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Re: Las Vegas predictions

At 08:27 AM 4/16/2004, you wrote: 
While awaiting the playoffs, here are the pre-season Las Vegas odds
followed by each team's final season standings.  On balance, the gurus
did pretty well.

How did most sporstwriters do? I have a feeling most of them couldn't beat a random number generator.


Let all us long-suffering but patient and understanding
(well some of you anyway) Celt fans instead concentrate on
the lollipop trees and gumdrop bushes of Danny's future dreams.
Let us fold his magical vision to our bosoms and allow it to
dance freely on our psyches like so many sugarplum fairies.
Let us, well at least the most loyal among us, optimistically look
forward to yet another rebuilding season in 2004-05 to make up for
2003-04, and afford us to look hopefully to yet another in
2005-06, and another in 2006-07,  and another ... ad infinitum.

While your writing is, as always, rich and interesting to read, I'm still not sure what your point is. (Provided that you actually *are* trying to make a point here). That we will suck forever because of the loathsome Danny Ainge? You've said many times that you were no fan of Toine, or even Obie. So what it is that you're yearning for? What was the alternative? We still could've been stuck with Gaston, Obie, The Way of Toine, and a mediocre team that won 40+ games, had no real chance of going beyond the 2nd round in te EC, and, worst of all, was deathly boring to watch.

Now at least I can expect to see the superhuman athleticism of Ricky Davis, the heady play of Jiri, the development of Banks and Hunter, and hope for a Perkins cameo. The style of play, while not exactly Sacramento-like yet, has improved by leaps and bounds since the unbearable ToineObie days - a direct result of Ainge's trying to field a team of basketball PLAYERS, as opposed to defensive specialists and 3-point shooters. I don't have to watch Toine's boneheaded, selfish play anymore, nor the constipated "playmaking" of Delk and Mike James. If Ainge thinks a player doesn't fit the style that he wants, the player is gone, even if Ainge acquired him in the first place. Whether or not Ainge will ever achieve his goal of building a championship contender that plays an exciting style of basketball, I don't know. But at least he's already made things a lot more interesting and has rekindled hope in many of us. In the end, I don't really care about how Danny is in his dealings with people, or what Ricky does or does not do in the locker room. I care about what the product looks like on the floor, and right now it's a lot more entertaining than it used to be, coach Carroll and liberal doses of Waltuh notwithstanding.
Kestas