Announcement

Collapse

The Rules of Pacers Digest

Hello everyone,

Whether your are a long standing forum member or whether you have just registered today, it's a good idea to read and review the rules below so that you have a very good idea of what to expect when you come to Pacers Digest.

A quick note to new members: Your posts will not immediately show up when you make them. An administrator has to approve at least your first post before the forum software will later upgrade your account to the status of a fully-registered member. This usually happens within a couple of hours or so after your post(s) is/are approved, so you may need to be a little patient at first.

Why do we do this? So that it's more difficult for spammers (be they human or robot) to post, and so users who are banned cannot immediately re-register and start dousing people with verbal flames.

Below are the rules of Pacers Digest. After you have read them, you will have a very good sense of where we are coming from, what we expect, what we don't want to see, and how we react to things.

Rule #1

Pacers Digest is intended to be a place to discuss basketball without having to deal with the kinds of behaviors or attitudes that distract people from sticking with the discussion of the topics at hand. These unwanted distractions can come in many forms, and admittedly it can sometimes be tricky to pin down each and every kind that can rear its ugly head, but we feel that the following examples and explanations cover at least a good portion of that ground and should at least give people a pretty good idea of the kinds of things we actively discourage:

"Anyone who __________ is a liar / a fool / an idiot / a blind homer / has their head buried in the sand / a blind hater / doesn't know basketball / doesn't watch the games"

"People with intelligence will agree with me when I say that __________"

"Only stupid people think / believe / do ___________"

"I can't wait to hear something from PosterX when he/she sees that **insert a given incident or current event that will have probably upset or disappointed PosterX here**"

"He/she is just delusional"

"This thread is stupid / worthless / embarrassing"

"I'm going to take a moment to point and / laugh at PosterX / GroupOfPeopleY who thought / believed *insert though/belief here*"

"Remember when PosterX said OldCommentY that no longer looks good? "

In general, if a comment goes from purely on topic to something 'ad hominem' (personal jabs, personal shots, attacks, flames, however you want to call it, towards a person, or a group of people, or a given city/state/country of people), those are most likely going to be found intolerable.

We also dissuade passive aggressive behavior. This can be various things, but common examples include statements that are basically meant to imply someone is either stupid or otherwise incapable of holding a rational conversation. This can include (but is not limited to) laughing at someone's conclusions rather than offering an honest rebuttal, asking people what game they were watching, or another common problem is Poster X will say "that player isn't that bad" and then Poster Y will say something akin to "LOL you think that player is good". We're not going to tolerate those kinds of comments out of respect for the community at large and for the sake of trying to just have an honest conversation.

Now, does the above cover absolutely every single kind of distraction that is unwanted? Probably not, but you should by now have a good idea of the general types of things we will be discouraging. The above examples are meant to give you a good feel for / idea of what we're looking for. If something new or different than the above happens to come along and results in the same problem (that being, any other attitude or behavior that ultimately distracts from actually just discussing the topic at hand, or that is otherwise disrespectful to other posters), we can and we will take action to curb this as well, so please don't take this to mean that if you managed to technically avoid saying something exactly like one of the above examples that you are then somehow off the hook.

That all having been said, our goal is to do so in a generally kind and respectful way, and that doesn't mean the moment we see something we don't like that somebody is going to be suspended or banned, either. It just means that at the very least we will probably say something about it, quite possibly snipping out the distracting parts of the post in question while leaving alone the parts that are actually just discussing the topics, and in the event of a repeating or excessive problem, then we will start issuing infractions to try to further discourage further repeat problems, and if it just never seems to improve, then finally suspensions or bans will come into play. We would prefer it never went that far, and most of the time for most of our posters, it won't ever have to.

A slip up every once and a while is pretty normal, but, again, when it becomes repetitive or excessive, something will be done. Something occasional is probably going to be let go (within reason), but when it starts to become habitual or otherwise a pattern, odds are very good that we will step in.

There's always a small minority that like to push people's buttons and/or test their own boundaries with regards to the administrators, and in the case of someone acting like that, please be aware that this is not a court of law, but a private website run by people who are simply trying to do the right thing as they see it. If we feel that you are a special case that needs to be dealt with in an exceptional way because your behavior isn't explicitly mirroring one of our above examples of what we generally discourage, we can and we will take atypical action to prevent this from continuing if you are not cooperative with us.

Also please be aware that you will not be given a pass simply by claiming that you were 'only joking,' because quite honestly, when someone really is just joking, for one thing most people tend to pick up on the joke, including the person or group that is the target of the joke, and for another thing, in the event where an honest joke gets taken seriously and it upsets or angers someone, the person who is truly 'only joking' will quite commonly go out of his / her way to apologize and will try to mend fences. People who are dishonest about their statements being 'jokes' do not do so, and in turn that becomes a clear sign of what is really going on. It's nothing new.

In any case, quite frankly, the overall quality and health of the entire forum's community is more important than any one troublesome user will ever be, regardless of exactly how a problem is exhibiting itself, and if it comes down to us having to make a choice between you versus the greater health and happiness of the entire community, the community of this forum will win every time.

Lastly, there are also some posters, who are generally great contributors and do not otherwise cause any problems, who sometimes feel it's their place to provoke or to otherwise 'mess with' that small minority of people described in the last paragraph, and while we possibly might understand why you might feel you WANT to do something like that, the truth is we can't actually tolerate that kind of behavior from you any more than we can tolerate the behavior from them. So if we feel that you are trying to provoke those other posters into doing or saying something that will get themselves into trouble, then we will start to view you as a problem as well, because of the same reason as before: The overall health of the forum comes first, and trying to stir the pot with someone like that doesn't help, it just makes it worse. Some will simply disagree with this philosophy, but if so, then so be it because ultimately we have to do what we think is best so long as it's up to us.

If you see a problem that we haven't addressed, the best and most appropriate course for a forum member to take here is to look over to the left of the post in question. See underneath that poster's name, avatar, and other info, down where there's a little triangle with an exclamation point (!) in it? Click that. That allows you to report the post to the admins so we can definitely notice it and give it a look to see what we feel we should do about it. Beyond that, obviously it's human nature sometimes to want to speak up to the poster in question who has bothered you, but we would ask that you try to refrain from doing so because quite often what happens is two or more posters all start going back and forth about the original offending post, and suddenly the entire thread is off topic or otherwise derailed. So while the urge to police it yourself is understandable, it's best to just report it to us and let us handle it. Thank you!

All of the above is going to be subject to a case by case basis, but generally and broadly speaking, this should give everyone a pretty good idea of how things will typically / most often be handled.

Rule #2

If the actions of an administrator inspire you to make a comment, criticism, or express a concern about it, there is a wrong place and a couple of right places to do so.

The wrong place is to do so in the original thread in which the administrator took action. For example, if a post gets an infraction, or a post gets deleted, or a comment within a larger post gets clipped out, in a thread discussing Paul George, the wrong thing to do is to distract from the discussion of Paul George by adding your off topic thoughts on what the administrator did.

The right places to do so are:

A) Start a thread about the specific incident you want to talk about on the Feedback board. This way you are able to express yourself in an area that doesn't throw another thread off topic, and this way others can add their two cents as well if they wish, and additionally if there's something that needs to be said by the administrators, that is where they will respond to it.

B) Send a private message to the administrators, and they can respond to you that way.

If this is done the wrong way, those comments will be deleted, and if it's a repeating problem then it may also receive an infraction as well.

Rule #3

If a poster is bothering you, and an administrator has not or will not deal with that poster to the extent that you would prefer, you have a powerful tool at your disposal, one that has recently been upgraded and is now better than ever: The ability to ignore a user.

When you ignore a user, you will unfortunately still see some hints of their existence (nothing we can do about that), however, it does the following key things:

A) Any post they make will be completely invisible as you scroll through a thread.

B) The new addition to this feature: If someone QUOTES a user you are ignoring, you do not have to read who it was, or what that poster said, unless you go out of your way to click on a link to find out who it is and what they said.

To utilize this feature, from any page on Pacers Digest, scroll to the top of the page, look to the top right where it says 'Settings' and click that. From the settings page, look to the left side of the page where it says 'My Settings', and look down from there until you see 'Edit Ignore List' and click that. From here, it will say 'Add a Member to Your List...' Beneath that, click in the text box to the right of 'User Name', type in or copy & paste the username of the poster you are ignoring, and once their name is in the box, look over to the far right and click the 'Okay' button. All done!

Rule #4

Regarding infractions, currently they carry a value of one point each, and that point will expire in 31 days. If at any point a poster is carrying three points at the same time, that poster will be suspended until the oldest of the three points expires.

Rule #5

When you share or paste content or articles from another website, you must include the URL/link back to where you found it, who wrote it, and what website it's from. Said content will be removed if this doesn't happen.

An example:

If I copy and paste an article from the Indianapolis Star website, I would post something like this:

http://www.linktothearticlegoeshere.com/article
Title of the Article
Author's Name
Indianapolis Star

Rule #6

We cannot tolerate illegal videos on Pacers Digest. This means do not share any links to them, do not mention any websites that host them or link to them, do not describe how to find them in any way, and do not ask about them. Posts doing anything of the sort will be removed, the offenders will be contacted privately, and if the problem becomes habitual, you will be suspended, and if it still persists, you will probably be banned.

The legal means of watching or listening to NBA games are NBA League Pass Broadband (for US, or for International; both cost money) and NBA Audio League Pass (which is free). Look for them on NBA.com.

Rule #7

Provocative statements in a signature, or as an avatar, or as the 'tagline' beneath a poster's username (where it says 'Member' or 'Administrator' by default, if it is not altered) are an unwanted distraction that will more than likely be removed on sight. There can be shades of gray to this, but in general this could be something political or religious that is likely going to provoke or upset people, or otherwise something that is mean-spirited at the expense of a poster, a group of people, or a population.

It may or may not go without saying, but this goes for threads and posts as well, particularly when it's not made on the off-topic board (Market Square).

We do make exceptions if we feel the content is both innocuous and unlikely to cause social problems on the forum (such as wishing someone a Merry Christmas or a Happy Easter), and we also also make exceptions if such topics come up with regards to a sports figure (such as the Lance Stephenson situation bringing up discussions of domestic abuse and the law, or when Jason Collins came out as gay and how that lead to some discussion about gay rights).

However, once the discussion seems to be more/mostly about the political issues instead of the sports figure or his specific situation, the thread is usually closed.

Rule #8

We prefer self-restraint and/or modesty when making jokes or off topic comments in a sports discussion thread. They can be fun, but sometimes they derail or distract from a topic, and we don't want to see that happen. If we feel it is a problem, we will either delete or move those posts from the thread.

Rule #9

Generally speaking, we try to be a "PG-13" rated board, and we don't want to see sexual content or similarly suggestive content. Vulgarity is a more muddled issue, though again we prefer things to lean more towards "PG-13" than "R". If we feel things have gone too far, we will step in.

Rule #10

We like small signatures, not big signatures. The bigger the signature, the more likely it is an annoying or distracting signature.

Rule #11

Do not advertise anything without talking about it with the administrators first. This includes advertising with your signature, with your avatar, through private messaging, and/or by making a thread or post.
See more
See less

The Sports Guy write-up on game 1 & game 2

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • The Sports Guy write-up on game 1 & game 2

    I enjoyed reading this, but then again I'm rooting for the Celtics. I especially like the middle section where he's talking about the typical fans that goes to the game


    http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/print...968&type=story


    There isn't even officially a name for it. Frankly, it's too ghastly to have a name. For the purposes of this column, we'll call it the Horrible Sound.

    You only hear the Horrible Sound during especially big games, and only if something unthinkable happens to a good player on the home team. If you think of noise being measured from 1 to 10, an especially big game carries a particular buzz that never seems to fade. It's like the last few seconds before a concert when they shut the lights out, only the band hasn't emerged yet. That's just how it sounds for two and a half hours. If something unthinkable happens to one of the home players, that ongoing, this-game-is-bigger-than-all-of-us buzz doesn't screech to a stop like a record being halted. Rather, it fades over the course of a few seconds -- like someone is slowly turning down a knob that controls the crowd volume from 8 to 7 to 6 ... until finally, you're at 1 and everyone in the building is standing in shock. It's awful. It's one of the worst experiences you can have at a sporting event.


    As Paul Pierce was carried from the court, the air was immediately sucked out of the Garden.
    But that's not even the Horrible Sound. That's just the chain of events needed to get there. During Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday night, when Paul Pierce was clutching his right leg in agony, the Boston crowd was rocking minus-4 on the volume knob within a few seconds. He slumped into a heap a few feet in front of the Celtics' bench, with teammates and coaches quickly surrounding him so the fans couldn't see anything. Two agonizing minutes passed. If you placed thought balloons over everyone's heads in the Whatever The Hell The Garden Is Called, each one would have looked the same:

    "I knew this Finals was too good to be true."

    See, fans are selfish that way. Pierce might have blown out a knee or broken a leg, but we were thinking about our improbable, once-in-a-generation Lakers-Celtics Finals going down the tubes. Watching from 40 feet away with my father, Dad just kept muttering, "no ... no ... no ... no ..." We all felt that way. That's what made it so painful when it seemed like Pierce was finally standing up (volume going back up to 2, then 3, then 4 ...), only we realized he wasn't actually standing but being carried off the court by two teammates. Brian Scalabrine had one of his legs, Tony Allen had the other. Pierce's arms were draped around their necks. They hurriedly schlepped him off like a wounded soldier on a battlefield.

    That's when the Horrible Sound happened. It's like a groan crossed with a gasp crossed with an exhale (only if 18,000 people are making it at the same time), quickly followed by somebody pressing "MUTE" on the entire crowd. I'm telling you, it's the worst noise in sports -- maybe a one-second blip followed by dead silence that conveys three emotions and only three:


    Noooooooooooooo!

    I can't believe it.

    We are f-----.

    When I was 6 years old, Freddie Lynn crashed into the outfield wall at Fenway during Game 6 of the '75 World Series and slumped into a heap like he had been taken out by a sniper. That was the all-time Horrible Sound in Boston sports history. This was second. For Pierce's mysterious injury to happen during Game 1 of the Finals, right after he had caught fire in the third quarter, right as everyone was beginning to embrace the full power of this Celtics-Lakers renaissance, was simply incomprehensible. We had the same look on our faces as the castaways in "Lost" when they thought they were getting rescued, only it starts dawning on them that the "rescuers" in the helicopter might not be there for the right reasons.

    Really? I'm not getting off the island? I'm stuck here?

    That was us.

    For all the hype that comes with a throwback Celtics-Lakers series, you couldn't fully grasp its significance unless you were in Boston on Thursday. Walking around Causeway before the game, the street was effectively covered in green -- just guys in their teens and 20s happily walking around in green T-shirts and jerseys, randomly chanting "Beat L.A!" and "Let's go Celtics!" The bars were teeming with locals, many of them distracted by a timely Red Sox-Rays brawl that put everyone in the right mind-set for seven games against Kobe and the Kobettes. At the intersection in front of Causeway and Canal, there was a 25-foot replica of the NBA's golden championship trophy, with about 25 crazed Celtics fans flanking it and starting various cheers. Six especially creative Boston fans were walking around dressed like members of the '86 team -- Bird, McHale, Parish, DJ, Walton and Ainge -- wearing especially tight jerseys and shorts and corresponding wigs for each player. You always hear the phrase "happy to be here" about teams, but this might have been the first "happy to be here" fan base.

    The really cool part: You had one generation old enough to remember the significance and awesomeness (for lack of a better word) of the whole Celtics-Lakers thing, as well as another generation of under-25 fans who lived the rivalry secondhand through ESPN Classic, grainy VHS tapes and stories from parents, grandparents and older brothers. The first generation was grateful because they never thought they'd see the rivalry renewed; the second generation was grateful because they had grown up thinking, by sheer luck of the draw, they missed out and that was that. In fact, that's the perfect word. Grateful. If anything, the new generation was more euphoric than the old generation -- imagine hearing those stories and watching those replays for two solid decades, always wondering what it would have been like to be there, never believing it could happen again. And then a window opens and, just like that, you're there.

    The whole thing was a little hard to fathom. You'd think Boston fans would have been nervous heading into Game 1 of the series as legitimate underdogs, but you couldn't feel any tension whatsoever. I'd use the word "giddy." Even the normally grouchy media seemed happy to be there. And beyond the rivalry or the nostalgic clash of uniforms, I have to say the night just felt bigger with Kobe involved. He's one of the most recognizable athletes alive, the best basketball player in the league, someone who just seems inherently famous at all times.

    (Random tangent: I always break out my Foreigner Test for famous athletes -- namely, if you grabbed someone from Germany or Lithuania or Kenya who knew nothing about basketball, plopped them in the arena, asked them to study the players as they warmed up for a few minutes, then asked them to guess the best player on the court, who would they pick? During any Bulls game in the '90s, they would have picked MJ, which was one of the things that made him so freaking cool -- not his considerable talents as much as the fact he always seemed like he should have been as good as he was. Anyway, the foreigner would have watched the warm-ups Thursday night and picked either Kobe or KG, two larger-than-life guys who carry themselves a certain way and seem totally comfortable with being stared at by thousands of people at all times.)

    Since this had been such an impossibly tough ticket, the happy-to-be-there factor was through the roof. For season-ticket holders who shelled out sizable checks annually for a never-ending edition of crappy teams -- like my father, for instance -- you could see the vindication in their eyes. This is why I kept my tickets. For everyone working for the Celtics since the unfathomably cold, clumsy and impersonal Paul Gaston era -- like my buddy Sully, for instance -- you could see the relief in their eyes. This is why I kept working for them. For the fans who kept supporting the Celtics from Reggie Lewis' death through the reprehensible tank job last season -- a 14-year stretch that had fewer highlights than Paulie Shore's IMDB.com profile page -- you could see the collective twinkle in their eyes. This is why I kept watching. And for the wealthy fans who didn't care about the Celtics as much as flexing their financial/social muscles so they could show up to either be seen or tell other people they went -- and there were more than a few of them -- you could see the satisfied look in their eyes. This is why I worked so hard to become successful.

    (By the way, I hate those people. Passionately. Thursday night, the guys sitting next to me showed up halfway through the second quarter, spent the rest of the quarter taking pictures and saying things like, "Dude, check out Kobe," disappeared at halftime and re-emerged during the third quarter with bags from the Celtics' gift shop. From there, they proceeded to put on brand-new Celtics jerseys -- one had Garnett, the other had Pierce -- only they reacted happily every time Kobe did something. Thanks for coming, guys. It's also worth mentioning that some soulless Boston fan sold his two courtside seats right next to the Boston bench to two obnoxious L.A. fans who wore yellow Lakers jerseys and were hopefully beaten up after the game. I have stopped trying to figure out professional sports in the 21st century. I give up.)

    So that's where we were heading into Game 1: Relieved, giddy, happy, excited. During the first half, Boston's obvious advantages in this series surfaced (homecourt, rebounding, L.A.'s lack of anyone who can defend Garnett), as well as the disadvantages (the Celtics don't have plays, no transition baskets, no backup point guard, Doc Rivers). At halftime, despite a putrid first half from Kobe, the Lakers were leading by five. Not a good sign. Then Pierce came out firing, scoring eight quick points to reclaim the lead. Just when it looked like we were headed for a potential "Hardwood Classic," the Horrible Sound happened and Pierce got carried off. After that, there were about five minutes when my father and I were staring on the court, absorbing everything, trying to digest the thought of a Pierce-less Celtics for the rest of the Finals, attempting to find an adequate reaction, and just repeatedly locking eyes and shaking our heads grimly.

    Then, something great happened ...

    At the five-minute mark of the third quarter, as the game was happening, a fantastic sound happened -- the crowd inexplicably started to cheer -- and when you're there in person, there's always that split-second when you go from, "Wait, why are people cheering?" to "Wait, maybe I should glance at the tunnel just to make sure Pierce isn't jogging back out like Willis Reed."


    After Pierce's heroics, it's clear the 2008 Finals will definitely be a series.
    Quick impersonation of the thought balloon that came next: "THERE HE IS! AND HE'S NOT LIMPING! WE'RE ALIVE! WE'RE ALIVE! WE'RE ALIVE!"

    Unfortunately, the Celtics botched the timing of Pierce's dramatic re-entrance, having him return right before an extended TV timeout. (Note to ESPN Classic: When you show this baby, edit it so it seems like Pierce came out and went right back into the game.) No matter. We were alive. And when Pierce nailed consecutive 3-pointers later in the quarter, the roof practically blew off.

    (Tangent: If you're a Lakers fan, I fully support your right to be cynical about Pierce's injury and return. If the roles were reversed, and this were Kobe, I would have taken 35 "He was playing the injury up just for the Willis comeback!" potshots at him by now. All I can tell you is this: Pierce has been a warrior for 10 years, he has never been seriously injured, and he's not the type of player who would just randomly crumple into a heap like that as some sort of strategic ploy. After the game, he said he heard his knee pop, so maybe he was more scared than anything. Only a fool would compare the significance of the moment to Willis Reed, or even Larry Bird's comeback in the '91 Indiana series, for that matter. At the same time, the crowd went from "My God, we are completely screwed!" to "My God, we are back in this series!" in the span of 10 minutes. So it WAS a significant moment, whether you like it or not.)

    Unfortunately, the fourth quarter didn't live up to the promise of the first three: The Lakers went ice cold and the Celtics couldn't get a decent shot. I can't tell you if it was great defense or incompetent offense; maybe it was both. There was one excruciating stretch with Boston leading 86-78 when Sam Cassell decided to remind us why he shouldn't be playing in this series, taking a couple of truly horrific shots and prompting a chorus of "Ronnnnnnn-do!" yells while a standing Doc Rivers flatlined on the sidelines for about two minutes. This has been a Doc staple over the past four years -- a Celtics player submitting an absolutely catastrophic stretch of play as Rivers leaves him in for about 90 seconds too long, then suddenly realizes, "Wait, I'm the coach, I have the power to remove this guy from the game!" By the time Sam finally got pulled, we were up only four points with six minutes to go.

    (Note: The good news was that Rondo -- playing a solid game before he departed -- was able to rest for three and a half hours in the second half. So we had that going for us.)

    (Follow-up note: When the home crowd is cheering because you just made a substitution, it's probably a sign you should have made the sub a little sooner. I'm just thinking out loud here.)

    (Sorry, one more note: Shortly after Sam got pulled, there was a timeout and everyone was standing. I was watching the huddle and realized out of the corner of my eye that my dad was inexplicably holding a small wad of bills in his hands and shuffling through them. There were a couple of 20s, a 10 and some ones. It's not like he had $700 on him. He couldn't have been counting them. I don't know what was going on. When I asked him why he was shuffling through his cash, he simply shrugged and said, "I don't know." By the way, I am bringing defibrillator paddles to Game 2.)

    Just when it seemed like Kobe and the Kobettes might steal the game, they started throwing up brick after brick. I have to be honest: The Lakers looked nervous to me. Odom looked nervous. Radmanovic looked nervous. Farmar looked like he might throw up on the court. Gasol didn't look nervous, but he allowed himself to get taken out of the game because of a few calls. (By the way, kudos to Gasol for being the first professional basketball player in the history of mankind who has never committed a personal foul. What an amazing achievement.) And Kobe looked like -- I gotta say it -- he was pressing. The Celtics were throwing multiple guys at him, bumping him, jumping out at him and contesting every jumper, and once he realized he wasn't getting charity calls, he stopped driving to the basket completely.

    Meanwhile, the clock kept ticking and ticking. Suddenly, there were four minutes left, then three, then two and a half, and when Garnett (nine straight misses in the second half) rammed home a vicious follow-up dunk at the two-minute mark, everyone realized that ...

    A. The Lakers weren't stealing Game 1.

    B. We might have a series on our hands.

    And we do. The Lakers might be a wonderful offensive team, and they might have the best player in the league, but they have legitimate rebounding/size issues that didn't totally surface until Thursday night, when they were outrebounded by 13 and never seemed to get any tip-ins or follow-up shots. It's also a team with only one penetrator/creator (hint: it's the guy who was being serenaded with "No means no!" chants Thursday night), and if you can keep him out of the paint and hope the officials don't save him with charity calls, and if you can keep throwing effective double teams at Gasol on the low block, then the Lakers have to live and die by jumpers. At home, you can survive that way. On the road? No. That's why they lost Game 1.

    Heading into the series, I thought Boston could win for three reasons: Size, defense and homecourt. That's really it. All of those factors were on display Thursday in a nerve-racking game Boston never totally put away. If there's a quality unique to this Celtics team, it's its lack of exclamation-point sequences. Usually a great team will have those little 8-0 or 12-2 runs capped off by a steal, a fast break and either a dunk, a layup or a 3-pointer, followed by an opposing timeout and the crowd going absolutely ballistic. (Bird's Celtics teams were defined by those exclamation-point sequences.) These particular Celtics never seem to have them; instead of knocking someone down with a haymaker, they just throw a ton of punches and hope the sheer volume will take the scorecards. If they were a boxer, they'd be Joe Calzaghe and not Kelly Pavlik. It's a little unorthodox, and it takes some time to get used to, but ultimately you get used to it. That's just who they are.

    Of course, they're nothing without Paul Pierce. He's the most clutch guy on the team, its best all-around player and one of its two emotional leaders, as well as the one current Celtic who belongs to the fans and bridges Before and After, the guy who survived Rick Pitino, Chris Wallace, Vin Baker, Ricky Davis, Theo Ratliff's Expiring Contract and everything else. For Pierce to get knocked out of this series within three quarters -- the guy who understands the L.A.-Boston thing better than anyone, the truest of true Celtics, the guy who sacrificed the most to get here and appreciates what's happening the most -- would have been an especially cruel turn of events.

    Maybe that's why, as everyone was leaving the Whatever The Hell The Garden Is Called on Thursday night, there wasn't the usual sense of jubilation after a Finals win. You could feel the collective relief emanating from the exit tunnels, a few scattered whoops, some murmuring and that was that. Pierce was OK. The Finals hadn't fallen apart before it even really started. We had survived the Horrible Sound and lived to fight another day. Time to exhale and keep breathing.

    Bill Simmons is a columnist for Page 2 and ESPN The Magazine. For every Simmons column, as well as podcasts, videos, favorite links and more, check out the revamped Sports Guy's World.
    Last edited by Unclebuck; 06-09-2008, 01:34 PM.

  • #2
    Re: The Sports Guy write-up on last nights game

    Double post?

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: The Sports Guy write-up on last nights game

      The diss on Pauley Shore is funny.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: The Sports Guy write-up on last nights game

        Let's see how healthy Paul is on Sunday evening before we declare the series OK or DOA.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: The Sports Guy write-up on last nights game

          Well, at least this series is streatched out long enough to get him healthy. After the sprint last round this one is dragging. Why couldn't it be 2-2-1-1-1 if there is this much time between games?

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: The Sports Guy write-up on last nights game

            Originally posted by SycamoreKen View Post
            Well, at least this series is streatched out long enough to get him healthy. After the sprint last round this one is dragging. Why couldn't it be 2-2-1-1-1 if there is this much time between games?
            There has always been an extra day between NBA Finals games either between Thursday and Sunday (CBS or ABC) or between Sunday and Wednesday (NBC). This series is no different than any of the other Finals series

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: The Sports Guy write-up on last nights game

              They should have done Game 1 Friday, 2 on Sunday, 3 on Wednesday, 4 on Friday, 5 on Sunday, 6 on Wednesday, 7 on Friday.


              Comment


              • #8
                Re: The Sports Guy write-up on last nights game

                Good read. I didn't really catch the game but only the box score and reading the article seemed to give me a good idea about what happened in the game.

                Why can't Indy have a writer like Simmons write for them about the Pacers?
                Ash from Army of Darkness: Good...Bad...I'm the guy with the gun.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: The Sports Guy write-up on last nights game

                  Originally posted by CableKC View Post
                  Why can't Indy have a writer like Simmons write for them about the Pacers?
                  We have

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: The Sports Guy write-up on last nights game

                    I guess Bill has been holding this in for about 10+ years...

                    Good article...
                    12/27/2005 at Spurs - SamBear - 3

                    1/2/2008 vs Memphis - SamBear - 19


                    4/9/2014 - Luis Scola also recorded a season high with 24 points and Evan Turner added 23 for Indiana.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: The Sports Guy write-up on last nights game

                      Originally posted by Indy View Post
                      They should have done Game 1 Friday, 2 on Sunday, 3 on Wednesday, 4 on Friday, 5 on Sunday, 6 on Wednesday, 7 on Friday.
                      Yes. It's ridiculous that they say they need to go 2-3-2 to accommodate the media, yet they have the two days off in city and one day off for travel.
                      Come to the Dark Side -- There's cookies!

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: The Sports Guy write-up on last nights game

                        Originally posted by Indy View Post
                        They should have done Game 1 Friday, 2 on Sunday, 3 on Wednesday, 4 on Friday, 5 on Sunday, 6 on Wednesday, 7 on Friday.
                        Friday night games get lower ratings than any other night of the week besdies Saturday. But it does make sense to travel when there are two of days between games

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: The Sports Guy write-up on last nights game

                          "Since this had been such an impossibly tough ticket, the happy-to-be-there factor was through the roof. For season-ticket holders who shelled out sizable checks annually for a never-ending edition of crappy teams -- like my father, for instance -- you could see the vindication in their eyes. This is why I kept my tickets. For everyone working for the Celtics since the unfathomably cold, clumsy and impersonal Paul Gaston era -- like my buddy Sully, for instance -- you could see the relief in their eyes. This is why I kept working for them. For the fans who kept supporting the Celtics from Reggie Lewis' death through the reprehensible tank job last season -- a 14-year stretch that had fewer highlights than Pauly Shore's IMDB.com profile page -- you could see the collective twinkle in their eyes. This is why I kept watching."

                          That part really stood out to me. Our time will come again.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: The Sports Guy write-up on last nights game

                            Some of you guys will complain about anything.

                            The longer the season goes on, the better, IMO. In fact, I wish they played one game every three weeks so that a seven-game Finals would be wrapping up just as pre-season is starting back up.
                            Read my Pacers blog:
                            8points9seconds.com

                            Follow my twitter:

                            @8pts9secs

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: The Sports Guy write-up on last nights game

                              This is a little interesting.


                              Stern says Auerbach helped come up with 2-3-2 Finals format

                              Associated Press
                              ESPN.com



                              http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playof...e=NBAHeadlines
                              Read my Pacers blog:
                              8points9seconds.com

                              Follow my twitter:

                              @8pts9secs

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X