When the Celtics signed Brian Scalabrine, he was expected to chip in with about 15-20 minutes of productive play off the bench. We quickly found out that really wasn’t possible. But with the Celtics sucking pretty hard a couple of years ago, and with Doc having little choice but to ask Scal to do more than he should have, fans turned on him when he didn’t produce.
That brings us to the post-Big 3 Scal, who has rightfully been relegated to spot duty and mopping up blowouts. We fans, as we are wont to do, have now started cheering for Scal as the love-able loser who we want to start draining threes. But Scal has a simple message for us: Stop it.
“It detracts from the focus. We are the Boston Celtics, and for the crowd to cheer for an individual takes away from our team and what we are trying to do. Let’s just say it’s not ubuntu. The way I see it, it takes away from what the Boston Celtics are trying to do, the focus that we have as a team, and how as a team we don’t believe in any individualism. We believe in believing as a team.”
Of course, Scal is full of crap, because he knows full well what those cheers are all about. He just doesn’t want to be treated like an autistic team manager. It’s not like he’s railing against the “MVP” chants for Pierce or KG.
Quite honestly, I don’t blame him. The chants for the last guy on the bench are a bit condescending. If it was easier to chant “let the scrub who sucks score so we can officially celebrate this blowout”… we would. But “SCAL-A-BREE-NEE” is just easier.
The whole Paul Pierce interview in Boston Magazine is now online. It’s pretty interesting. Here’s another excerpt:
AD: Not only are you responsible for winning on the court, but as captain you are also in part responsible for putting the team together.
PP: We were all on the same page. That’s why I never demanded a trade, like so many players do these days. Once we had that meeting, I felt the passion. I felt that they wanted to turn things around sooner rather than later. I knew something big was going to happen that summer.AD: How did you react when you heard about the Celtics’ trading for Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen?
PP: I didn’t expect that. I mean, I expected some better players, but by no means did I expect two future Hall-of-Famers. I thought we’d get one allstar player and then another pretty good player. No way did I imagine from that meeting [with Ainge, during the previous season] that we would get these kinds of players.
I guess he never did demand that trade… although I’m sure he hinted that he’d demand a trade. Whatever… that’s in the past. How about that GQ photo of the Truth? They dressed him in some pretty nice stuff. Can’t wait for the Boston Common blogger issue. I’m gonna comb out my mullet, put on my Iron Maiden shirt, trim down my fu-manchu… and make sweet love to the camera.
Herald: Scal jumps at active role | Deadspin: Pollard flipping the bird again | PerkIsABeast: Vote Beast (we’re Red’s Army and we approve that message) | WCVB: Allen discusses son’s illness | ProJo: C’s conquer 8 game stretch with 7-1 record | Video: Shaq’s flagrant 2 on Rodney Stuckey | BlazeofLove: 7 ways to make the NBA logo relevant | Empty The Bench: The most depressing players of 2008-2009
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