Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big story line. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.
“We’re on this small van getting ready to shoot a scene and all of our phones ding at the same time except for Kyrie’s — he didn’t have his phone,” Miller said. “And we looked at our phones. And C-Webb, he looked at us, like, ‘Kyrie Irving’s been traded to Boston, right?’ And we were looking at one another, like, should we tell him?
“Obviously we had to tell him because he was, like, right in front of us. So we all showed him the phone. And it was so funny, his expression. He looked at it and was like, ‘Huh, OK. Well let’s do this.’ And that’s how we all found out that he had been traded to the Boston Celtics.”
Ok, for starters, any van that has Reggie Miller, Chris Webb and Kyrie Irving in it all at once is going to be, ipso facto, a small van. None of those guys are pint-sized.
And, while we have no evidence that Irving was dressed like Uncle Drew when he found out about the trade, we can always hope that he was.
I’m not particularly interested in seeing the Uncle Drew movie, but I would pay money to see a reenactment of Kyrie Irving, dressed as Uncle Drew, cursing and then ‘running’ out of a van only to stop short and stare at passing cars when he heard about the trade:
“I cursed probably twice (when I found out about the trade), and then I ran out,” Irving said during his introductory press conference with the Celtics. “I took a moment outside on the side of the street in Atlanta to watch the cars pass. I took in that moment, because it really meant something. It was the start of something new, and I knew I was going to come in contact with some other great individuals, and we were going to go after something special.”
Page 2: Where Ainge hopes to patch things up with IT down the line
“Maybe someday he’ll understand it better than he does right now.”
Before the Celtics had a conversation with the Cavs about Irving, they knew any deal would have to include Thomas.
“Whenever star players become available, we always discuss them and look into them and see if this is a possibility for us and see what the cost is,” Ainge said. “That’s what happened in the Kyrie thing. We just went down that road.”
Ainge added, “Sometimes you have to do tough things. That was a really tough thing. [Thomas] gave us so much. He gave our organization so much.”
And as far as Thomas saying he may not ever talk to Ainge again?
“I’ve had my children tell me worse things,” Ainge said. “They do talk to me sometimes a month later. So, I hope that this will pass. But time will tell.”
So, on the one hand, Ainge sounds a bit like IT’s dad in that interview above.
But, on the other hand, Ainge is old enough to be IT’s dad.
“Red for me was kind of like a grandfather. I remember when Red first picked me up at the airport when I was drafted by the Celtics. He picked me up in a limo, and we went out to eat and we just talked about basketball and the Celtics. And then my wife was coming in to the airport shortly there after, and Red says, “How many wives do you Mormons have, anyway?” He was fun that way. He always had a light heart.
“When I had struggles with the coach or with my playing, I could always to talk to Red, and he was always a wise man who would make you see things from a bigger perspective, and not just living in the moment like most young players do. I always had that kind of relationship with him, where he could always put things in perspective.”
Red Auerbach traded Ainge.
And he didn’t trade Ainge to a competitive team. He traded Ainge to the Sacramento Kings. The Kings finished that season 30 games outside of first and 28 games under .500.
Red didn’t trade Ainge for a star, or even–as it turned out, a starter. Ainge was traded for Joe Kleine; a center who Red hoped would provide rotation minutes behind McHale and Parish.
Ainge’s competitiveness is legendary.
You think he was happy with Red? You think he liked being shipped out to a team that was as bad in the late 80s as it is now? And for what? So the Celtics could give his minutes to younger players and replace his roster spot with a serviceable but far from extraordinary big?
But there he was seventeen years later, a few years after he went back to work with Red, talking about him like he was family.
Finally: Keeping up with a couple other retired Celtics
Kevin McHale reacts to recent comments from James Harden pic.twitter.com/bTxNb1ossB
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) October 14, 2017
I’ll grant you, Kevin has a bit of a point. At the same time, bud, you gotta stop comparing eras. You clotheslined Kurt Rambis and didn’t even get suspended–do we really want to go back to that?
The perfect cake for Paul Pierce's 40th birthday. https://t.co/PpBCaXEKLp pic.twitter.com/9kl1z9tY1W
— theScore (@theScore) October 13, 2017
ESPN got a birthday cake for Paul. It was awesome.
CAUTION: The above video contains like 50 seconds of a guy walking down a hallway painted to match a Happy Chef Restaurant.
The rest of the links
MassLive: Boston Celtics news: Daniel Ochefu added to roster
NBC Sports Boston: Brown knows his role with C’s Big Three
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