http://insider.espn.go.com/insider/story?id=1585356
Chad Ford discusses the Celts in his preview of the East. Not sure if this link has been posted here. He also takes a couple shots at the C's.. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Snoopy the Celtics Beagle" <snoopy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <celtics@xxxxxxxx>; <Celticsstuffgroup@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, July 25, 2003 12:44 PM Subject: ESPN, the place where "No Celtics News Is Good News"
> It's amazing, really. If a flea farts on LeBron James, it's an ESPN > sidebar. Kobe Bryant buys an apology present for cheating on his wife (and > when said event puts her on the evening news it had BETTER be expensive) > and rates a headline for doing so. Even a whisper of talks between the > Clippers and the Heat merit a clickable headline. > > Yet the Celtics have completed at least one signing, possibly two, > accompanied by showing Travis Best's agent how the Celtics expect the game > to be played on and off the court; and from ESPN we get..... > > Zip. Not so much as a whisper. > > I know, it's me being a hometown fan, some will say. True, but that > doesn't matter any to a sports desk. Others will chime in, insisting that > signing a second-round pick isn't worth the space. This is the internet, > people. For all intents and purposes, space is limitless, given the amount > of drivel that somehow finds it's way online. Besides, a look at today's > news of front page interest includes the naming of the Rockets' new arena; > Lue signing with Orlando; and someone named P. Diddy wanting to own the Knicks. > > It was two days after the fact that Walter McCarty's signing was mentioned > on the site. The Summer League, to hear it from them, was attended by one > player from Cleveland. No mention of the fact that LeBron's first shot of > the league was an airball courtesy of the Boston Celtics. > > I know there's some bad blood in the past. Red was arrogant in > victory. No less so, I think, than anyone who has won 16 championships has > a right to be. The Celtics had the whole mystique thing going. Anything > bad that happened to the Lakers, was cause for celebration in > Boston. Anything bad that happened to the Celtics was cause for > celebration everywhere else. The owners got to stick it to the C's by > voting down a request for relief when Reggie Lewis died, which is the main > reason the owners no longer have this power. > > But the networks have perpetuated this sort of idiocy for years, now. Tom > Heinsohn was fired as a national NBA announcer because of his bias for > Boston during the mid 1980's. As Heinsohn put it, paraphrased, the team > was winning 60+ games. Was he supposed to say they stank? Yet Jeff Van > Gundy, a former coach of the Knicks, conspicuously said "we" in speaking of > the Knicks, as if he were still working for them, and not TNT. Hubie Brown > never met a negative comment about Boston that he didn't freely repeat on > the air as often as he could. We all remember too well the playoffs tv > schedule, where the Celtics had two playoff games in the same series > relegated to NBAtv, including what could have been a series-deciding > game. Other teams had only one such appearance. During those games we DID > see, the announcers would talk about every subject under the sun BUT the > Celtics, save only to say, "Walker likes taking threes" like it was a state > secret that nobody had figured out. > > The Celtics take more heat than the Heat do. The Trailblazers team picture > practically needed to be taken at the city jail. The Lakers are getting > progressively crazier. Police in places ranging from Toronto to Orlando > are making it clear they don't tolerate NBA players behaving like thugs. > > The Celtics have been to the playoffs two years running with a team that > the previous owners did their best to gut like a cheap fish while taking > money by the truck full to their own hands. They have made a determined > effort under new ownership to commit to long-term winning, not only this > season, but in the future. I think that ESPN, to name one incredibly > unbalanced bastion of sports journalism, needs to stop bashing Boston and > start acting like they know what the words "balanced" and "objective" mean. > > Snoopy the Celtics Beagle > Please visit the <http://www.celticsbeagle.net/>Celtics Beagle Website