Disturbing Development and CM x-change

[JOzersky@aol.com]

Something else for us to worry about:  now this story in the globe about Bird
not showing up in Phoenix.  This is bad.  Here's something that might amuse
you, an exchange between me and Dean M. Laux, the editor of Celtics Monthly:



To:  Dean M. Laux
From: subscriber Josh Ozersky

I've been trying to put my finger on what is so disappointing about Celtics
Monthly.  At first I thought it was that the magazine is so clearly in bed
with the Celtics publicity department, and that that accounted for the many
softballs thrown in interviews  ("CM:  In your opinion, do we have to go all
out this coming offseason to get a center, whether through free agency, a
trade, or the draft?  Carr:  Yes.") and the general Pollyanish tone of the
features. 

But I now realize that the problem is simpler and more solvable.  Celtics
Monthly is simply aiming too low.  It assumes a readership that knows almost
nothing about basketball, and one with only a paassing knowledge of the team,
e.g. who don't know who Tim Duncan is, who is on the injured list, etc.  The
recent insert of forty players to watch in the coming tournament was typical.
What celtics fan doesn't know at least the names of the top players?  And
what do we need a list of their names and heights for anyway?  Serious
celtics fans would be much better served by in-depth scouting reports, issue
by issue of the top picks, all throughout this dismal year -- as opposed to
the slick, uninformative draft preview you no doubt have cooked up  ("Van
Horn is a good outside shooter, but there are questions about whether he can
be an inside presence in the NBA.")  

For a magazine that only comes out a few times a year, which is a month
behind news, and which only carries three or four features a month  (I'm not
including the press releases among those, e.g. "Jan Volk donates time to the
Jewish Home for the Aged"), Celtics Monthly doesn't do a very good job of
helping serious celtics fans supplement what we get through the Globe, the
newsgroups, ESPN, CBS Sportsline, the Herald, SI, and half a dozen other
sports news organs which presume much greater sophistication on the part of
their readers.