By Matt McDonough
The NBA is right around the corner and there’s no better feeling than being one of the few, fortunate teams with an actual chance to win a championship. Being the best, and entering the season as reigning champs, makes a fan anticipate the return of basketball much more and the season ahead even more enjoyable.
The Boston Celtics soaked that spotlight up with their Media Day earlier this week. There’s really no room for critique or criticism coming off such a historically dominant season, even if the wannabe know-it-all pundits and past players now in the hot take business are retroactively calling it the easiest road to a title, despite many of both the former and latter picking the Mavericks to win it all. How could a person who picked Dallas have the 20-20 selectively blind hindsight to say there was no true test on the road to a return to glory? We’ll see who doubles down this season and the receipts will be printed here. Early mentions include Shaq, Udonis Haslem, and Sam Amick as a trio who already seem to have forgotten their Finals pick from June, but remember the rest of the road to a championship as a cakewalk. That’s fine. It feeds the fire.
One disagreement from day one of Celtics camp needs to be mentioned though. Jayson Tatum referred to Larry Bird as the best Celtic of all time. Although the sentiment of honoring and, as Tatum said, “chasing” the past from today’s player is appreciated, in the words of my father Jim, “Larry Bird is the second best Celtic of all time. He’s the best living Celtic.” It doesn’t take a detective to figure out Bill Russell is the best, from a man who watched them both in person.
- At the San Francisco Giants’ Oracle Park, when a home run reaches McCovey Cove beyond right field it’s called a “Splash Hit.” And as impressive as all the “splash hits,” especially those off the bat of Barry Bonds, have been over the 25 years at what is perhaps MLB’s best ballpark, the homer from Heliot Ramos on Sept. 15 might be the best. Ramos became the first right-handed batter to hit an opposite field home run into the Cove.
- The Raiders, who left the Bay Area for greener pastures in Las Vegas as well four years ago, seem to be enjoying their new home with road opponent fans filling the stands, and the field at Allegiant Stadium, for Week 3, already looks worn and terrible. Wordy sentence, breaks it in two after stands…The baseball field in Oakland had more charm in September than chewed up grass. Should this be right after the A’s so that the opening makes sense right after A’s instead of Giants
- It’s always remarkable to see how red the stands are when the San Francisco 49ers visit the Rams in Los Angeles. The Rams, wearing white at home usually reserved for the road, could’ve been credited with a comeback road win had the end zones not been blue and gold.
- Thread of the Week: Thanks to a surprising 3-0 start, Cal football came to the forefront of the sport’s scene. And so did their fans on Twitter. Below is the thread with the best memes they made. Unfortunately the magic ran out at Florida State, in what is now a conference matchup.
- Notes from the Bay Area took up a lot of real estate this week. Good thing the crier can put the rent to the company tab.
- Matlock is back on the air after the Andy Griffith-led show ended in 1995. The reboot, with Kathy Bates as lead, is on CBS. Are there any original ideas left in network television?
- College Football Final, hosted by Matt Barrie, Joey Galloway, and Dan Mullen, on ESPN, is the perfect recap show. Ryan McGee’s “Bottom 10” in college football column on espn.com is a perfect midweek comedic release.
- How dumb is the college football rule that makes a player sit out a play after their helmet comes off? Defenders can rip off the helmet of the opposition’s best offensive players in a final play, goal-to-go situation if the offense has no timeouts remaining. Then they can take the half the distance penalty and first down in exchange for their best players sitting the final play.
- How do players drop the ball before crossing the goal line? It’s unfathomable. What’s the point? It’s the most idiotic “celebration” of all time. And players do it every year, even every week this season in college football, stupidly. The BYU player barely crossed the plane and was lucky. The Oregon player a couple weeks ago was even luckier when a teammate picked up the ball in the end zone after dropping the ball short of the goal line. Write the names of the players and further explanation in case someone missed it, it’s confusing
- Two things to try: Martinelli’s Sparkling Apple Cider (and their small apple juice jugs) and Pumpkin cider with a Pumpkin spice (vodka or rum) shot.
- UConn’s Dan Hurley was named one of the “50 Most Influential Figures in Sports” by Sports Illustrated. The Huskies’ quest for a three-peat is around the corner and will begin before we know it.
- This space was meant to highlight a Uniform of the Week, but the release of this coming season’s NBA city uniforms (which will be covered during the winter) needs to be addressed. The Celtics 2024-25 city edition is so awful that words should not be devoted to it. Unless there’s some loosely tied tribute that’s on the short’s waist or the tag on the bottom part of the jersey that isn’t visible, the crier can’t wait to see what reasoning Nike and the Celtics will come up with to excuse the monstrosity. The details of what it looks like won’t be described here either. Look it up yourselves, but wouldn’t want that search on my internet history.
- It was thought that the White Sox would have set the MLB record with 121 losses by now, but thanks to a home series sweep of the Angels, it’s Los Angeles who set their franchise record for losses instead.
- Elliott Hill’s three-decade climb from intern to CEO of Nike should be inspiring to all. And should be a more common occurrence in the corporate world.
- Boston Red Sox radio announcer Joe Castiglione announced his retirement from full-time broadcasts on WEEI at season’s end. The voice of the Red Sox and summers in New England received the Ford C. Frick Award from the Baseball Hall of Fame this year. Congrats to the Hamden, CT native and Hall of Famer on an incredible career.
- Happy Birthday to my aunt, Meriann, and dog, Tucker.