be the way of it. And by the way,
00:37:52 some of those people, if Joe Mazzullo is in a duck boat on June 16th, they're still going to say it.
00:37:58 You could already see that narrative. This season narrative was set before the year, right? If the
00:38:04 Celtics lose, it's Joe's fault. If they win, it was the players who did it. I think everyone,
00:38:09 that was pretty clear. Know this about Joe Mazzullo. Nobody in NBA history was ever thrust
00:38:17 into the spot he was in with the exception of Billy McKinney flying off his bike and West
00:38:23 Head getting that job with the Lakers. There was no statistical comp for a coach at that age,
00:38:30 at that experience level, being thrust into a must-win pressure championship environment.
00:38:37 And history... And this is the best statistical comp in some ways is Spoh, right? Because Spoh
00:38:43 was a young guy and he was thrown in. He had some success. Spoh, when LeBron got there,
00:38:49 remember the first year when LeBron got there? Spoh can't handle it. It's too much pressure.
00:38:54 There's too much... The expectations are too high. He and LeBron aren't on the same page.
00:38:59 They were going after Spoh back in Miami the first year. That was Spoh's third year
00:39:04 as the head coach. Imagine, go back five years, three years earlier, you talked about Dwayne Wade,
00:39:08 that Miami team in '06. The only comparison with Spoh's trips is they yanked him out of the...
00:39:13 They go to the... They win the championship in 2006. And the next year, defending a title when
00:39:18 they're supposed to win again, there's no Pat Riley, there's no Stan Van Gundy, and they go
00:39:22 grab a kid nobody's heard of out of the video room, Eric Spohlstra, and throw him on there.
00:39:26 He had already been a head coach for two full years and he got to do it away from the spotlight
00:39:31 because Miami wasn't that good. And remember, 2010, he first got my attention because Miami had
00:39:36 no good defensive players and they were really good defensively. The year of the Celtics played
00:39:40 them in the first round of the playoffs. And Wade had that crazy game four down there. That was the
00:39:47 first, wow, what's going on with this Eric Spohlstra guy? The same way we've seen now, Mark
00:39:52 Dagnall, Chris Finch, and all the other new coaches. And you realize coaching's at a pretty
00:39:57 high level, by the way, which is why you can't do both anymore. That ship has long since sailed.
00:40:02 You can't be coaching GM. It's too complicated. It's too intricate. There's too many high level
00:40:06 guys doing it. But Joe was trying to do something that essentially hasn't... Obviously West had won
00:40:11 the championship in 1980, as we all learned on HBO's Winning Time, which- Went a little south.
00:40:16 I'm so sad. I don't know. I'll say it. Nobody else is allowed to say it. I missed that show.
00:40:21 I missed Sunday nights watching. I like that show.
00:40:24 As long as you accept how just blown out of proportion a lot of-
00:40:30 The first year, especially, and I think they toned a lot of stuff down in the second year.
00:40:34 I think, as I said, I probably said it on here. I certainly tweeted it when it happened.
00:40:37 Winning Time getting canceled with the Celtics winning the championship is as on brand for
00:40:42 red controlling things from beyond the grave as anything ever.
00:40:46 Yeah. I remember your tweet with the screenshot of the-
00:40:49 Yeah. Right. Max. Right. The guy playing Max who worked out a little more than Max did
00:40:54 back at the time. That was... If you took two Maxes and put them together,
00:40:59 you probably would have gotten the bulk of the dude that was playing him in the show.
00:41:04 But yeah, I loved it. But again, that's the only... It's just funny because that's really
00:41:09 the only precedent for Joe being thrust into the spot. And the other thing is,
00:41:12 and this is the opposite of a knock on Ben Sullivan and Damon Stoudamire and those guys,
00:41:18 because they were amazing in accepting their roles last year, which sometimes you have to do.
00:41:25 You got to have humility, right? And they accept your role with an organization.
00:41:29 And I thought they were great last year doing it. But you know, as that season went on,
00:41:32 that those guys were trying to figure out, "What am I going to do next?" And Damon leaving when
00:41:37 he left, and he should have, obviously he was a great job, right? To get at Georgia Tech.
00:41:41 That coaching staff was also thrown together at the last second and thrust into that season
00:41:47 right before training camp. Last year, they didn't have an off... Joe's had an off season now. He's
00:41:51 got a staff. It's his staff. And again, there's just no precedent for the position he's in.
00:42:00 And if he ever wins, bring the people. They're still saying, "Oh, they won in spite of Joe."
00:42:07 Just pay attention to what's going on. And more to the point, listen to his peers.
00:42:11 That's all you have to do here. Listen to his peers. Listen to Mike Brown. Listen to Steve
00:42:17 Kerr. Listen to the guys talk about what Joe Mazzola and the staff have done. Take your cue
00:42:22 from that, not the perceptions of hot take theater. That's all.
00:42:27 So, Sean, since I know you well enough to know that you don't make remarks like sometimes you
00:42:34 need to know your role and accept humility within an organization, since you don't just say those
00:42:39 things offhandedly without there being purpose behind it.
00:42:41 Oh, sure I do.
00:42:42 You were on this show with us roughly six months ago, and we were talking about, obviously, the
00:42:51 pursuit of Mike Gorman's successor, what that was going to look like, when it was going to happen,
00:42:57 who it was going to be, all that would go into the process of making that decision.
00:43:02 You were very forthcoming about saying that you were obviously interested in both roles,
00:43:06 calling games on TV, doing radio, talking about how the last couple of years
00:43:11 have really been highlights for you in your career in terms of the diversity of the two and all the
00:43:17 different partners you've been able to work with. And just it's, you know, you want to continue that
00:43:22 balance, basically. And so, you know, then obviously shortly thereafter, we get the news
00:43:28 that Drew Carter was hired by NBC Sports Boston to ultimately be Mike's, well, again, successor,
00:43:38 eventual replacement as he goes off into the sunset, maybe a little sooner than some expected
00:43:44 in terms of the announcement. I think a lot of people, I don't know about you, but I think a lot
00:43:48 of people, you know, just didn't in the space felt that, you know, this year is going to be
00:43:53 all about Mike, which it is kind of, but it would be like all about Mike. And then, you know, and
00:43:59 you would still do what you've done the last couple of years and do some road games and do some TV
00:44:05 and, you know, maybe other people, they do the players only broadcast they've done in the past
00:44:11 or Mannix or whoever. And then, you know, after Mike was gone, then whether it's you or the new
00:44:17 guy, but instead, you know, we've got this hybrid this year to where, you know, Drew comes in,
00:44:23 obviously, and, and everything was maybe, I don't know about within NBC Sports Boston, but again,
00:44:29 in the minds of, I think a lot of people in just the Celtics community, maybe it was sped up a
00:44:35 little bit. So I, I want to reference a couple articles that Chad Finn wrote over at the Boston
00:44:40 Globe. One of those was early October. He wrote to many Celtics fans. It comes as a surprise that
00:44:48 Sean Grandy who has worked Celtics radio broadcast alongside Cedric Maxwell, since the 0102 season,
00:44:53 more than two decades will not be Gorman's successor. Grandy and Maxwell both signed
00:44:57 contracts extensions several months ago to remain calling games on 98.5, the sports hub.
00:45:03 Grandy juggled the two roles last year, calling more than 20 games for NBC Sports. Boston
00:45:08 had expressed some interest on the Celtics beat podcast. Thank you for shouting that out, Chad,
00:45:13 on taking both roles reached by text on Wednesday. He chose not to comment a couple of weeks later,
00:45:19 another article about this. He has a quote from Kevin Miller who wrote or who told Chad,
00:45:24 I have a ton of respect for the way that Sean calls games. Certainly has a great connection
00:45:30 to Celtics fans has been around the organization for 20 years. He was definitely given the utmost
00:45:34 consideration. But just as we got down to the final stages, it just became more about Drew
00:45:40 and less about anyone else. You have not made a comment on this whole thing since it happened.
00:45:46 And, you know, we've we've got you back here. You know, obviously, you know, you you hear
00:45:52 everything that I just read and you've had plenty of conversations that you've had behind the scenes.
00:45:57 What is your reaction to obviously where you are now, how it all played out?
00:46:03 Both teams played hard. I'm just here so I don't get fined.
00:46:08 Yeah, there's a reason that you haven't heard me say anything in the last six months about it.
00:46:14 And I would refer everybody if you were happy about Chad shouting out the podcast, I would refer
00:46:19 everybody to what I said when we had what was a pretty long conversation about it in August, because
00:46:25 if you look back at the things I said, then it was that this year needs to be about Mike.
00:46:31 And that is the primary reason I haven't said anything. I said in August that I think 2024,
00:46:38 the summer is when everything is kind of going to get decided how this is going to play out
00:46:43 in the future. And I still feel that way. And what I would the only thing I would add to that,
00:46:49 in addition to this, if you're interested in the broadcast stuff, pay attention to Mike,
00:46:53 because by the way, after as we're talking now, I think there's only nine home games left.
00:46:57 So we're down to the precious few. Mike's obviously going to do the games that NBC is
00:47:02 allowed to do in the first round of the playoffs, but we're down to a select few games here. So
00:47:06 if you know, get your Mike Gorman fix now, that is the first thing I would say. And the second thing
00:47:13 I would say is, the last thing I'm going to do is interject. I just spent 45 minutes talking to you
00:47:19 about enjoying this season. And if you don't care, if you don't want the season to be about Mike,
00:47:26 then it needs to be about this team in 2023 and 24. And whatever's going to happen is going to
00:47:32 happen. And the only promise I can give you today is the same one I gave you in August is that
00:47:36 wherever, whatever role I'm in now, whatever role I'm going to be in, in the future, you're going
00:47:41 to get the best you can get. And I think Max and I, our job is to document this championship season.
00:47:47 And so there's, you can waterboard me. I'm not going to have any comment on the broadcast
00:47:52 situation, especially now, you know, when the playoffs are over and we get off the duck boat,
00:47:58 I think it's fair game then, right. And when we go into the off season, but for now, I just think,
00:48:04 and obviously a lot of people have asked the question and there's a reason for six months,
00:48:08 you haven't seen a comment and still won't from me on what has happened, what is going to happen,
00:48:13 whatever, because I I'm of the belief that I can't, I know you care and Evan, you care. I know
00:48:19 there's a select few people. It seems that cares and Steve will bet, you know, a long time, right.
00:48:24 Celtics speed rider. We kind of argued about this a couple of weeks ago that a lot of people would
00:48:28 care. And I don't really think that's the case. I think people care that Jason Tatum and Jaylen
00:48:34 Brown have a chance to win a championship. And I think that, you know, broadcast stuff is to me,
00:48:40 it's inside baseball stuff for a lot of people. And if I just spent 45 minutes saying, enjoy the
00:48:47 season, enjoy the broadcast too, because right now you got Grandy Max, you still have Mike Gorman
00:48:52 doing some games on TV here. And when it's time to reassess everything, we'll reassess everything.
00:48:57 But that's the reason I haven't said anything. And the reason I just spent five minutes answering
00:49:01 the question without really saying anything, because I've got that, that skill to both teams
00:49:06 played hard. Yeah. I mean, I guess the only follow I have to that though, is if Drew was brought on
00:49:12 to be Mike's successor and you've got the contract extension with the sports hub and, you know,
00:49:17 like, and then Mike is obviously out of the picture after this year is, isn't it written or
00:49:23 is, is there still something that's subject to change in future seasons?
00:49:26 I think that anything is subject to change and don't read that into anything that may,
00:49:32 it may very well happen the way you just read stuff is happening. There are, again,
00:49:39 you're trying to corner me into making a comment about the situation. What I'm saying is,
00:49:43 I will answer any questions and deal with the stuff in the summer when it's time to deal with
00:49:48 it. When everything happened the way you're describing it, it happened. We just talked 10
00:49:54 minutes ago about Joe Mazzullo and the coaching staff getting thrust into a situation they
00:49:58 weren't expected to be in three days before the start of training camp. That's kind of what
00:50:04 happened here, isn't it? So we'll deal with it when we deal with it. The only story to me is
00:50:10 Mike finishing up, you know, remember they don't get to do playoff games. That was a big part of
00:50:16 our discussion. I wouldn't have been at the garden today if I had, if I had taken a full-time TV job
00:50:21 and I wanted to do that, I wouldn't have been doing any of these big games coming up here.
00:50:26 I wouldn't be doing the playoffs. How do you think I'd be feeling in game seven of the Celtics
00:50:31 Bucks Eastern Conference Finals if I was sitting home not doing it? So, you know, there's all those
00:50:38 things. Everything factors in, but again, to me, it's about this team in 2024 and how it ends. And
00:50:48 I'm glad Mike gets to do these big games. In a way, if the team wasn't good, maybe we would have
00:50:54 celebrated him more. I would have personally, if you're asking me for a comment on anything,
00:50:58 since I just spent 10 minutes not commenting, I would have hoped that this had been more of a
00:51:02 Mike celebration this year, throughout the course of the year, but obviously I don't get to make
00:51:08 those decisions. So, you know, Max and I will honor him when it's time, right, in our own way
00:51:13 when we get towards the end. But in the meantime, I just can't imagine people care as much as we are
00:51:20 making it seem like they would care by talking about it. So I promised Chad, I promised everybody
00:51:25 when it's time to talk, we'll talk. But to me, it's like whenever people come to me, I'm like,
00:51:31 look at the court, look at the court right now. That's the story.
00:51:36 You know, it's funny though that you say that Mike will be, you know, obviously he'll do as
00:51:41 many games as NBC Sports Boston can during the first round of the playoffs and then he's done.
00:51:45 But I mean, isn't there, maybe there's some, like you said, sort of inside baseball to this in
00:51:51 terms of what's allowed, what isn't allowed, but you know, Hall of Famer and knowing his connection,
00:51:56 which is very, very close to Mike Breen, obviously. If the Celtics are in the NBA finals,
00:52:00 you're going to tell me Mike Gorman isn't going to pop on an ABC mic at some point
00:52:04 during one of those games? I'm sure, my guess is that he probably won't, but you know,
00:52:11 the mics on our side will be open if he certainly wants to do that. I tried. You may remember my
00:52:16 first year here, this came up and the Celtics had a chance to go to the finals. And I didn't even
00:52:22 think twice that I offered Mike to come and sit and call part of a game and be with us. Marv,
00:52:28 in 1994, when the Rangers won the Stanley Cup, Marv was in the booth at the end for that. He
00:52:35 had long since stopped doing, you know, Rangers radio or something he did when he was much younger.
00:52:39 But yeah, I don't think there's any question. Like I said, if you want to worry about, that's a great
00:52:45 thing to worry about, right? Like, hey, let's see if we get Mike in here to do some of the finals.
00:52:49 We did a game, forgotten part of history, by the way, Mike and I did a game together because I
00:52:53 always wanted to do a game with him. And he joined me and did color game three of the Cleveland
00:52:59 series in 2008. And Mike and I did a game together, which is always cool that we got a chance to do
00:53:04 that. But you know, that's a lot of 43 years, a long, long, long time. That's a lot of games,
00:53:12 a lot of institutional memory. And, you know, I'm a big fan of that. Joe and I talked about it
00:53:18 before the game today, you know, institutional memory and how important it is within a basketball
00:53:24 team, within an organization. And we're going to lose a lot of that when we lose Mike.
00:53:27 Yeah. Anything to add?
00:53:31 No. You know, look, I'm with Sean. This is, it's interesting that all the focus is on the court,
00:53:39 considering, you know, Mike is almost done here, but to the credit of something, they've kind of
00:53:44 given us something else to talk about. You know, they've just been awesome. And, you know,
00:53:50 I'm just hopeful the injury bug is the only thing that I only that's the only storyline I care about
00:54:00 from here to the end of the season is injuries. And that's it. If they're healthy, they're just
00:54:06 there. But it's been a fun couple of months. And even, even within, you know, like this whole Jason
00:54:14 Tatum picking up steam to be the MVP thing, I don't even care about any of that. I just love
00:54:18 the way this team handles their business night in and night out. And after all the stuff that we've
00:54:24 talked about, Sean, to me, the biggest difference just feels this team seems to handle their
00:54:29 business better than any iteration of it before. Yeah, there's, and you could say, listen, we fall
00:54:35 back on the sort of look down your nose expression of adults in the room. But I think that's certainly
00:54:42 the case because guess what? Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown were 21, 22 years old. They were
00:54:47 growing up in front of our eyes. And it was obvious when you met them as 19, 20 year olds,
00:54:52 that they were way beyond their years that way. But now they have both that experience and,
00:54:58 you know, life experience. And there are a lot of adults in the room and guys who've had long
00:55:02 runs and obviously Drew's been there before, won a championship that there's very little question
00:55:10 that the pieces basketball wise, but also professional wise are in that room right now. So
00:55:17 again, enjoy the final 22 games, enjoy the run. Certainly hope nobody gets hurt. And by the way,
00:55:24 as a Celtic fan, I know there are people who don't think this way. I don't want Embiid to be hurt.
00:55:28 I don't want Giannis to get hurt. I want you to want to see it. I want to see this team play out
00:55:33 because there are great, great teams out there. And by the way, we all think the Timberwolves
00:55:36 and the Thunder are going to play the roles that the Grizzlies and the Kings played last year
00:55:41 because they were too young. That would our buddy Lee Corso say not so fast, my friends.
00:55:46 These are legit teams. Anthony Edwards is a legit top 10 player in the league right now. Minnesota
00:55:52 has unbelievable size. I don't, everyone just assumes that Golden State and the Lakers,
00:55:57 one of them will survive this play and they'll get through and they'll wreak havoc and they'll
00:56:00 take the young teams out. No, that's, I'll say it on March 3rd, that's not going to happen.
00:56:05 Those teams are too good. Yeah. I mean, I believe that the Lakers are not going to make the playoffs.
00:56:10 The Warriors will, but I don't think that just means they're going to wreak havoc at all. I just
00:56:14 think they're going to get in. They got strength to get in. I'd say it's almost every time I watch
00:56:21 Oklahoma City. I am so impressed with Chet. I cannot believe what he can do at this stage.
00:56:27 Listen, Chet's rookie of the year, 99 times out of a hundred. Not this year, he's not.
00:56:33 Speaking of MVPs, I don't know how many Jason Tatum's going to win, but that dude down there
00:56:39 is going to win multiple MVPs. He is changing the game. I wouldn't wait.
00:56:44 Yeah. If you watch the game against Chet and the Thunder the other night, that was musty TV. I
00:56:52 couldn't take my eyes off the screen for that Spurs-Thunder game the other night.
00:56:56 I think Spurs beat the, just as we wrap this thing up, Spurs, I have the under on their win
00:57:04 total this year, so they hurt me a little bit tonight, although they're still at a dozen.
00:57:07 Spurs beat the Pacers tonight. And once again, I mean, Wemby went off. 31 points, 12 rebounds,
00:57:14 six assists, a steal, six blocks, and all of that in 31 minutes.
00:57:19 I'll tell you what, he's ornery too. He's ornery. He wants to win. This isn't like this happy-go-lucky
00:57:26 kid from France. When that dude with that body and that skill set starts wanting to tear your
00:57:32 throat out, which he does, I mean, he locked up. Chet Holmgren is a really good player in this
00:57:37 league, and Wemby locked him up late in that game. This thing's really happening. So for the Celtics,
00:57:43 we're talking about winning in 2020. That's the reason they need to win.
00:57:48 Shea is coming, Wemby's coming, and all these great players are coming. And by the way,
00:57:52 we're three or four years away from Jalen and Jason being the old guys that those guys are
00:57:56 going to want to knock off. That's the next stage. It's all coming, but you can't picture
00:58:00 any of that right now because the Celtics haven't won yet. No, I mean, it's true. We'll sign off
00:58:07 because this is just such a longer conversation. We could have another time. But to your point
00:58:12 exactly, I think some people, not like the diehards, but I think some people kind of forget
00:58:17 when that, you know, the new big three era, when that was put together by Danny, you know,
00:58:22 Pierce and Garnett and Allen, like all of these guys were basically 30 years old and looked at as,
00:58:29 well, they've done everything individually. All they haven't done is, you know, they haven't won
00:58:34 the title yet. And so, like you said, I mean, hopefully Tatum and Brown have won, if not
00:58:40 multiple championships by then, but they're only a few years away from 30 and being just at that
00:58:44 stage of their career where they are, you know, still in their primes. It's still a prime, you
00:58:49 know, portion of your NBA career, but they are, they're going to be entering that kind of old
00:58:55 guard a little bit. You know, you will have guys that are a full decade younger than them in the
00:59:00 NBA. And it's just, it's wild to think about. - Good problems to have. League is in unbelievably
00:59:05 good shape right now. - Yeah, without a doubt. Sean Grandi, we always enjoy having you on here,
00:59:10 man, obviously. And we'll certainly do it again as we get closer and closer to the playoffs. I
00:59:14 can't believe it has been this long since, you know, going all the way back to the summer,
00:59:18 since we had you on to begin with. But if there's ever a good time to do it, it's when the team is,
00:59:22 you know, coming off a 50 plus point win and sitting at 48 and 12. That's nice. Three quarters
00:59:28 of the way through the regular season and hopefully many, many months still to follow as we
00:59:32 get toward mid to late June and hopefully another duck boat parade. But for Sean, for Evan Valenti,
00:59:38 I'm Adam Kaufman. Great to be back with you, by the way. It's been a couple of weeks. We'll do
00:59:41 it again next week here on Celtics Beat. Let's enjoy that game against Denver. Maybe Celtics
00:59:47 only win this one by about 30.
00:59:49 [Music]