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.
David Lee right now
David Lee is back to being David Lee again, and that makes returning to Oracle all it should be.
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He found himself on the end of the bench with the Celtics, being talked about as washed up.
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“I came in, I wasn’t in shape, I didn’t play my best and lost my job,” Lee said of his time in Boston. “All that did was make me ask, ‘What do I not have that I had before?’ I wasn’t in as good of shape.”
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“In my opinion, I’m playing as good a ball as I’ve played in a number of years,” Lee said. “After really getting back into shape, I feel great out there. I think I have three, four years left, one more deal, then we’ll see from there.”
David Lee in December:
“I don’t accept [it], it’s very frustrating, and the moment you start to accept it is when [you’ve] kind of stopped trying,” Lee said. “While Coach can make any decision whom he wants to start or bring off the bench, my goal is to be a guy who’s playing 20, 25 minutes, and I’ve had a meeting with Coach and told him that.
David Lee in January:
“This situation is a bit more frustrating, and by no means am I accepting of the situation, and that’s the first thing that I told Brad.”…
“Of course I’m going to stay ready as a pro.”
It’s funny, you know? David Lee got traded to Boston and apparently figured that since he wasn’t playing for the Warriors anymore, he could slack off, get out of shape and still have all the minutes he wanted because, hey, the Celtics aren’t very good.
And then when it didn’t work out, he spent most of December and January stewing about his lack of playing time and complaining to the media about it and insisting to everyone that he was “ready”, and then suddenly he realizes that maybe–just maybe–he wasn’t playing because he wasn’t good enough at basketball to deserve to play.
Well good for you David, for figuring things out. Eventually. And good for you for not having to get Bogansed out into the wilderness because your attitude stunk to high heaven. But c’mon man. You’re in what? Your eleventh year as a pro? Why would you think that you deserve 25 minutes a game for Team A because you used to be a starter on Team B?
Also, did you notice how much of David Lee’s remarks were about himself? Sure there are some token remarks in those articles about ‘of course the important thing is winning,’ but do you think it was (or is) that important to David Lee?
Was it this important?
Boston dropped seven of its first eight games after Crowder came over from the Dallas Mavericks as what many deemed a throw-in to the Rajon Rondo blockbuster, and he was seething at all the losing. Then, one day at practice, he completely lost it.
“I went crazy,” admitted Crowder. “I lost my mind here. At practice, I pulled [coach] Brad [Stevens] to the side and asked him, ‘What are we trying to do here? Are we tanking?’ And Brad was like, ‘No, no, you don’t have to worry about tanking. I want to win games. We aren’t winning right now, but I want to win games.’”
Crowder didn’t stop with Stevens. He proceeded to shake down Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge, his teammates, ball boys — anyone who might be able to tell him exactly what the master plan was for these rebuilding Celtics.
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“I don’t like losing, man,” said Crowder. “I play this game to win. I never in my life played to lose. I don’t know what that feels like. I don’t play like that. I play to win. I felt like that the locker room here was kind of sulking right when I got here. It was sad to be in a professional locker room like that. I didn’t like it. I just wanted to come in each and every day and put my work in and hopefully make guys feed off my energy and take it from there.
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“When you want to win, man, when you’re in a winning organization, you take pride in it. And when you lose, you let everybody know you lost. You’re not walking around happy.”
Both Crowder and Lee were traded from winning teams to a rebuilding squad (Dallas was 19-8 when Crowder was traded). One of them stuck. It should be pretty obvious why.
Page 2: Where the upcoming road trip is important
The opportunity is there for the Celtics to finish the season strong, but it won’t be easy. Their next five games will come on the road against Western Conference opponents, starting with the Phoenix Suns on Saturday and continuing with three tough tests in the Los Angeles Clippers, Portland Trail Blazers and Golden State Warriors. Then they’ll close out their season with three massive matchups against the Hawks, Hornets and Heat.
Boston will have to win some, if not all, of its remaining games without key swingman Jae Crowder, who isn’t expected to return until the middle of the team’s West Coast swing at the earliest. The Celtics won’t have much margin for error, either: The Heat’s next four games all are against surefire NBA lottery teams, while the Hawks and Hornets both are 8-2 in their last 10 contests.
The good news for Boston is it enters the home stretch with confidence: The C’s have won three consecutive after dropping four in a row since Crowder first went down. Boston also is benefiting from the white-hot play of point guard Isaiah Thomas, who has scored 20 or more points in 11 consecutive contests and is averaging 26.2 points per game in the month of March.
So this season’s going to finish with a bang, eh? Road trip to the West Coast followed by games against three teams that are jostling for the same #3 seed that Boston is aiming for.
Page 3: Meet Micah Shrewsberry
Micah was recently a guest on another, lesser Boston Celtics themed podcast. The Boston Globe ran a snippet from his interview. It’s a good read. Might even be a good listen. I wouldn’t know. I only listen to Rainin’ J’s.
Finally: The sun is hot, and other things you already know
Best Selling Players By State 2015 MAP@nba @nfl @mlb @nhlhttps://t.co/j0Kr2yeHZt pic.twitter.com/IBVMz7uqOb
— Mitchell & Ness (@mitchell_ness) March 22, 2016
Larry Bird owns New England and Indiana. What. A. Surprise.
On the other hand, there are so many things here I don’t understand. At all. Like, why is Babe Ruth the top selling jersey for my home state of South Dakota–while the top selling jersey for New York is this guy??? Why is Mugsy Bogues the top selling jersey for Wyoming? Why is Steve Largent the top selling jersey in Maine?
The rest of the links:
CSNNE: Blakely: C’s might have to consider moving Smart | Spears: Durant to Boston is possible; LeBron drama
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