On this episode of the Bob Ryan & Jeff Goodman Podcast, Bob and Gary reflect on the positive impact this Celtic team has had on the game and the Boston sports scene. They address how Joe can prepare them ready to repeat plus Bob addresses the X that Nick re-x’d(?) about which starting five of the Celtics you would take. And how could you leave out Hondo? All that, and much more!
The Bob Ryan and Jeff Goodman Podcast is presented by:
Prize Picks! Get in on the excitement with PrizePicks, America’s No. 1 Fantasy Sports App, where you can turn your hoops knowledge into serious cash. Download the app today and use code CLNS for a first deposit match up to $100! Pick more. Pick less. It’s that Easy! Go to https://PrizePicks.com/CLNS
Gametime! Take the guesswork out of buying NBA tickets with Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code CLNS for $20 off your first purchase. Download Gametime today. Last minute tickets. Lowest Price. Guaranteed. Terms apply. Go to https://gametime.co !
The Bob Ryan and Jeff Goodman Podcast is presented by:
Prize Picks! Get in on the excitement with PrizePicks, America’s No. 1 Fantasy Sports App, where you can turn your hoops knowledge into serious cash. Download the app today and use code CLNS for a first deposit match up to $100! Pick more. Pick less. It’s that Easy! Go to https://PrizePicks.com/CLNS
Gametime! Take the guesswork out of buying NBA tickets with Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code CLNS for $20 off your first purchase. Download Gametime today. Last minute tickets. Lowest Price. Guaranteed. Terms apply. Go to https://gametime.co !
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Time for the Bob Ryan Gary Tagliatelle podcast right here on CLNS, brought to you by PrizePix,
00:28the exclusive daily fantasy partner of CLNS Media Network. Pick more, pick less with PrizePix.
00:34Bob, we've had a parade. This team has ingratiated themselves to the community from Joe Mazzuolo
00:42popping in and out all over the place with the trophy to Al Horford serving people at
00:47restaurants to again, you know, Joe getting out of the duck boat and walking along, you
00:54know, President, I think President Clinton style, right, shaking hands with everybody
00:58with the trophy. It's just a wonderful moment. And if you can put it to words, you know,
01:05once again, what happened with the Celtics this year?
01:08This whole post championship story, actually, you have to start with the whole way the town
01:19reacted during the finals themselves. I have been in Boston since 1964. I have been witness
01:26to a good percentage of these championships. And I've written a final story on six of them.
01:34And the last two have been in my retirement. I have never seen a reaction to equate to
01:42what we have had with this, this fandom and this team. I know that sounds like a giant
01:48statement, hyperbole, but it's not. It's what I believe. This generation of X, Z, whatever
01:55you want to call them, a combination of X and Z. But I think you got to throw in the
01:59people that were fans of those championship 17. This is their team. All the other stuff
02:05is ancient history. It's something it might as well be King Arthur and the Knights of
02:09the Roundtable. You know, and that starts not just Cousy, but I mean, even Bird, the
02:14Big Three. These are their guys. And they celebrate heartily this generation, apparently.
02:23The games in that atmosphere at the Garden for the playoffs, with the closing down of
02:29Canal and Causeway Streets and the side streets before and after the game was unlike anything
02:34I'd ever seen here. And I've been here since 64. And it's heartwarming. It's fun. Fortunately,
02:41they didn't get out of hand too much. It wasn't like the last time when people got
02:46shot. I mean, no, they celebrated heartily and responsibly. And the team has responded
02:56to it. They can feel this, I think, this, if you want to call it love, fine, this enthusiasm
03:03that the fans have for them. And so it was as pleasant and heartwarming and justifiable
03:10celebration as any Celtic team has ever been privileged to have. And everybody, so many
03:18people come up with high marks. And so this is the way it ought to be. And we actually
03:23put on a good show for America about how to properly celebrate a championship.
03:29I think all of our championship teams, and we've had tremendous runs,
03:33they've all been extremely likable. I mean, Brady made the Patriots likable.
03:37Everyone felt for Pierce, certainly. And then Ray and Garnett, Larry Legend and so forth.
03:46But even Larry's one of the greatest players of all time, but you will agree. I mean, Larry
03:51isn't exactly a people person, per se. He's a very private guy. I'm not saying anything bad.
03:58No, no. But he's a private guy, and he likes his own space. And that's fine.
04:06The 0-1 Patriots were just so likable because nobody thought they had a chance
04:11out of nowhere. And they embraced it. This team and the Red Sox 2-0-4,
04:18just a lovable bunch of idiots. They embraced it too. This team loves the city as much as
04:26the city loves it. Well, yeah, I think so. And it just works.
04:34It just works. And they're all nice guys. And I know that, oh, they're nice guys.
04:41In the day of celebrity, and I'm putting professional athletes, Bob, in that category,
04:46because they are. In the day of celebrity, with all of the social media, with all of the attention,
04:55with all of the lack of privacy that these people have,
05:00sometimes it's very hard to deal with. And people can say, well, they make millions of dollars. I
05:05get that. This team has really dealt with it and embraced it. Jason Tatum is, I am who I am.
05:11Jalen Brown certainly is, I am who I am. They're all nice guys, from the coach to the GM.
05:20If Brad Stevens was your neighbor, you'd have a beer with him at the fence post.
05:25And speaking of Brown and Tatum now, there's no comparable example in Celtic history of a pair
05:35of guys with that kind of pressure, with all the dialogue at that place. Larry won a championship
05:40in year two, with Kevin won in year one. Harris wins the first year he comes here. DJ wins the
05:48first year he comes here. It's on and on. And then the next group, that was put together on
05:55the fly by Danny on draft day in 2007, when he traded the fifth pick to Seattle, picked up Ray
06:00Allen. And if he hadn't done that, he couldn't have gotten Garnett. And Pierce is on the verge
06:06of, nobody was hanging him up. It wasn't a dialogue comparable to what Tatum and Brown had.
06:14I mean, when he came here, the guy here was Antoine Walker, who was the most polarizing
06:22player, in my opinion. And people loved him or hated him in Celtic history. Polarizing great
06:27player, excellent, great talent. Did I misspeak? Yes, he's not a great player, but he's a great
06:33talent. But these two guys had a unique circumstance in Celtic history, Brown and Tatum.
06:40And their path through the championship was unlike any other star players that the Celtics
06:46have had. Nobody, by the way, you go way back to the first group. Everybody knew why they couldn't
06:52win. Everybody knew that despite the fact that they had the all league backcourt, they had the
06:57guys who actually were first in team backcourt. That was, that started in 55. Yeah. And as late
07:03as 1955, that's early at 50, Sharman and Cousy, Cousy and Sharman, Bob Cousy and Bill Sharman.
07:11Cousy was first team all league 10 years in a row. Sharman joined him for four years, right?
07:17Point is, but until Russell, they knew the reason they couldn't win, they didn't get the ball enough.
07:23They were a high scoring team, but they weren't that good on defense and they weren't, and they
07:27didn't have a good enough rebounds. And they got Russell, they got everything tied together. Russell
07:31made every, and they also got Tommy Heintz in the same year who happened to be rookie of the year.
07:36Okay. So that group was put together, nobody was getting on Cousy for not having a ring or
07:43Sharman. They knew why they wouldn't. Okay. But there's never been anything like what these guys
07:48had to listen to, listen and read if they chose to, and become aware of how people were framing
07:54them. And you got to be, I'm so happy for both of them. And they're handling this so well too,
08:01they are. I mean, I think that, I mean, so there's nothing not to like here, folks.
08:06Oh, I know.
08:09I loved Shad Finn and the Globe wrote a very nice column, saying, hey, don't worry about 27,
08:1628 or 29, 30 or 20, or even 25, 24, 25. Enjoy this.
08:21I enjoy it. I agree.
08:23And, you know, number one, I say, there's a technical reason why you don't want to get
08:26ahead of the game. And it's called Christos Brzenkis' health, which is always precarious.
08:31Now, will they be the nominal favorites? Absolutely. Is Vegas going to put them as
08:35a prohibitive favorite? I'm sure. I mean, how can you not? Everybody's coming back,
08:39as far as we can see. Really, the first eight, we expect the first eight back.
08:45So, you know, but then, you know, they got to stay healthy.
08:50Well, we've seen that with other, you know, Philadelphia couldn't stay healthy. Milwaukee
08:53couldn't stay healthy. You know, they, they, they, you know, Miami wasn't healthy. So that
08:57certainly comes into play. But as you have said, Bob, once you win that ring, you know,
09:04that was the difference between Golden State and Boston the first time they met in the finals.
09:07Yeah. Yeah. Well, right. So it goes, you know, it hasn't been that long since nobody's repeated. I
09:15mean, it was about 17, 18. It's not like it was ancient history that we, you know, but we each,
09:19you know, so there's time. Well, boy, it's been six years. Well, we were, you know,
09:22that's not a long time, really. Repeating is hard. We know that you're a target. They know that
09:28you have to be healthy. Things have to be, look, I say no further. We have an example here. 2008,
09:342009. That team was just as good as the team before. And they were rolling and they were,
09:39they were awesome. They were going to win. Except guess what? Kevin Garnett got hurt.
09:45Garnett got hurt. And end of story. And then in 2010, that's another memory. They had a grasp.
09:50They had it in their grasp in the last game. Game seven. Should have won game seven. Didn't win it.
09:55Okay. But in 09, that could have been, you know, and the only thing. Well, that was supposed to
09:59be the team, right, Bob? I mean, 08 was gravy. 08 was get to know each other. Yeah, we went right.
10:03They were, wait, I remember we were all thinking back in 07, 08, the windows now open for the
10:08first time since 87 or eight, right? The window is now officially open, but, but nobody was,
10:16nobody was expecting 66 wins for that group. Hey, I, I forever, you know, I, I went crazy. I, I,
10:22I had a big, stolen cold water on the whole idea after they signed us three guys and together,
10:28put the three guys together. And I said, wait a minute. I wouldn't trade the rest of the,
10:33I trade the rest of the roster way, you know, or I said, I wouldn't take, I traded anybody else
10:39a final next nine for, you know, instead of our nine. And that I was that down. I said,
10:45you don't do it with just three people, which you don't, but then what they do,
10:49they went out and got James Posey. They went out and got Eddie house. And eventually they got PJ
10:53Brown. So they, they rectified that situation. But anyway, nobody was expecting 07, 08 to turn
11:01into a 66 win championship team, but you're right. They were thinking, Hey, give me a year together.
11:04And now we'll see what happens. They were, they, they actually had a grace period, you know,
11:08which they would have had it. This team though, is their circumstances, unique and Celtic history.
11:14And you got to feel good for everybody involved.
11:17Prize picks is America's number one, daily fantasy app with over 5 million active members.
11:22It is the easiest and most excited way to play daily fantasy sports. Unlike other apps on prize
11:27picks issues, you against the numbers, get in on the daily action with your friends,
11:32become part of the prize picks community today. All you do is pick more or less on
11:37two to six players, their staff projections and watch the winnings roll in. You can now
11:42win up to a hundred times your money on prize picks with as little as four correct picks.
11:47You could turn $10 into a thousand dollars. Prize picks is available to more than 30 States across
11:54the country, including California, Texas, and Georgia. Now here's something that you can think
12:00about. What you can think about here with prize picks. Here's an example of something you could,
12:05or this is the whole idea behind the concept. Caitlin Clark for more than three and a half,
12:10three pointers made and Brianna Stewart for more than 23 points. See, it's that simple. Download
12:16the prize picks app today and use the code CLNS for a first deposit match up to a hundred dollars.
12:22That's code CLNS on prize picks for a deposit match up to a hundred dollars. Pick more, pick less.
12:28It's that easy.
12:33What it does is it establishes a blueprint. And I think every coach in America or around the world
12:41is thankful for the way the Celtics won it because we are in a me generation. Me, me, me,
12:48Instagram, TikTok, whatever. Me, me, me. It's true. It's like me, me, me, get the commercials.
12:54I mean, Jason Tatum went through it and he was sore. I mean, the guy has come of age. He's 19,
12:59he's 20 years old. They're throwing all kinds of money at him. You got to be the next Jordan. You
13:03got to get the shoe contract. You got to do the ads. You got to be the guy. You got to be the
13:08guy to take the last shot. And then he woke up and he realized that he goes, no, I know that's
13:14not the way it works. I can make, he's going to make $315 million. So good for him. Brown's getting
13:20paid. Derek White's going to make $125 million. Good for him. They're all getting paid. So,
13:26you know, Tatum woke up and he said, no, no, no, no, wait a minute. That's not the way we're
13:30going to win here. And Jalen Brown and everybody the same way. So now coaches can point and say,
13:37look, okay, this is the way you can win a championship as a team. Whereas Jeff Goodman,
13:45our colleague pointed out, and he was the only one to say this, by the way,
13:49he thought Jason Tatum was an excellent passer when he was 15 years old. I had never heard that.
13:55I had, it was all about the shot. Cause Goodman knows everybody, you know,
14:01but he said that he goes, he goes, I thought he was an excellent passer. We saw it. It took seven
14:06years to see it. So like my feeling now is what this team has done is established a blueprint
14:11for the rest of the league to play team basketball, which I don't know about you,
14:14Bob, but I will watch 24 seven. Nope. I was, you know, a couple of guys I'm thinking about lately
14:22as a it's interesting if they're going to be content with the way it's working out for them.
14:29And that's, that's Pritchard and Hauser. You know, they, they are important key aspects of this
14:34and that they know they're not going to start, you know, are they okay with who they are at this
14:40point in their career? You know, did I think I want to go get paid somewhere or if somebody,
14:44you know, are they realistic about who they are? They appear to be, you know, realistic about who
14:50they are and what they aren't and why they are in an ideal place for them, which they, which they
14:56are because they're not asked to carry a burden, but they're, they're asked to help out every once
15:00in a while, you know, doing what they do, which they're putting us earth to make threes, both of
15:04them. And, and of course, Pritchard, I, by the way, I'm taking credit for this. That guy I said
15:12is a guarantee for one sneaky offensive rebound a game. And every day he comes through with one.
15:20Yep. And, but anyway, they, they're important parts in terms of, we're talking about repeating,
15:26we're talking about the whole thing. Well, this is, you know, this is, this is a life decision,
15:32right? Because, um, if I'm their agent and if they ever asked me, this was the way I'd play it
15:38because perk a trade in, in 2010, as we remember, and we realized that that hurt the Celtics big
15:44time. That was, that was like, that was probably the one trade. I wasn't that Danny made that I
15:49was like, Ooh, no, but he thought he had Shaq and it didn't work out. But the Garnett said that
15:54Garnett said to perk perk, you get paid. I mean, you got to get paid. I mean,
15:59generational wealth. And we've heard Jason take up Tatum, talk about it. A lot of players in the
16:03NBA have come from situations where they don't have that. They have an opportunity for generational
16:08wealth where they can send their kids to college. They can send their grandkids to college. They
16:12can establish a quality of life. So, and I don't know Pritchett or, or, um, houses background,
16:20but you know, I believe houses under control for another year. I think, I think they have control
16:26of him and Pritchett. I think, I don't think they're free agents or if they are, they're
16:29restricted. So that's fine. But this is the way I played it from them. You play for another year,
16:34right? And if you win another one, or possibly you win a third and somebody, somebody goes to pay
16:39you a lot of money, you take it. Yeah. I don't know if anybody, you know, if everybody, you never
16:45know who out there thinks wide about anybody and you know, how valued either of them would be.
16:50Well, I mean, let's think about it and you look at housing and you look at his shot making ability
16:56and you say, you know, I really need a six man that can shoot the three. Yeah. Okay. And I,
17:03I don't, the numbers are so out of whack in the NBA, but like, say for example,
17:08how's your gets, I mean, if Tatum's getting 350 million, somebody comes up and says to Houser,
17:13I'll give you a 45 million guaranteed to be my three point shooter.
17:17Yeah. You don't know. Right. And it could, could, could Pritchard turn out to be a coveted
17:24adjunct player that one of the best of our generation of this generation, by the way,
17:29was traded two days ago, again, Alex Caruso. And by the way, did you know that his unofficial
17:37nickname was bald mamba? I love that. I freaked out when I read that. I was, I was on an ex.
17:42Oh, really? I mean, you know, because we have white mamba here, our boy scout and,
17:47but bald mamba, that guy, Alex Caruso is having a very interesting career by the way. And, and he,
17:53he's a, he's a valuable adjunct, that guy. And he's making a good living for himself.
18:00And I'm happy for this guy. But it's one of those deals where he's coveted, but you can live without
18:07him. You'd like to have him, but you can live without him too. You know, when somebody there's
18:10always the next man up that, that needs what you have to offer this year, you know, he may not be
18:15done. He's played for like six teams already. He may not be done yet, but anyway, I could see
18:20Pritchard at 25, maybe evolving into that for somebody, or maybe not. I'm just throwing this
18:26out on the fly. Oh no, we're just talking, I mean, we're just talking about the future because,
18:30you know, if somebody says to Pritchard, here's 25 million, you know, after a couple of years
18:34or whatever, I mean, you gotta, you know, and if you're Joe Mizzoula, you just say, good luck. And
18:39you know, we love you and you go make the money. Yeah. I mean, that's what you want. That's so,
18:43I mean, it's, it's, look, if that's your only problem, you know, how are we going to keep
18:52Pritchard, you know? And then now, so we officially, is he, we feel he's officially
18:58back. Did he, he said it, I heard it the other night. Yeah, he's back at nine and a half million,
19:03nine and a half million. He doesn't care. Nine and a half million. He'll be back.
19:07Well, he'll do his best. He'll stay in shape. He'll do everything he can to milk one more year
19:11out of this. But boy, was he helpful. Very helpful. The right time. And this is, this is what they
19:16didn't get when, when Perk went down, you know, they didn't get it. Right. They needed one game
19:22out of Rashid Wallace. Don't get me started on that guy. I know. And, you know, and they couldn't
19:27get it. And, you know, but Al Horford came through exactly when you needed him. And, you know,
19:35and, you know, when you, when you look at the money, you look at a guy like Derek White, who is
19:38just, even his commercials are humbling. You know, when I see him in the Sam Adams commercials,
19:46he's still, I'm like, great. The guy's getting paid. He's getting commercials. He's getting
19:49endorsements. Good for him, but he's still just so nice. And then for a player like him,
19:55who does everything right, who, as you said, isn't afraid to get dunked on, not afraid to get dunked
20:00on. Right. It's 125 million. You're like, bravo, man. You know, that's what he's looking at. Bravo.
20:07That's, you know, that, and that, this is what I'm saying is for role models to show kids,
20:13you can do it right. And still make a lot of money. Yeah, that's right. Well, that's a good
20:17point. Good point. You know, this back court, by the way, I, we can have the fun discussion
20:22and some that, you know, about who's the best Celtic backcourt ever. And of course, you know,
20:26and they're in their time, Kuzi and Sharman, when you're both making first time in their time.
20:31And that's the only way you can talk about it. But in my time here, which we know is now 55
20:36years of covering the Celtics and watching them actually more than that, watching them. But
20:40right. My favorite back court. I'm not saying it's the best. We can argue whether you like
20:44white and Cheney and whether you like, you know, Danny and DJ and, and, and all that, but this is
20:50my, these guys, and I'll say it for the millionth time, every GM in the league has got to be saying,
20:56not fair. If they got two of these guys, one, one of a customer, please. Thank you very much.
21:01We got two of them. We it's just, it's amazing. I've never seen such a wonderfully complimentary
21:07backward that both these guys are. Here's another thing, Bob, for your argument. And I just
21:12mentioned the block shots. Have you ever seen a backcourt do more in the paint? Whether white
21:16is sneakily blocking a shot? Yeah. How many layups did Drew Holiday have when nobody?
21:21No. And no, I haven't. And I mean, you know, I mean, there are individual guys over the years
21:26that I used to, because I loved it. You know, I love post-ups anyway. And you know, it was really
21:32good down there. Tiny was good down there in his prime. And I'll tell you another guy was really
21:36good down there. It was Gail Goodrich. And, and he was only six one, but I forgot about tiny,
21:41tiny was something else. Tiny was good. Tiny would post your up, by the way, if he had a chance.
21:47Well, he was an MVP, right? Was a tiny an MVP? Well, he never got MVP because in those days,
21:51that was when the dominance of centers went 20 years. But the center would be MVP,
21:56Oscar Robertson sneaked one in. And other than that was 20 years in a row that a center out of
22:02with one exception, when the MVP and now centers don't even exist, you know, as we know, then.
22:07So it didn't tiny lead the league in points and scoring and assist in 72, 73, the only person in
22:13the NBA to ever do that. And although, although what's his name? Yeah. So yeah. And by the way,
22:21he was taller than people think. He was six. I looked him in the eye and I'm six one. He wasn't
22:25people think he was five 11. He his body type made him look shorter than he was. He projected small,
22:32but he was actually a towering six one. But anyway, a towering six one. But you're right
22:39about those guys. They did. They did good work inside. Here's my one thing on the backcourt. I
22:45will throw this into the discussion. My favorite backcourt player, player, not do. And one of the
22:54I have to preface this. One of my thrills was meeting and getting to know Jojo White
22:59was the 08 version of Rajon Rondo. Okay, boy. Oh, that's triple doubles. Those early.
23:06Oh, we I'm afraid, you know, it's it's what he did early. How amazing he was is going to be
23:14not fully appreciated. Historically, it's not. And it should be. Oh, my God.
23:21He was something I know. It's a very good, very good point. He's got to be the worst shooter in
23:27the Hall of Fame. And then everything when the guys left, everything went south. It just didn't
23:31work out. Now, it's a very good point. You know, Rondo, you know. Well, I mean, he'd go up the
23:38floor. The big hands, he could control that. I mean, he's the best six one rebounder. You know,
23:45the there's one or two that lever was like that. And he was about the size Lafayette that lever.
23:52But but Rondo routinely triple doubling at that size in the league. It's a you know, I mean,
23:57I mean, well, I know we know what Westbrook did, but he was six four, six four. Not so much.
24:03Westbrook had it was a better score. I mean, I'm just saying, but he does a triple doubles guards.
24:07Right. And but tiny. I mean, Rondo six one. I'm sorry. And doing, of course,
24:14a very long arms and all that. And it's fine. Oh, it was extraordinary. He was that was all right,
24:19Bob. I wouldn't mind going back. And, you know, you go back. I wouldn't mind going back and
24:22watching that team play again. You know, a few games again. You know, absolutely. Game time makes
24:29getting NBA finals tickets even faster and easier. Prices on the game time app actually go down the
24:35closer it gets to the tip off. Like right now is looking on the app and it's really easy to use.
24:40Just download the app. Lots of pictures for sports fans, lots of pictures. And, you know,
24:45the tickets for Celtics game one and wherever they play to six, seven hundred bucks. But
24:51the closer you get to actual tip time, it's going to go down. So you and your friends may do a last
24:56minute thing. And I know it's a lot of money, but maybe it's two, three of your friends. Last minute
25:01trip. Boom. Let's go. Let's see what the tickets are on game time. You never know. With killer last
25:06minute deals on the prices views from your seat and their lowest price guarantee, game time takes
25:11the guesswork out of buying NBA tickets. Last minute tickets, flash deals, zone deals. OK,
25:18here's the deal. Last minute deals save up to 60 percent off buying last minute for sports
25:23concerts, comedy, theater, etc. Now, the flash deal is save even more with exclusive in-app deals on
25:30select seats ahead of the game or the event. Save even more when you choose a section for the zone
25:37deals. You choose a section like game time. Choose the seats. Sounds pretty good to me. Take the
25:42guesswork out of buying NBA finals tickets with game time. Download the game time app. Create an
25:47account. Use code CLNS for 20 dollars off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an
25:54account and redeem code CLNS for 20 dollars off your first purchase. Download game time today.
26:04Last minute tickets. Lowest price guaranteed. Let's go. Nick, our fearless leader and owner
26:12of CLNS Media, Nick Gelsow. Follow him at CLNS underscore Nick on my X. Need to say X. He has
26:24this. There are three starting fives of all time for the Celtics. Which is the best one? Team one,
26:31Drew Holliday, Jaylen Brown, Jason Tatum, Dave Cowens, Bill Russell. Team two, Rondo, White,
26:37Pierce, KG, McHale. Team three, DJ, Ray Allen, Byrd, Heintz, and Walton. My response was the same
26:43as yours. What? No Havlicek? No Havlicek? And no Sam Jones. Which means you're disqualified. You're
26:55out of the discussion. Whoever you are, whoever this person is that posted this X, you're not
27:02qualified to take part in this discussion. You're just not. It's just beyond comprehension
27:12that anybody that purports to be a knowledgeable Celtic historian would not mention a member of
27:19the Mount Rushmore. I should say this was a retweet by Nick. You're right, a retweet by Nick.
27:25You've got to put, look, Rondo's got to be on there, period. I mean you could pull off,
27:30you know, Sam has to be in there. Sam has to be in there. Maybe you pull off DJ,
27:33maybe you pull off, I don't know, maybe you pull up Ray. It's a tough one. But they got to be in
27:39there. I agree. But of the three, I picked of the three, I picked team three, I'd say take off DJ,
27:46put on Rondo. And you can put on Sam if you want. But Byrd, Heintz, and Walton, think about this.
27:52That's the team, I said, that wins in a walk. Byrd and Walton, no one's ever seen that and
27:59never, ever will see anything like that pairing again. And we're going to assume we're going to
28:04be a healthy wall, you know. Right, right, of course. Give me a healthy wall and with Byrd,
28:08I'm taking that team right there, that team. So, I mean, look, it's a very fun discussion,
28:14okay, that's fine. But you're not qualified to run it if you don't have John Havlicek and Sam
28:20Johnson. I know. I know. I mean, it's not you're not qualified. Please, you know, you have to farm
28:25out the responsibility of somebody knows what they're talking about. Well, that just goes to
28:29show the history of the Celtics continues. Oh, yeah. I mean, really, I mean, it's it's so you're
28:35talking about he's got four guys on this team. Or he has four names from this year's team
28:44with the greats. Yeah, it's got white in there. And, you know, you can't.
28:50No, you can't. I mean, we love we love the guy we're talking about. We're praising him.
28:53But in this particular discussion, you know, he's he doesn't he's not he's not worthy yet.
28:59Maybe he got a Sam Jones left off. Holiday's been here for a year. So yeah, I mean, and
29:06but when you know when you when you have a Derek White over Sam Jones, you're really
29:09embarrassing yourself in public. I'm sorry. I mean, it's hard. I mean, it's hard. It's I mean,
29:16even franchise, only one other franchise can put up a comparable, you know, like maybe the only
29:23ones that could remotely comparable. I mean, even if you looked at the centers, and you went Russell
29:31Cowans. Oh, that's the other thing. Of course, he's got Cowan's listed as a forward. And,
29:38and, you know, the center, of course, he was, although it is that his first couple of games,
29:44Tommy Heinsohn started Garfield Smith. And I bought into Garfield Smith at that time,
29:51too, thinking he was going to be a decent NBA player. And Cowans, his first game was in New
29:56York, they lost that year. And and he had like 16 and 17 and 17, as a power forward.
30:03And Garfield Smith was the starting center that lasted maybe three or four games. I mean,
30:09we can look at I know that's all. And he was still he also tried to bring John off the bench still
30:13right away that year, which was insane. And yeah, he was bringing how much continuing the six man,
30:19you know, right, right, right, right. Well, of course, that that didn't last long either. And
30:24I believe john went up leading the league in minutes played, which for several he did for
30:27more than one year, right? It was time. So anyway, anyway, yeah, Cowans, his career as power
30:33forward lasted about three games when Garfield Smith played his way out of it. But Garfield
30:39Smith did last long enough to set a record that will never be broken. What would that record be
30:47Bob? He had an airball hat trick from the free throw line in Phoenix. You can only tie it.
30:56But you cannot break it. How about that, folks? I think he was six for 30 lifetime for that first
31:03year and something like that. But he had an airball hat trick in Phoenix. That's something
31:09you unfortunately, we're never gonna have a privilege of seeing it.
31:12Wait a minute. So at one, one, one attempt at the foul line.
31:17Yeah, yeah. Three. Yeah, yeah. I mean, if two years date,
31:21violation, you had three for two. Right? Right. In those days, I can still hear the
31:27zinc three, four, two, and 43 for two. Anyway, um, yeah, that was a, you know, three chances to
31:32make two shots in those days. That was the foul rule at that time. At after the bonus. Okay,
31:37I don't know about that. Yeah, yeah. So that's before they did one of them do one on one that
31:43and I was still green college. I was a zinc would say after the first one would be made zinc.
31:49By the way, zinc is Dave Zinkoff people, the most famous PA announcer,
31:53one of the two most famous PA announcers in NBA history. And the guy would make the first one,
31:58he would go another. And he would shoot the second one. So anyway, but hey, Dr. Smith,
32:07yes, had an airball hat trick on the free throw line. Now that will never be that can't be broken.
32:10And only Bob Ryan can bring you that sort of information. Now, another announcement,
32:15a major announcement here is we have finalized that Bob Ryan and Dan Shaughnessy will be doing
32:21a podcast together with yours truly, it's going to be in July putting the word out, we're going
32:25to make it a two parter. Because I think there's so much there. It is a career retrospective
32:30of both of them. And I cannot tell you how excited I am to have this conversation. And I think the
32:37people that follow us, I think the masses will absolutely love it. I cannot wait to do it.
32:43Well, we have to say one more thing. And that is
32:48the NBA draft is upon us. And never in my entire time following NBA, have I been less knowledgeable
32:56or less interested in a draft, something I used to love in my day in my prime, you know, I was
33:03when I had to do the mock draft thing, you know, and I and there's a lot of work, but I enjoyed it.
33:09I did, but the draft has just been so, you know, because of the pool.
33:13Well, the problem is, is I don't think we believe in it.
33:17Well, it's just that you don't know who these people are.
33:19It's who they are. But I also, I also don't.
33:25Like, it's kind of like, well, you know, in three years from now, I'll find out who the
33:30good player is, then you can tell me where he was drafted. Yeah, well, that's that's true in all
33:35drafts. Don't you think? I don't know. I mean, before, but like when LeBron was coming out,
33:40we knew that kid right away. Oh, well, that's going to have an impact. I mean,
33:44you don't expect anybody to have an impact. I mean, Larry was 23 when he was drafted. I get
33:49that. The age thing is a big issue, you know, and you don't expect these kids to help your team.
33:56You don't expect to have an impact. As a matter of fact, you think most of you just think that
34:00most of them are going to flame out. Well, and then it's the you know,
34:03who are they thinking? The first two picks could be a couple of Frenchmen who aren't Victor
34:08Wimberjana that not everybody is in the discussion. Now, there is a local interest, if we will.
34:15Donovan Klingin, there are people, you know, he's going to go fairly high up here at the
34:19UConn Center. And the one that intrigues me is, will anybody even take the two time reigning
34:26college player of the year, Zach Edie? All seven, four of them. And there's no guarantee he's even
34:34going to be taken. We keep hearing he's not going to go. And 60 picks, which which distresses me,
34:42you know, as a defender of the faith of centers and pivot men, you know, but that's going to be
34:48interesting to see. Now, because the Celtics are picking 30 and whoever he is, you know,
34:52don't, you know, enjoy your training camp. Yeah, get some autographs, get some pictures.
34:57Yeah, I mean, you know, that this we just don't need any, any, you know,
35:02they're all set. All right, Bob, on a closing note, I do have one, one final thought. What,
35:11you know, Joe Mazula is obviously he's a New England guy grew up, he's very familiar
35:17with what Bill Belichick has done over the years as far as
35:23getting the players to forget about last year and look forward. Like, remember, I think after the
35:29first Super Bowl, they showed up with jerseys and the standings on the back was 00.
35:35Oh, okay. I remember that one every day. Their practice jerseys. It was like the standing
35:40New England Jets, you know, Buffalo 00. Right. So that was like, it's over. Everybody, you know,
35:48what do you think Mazula does? Well, it's interesting, because we learned that he isn't
35:54above gimmicks, that he splices things into tapes for them that are out of, you know,
35:59out of sports that that make points about life about things, you know, so let's see
36:08something. I'm interested to see, you know, there'll be something. I mean, you can't, you can't,
36:13you know, they've been on it, they can't do the doc, what Doc Rivers did, because they've now
36:16they've been on the duck boat. So they get that one that they're going to work. We'll see. He's a,
36:21I mean, we are learning slowly as the layers are unpeeled about who the Joe Mazula is.
36:27And, and, and, you know, what, how he thinks. And because when we started, we knew zero about it,
36:33I knew I played in West Virginia. Okay, right. I didn't realize he was from Rhode Island until,
36:37you know, when he was hired, you know, I didn't, I don't, but I just, I knew him from West Virginia.
36:43Now, we're learning more and more about this guy. And, you know, and there's a lot of something a
36:48lot of stuff, lots of good things going on up in that head. So, and, you know, so yeah,
36:53we'll say that's a good point. But I'm sure he's figured he'll figure something.
36:56I think he's gonna come up with something. It's gonna be fascinating. It's gonna be interesting
36:59to see. Bob Ryan, my friend, always a pleasure. Again, coming up in July, a two-parter,
37:05Bob Ryan and Dan Shaughnessy, a career retrospective. We will both begin
37:09at the beginning for both of these gentlemen. We've been brought to you by PrizePix,
37:13the exclusive daily fantasy partner of CLN's Media Network. Pick more, pick less.
37:17It's that easy with PrizePix. Bob, see you later.