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.
For as long as Isaiah Thomas has been in the NBA, he has faced an uphill battle all the way.
So why would his first legit shot at being an All-Star be any different?
The first round of All-Star votes were announced today, and not surprisingly Thomas has quite a bit of ground to make up if he is to be selected by the fans.
To avoid rant, skip ahead to Steve Bulpett’s nice piece on the Celtics’ efforts to help players mature off the court. To experience rant, keep reading.
The only item of interest to the twenty teams left off of the NBA’s Christmas all-you-can eat buffet of basketball yesterday was the release of the All-Star ballot counts.
In what is no shock, Kobe Bryant led all players. This of course is perfect. Absolutely perfect.
The All-Star game was, perhaps, in theory, once upon a time, about recognizing the best players in the league. And to some poor misbegotten souls who are too dim to see beyond the NBA’s marketing of the event, that is still the purpose of the All-Star game–er, “All Star Weekend”.
To the rest of us, however, it has long since ceased being a match-up of the best of each conference, instead, it has degenerated into a bizarre weekend of strange contests with inscrutable rules, including two events that you would think would be easy to understand–the three point contest and the dunk contest–but which are, in fact, incomprehensible unless you are present when the contest rules are explained to you by a talking head that you have almost certainly tuned out because in the back of your mind you’re wondering if there’s something better on Netflix and thinking, probably, yes.
Of course, the “highlight” of All-Star weekend is the All Star game itself, which looks like nothing so much as a 48 minute pregame warm-up, except that there’s only one basketball on the court and layup lines are generally frowned upon.
Also, the players wear uniforms, not warm-up gear. Usually the uniform is an abomination cooked up in the ninth circle of NBA hell, but this year’s uniforms are actually pretty neat looking. Nice and old school.
Except for the tiny KIA patch.
This is how it begins, folks. And don’t think that the Celtics will be immune to it. Just hope that we are all dead before we’re forced to sit through the “Draft Kings Present the Boston Celtics vs. the Oracle 45i Netware Appliance Golden State Warriors” or some other such nonsense.
And then there’s the process of player selection.
In a nod to “democracy”, fans get to vote for the starting lineup. Than this, few stupider things can be imagined. Fans have absolutely no idea, in any collective sense, who the best players are at any position (click here for footage of Knicks fans booing the selection of Kristaps Porzhing-something or another).
So, it is, in fact, utterly appropriate that the leading vote-getter in a popularity contest for a pointless game with no accountability is Kobe Bryant. It encapsulates everything that is the 2015/2016 Lakers season in a single gesture.
Will Isaiah Thomas make it onto the Eastern Conference All Star Team? Maybe. Who knows? If he does it will be as a coach’s selection which is about the only aspect of this whole furshlugginer process that can, occasionally, serve as a recognition of one’s actual ability to play basketball.
Okay. I’ve got that out of my system.
Page 2: Celtics try to keep it positive
While the Celtics have not been spared their share of off-court incidents, they are proactive in educating their players about the potentially sordid and dangerous ways of the NBA.
“You try to prepare them, and a lot of guys listen — and a lot of guys don’t, and they learn the hard way. We’ve had a large group of young players that have come through, and some listen and they get it. They understand their place in life, their place in the NBA, what’s ahead of them, the risks. They just get it; they grasp it. And some just don’t. Some just have to learn the hard way.”
This is one of those things that separates a well-run organization from, say, the Philadelphia 76ers. There are many aspects of running a basketball team that are more or less invisible to us, the fans, and this is one of them. Some teams do a good job creating a supportive culture that helps young players adapt to having big piles of money, sleazy hangers-on from the neighborhood, their own apartments, and free time at night in new cities. Other teams draft a guy with the number three pick overall and then toss him off the dock, allowing him to learn about his newfound life as a professional athlete from whatever questionable acquaintance comes along, fake ID in hand.
The rest of the links:
NESN: Celtics Holiday Wish List: DeMarcus Cousins A Tantalizing Trade Target
Boston.com: Latest Celtics player power rankings | What the Celtics are missing without Marcus Smart
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