Jayson Tatum Already Among Greatest Celtics w/ Sean Grande | Celtics Beat - video Dailymotion

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Sean Grande is the play-by-play voice for the Boston Celtics Radio Network. Sean joins the program to chat about the NBA Trade Deadline, did anyone close the Celtics talent gap, and Derrick White's refound confidence.   CLNS Media is Powered by:  💰 Prize Picks - https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/CLNS Download the app today and use Code CLNS when you sign up & Get $50 instantly when you play $5!  🎫 Gametime - https://gametime.co 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. Terms apply. What time is it? Gametime!  💳Start earning points on rent you’re already paying by going to joinbilt.com/GARDEN. Make sure to use our URL so they know we sent you: joinbilt.com/GARDEN, to start earning points on your rent payments today!  Elevate your style game on and off the course with the PXG Spring Summer 2024 collection. Head over to https://PXG.com/GARDENREPORT and save 10% on all apparel.  Nutrafol! Take the first step to visibly thicker, healthier hair. For a limited time, Nutrafol is offering our listeners ten dollars off any purchase and free shipping when you go to https://Nutrafol.com and enter the promo code GARDENGIFT!   #celtics #NBA #BostonCeltics The CLNS Media Network is the leading provider for video/audio content. CLNS is a fully credentialed member of the media with access to all NFL/NBA/NHL/MLB teams & venues. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------  CLNS' rebuilt their YouTube community in less than 12 months, during a pandemic that attacked sports. Wondering how? Find out here (and support our channel) - https://www.tubebuddy.com/clnsmedia  Visit the Official Home of CLNS Sports Coverage -  https://clnsmedia.com  Twitter - https://twitter.com/CLNSMedia Celtics - https://twitter.com/celticsclns Patriots - https://twitter.com/patriotsclns Bruins - https://twitter.com/bruinsclns Red Sox - https://twitter.com/redsoxclns Non-Sports - https://twitter.com/northstation Facebook - http://facebook.com/clnsmedia INSTA - http://Instagram.com/clnsmedia INSTA Celtics - http://Instagram.com/celticsclns INSTA History - http://Instagram.com/nbahistoryclns

Transcript

00:00:00I'm app. What's up, everyone? Welcome in a new February edition of Celtics beat. Awesome to be

00:00:07here with you, Adam Kaufman and Valenti. We are always with you. We have with us one of the

00:00:12favorites of the program. We always love when you take some time with us and coming to us from the

00:00:16road in the Big Apple. Get ready for Celtics Knicks. It's on the horizon. Maybe just maybe

00:00:22a preview of the Eastern Conference finals down the road. Sean Grandy, of course,

00:00:27longtime radio voice of the team. And boy, this Celtics team, the four straight wins and

00:00:34Kyrie Irving, no Anthony Davis come to town and you get like Dante and clerks. I'm not even

00:00:40supposed to be here today. Kind of performance out of the Celts. Just a total lackluster effort.

00:00:47Really, it was it was tough on the eyes. It was hard to watch. Trade deadline is behind us.

00:00:51Name after name. Incredible movement across the league. Always exciting. But Sean, I think

00:00:57where we have to begin, we'll get to all of that. We got to start with what everybody's

00:01:01talking about, obviously. Who you got in the Super Bowl? I the asterisk on this being that

00:01:09Kevin Harlan and I both thought Buffalo was going to be Kansas City. We're both meaning that way.

00:01:14But I am of the opinion and have been for a while that you cannot keep winning

00:01:21one possession three point games over and over and over again that eventually the coin is not

00:01:27going to come up heads 38 times in a row and that one of these times someone's going to drop the

00:01:34pass. Pat Mahomes is going to fumble scrambling from first down. One of those plays that always

00:01:39magically happens for him is not going to happen. I think the Eagles are the better team. I think

00:01:43it's just too. I think people are resigned to the fact, particularly in New England,

00:01:47because of the whole Patriots legacy thing of Kansas City winning this again. And I just I

00:01:53I have a gut feeling that it's it's the Eagles time. Not that that good sues the New England

00:02:00soul very much, although. Those of us who have maybe a reason to become Jeff Lurie fans

00:02:07are also hey. Go go birds. Yeah, let's and I agree with you. Top to bottom,

00:02:14the Eagles are the more talented team. But if you are a gambler and you know many of us are,

00:02:19obviously, how you could possibly justify putting your hard earned money against Patrick Mahomes,

00:02:24where, whether as a short favorite or underdog, just manages to keep getting it done

00:02:28time after time after time, especially this time of year. I wasn't even going to go here,

00:02:33at least immediately, but because you mentioned Jeff Lurie, there was the report recently and

00:02:38quickly denied by him in New Orleans. No surprise that he's interested in buying the Celtics.

00:02:44Obviously, from the area, Celtics fan also owns the Eagles. For anyone that don't know,

00:02:50doesn't know that. And that's his priority. I don't know what anyone expected him to say,

00:02:55like he's not going to steal the shine, steal the spotlight from the Super Bowl and his team

00:03:00that is vying for a ring and trying to end this this back to back run for the Chiefs and say,

00:03:07yeah, we're in the mix. Yeah, might buy the ball. Like, of course, he's going to

00:03:11deny it. But my question for you is, no, I think it's a perfectly normal thing to

00:03:15think that on your wedding day that you'd answer questions about another woman.

00:03:20Of course. Right. Yeah. This is great up here. This whole party we have going on here. But yeah,

00:03:25let me let me talk about this deep devotion and interest I have in someone else. Right. But much

00:03:31like, you know, all the guys on the text threads with their buddies that their wives aren't on.

00:03:35Hey, did you see that mom at school pick up today? So, you know, people have wandering eyes,

00:03:42right? Jeffrey Lurie might have wandering eyes. So let me ask you, Sean, finding out a lot about

00:03:46how Adam's mind works. And right. Was that I checked your phone. You see the text that I

00:03:53receive. It's obscene. I tell you, all these people are going to name them. I'm going to

00:03:57give out phone numbers. Was that posturing on a lorry? Or do you believe that truly he's just

00:04:04not in the mix? No, I believe he probably is in the mix. I have tried to stay as out of it as you

00:04:12can. I hear a lot of the same things because I think those of us that seem like we're closest

00:04:15to it and we're with the team, we're traveling. This is not the circle in which this is getting

00:04:21discussed. You know, there there are people in offices, you know, putting books together,

00:04:26working 80 hour weeks trying to get this thing organized because this is an extraordinary

00:04:30undertaking to sell a franchise and make a multi-billion dollar deal like this. So

00:04:37for those who have used it, well, the pending sale is the reason the Celtics have only won

00:04:43only on a pace to win 57 or 58 games this year with a plus nine scoring differential and not

00:04:50that the sale has anything to do with it. It's a little bit silly. I don't think it's like

00:04:55an absurd thing from the outside to say, but I can tell you as someone around the team all the

00:05:00time, it does not get discussed within this little circle. Just as long as it's not the

00:05:06family sports group, I think we all can agree. As long as it's not those guys, I'm all set.

00:05:10I just can't do it. I mean, look, the one thing this Luca trade just gives me so much Mookie

00:05:19Betts vibes of like trading away best player to L.A. and regretting it for the entire duration

00:05:24afterwards. I still haven't gotten back from that. Still can't do it. So as long as it's not those

00:05:29guys, I feel you as a play by play guy, I would hate being connected to the Red Sox and the

00:05:35Pittsburgh Penguins and the Celtics all at the same time. If you're a multi-sport play by play

00:05:39guy, that sounds terrible. So I'm totally with you on that trade deadline behind us.

00:05:45As mentioned, Luca, of course, that was the stunner of all stunners when it comes to just,

00:05:51you know, what we'll see how big a deal it is in the long term. And I have my thoughts on that

00:05:55as to just how sort of transformative this deal is going to be. And only time is going to bear

00:06:00that out. But when it comes to just out of nowhere, nobody saw it coming to the point

00:06:06where the insider who breaks it, Shamshterani, if people are wondering for a half hour afterwards,

00:06:10was the guy hacked. It was that big a deal. It was that shocking. It was that monumental. And

00:06:16that's surprising. You know, maybe the most surprising, shocking trade in NBA history,

00:06:20quite frankly, certainly in the last, you know, quarter century or whatever, but

00:06:26a lot of different guys moved homes over the course of the last few days. And I'll rattle

00:06:31down a list of some of them. Luca and Mark Williams to the Lakers. Anthony Davis, obviously

00:06:37a maverick. Jimmy Butler suspended his way out of town in Miami to the Warriors, who did pursue

00:06:43Kevin Durant. It didn't work out. He's still with the Suns. Not playing right now, but still with

00:06:47the Suns. De'Aaron Fox making his impact early with the Spurs. Good team up there with Victor

00:06:53Wembañana. I think that's going to be a crazy tandem to watch for a little while now. Brandon

00:07:00Ingram to the Raptors. Hasn't played yet. De'Andre Hunter to the Cavs, who, of course, continue to

00:07:05lead the Eastern Conference. Have been a little up and down of late. Kyle Kuzma, Kevin Porter Jr.

00:07:09to the Bucs. Zach Levine, Jonas Valanciunas to the Kings. Yousef Nurkic, a Hornet. Chris Middleton

00:07:15and poor Marcus Smart to the Wizards. Kelly Olenek, just because I feel like I should mention

00:07:20him, goes to the Pelicans. And Dennis Schroeder went to about six teams. We'll see where he winds

00:07:24up playing. So just an insane, insane time, Sean. But I think what's sort of not most notable,

00:07:33but equally notable with it all was, you know, Brad Stevens, president of basketball operations

00:07:37for the Seas, as we all know, sort of asked about Boston's lack of activity because it generally

00:07:43was they brought in Torrey Craig as as a free agent signing previously the Bulls and obviously

00:07:48dealt away in a salary dump, effectively Jaden Springer. But he was asked about the lack of

00:07:54activity and and essentially said, look, when you are ready made for a championship, as we are right

00:08:01now, it's a boring ass day, trade deadline day. You just sit around and see what everybody else

00:08:06does. Everyone's chasing us and we just need to live up to what we have on this roster and what

00:08:11we did last year. So all that in mind, I can't imagine you were surprised Boston was inactive,

00:08:17but do you believe that anyone narrowed the gap or even that Boston is still top of the

00:08:24food chain right now? Well, I certainly like what Cleveland did. I like the Andre Hunter.

00:08:29I think it gives them, I think the mix of too many offensive players and not enough defensive

00:08:34players and you can't have enough. Now you need more defensive wings. This is why even when the

00:08:39Lakers early in the year, they just made the deal of the century, the deal of the millennium,

00:08:43the shocker of all time and one of the most stunning trades in professional sports history.

00:08:49Just the minor thing of sending D'Angelo Russell away and getting Dorian Finney Smith is an

00:08:54indication, better indication of where the league is than what just happened, that you need these

00:08:58bigger wings, which is why Torrey Craig is a bigger, you know, bigger wing than Jaden Springer.

00:09:03Well, listen, I hate to see Jaden Springer go, especially the way he had been playing over the

00:09:07last couple of weeks and that's, there's economics, the having, being the championship

00:09:11caliber team had less to do with the Celtics being inactive than welcome to life above the second

00:09:16apron, where there's just very little you could do. The new, the second apron dictated a lot of

00:09:21what happened here for, for better or worse for teams. Just the new cap, the fact that the Luka

00:09:27thing is about many, many, many things. One of them is the first pushback against the Supermax

00:09:33that this isn't going to be an automatic thing that your superstar player, that we're just going

00:09:36to give him the Supermax if there's, you know, issues there. And I will take issue with this.

00:09:42You're saying time will tell. Time will not tell us the whole story because what we will never,

00:09:46ever truly know is if Luka was going to leave Dallas in 2026. When you make deals like this,

00:09:53you erase that portion of the space-time continuum where you're waiting around to find out. We'll

00:09:59never really know if he was going to leave Dallas on his own. You know, who knows the stuff that

00:10:03they're saying now down there, they obviously felt it was a legitimate case that they either

00:10:08weren't going to say that they probably weren't going to sign to the Supermax or indicate that

00:10:11they might not. And by the way, how did not indicating publicly that you were not going

00:10:17to sign a player and extend them? How'd that work out for Miami with Jimmy Butler? So once that,

00:10:22this is all about players get their contract. And then once they have the contract, then they want

00:10:26to force, force the movement. Look at what Jimmy Butler just did. That was the most lucrative

00:10:31temper tantrum in the history of the planet. A five, a five-year-old is just trying to get his

00:10:40toy back. Jimmy Butler got $55 million by doing that. It was brilliant. But that is what the next

00:10:48CBA will be about is preventing players from you're always trying to, you're always one step

00:10:52behind. It was like James Harden with the rules. Like, all right, you can't do this anymore. Okay.

00:10:56Well, this is how I'm going to get to the free throw line. And then Trey Young, like stopping

00:11:00short. So guys go, okay, we've got to take that real away. Then people will think of something

00:11:03else, but that's, you know, that's where we are right now. It's not obviously in any way surprised

00:11:09by the way the Celtics started and ended. I do think the Cavs, did they close the gap a little

00:11:14bit? Sure they did, but it's not going to be the Andre Hunter. Isn't the reason the Cavs would beat

00:11:19Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals. It's going to be Donovan Mitchell and all the things,

00:11:24one thing that happens with the Knicks and the Celtics and the Cavs, as we talk here at the start

00:11:29of February, that happens on March 18th or somebody gets hurt or some weird thing happens.

00:11:34That's going to change the course of, you know, what's about to happen. I can't sit here. I know

00:11:38you're going to ask me to do what I did last year, which is essentially, if you'll remember

00:11:41at this exact time of year. We wrote this down. This is coming up.

00:11:45Exactly what was going to happen, right? And that's the beauty of this year is that we don't

00:11:49know. Like last year, I kind of felt like we knew, and even though there are not one, but two teams

00:11:54having the year that the Celtics had, I'm not going to be surprised in any way, shape or form

00:11:59if OKC or Cleveland win the championship, but I don't feel as confident about them because there

00:12:05are significant issues you say with OKC, because it's all about matchups. OKC can win 70 games,

00:12:12but can they beat Dallas four times with that with a particular lineup combination?

00:12:16That's what the whole thing is about.

00:12:19That's funny because we're going to bring it up later and I can.

00:12:22Yeah, get into it now. When I often come back to that saying, I've been looking for

00:12:30that same thing this year, like just the definitive. This team just looks too good.

00:12:34And OKC has been doing that for me more than any other team where you watch them and you're like,

00:12:38man. I mean, the defensive stuff they can do when they're locked in from a, you know, a perimeter,

00:12:45you know, guard yard standpoint, like they just they impressed the hell out of me.

00:12:49And when they're really hitting shots, they're just impossible to beat,

00:12:52which reminds me a lot of last year's Celtics team. But they are a little smaller,

00:12:56especially if Chet is banged up and, you know, and Harnstein's not going to play.

00:13:00I mean, I those guys will get healthy and they'll probably be OK, but,

00:13:03you know, there's not much depth behind that. And I was going to ask you, does anybody give

00:13:07you that vibe this year? Does even the Celtics team at points give you the same

00:13:12confidence, so to speak? Like this is just I don't with historic things happening in the NBA

00:13:18with these three teams. I don't know if I feel that confident about any of them as we get to April.

00:13:25The Thunder guard like crazy. They've got the MVP who could score whenever he wants.

00:13:31But this is a league. We're shooting is number one. Are they an elite shooting team?

00:13:38And then add to that not saying no, I'm not saying are they an elite, elite shooting team

00:13:43the way the Celtics were last year? Haven't been this year, but were last year. And then combine

00:13:48that with the fact that, you know, OKC is not going to win the shot margin because they're

00:13:53just not they just don't rebound well enough to win that. So if you're not a super elite shooting

00:13:58team and you don't win the rebound margin, this is really I mean, this is trying to nitpick at a

00:14:0470 win team that we just talked about the Celtic having one of the greatest regular seasons in NBA

00:14:08history last year. As we're talking now, it looks like the Thunder are going to top it

00:14:13with the scoring margin and, you know, and the number of wins. So obviously you've got to put

00:14:17them in the top spot in the most likely team to win. But I see more potential for them to get

00:14:25upset. And I'll use that term more potential than to get upset than I saw with the Celtics.

00:14:30As you guys know, I didn't I felt like they would walk backwards and win and they did.

00:14:34I feel like that could happen for OKC, but the West, it's not just the depth of the West.

00:14:39It's who do they have to play? Who are they going to be matched up with? Where is the Denver and

00:14:46the Lakers playing the first round? Does OKC have to beat both of them? Just like the Celtics path

00:14:51is going to be much harder, which could theoretically be Milwaukee, New York and

00:14:55Cleveland just to get back to the NBA finals. You know, the Celtics path is going to be much harder.

00:15:00What specifically is OKC's path? Because I think there are teams they can sweep,

00:15:04and I think there are teams that really they can win 70 games that they're

00:15:08matched up with the wrong team. It could be, you know, life and death.

00:15:12Celtics, as we know, are record wise, really a team without concern. I know six games out of

00:15:17first in the East, but still we're talking about 36 and 16 entering this game against the Knicks.

00:15:22It is, you know, a top record in the NBA, technically third behind, obviously, the Cavs

00:15:29and Thunder, pardon me. But there's been so much talk and we talked about it on the show

00:15:36a couple of weeks back during that stretch from essentially early January to, you know,

00:15:42late January. It was the pulling up here from January 3rd through January 29th.

00:15:49This team went every other win, loss, win, loss, win, loss, win, loss, with the exception of one

00:15:55little two game win streak in there when the team was out West. It wasn't until we were looking at

00:16:00now the four straight wins leading into that, you know, sort of, well, honestly, embarrassing

00:16:06performance against the Mavericks. This team has just been so up and down, so night to night,

00:16:12unpredictable, you know, even at full health, even if the other team isn't, even if you're a

00:16:17double digit favorite, home road, whatever, it's just been, there's been something missing. There's

00:16:22been something that has not looked as it did last year. And that leads to a lot of conversation here

00:16:27and elsewhere about flip switching, as you well know. And I guess I'm really just kind of

00:16:34wondering, looking at the calendar and you've been around a while, you know, talking from experience

00:16:38and what you see in this team, what we saw last year, the general makeup, all the personalities

00:16:44and, you know, the, the names, everything that, that has carried over now in this, this chase to

00:16:49repeat, which as we know is so rare in today's NBA, at least, where do you get to on the calendar

00:16:57where flipping the switch just isn't a thing, you know, concerns are, are real, they're lasting.

00:17:04And it's believe it. When I see it, you got to prove it. You got to show it to me versus

00:17:09I think they can get back there. It's early February. Superbowl is not even here yet.

00:17:14They'll be fine. Well, it's about what are you comparing them to do? And I often will cite

00:17:20in a extraordinary, extraordinarily deep literary reference. One of the great cultural

00:17:26figures of our time, Thompson Mellon in back to school, who had the big and tall clothing

00:17:32shops. And his tagline was, if you want to look thin surround yourself with fat people.

00:17:37All right. So are you comparing this team to last year's Celtics team?

00:17:42Are you putting them in those footsteps, which by the way, they walked for the first

00:17:45third of the season. They were dead on with last year. Again, one of the greatest teams ever

00:17:50or allow me to compare them to a different team. Since you cited how long I've been the voice of

00:17:56the Celtics and how long I've been the play-by-play guy here. I was here in 2010, a year in which,

00:18:02as I told scale on one of the telecasts we did, we were talking about load management. And I said,

00:18:06Hey, scale, you know, who invented load management? You guys did in 2010. You just

00:18:10did it on the court, letting guys run around you. Like you would take nights off literally

00:18:15while dressing up in uniform and playing that 2010 team. If you compare, if you compare this

00:18:21team to last year's Celtics team, now they're going to falter and even TNT was doing it.

00:18:25Even up until last night, there was still a comparison. We made there only a couple of

00:18:29games back in the scoring differentials quotes and all that, but we know we're not seeing the

00:18:32same thing over the last five or six weeks. However, in 2010, that team finished the season

00:18:3827 and 27 in their final 54 games with a negative scoring differential. And they got to game seven

00:18:44of the NBA finals. And I know that because I was there. And when Kobe Bryant stood on top of the

00:18:50thing and did his big, you know, when he stood on top of the thing, his sneaker cropped neatly

00:18:54cropped out of the picture is my head. Cause I was standing right there when Kobe was doing that.

00:18:58So I've seen it. I've seen teams. We want to say, flip the switch. You can,

00:19:02there's a lot of things going on. I think what's frustrating a lot of people, even those of us

00:19:06whose job it is to try and explain what we're seeing is that it isn't one thing on one night.

00:19:12It's the offense one night. It's the defense. And on many, many nights you are cliche as this

00:19:17has become, you are getting the best shot from other teams. We're seeing, you know,

00:19:22great performances. You can't figure out what's going on in the rest of the league.

00:19:26The Celtics going to Toronto and the Raptors were at the bottom of the NBA. That was a bad

00:19:30performance by the Celtics. No question, but Toronto that started a run for them where they

00:19:34were one of the best defensive teams in the league. And they won like six of eight games.

00:19:39On the other hand, Houston comes in. That was a loss. I had no problem with cause the

00:19:42Rockets played an unbelievable game that night. They had been playing. They haven't won since.

00:19:47So everybody's got it. And that's why it seems like you're feeling all the angst and frustration

00:19:54in the Celtics and they got to get it together. And what did you just say? They're the third best

00:19:57team in the league right now out of 30 with all of the things that have gone wrong. So

00:20:02one of the things about that, that doc would always say to me, partially trying to justify it.

00:20:08He said, he would say a lot of things to me to try to justify things. But one of them was

00:20:11he was never worried because at the start of the year, when they were, that team was 23 and five

00:20:17or 20, you know, whatever that team was at the start of the year, he knew they could play at

00:20:20a championship level. This team not only has last year's championship. They also have the first third

00:20:25of this year when they were 21 and five with the plus 10 or plus 11, you know, that said,

00:20:31isn't it interesting that to a man, everybody's shooting is down. Everybody's shooting is down.

00:20:38Now, where does that come from? That come from how you're being defended. Every little bit plays in.

00:20:43Are you, you know, trying to get through to the all-star break? It's monotonous when you've not

00:20:48only won the championship, but you've had long playoff run after long playoff run after long

00:20:53playoff run. And yes, there was the Olympics and yes, there was Abu Dhabi and it's, you know,

00:20:58it's human nature for a lot of these teams. The Celtics still now Cleveland and OKC, I've said

00:21:03this a lot, have skewed this year to where it feels more uncomfortable than it really should.

00:21:08Because if you looked at the Celtics record and their scoring margin and all the advanced metrics,

00:21:13they are better right now than a lot of the teams that went on to win the championship. Most,

00:21:18you know, Denver two years ago and, you know, Golden State three years ago. And even the

00:21:22Toronto team, the Celtics have a championship pedigree now, despite the last six weeks.

00:21:31So that in mind, especially as you look at the new makeup of the NBA post-trade deadline,

00:21:40we'll see what sort of comes out of the buyout market as well and how much that alters things.

00:21:44And just the unpredictable, who knows what rosters are going to look like with respect

00:21:48to injuries when the playoffs roll around. We won the girlfriend in the roster additions.

00:21:56You know about that, right? Yeah, yeah.

00:22:02Oh, come on, Adam, you don't know about this? No, I don't think I do.

00:22:06Don't give me the kid's excuse. I've got, you know, well, actually, I've got a kid who's,

00:22:10he was most impressed by this, actually. Yeah. I will say it is impressive.

00:22:15Well, I mean, we're going to share or what?

00:22:20Did you not pick this up? Do you know who that is?

00:22:22Yeah, no, I know. Okay. No, I didn't. I didn't know that. No, I didn't know that.

00:22:27Look, I'm not, I'm not on top of who the guys are involved with other than

00:22:32when like Humphreys was with Kardashian of a million or, or obviously, you know,

00:22:37Emae and Nia Long, but that's, yeah, no, I couldn't even tell you who Tatum is involved

00:22:41with and she's important or something. So I don't know. Let me give you the greatest stat.

00:22:46People always accuse me of being a stat person just because I share all my prep between games.

00:22:50My favorite stat in the 20 something years I've been doing this in NBA history,

00:22:54you guys are old enough to remember the year that Chris Humphreys was with Kim Kardashian

00:22:59on the cover of every magazine, right? Like literally on us weekly people magazine the

00:23:03whole summer. And then she, you know, she, she dumped him, right? She ended it.

00:23:07Broke up with the guy the following season, heartbreaking, heartbreaking. I know. So

00:23:11imagine having to go through that. And literally you're on the cover of every magazine that

00:23:14everybody in the world knows the following season, Chris Humphreys had his shot blocked

00:23:20more than any other player in the NBA, which makes sense if you think about it, his size and,

00:23:24you know, but his, he had his shot blocked more than anybody. So literally the dude goes

00:23:28through the entire year on us weekly and Kim Kardashian breaks up with him. And the following

00:23:33year, he literally leads the league in getting rejected. That's good. Yeah. I like that.

00:23:41No, what I was going to ask you is like, who's the, who is to you in the East specifically

00:23:47matchup wise, the biggest threat to the Celtics and when your partner Cedric Maxwell was on with

00:23:52us not too long ago, uh, he, Orlando, uh, that was mine too. I, I would normally, I would pretend

00:23:58I would back away and say that's because I can't for the license to figure out what's going on.

00:24:02I loved Orlando early in the year. And I kept saying, if once they get healthy, once they get

00:24:06healthy and everyone keeps losing, people look away from teams, certain teams in the league.

00:24:10Yeah. They're losing, but they've had, no, those guys are back. Ben Carroll's back.

00:24:14Franz Wagner's back. And they're still just losing games that make you like turn your head sideways.

00:24:19I hated the Orlando matchup because of the young athletic defenders. So you asked me in December,

00:24:25I'd be like, yeah, Orlando was the team that absolutely concerned me. I'll, I'll say this

00:24:29about as we're talking, it's late night on Friday. We're 21 hours away from going into one of the

00:24:34games of the year. And, you know, people ask me why I made the choices I make it. So you get to

00:24:39do the games that matter and Madison square garden, Saturday night, primetime Celtics Knicks.

00:24:44And I think it's a really important game for New York because they're only, they're closing in now

00:24:48they win this game. There's just a half game behind the Celtics, even in the last column for

00:24:51that number two spot. And I will say this, I think the Celtics beat the Knicks in a seven game series.

00:24:56That's a smart pick. I don't like the idea of New York. If you're a Celtic fan, know this,

00:25:02I don't think the Knicks are going to lose game seven at Madison square garden two years in a row

00:25:06in the same round. And I just don't think you would knowing that for the Celtics to win a

00:25:11championship, you know, they're going to have to be, they're not going to have home court

00:25:15in the conference finals or the NBA finals, barring something, you know, an upset somewhere

00:25:19out West. So how many rounds do you want to mess around with this? Yes. The Celtics have been the

00:25:23best road team in the history of the game for the last three years, insane on the road, even in the

00:25:29playoffs, but at some point, not unlike Pat Mahomes, your luck is going to run out. Like

00:25:35with winning these games, Celtics won the Eastern conference championship in game seven on the road.

00:25:40You know, they've won, you know, game six in Milwaukee, the Tatum game, game six, the market

00:25:44smart game in Philadelphia, a couple of years ago, these phenomenal road wins. That's why last year

00:25:48was so amazing. Whereas the Celtics won eight games, facing elimination, eight of them in previous

00:25:54couple of years, eight times, they faced elimination of one. And then never, as we, some

00:26:01brilliant mind said on this very show last year, they're not even going to have to deal with that

00:26:05in 2024, because they're not going to face elimination. You know, that's going to happen.

00:26:09You know, they're going to be down three, two, at some point, you know, they're going to be

00:26:12facing elimination. And I just don't think you want to mess around with this next team

00:26:17and not have home court because this city is going to be in a fervor by the time we get there.

00:26:24That last year, that conference final, which didn't happen with the Celtics and Knicks would

00:26:30have been a 10-day ESPN Stephen A-a-thon. And I would have been here for every second of it,

00:26:38because it would have been awesome. It would not have been competitive, especially with Brunson

00:26:42getting hurt. Celtics swept Indiana, Indiana beat New York. It would not have been a competitive

00:26:46series. This year, knock on wood, assuming we finally get it, it will be.

00:26:53You know, it's funny that you bring up the road record, because this is the one thing that I keep

00:26:57going back to. I just feel like sometimes, like when certain teams like Denver gets the, you know,

00:27:05they're kind of tough line, you got to beat them four times. And when you beat Jokic for the fourth

00:27:09time, that's when he's dead and you kill him. I feel like they get the respect that, you know,

00:27:13they're a previous champion. Jokic is the best player in the league. You know, they could stumble

00:27:19their way to a four or five seed and people be like, you can't look out for Denver because they're,

00:27:23you know, they got Jokic. I don't feel, I feel like from a national perspective,

00:27:26Boston doesn't get that same play. And for me, I go back to that road record. I'm like,

00:27:32this team is just absolutely nails on the road. And I just, I can't quite explain it other than

00:27:36like Tatum has talked about, I care more because, you know, there's kids that have my shoes and my

00:27:42jersey. I want to make sure I show out for them, blah, blah, blah. But this team is super comfortable

00:27:46on the road. And I laugh because, you know, they go back, their home record this year is

00:27:51interesting, but their road record is just unbelievably good. And they have signature

00:27:56win after signature win after signature win. They've, as you said, have won several playoff

00:28:01games on the road, face elimination. Like they're just, they're nails. So when you have, we have all

00:28:06this fluff that has happened over the course of this year. And I just keep going back to, well,

00:28:12nobody's won more games in this team, you know, outside of like golden state since Jason Tatum

00:28:17has been in the league. So I don't know. I feel like people should be taking them a little more

00:28:22seriously. I know they haven't looked great, but at the same time, it just sometimes it's like

00:28:27the world is ending. And I don't know if it's a respect thing or not, but like this road record

00:28:32where it doesn't matter where they play on the road. It's just, they're going to probably show

00:28:37up and kick your ass. Like I love that mentality. And that's typically to me, Sean, what championship

00:28:43teams are made out of teams that can win in any element. And it's one of the reasons that

00:28:48the Celtics, by the way, this is other thing going on here. If you want to spin it positive

00:28:52for the Celtics. Yeah. They've lost games that they probably shouldn't have and lost more than

00:28:56I think some people are comfortable with. What are they done after those losses? We're going

00:29:00into Madison square garden tomorrow night. And I'm going to be telling you that the Celtics are 15

00:29:04and one after a loss and that little stretch they had at Christmas time would wait. That

00:29:08went interesting to me is that was the first time in sense, losing the Miami and the conference

00:29:12finals in 2023. That was the first time that little Christmas stretch where any, but they had

00:29:18lost any four games in a seven game stretch at all. They had lost four out of seven at any point,

00:29:25which is amazing now. And if you can't even up and down as they are not playing great,

00:29:30not completely connected the entire time, they still, you can't beat them two in a row.

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00:32:23Sean. Uh, Ev, I, I know when we were texting earlier, just, you know, some of the things we

00:32:26wanted to hit on with Sean, one of the things that you kept coming back to, and I think we

00:32:30texted about the hot moms at school pickup. Yeah, no, I mean, that's right up there, right?

00:32:35Way up there. When I got that text, it's a, it's like, I talk about it all the time because it

00:32:40made me laugh. So it was checking out moms at school pickup. Like there, it was the best,

00:32:45it was just the best line, but, uh, it's like, you're like in your car. You don't even,

00:32:49well, you're looking through a window. I, it's crazy to pervs out there,

00:32:54Sean. Uh, you wanted to get into with Sean, the guy who's got the sex chain going on his phone.

00:32:59All right, here we go. Listen, that's the worst thing on his phone. Let's let's hope I,

00:33:09you know, I, I, you know what though? It was probably, and I, I bet I know how you guys

00:33:18would answer this. And it's how probably most people would answer it. It was, I don't know

00:33:21if this was a bar stool show or something. I saw this just, it was, you know, viral clip on social

00:33:29media, but the conversation was, uh, you know, the, would you rather have, uh, your entire camera

00:33:36role released publicly or your, uh, all of your text messages released publicly and, and who in

00:33:43the world would choose their texts? Yeah. Nobody. Not a single person. Not a single person. Not a

00:33:51serious camera would be like a thousand. So my wife and I, since our wedding, we probably have

00:33:56three pictures of each other together and 18,000 pictures of the dog. Right. That's all mine. It's

00:34:01just my dog. It's great. Right. Yeah. My, my pictures are very boring. Yeah. It's okay.

00:34:08Yeah. Dog's cute. Uh, yeah. Hey, uh, where I was attempting to go with that was if you were

00:34:13talking about just all of the, uh, all, all the miles on, on Tatum's proverbial belt and maybe

00:34:21how little we, we discussed that in the grand scheme of things. And it's the Royal way,

00:34:25not necessarily Sean, I'm guessing Sean, you know, gets into this from time to time on the broadcast,

00:34:29but, uh, you know, do we take for granted the workload that, that this guy puts forward? I know

00:34:38he's not LeBron, not yet. And I'm just talking about minutes. I'm not talking about accomplishments,

00:34:42but in terms of the amount that he has played at such a young stage of his career, do we, uh,

00:34:49I don't know, overlook that, that like eventually this guy's going to run into a potentially an

00:34:56issue after, you know, during one of these deep playoff runs, unless he's just truly one of the

00:35:00most durable people on the planet. I worry about that a little bit. I've thought about that

00:35:05recently about the fact that nobody ever talks about his availability and that we're going,

00:35:10you know, tomorrow night, it's going to come up as a topic because tomorrow night, we're going to be

00:35:15at the home of Tom Thibodeau at Madison square garden, where four of the top six players in

00:35:19minutes played right now in the NBA, obviously are next, but who are the other two Anthony Edwards

00:35:24and Jason Tatum in minutes played that this whole doc rivers bit that we've heard for 20 years,

00:35:29that the number one ability is availability. And there are very few superstars. And by the way,

00:35:36the biggest trade in the history of professional sports just happened because the franchise didn't

00:35:40believe that its franchise player was going to be durable and be able to be able to give them

00:35:46the minutes. And at one point, if you could say three years ago, he said, Hey, who'd you rather

00:35:52have Joel Embiid or Jason Tatum and average fans are going to go with Joel Embiid. He's dominant.

00:35:56He's MVP. Okay. Well, he plays 30 games a year and Jason Tatum is doing, you know, he does so

00:36:01many other things that I'll never get credit for. And he was the one who called me to get started

00:36:05last year saying, everybody's got to eat, which means I think we all know where we can can see.

00:36:11I think we would admit into evidence without having to make the case that if Jason Tatum

00:36:15were playing in Charlotte or somewhere else that he would average 30 a game easily. Okay. Jordan

00:36:21Poole scored 40 something points tonight. What would Jason Tatum do if there was no, and by the

00:36:25way, I would submit your honor. I don't need to put in evidence games like the San Antonio game,

00:36:3160 point game against San Antonio where he didn't guys get hurt. He had a 50 point game in the

00:36:36playoffs against the nets, the game before Kyrie stomped on the logo and hadn't won in Boston since

00:36:42until the other night, because Jaylen Brown was hurt in that series. So we've already seen,

00:36:48we've had nights where Jason Tatum has had to, he's had to have these superstar performances

00:36:52and he doesn't score 40 every night because he doesn't have to. And he defends by the way,

00:36:57which is another reason that generational superstar in Dallas got traded because there's

00:37:01two ends of the floor. So yeah, he, and I think we just have to become resigned to the fact that

00:37:06no one is going to say Jason Tatum is one of the top three players in the league. Fine.

00:37:10But ask yourself this question. Would you have taken Luca Donchic as a Celtic fan for Jason Tatum

00:37:17straight up? No way. I think you're going to get a lot more no's and yes to that. And that people

00:37:22nationally are going to go, what, what, what? That was when everybody would say every team in the

00:37:26league, every team would trade their superstar player for Luca Donchic. Everyone in Boston

00:37:30would be looking around going, no, no, we're good. Yeah. And I'm sure you remember that.

00:37:36That's an exact conversation we had on our, you know, Celtics, not mom related text thread a few

00:37:43years ago when it was, there was the constant, like, is Tatum going to be traded or, or I think

00:37:49it was, it was, you know, Seth, everybody who has been on before and we referenced him from time to

00:37:54time. I think he may have even posed the question or you did. It was, you know, like who, if you

00:38:00were trading Jason Tatum, and again, this was, I think even before our first finals appearance,

00:38:04so this probably was like three years ago, you know, how many guys in the league would you

00:38:10accept for Jason Tatum? And I think at the time, obviously we debated Luca. And I think at the

00:38:15time I may have even said Luca, but I wouldn't do it now, obviously, you know, for a million

00:38:22reasons on both sides, you know, Tatum pro and Luca con. Yeah, of course. No, cause he actually

00:38:30plays and before we skip by the Tatum thing and not recognizing his greatness, we literally could

00:38:36be talking 20, he is a big game to do it now. Two weeks ago when I first came up with it, I thought

00:38:41this really could happen in Madison Square Garden. Now I think he needs 35 to do it on Saturday night,

00:38:46which is possible, but not as likely. Jason Tatum at 26 years old is going to move into the top 10

00:38:53in Celtics history in scoring. And by the way, he's going to move into ninth two shots later

00:38:58because you know, JoJo White and Dave Cowens are 10, nine right there. So he literally,

00:39:04this is a guy before his 27th birthday is going to be ninth on the Celtics all time scoring list.

00:39:09So if we don't think there are ways to back up what we see with our eyes, the stats certainly

00:39:15do. Well, there's that list too of like guys that under 20 before their 27th birthday of scoring.

00:39:21I've been running that one for a while. And he's, where is he now? He's like,

00:39:26he's eighth or ninth. He's going to, he's got a couple of guys. He might be able to pass

00:39:30a Will Chamberlain's there and Devin Booker. I can find it for you, but it's, you know,

00:39:34he'll end up sixth or seventh on that list. But a lot of the guys in front of him, remember,

00:39:38didn't have the year in college. You're talking about, you know, Kevin Durant,

00:39:42Kevin Durant did and Carmelo did, but LeBron obviously didn't. And Kobe obviously didn't.

00:39:50So listen, you can slice it any way you want. The only knock there is to make on Jason Tatum is

00:39:56he's not one of the two or three best players in the world. Okay. He's the top player in the world.

00:40:03And he's going to be that for, and he's been that pretty much every year, which is by the way,

00:40:07we're going back to this year's team. The two things that have been the

00:40:14under discussed problems with the Celtics that nobody really wants to acknowledge before last

00:40:20year is that they weren't great at home. They were good at home, but not elite at home.

00:40:25And the minutes when Jason Tatum was off the floor were average. Celtics were a mid-level team

00:40:30when Jason Tatum was off the floor. Last year, both of those things got completely corrected.

00:40:35They were 37 and four at home, and they were just as good, just as dominant in the non-Tatum minutes

00:40:41as they were when he was on the floor. There's been significant regression in both of those

00:40:46things. We're sort of back to where we were, 21, 22, 23, with the non-Tatum minutes have been

00:40:53mid, is what the kids would say, who like Megan Thee Stallion would say mid,

00:40:56and the Celtics have not been great, obviously, at home. And how much of that is circumstantial?

00:41:02We'll find out when the games matter later, that first home game after a long road trip.

00:41:08I mean, look at what just happened here. The Celtics had a brutal Western Conference road trip,

00:41:12and they go three and one on it. Awesome. They come home, get blown out by Sacramento,

00:41:16and they get another long Western trip. And what do they do? They go three and one on it.

00:41:20What happens in the first game at home? They lose to Houston. Then they go three and oh

00:41:24on the last road trip, which started out West and eventually came East. Three and oh on the trip,

00:41:28first home game, blown out by Dallas. So I don't know. You're not going to have those

00:41:33when you get to the playoffs, and you won't have what the Celtics are finishing here on Wednesday

00:41:38night, which is 16 games in 29 days. And there were only a few back-to-backs. They were early.

00:41:44There was a home back-to-back with Orlando and Atlanta. There was the back-to-back in LA.

00:41:49There weren't a ton of them, but the relentless nature of the fact, I consider a day off in the

00:41:53NBA when you don't have a game, you're home, and there's no game the next day.

00:41:58That's a true day off. You might get a practice in eventually the following day. The Knicks,

00:42:02by the way, we're talking about loading up their minutes. The Celtics are in the middle of this

00:42:06stretch. They've been literally going either back-to-back or every other day for a month now.

00:42:11Knicks haven't played since Tuesday. So they've had three full days, which is why this is a really

00:42:15important game, I think, for New York, because they are really teed up. All this stuff goes away

00:42:20when you get to the playoffs, but I would expect after the All-Star break to see fewer nights.

00:42:27There'll be a night in there, just as there was last year. The Celtics got crushed by the Knicks

00:42:31at home late in the season last year after they had played a game in Milwaukee the night before,

00:42:36or two nights before. They'll be bad. There'll be losses. There'll be plenty of angst. There'll be

00:42:40plenty of things for people to complain about. I don't think there'll be as many

00:42:44in this final third of the season as there was in the middle third.

00:42:48Let's take one more break. One more quick break to tell you about our friends over at

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00:45:18Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Back with Sean. All right, let's keep the

00:45:23conversation going about Jason Tatum and all of the great things that he has accomplished. Now,

00:45:28we'll get to some of that, but some of it is the concern that, you know, Sean talking about all the

00:45:34different things that are or are not worrisome. Sometimes for a lot of people out there watching

00:45:38these games night to night, it's what this looks like when there's no Jason Tatum on the floor.

00:45:43Yeah, and it's like, I think they're tinkering with that still. I think they're trying to figure

00:45:46out the best combo because I was texting Brian Barrett the other night and I was just remarking

00:45:52on the lineup that Jason Tatum had on the floor with him. You know, the Tatum, Pritchard,

00:46:00Hauser, Luke Cornette, and Al Horford lineup. And I was like, that's okay. That's going to be fun.

00:46:06That's going to be a lot of Tatum trying to carry the load offensively and defensively. We'll see

00:46:10how this goes. Meanwhile, that leaves like Brown with Derek White and Drew Holiday and Chris

00:46:15Epps Porzingis. So it feels like to me that they're trying to figure out the balance of yes,

00:46:21we know the Tatum minutes aren't going well. The non-Tatum minutes aren't going well. We

00:46:25have the ability to fix this. Do you think that's the best way to do this is to give

00:46:30the non-Tatum lineup a Jalen, a White, a Drew Holiday, and Chris Epps Porzingis so that the

00:46:36offense keeps functioning? Is that the way to fix this or is there some other way that Boston

00:46:41can experiment with as we head towards April to fix the non-Tatum minute issue? Because it seems

00:46:47like if you just put four guys around Jason Tatum, he's going to figure out how to make it work.

00:46:50He has. And some of the best sequences over the last few weeks for the Celtics have been Jason

00:46:55Tatum with a cobbled lineup around him. But you know what's going to fix it? It's not Joe

00:47:00Mazzullo tinkering in the lineup. What's going to fix it is guys playing better.

00:47:04Derek White being Derek White again, Drew Holiday playing well again and being healthy.

00:47:08That's what's going to fix it and not going through the stretch. I think you could overthink

00:47:13it. Derek White went through a two or three week stretch where he just didn't look like Derek White.

00:47:17And you could see it's coming back again, not because of the shooting, not because the shots

00:47:20are falling, which they are. Here's the key to Derek White. Here's the tell, the decision making,

00:47:27the quick instant decision making is back for Derek White. That was gone for a couple of weeks.

00:47:32You didn't notice it. I kept trying to put my finger on what is it? What is it that isn't there?

00:47:36And then when it was back, I was, oh, that's what it was. That lightning, I'm going, I'm going to

00:47:41that slot drive on the right side. I'm taking that. I'm going to shoot when I get, I'm getting

00:47:45to the corner here. I'm going to shoot it the second I get it. The decision-making was back.

00:47:49It happens to, listen, these guys have been on a long, long journey. And I've talked about the

00:47:54travel and the Olympics and all the other stuff. What's going to fix it is when they start playing

00:47:58like themselves again. And then probably the only guy who has in a lot of ways consistently has been

00:48:04Porzingis because he got back and he's looked great. And it's almost as if he's looking around

00:48:10like, come on guys, let's go. And everyone else is exhausted from playing all of the playoff games

00:48:16last year, which he didn't play and play in the Olympics, which he didn't play and playing in

00:48:20Abu Dhabi, which he didn't do and having a training camp, which he didn't have and playing the first

00:48:2420 games of the year, which he didn't play. So eventually everybody you hope is going to catch

00:48:29up. And again, the all-star break to me is an interesting time because there'll be fewer,

00:48:37obviously, I won't have this to fall back on as an answer. If this continues into March,

00:48:42then eventually as the legendary Bill Parcells said, you are what you are. I just, I think we

00:48:48have enough evidence to say, all right, are they this team they've been? This 15 and 10 type, 15

00:48:54and 11 type team. Although the metrics obviously are really good. Even when I do them, I take that

00:48:59Toronto game out because such a historical beat down that it's skewed all the numbers, but they

00:49:04have been good, but they've lost close games that they didn't, you know, that they probably shouldn't

00:49:08have and that were coin flip games. Okay. No big deal. But the fact that they had a 21 and five

00:49:14start combined with this, that's why the overall numbers are still pretty healthy. And I think I

00:49:20don't expect them to go 21 and five in their last 26 games, but I expect them to be closer to that

00:49:25team than they were to this last, you know, five or six weeks. John, while you've been chatting,

00:49:30you sent along some of the numbers that you referenced. You were going to look it up earlier,

00:49:34the most points at age 26 in NBA history. And in order, I won't read off all the points,

00:49:39but in order LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady,

00:49:44Will Chamberlain, and then Jason Tatum. I'd say three guys, three guys there that didn't

00:49:50go to college. Correct. T-Mac, T-Mac's in there too. Yep. So where I wanted to go with that, and

00:49:58you know, I know we've been kind of pinballing around between this year's team and previous

00:50:03teams and all time and all this stuff, but the Celtics historian that you are, I am curious

00:50:08your perspective. Long time, long time voice. Long, long time voice of the team. I want to be

00:50:14abundantly clear to our listeners and viewers. When I say this, I know he's nowhere close right

00:50:20now, but what does it take? Do you think statistically longevity, which kind of go

00:50:27hand in hand, obviously for Jason Tatum to be considered not one of, but the greatest Celtic

00:50:34of all time? I think it's next to Bill Russell. I'm excluding someone. I mean, come on. Okay.

00:50:41But, and obviously that's a special club because of the accomplishments of the Celtics. I think

00:50:47being around long enough now to know this stuff happens in a way, it sneaks up on you. And I'll

00:50:53give you a, here's a random example of one that's come up recently. If I say, even now, if I say,

00:50:59hey, DeMar DeRozan, that's a Hall of Famer, right? People will be like, DeMar DeRozan?

00:51:04If DeMar DeRozan is not in the Hall of Fame, he will be by 2000 points.

00:51:10The all-time leading scorer to not be in the Hall of Fame. Like DeMar DeRozan is going to be in the

00:51:14Hall of Fame. They're just, you know, people, even five, six years ago, we're smirking at the idea

00:51:19of Carmelo being in the Hall of Fame. People just don't, I don't think they recognize it

00:51:23in real time, particularly in this era where we just like to go at players and for all the stuff

00:51:30you've heard about. People still haven't come around to that. To who? Al Horford. Oh, well,

00:51:36yeah, I know about it. I think, I think we had this conversation last year. The Al one is a

00:51:41little bit easier too, because it's not the NBA Hall of Fame. It's the basketball Hall of Fame.

00:51:45He's got two championships, college. Listen, I think I'm pretty sure that the three of us talked

00:51:5248, 72, 96 hours before the championship was wrapped up, if I remember it right,

00:51:57because I remember being in Dallas. And what I was saying, doing all the interviews then is

00:52:01they're about to walk through this door to the other side, where it's an entirely different

00:52:08place of they've never won. Because no one can ever say that again. Once you win that championship,

00:52:14they've won the championship. Oh, the Celtics don't win ever again. No, they only won one

00:52:17championship. Okay. That's more than a lot of amazing players, you know, haven't. We don't

00:52:22know what the Jason Tatum, let's say Jason Tatum's in Boston his entire career. We don't know what

00:52:272027, 2028 looks like. Are we going back to Paul Pierce in 2006, Paul Pierce in 2005, where I think

00:52:36it's going to be when the fog is settled in this run, I think, and Jason Tatum gets closer to 30,

00:52:43it's going to be pretty apparent that he is one of the greatest Celtics of all time. And that

00:52:48you're talking about not just Hall of Famers without how many banners are going up here.

00:52:53When they, you know, I mean, is Al going up now? He's got a championship played the same number of

00:52:59years. It's a discussion, right? But Jalen and Jason, those numbers are going up. This is happening.

00:53:07This is the 80s right now. Try to get a Celtics ticket right now. We had a game at World War,

00:53:12maybe New Orleans, and I saw empty seats. And I was trying to remember the last time I saw empty

00:53:18seats at a Celtics game anywhere. You know that most of the teams now, and I, you know, I'm not

00:53:24involved in tickets, so I didn't either. I asked these questions. Most of the NBA teams now are

00:53:29using tier pricing. So not only are all the Celtics games sold out on the road, guess what's in the top

00:53:35tier pricing wise. If you want to see this show when it comes to town, you're paying through the

00:53:43nose to do it. And the Celtics are still selling out buildings. The TV ratings are down. Yeah,

00:53:48the TV, the NBA is in bad shape right now. The TV ratings are down. Like that's such a fundamental

00:53:53misunderstanding of what metrics matter, how television ratings, you know, I've got a 13

00:53:59year old who will not know what cable television is essentially. We've got, we've got, this is,

00:54:06I'm tying this into the Jason Tatum conversation because sometimes you have to catch up to what's

00:54:11really happening and not look backwards to, you know, why are we comparing Jason Tatum to Bill

00:54:17Russell? And it was a different conversation back then. Is Jason Tatum already one of the greatest,

00:54:22if Jason Tatum left tomorrow and retired, is Jason Tatum one of the top 20 Celtics of all time? Yep.

00:54:31Top 15? Probably. Like this is where we are now and he's 26. So I think sometimes people just don't

00:54:39realize, I said, we were talking off the air, so much change is happening so fast in our industry.

00:54:45People are talking about the TV ratings being down, ignoring the fact that the billions of

00:54:49dollars that are changing hands for the rights to TV. I believe strongly there's a revolution coming

00:54:56and I think local television and the NBA is going to be a dinosaur that I think eventually every

00:55:01game is going to be available on some kind of streaming app or everything's happening fast.

00:55:07The way the league is covered, the way the league is profitable, is there going to be

00:55:09international league or not? All these things are happening in real time and the people that

00:55:15are successful, the ones that look ahead to 2028 and not look back, which is what we're trained to

00:55:21do when we say, is Jason Tatum one of the greatest Celtics ever? Yeah, he is already, but who cares?

00:55:26Because let's just enjoy. The only message I give to everybody right now is that this is the 80s.

00:55:31You're living the 80s right now. If you're younger and the new big three Celtics were your Kevin

00:55:36Garnett and Paul Pearson. I listened to every game back then. It's happening again. This is

00:55:42really happening right now. Celtics have a great chance to go to seven conference finals in nine

00:55:46years. You know how absurd that is? When Minnesota has been twice and never been to the finals in the

00:55:52history of their franchise and it took this extraordinary game seven win at Denver to do it.

00:55:58They have two moments, two game seven wins in the second round and that's their franchise history.

00:56:05If you're old, you think, oh, Timberwolves, that's a new team. They're not new anymore.

00:56:09That's just the point. There's 35, 36, 37 years in a Timberwolves history. You're older than you

00:56:16think you are is life lesson number one. Number two is the comparison is a thief of joy thing

00:56:23works here. Know that Jason Tatum already is one of the greatest Celtics ever to play and enjoy

00:56:28every night you get to see this show because between the second apron and the age of Horford

00:56:34and holiday and real, this is not going to last forever. When the Celtics and the Knicks tee it

00:56:40up at Madison Square Garden at the Mecca, the greatest stage in the game on a Saturday night

00:56:46on ABC, find a place to listen, find a place to watch because these are the moments you're going

00:56:52to be romanticizing about years from now. It's funny. I think the South, I think Jason Tatum has

00:56:58as many second round big performances. I'm just thinking the Philly game where he was absolutely

00:57:07terrible until the fourth quarter. And then obviously game six in Milwaukee where he had

00:57:1146, uh, it's just as many big moments as Timberwolves. It was an entire franchise.

00:57:19And by the way, I mean, it's a great, and I guess they're for the, there are more Timberwolves in

00:57:26the NBA than there are Celtics. Appreciate the fact that Celtics not only have the history and

00:57:31the all time championship league. Now you're getting to have another golden era again,

00:57:35when it's much harder to create them than it was, you know, back in Red's day, it was a different

00:57:41ball game. You think, how do you think red, if we have a conversation with red right now,

00:57:45how do you think he'd feel about the second April? Oh my goodness. Can we take a minute

00:57:51to appreciate how many teams are trying to emulate what the Celtics did with Brooklyn,

00:57:56getting those future picks and future swaps that led to Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown.

00:58:00Everybody's trying to do it. These 20, 29, 30, 31 picks that are out there like, Oh yeah,

00:58:06that could be, could be Jason Tatum. You don't know. I just feel like everybody's trying to

00:58:10recreate this. And it's just, and people forget, I brought it up the other night when he was a big

00:58:15part of that comeback when he was hitting the big shots. But for Jason, you don't think you never

00:58:19put on the glasses of the other, the other side, right? You never look at your house from the

00:58:24neighbor's house. Jason Tatum is now that guy. Imagine being a Philadelphia 76ers fan. Jason

00:58:32Tatum is Freddy Krueger. It's not only does he, does he have all these game winning shots and

00:58:38obviously the game six stands alone, which by the way, that was the market smart game,

00:58:42but he bailed the Celtics out for three and a half quarters until Jason Tatum, you know,

00:58:46came out of the bullpen and finished it. But Jason Tatum had the game winner, ABC Saturday

00:58:51night game winner there a couple of years ago. He had the, you know, the big shots in the fourth

00:58:55quarter and the comeback the other night. And every minute you watch Jason Tatum as a Sixer fan,

00:59:00you're thinking that could have been our guy. We drafted Mark Elf. We traded for Mark Elf.

00:59:08Yeah. You know, Markel Fultz and Lonzo Ball taken before Tatum. And that was the guy

00:59:14speaking to Madison Square Garden. It was a game at Madison Square Garden in December of 2016 that

00:59:21I think that was the game where Brad finally was, I think we were off that night. And I remember

00:59:26Brad and I talking about him watching the freshmen at Duke. And by that point, there was some degree

00:59:34of unanimity that this was the guy that the Celtics wanted and, you know, got to make a trade

00:59:40as well. I mean, the Celtics would have taken a number one. I don't have any illusions about that,

00:59:45but they were able to make the deal. Before we wrap, since you mentioned it before, let's

00:59:49end this show on a low note. Marcus Smart, as I mentioned earlier, he is a wizard now. And

00:59:56obviously the Memphis tenure was not all that he wished it would have been. Injuries factored

01:00:00into that underachievement by the team. A lot of injuries to the team in general over the last

01:00:05year and a half, despite a very good record this year. But now he's off to Washington,

01:00:09which is one of the cellar dwellers of the NBA right now. Is this sort of the beginning of

01:00:17the end? Is Marcus going to be kind of like Kelly Olenek, where we're just every year,

01:00:25year and a half, you're seeing him on a different team until he retires?

01:00:28Possibly. I really think what it is, is the Belichickian cold-blooded nature of the business,

01:00:37of making moves with guys at a certain stage of their career, even before we see it. They see it

01:00:44before we see it. And look at the players that have been shipped out. Brogdon, Rob Williams,

01:00:52Marcus, forget personalities, forget character, forget ability. Just look at availability of the

01:00:59guys that they just haven't played. This is what's obviously making these deals.

01:01:04I think we've probably discussed in this podcast that Brad was in the doghouse in my house for

01:01:10quite a while because my wife and my son, Marcus Smart, was the favorite player. He was a lot of

01:01:14people's favorite player. And so that was very jarring and very difficult. But you look at it

01:01:19now and you literally have a press conference tonight. The GM of the Grizzlies tonight,

01:01:24because we're talking Friday night, gave a press conference basically saying, yeah,

01:01:27that was my bat trading for Marcus Smart. And he did a lot of good things and he helped the

01:01:31young players. But from an availability standpoint, they didn't realize they were

01:01:36going to have the guys to eventually replace him. But it's a difficult part. I hope every time

01:01:41Marcus comes back, you know how I feel about this. Marcus and Imei should never be forgotten

01:01:47in the championship, even though they got Nomar, they got Tony Amante, they were the ones that

01:01:54didn't get to be there on Christmas morning after spending the whole year with the family.

01:01:59And they were a big part of it. And by the way, you can make a case. We'll discuss this again when

01:02:03we get to Memphis and make it more of a longer form conversation. Not Memphis now, but the game

01:02:07against Washington at the end of the year. Is Marcus the best Celtic as far as accomplishments

01:02:13with the Celtics? I'm not talking about Shaq or Dominique Wilkins, the guys that just came in for

01:02:18a year. Is Marcus the best Celtic to have never won a championship? Because at first you're like,

01:02:25oh no, there's got to be other guys. Then you start thinking, no, no, no, he was on the

01:02:28championship team. No, that guy was on the championship team. And pretty soon you're

01:02:32basically with the Walter McCartys and the Dee Browns and the Reggie Lewis and guys like that,

01:02:38that didn't win the championship. And who accomplished more for the Celtics than Marcus did?

01:02:47Yeah, fair point. And he brought a lot. He kept the culture that KG left, kept it moving.

01:02:54And that's the one thing that other teams will understand. We all just wax politically

01:03:01about how awesome Marcus Smart is. No other team will understand what that was like because

01:03:06it was a show. And I fell in love with it when it was in Oklahoma State and he would just kind of

01:03:10do a little bit of everything. You know, like 26 points, eight assists, six rebounds, two steals,

01:03:15three blocks. He just put up weird stat lines and he just, oh, he was just one of the most fun guys

01:03:21you could ever root for. Because you know, you never have to worry about him, you know, not

01:03:25having 100% in the game. He was always- He didn't take nights off.

01:03:28As this versus Sliding Doors, the guy, the only guy the Celtics absolutely had ahead of

01:03:33Marcus Smart on their board and would have taken him had he fallen was Embiid.

01:03:38Sure.

01:03:40Would have been Embiid.

01:03:41They liked Aaron Gordon a little bit. I know there was-

01:03:44They did like Aaron Gordon. There was a groan in the building that night when Aaron Gordon

01:03:49got taken. But of guys that, you know, that dropped down there. Aaron Gordon, I think,

01:03:53got taken. I had to look it up. I think he got taken before. Embiid got to three or four.

01:03:57Embiid got to three. Aaron Gordon got to four. I think Hazonia was five,

01:04:01Smart was six, and Randall was seven. And the other guy in that conversation,

01:04:06that was Exum. Strangely enough, this came up last night. It was Exum. Exum had won three

01:04:11all year and made four. Oh, wait a minute. Exum might have went five.

01:04:15I think Exum was five. Yeah. Exum was five.

01:04:18Exum was five. And the Celtics absolutely loved Smart and not,

01:04:21it was going to be Smart, not Exum. They had had that.

01:04:23I was bummed. I didn't like the pick. I wanted Randall.

01:04:27No, I loved Marcus Smart in college. He was chaotic. It was awesome.

01:04:29Randall did not want to come to Boston.

01:04:32Who's the other guy? Josh Jackson. A couple of guys that just didn't want to come to Boston,

01:04:35and you eventually. You don't want to mess with that. Randall didn't want to come to Boston.

01:04:41He took a magazine photo shoot instead, right? Wasn't that the deal?

01:04:44Yeah. It's really interesting here. The relationship with Randall in New York is

01:04:49really fascinating. There's a lot of stuff, by the way, again, not seeing what goes on

01:04:53in other people's lawns. Here in New York, not that I had any reason to follow the Knicks

01:04:58particularly closely the last couple of years. But the conversation here is that it isn't as

01:05:04much fun as they thought it would be because they loved that team so much last year.

01:05:10And last year, the Knicks were the league pass team to watch. They were so much fun. They were

01:05:15in all these great games last year. And now this is one of the greatest offensive shows

01:05:19we have ever seen here with Towns. And yet there's still that fit. Now, all of a sudden,

01:05:25they have that expectation, which they have not had here in a very long time. And suddenly,

01:05:30there's what comes with that is that angst that self-expansion, no full well for the last few

01:05:34years. What if we don't win? Now we're just going to get, what if we lose in the second round again,

01:05:39and we're going to get cooked on social media and whatever. And that absolutely exists here.

01:05:46And that's why I think tomorrow's important. I think the Tuesday game in Cleveland

01:05:51was a, that was a rough night to the Cavs because you got the message sent to you that the best road

01:05:55team in NBA history over the last few years just won a game in your building, which we know we're

01:06:00going to have to do. Here, as I said, you'd like to avoid not having home court against New York,

01:06:06but this is a building where the Celtics, even before they became the best road team in history,

01:06:10this has been the home away from home, up the street here at Madison Square Garden. The Celtics

01:06:15have a better record in the 20, 24 years I've been the voice of the Celtics,

01:06:21the Celtics have a better record at Madison Square Garden than they have at TD Garden.

01:06:28Well, all-star break is right around the corner, but before that, three games, two on the road,

01:06:33New York and Miami on Saturday and Monday, back home against Wembley and the Spurs on Wednesday,

01:06:39and then we break. Any good break plans for you, Sean, before we let you go? Are you going to

01:06:46actually, you know, avoid a hotel, sleep in your own bed, spend some time with your family for a

01:06:50few days? My what now? Do you have any, you have pictures of them or the family know what they

01:06:55look like? On the camera roll. So that's what happens when you're on the, Will Hardy is the

01:06:59first one, I don't think he coined the phrase, but he has popularized it in our circles. We call it

01:07:04the 82 train now. Once you get on the 82 train and it's just one long, it's one long day. It's

01:07:10just one long ride to the end. So wherever there is not a basketball bouncing or not a podcast to

01:07:16do, or there's no bat signal come out for what I've suddenly realized is the newest oxymoron

01:07:22to enter our lexicon, emergency podcast. No, that's, you're not understanding what a podcast

01:07:29is. There are emergency exits or emergency rows. There are emergency, there's not an emergency

01:07:36pod. A podcast is not something that nobody just has to have it. You're saying right after a trade

01:07:41down line traded quick emergency, emergency kids out of the way to get to an emergency podcast.

01:07:50You know, there's a podcast. My voice has to be heard. Everybody.

01:07:54Watch out. Wait, isn't like, isn't, um, the clown is, uh, um, John Favreau.

01:08:01Yes. I believe, I think that's right. Yeah. I blew my mind the other day when I saw a clip

01:08:06of that. I was like, really? That's amazing. Let me give you that one thing and nobody else

01:08:10ever gets that in-depth thing. So Matt Reynolds has become famous now because he's the instant

01:08:15replay guy on the Celtics bench. You go to everybody turns to Matt Reynolds. The second

01:08:20there's any kind of place, this has become what he's known for. Matt Reynolds is also a huge,

01:08:25huge Seinfeld guy. So constantly going back when I, when I see each other, when I see him

01:08:29and then DAPM up, whatever, I just say, Dr. Ben Nostrum. And we just, you know, we go on from

01:08:34there. We celebrated the fact that last year, if you met, it might've been the year before,

01:08:38but I think it was last season in an early season of Seinfeld, a very early season.

01:08:43Uh, George goes to a holistic healer for some crazy thing. I forget what it was.

01:08:49Jerry has written a joke. He's written something, scribbled something in the middle of the night

01:08:54that he thinks is the funniest joke of all the time, but he can't make out what the writing is.

01:08:57And he hands it to this guy who's cause he thinks he can. And the guy looks at it and laughs

01:09:01hysterically. And he thinks, what does it say? And he reads some random NBA score, like San Antonio

01:09:07one 24 Cleveland, one 18, 30 years later, that game happened. The exact score happened. You can

01:09:14Google it, but if I like, you know, when I was like 1990, when that happened and whatever the

01:09:19exact random score that the guy said, the episode, like 32 years later, that's perfect. He does more

01:09:28than talk. This is what you missed. This is what, if you're some reason you don't prefer your,

01:09:33you prefer your broadcast with pictures. This is what you miss every night with, uh, with

01:09:38Randy and Max. How dare, how dare they? Well, now we have pictures cause we've got cameras on us.

01:09:44This is true. John Grandy voice of the Celtics with Evan Valenti. I'm Adam Kaufman. As we always

01:09:50tell you rate review, most importantly, subscribe to Celtics beat, whether of course it is in

01:09:54podcast form or you want to check us out with pictures available on the CLNS page. We appreciate

01:10:01it. Yeah, seriously. I mean, we even didn't show off the coat before we let you go.

01:10:08Again, for if you're old enough, you know, if you don't know, you don't care if you're not old

01:10:11enough. This is the Axel Foley jacket from iconic, which I got for my wife, who's a Detroit, who's a

01:10:17Lions fan. And she left it lying around. I'm like, no, that's too awesome. I'm taking that. That's

01:10:23great. Jack, you know, there's ups and downs of being married, but you know, stealing something

01:10:29like that from your wife is certainly one of the upsets for Sean Evans. It's like when Homer Simpson

01:10:35marched the bowling ball. There you go. All right. Well, enjoy the Mecca should be fun.

01:10:41And hopefully the Celtics show up for this one. I imagine they will. And probably not in Miami on

01:10:47Monday, but make the most out of this one anyway. And on onto the next. We'll be back with you next

01:10:53week, folks, and enjoy the Super Bowl. Go birds.

Jayson Tatum Already Among Greatest Celtics w/ Sean Grande | Celtics Beat

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