Bob Ryan: Genius or jerk

[Jeff White]

*The team's Financial/PR/Marketing Consultants have spoken (along
with owner Steve Pagliuca finally taking a stand).   Their advice:
For every $1 mill in luxury tax our team pays (estimated at $6 mill
this season) they will receive back an expected minimum of $5 mill
in additional ticket sales, playoff revenues, future broadcasting
revenues, and merchandise sales.   Maybe even a cool $8 to
$10 mill.*
**
*That makes perfect sense.  Too bad it took ownership so long to figure that
out.*
**
**
*Jeff**

*


On 8/6/07, Eggcentric at aol.com <Eggcentric at aol.com> wrote:
>
> I love Garnett and look forward to a few exciting seasons for a change.
>
> Prior to the draft, I couldn't understand how so many here were opposed
> to trading Jefferson, plus, plus, plus for Garnett.   But then we traded
> several assets for Ray Allen instead.   And when I expressed
> disappointment
> over that deal,   Ravi asked a solid question ... would I change my mind
> if we then also added Garnett.
>
> My answer was "not necessarily."   For I felt that would mean we had
> sold our souls and clogged our payroll for three "fill the seats/increase
> the revenues" stars all concurrently beginning the slow descent from
> their peaks.   And that would leave us with the weakest bench in maybe
> the history of the NBA with no $$$$ relief in sight.
>
> I'm not surprised that the very people who previously wouldn't trade
> Jefferson for just about any player in the league, are now on board
> with this trade.   I'm not surprised that the very people who previously
> believed in Danny's "vision" of youth and Phoenix-style play are also
> on board with this trade.   Celt fans are always in love with what and
> who we have, not what and who we have lost.   That's what loyal fans
> do... they believe that every transaction their team makes has a
> golden lining... a never-ending flight of future glory days.   And that
> dates back to Gavitt, Carr, Pitino, Wallace, and now of course to
> Ainge.   Remember the high hopes expressed for draft picks Eric
> "First piece-of-the-puzzle" Montross, Jerome "The Greyhound"
> Moiso, Kedrick "Spider Man" Brown, Brandon "Elton Brand" Hunter,
> Joe Forte,   Marcus Banks, Orien Greene, Gerald Green,   and now
> Glenn "l'il Charley Barkley" Davis.
>
> Unlike so many of the other pablum-fed local sportswriters, Bob Ryan
> dared to put his beliefs on the line with:
>
>     "So tell me what's so enticing about this roster?"
>
>     "Did I miss the memo in which David Stern proclaimed that in the
>     2007-08 season the NBA will be a three-on-three competition?"
>
>     "What's left on the Celtics' roster is by far the worst collection
>     of proven talent in the NBA."
>
>     "No team in the league has such a colossal drop-off in talent
>     {after the first three} and NBA desirability."
>
>     "He {Ainge} has basically blow-torched his entire body of work
>     here in Boston. Forget the youth/athleticism/grow-together thing.
>     Forget 2009, 2010, and 2011. Load up now."
>
> Despite all of the above being true, Ryan was called grouchy, a dinosaur,
> a manic-depressive, even stupid by the same fans who have been mostly
> wrong about everything Celtics for 5-10 years.   One of our list regs
> even went so far as to say the expected high-level contributions from
> Brandon Wallace and Big Baby could well mitigate the loss of Jefferson,
> West, etc.   Abject homerism at its best.   But this is a Celts list.
> And that's what loyal fans do ... they homerize.
>
> How dare Ryan rain on our parade with a bit of logic.   Sure he pointed
> out that Celt Nation is way too optimistic over three stars and a bunch
> of guys named Joe, and that we have the weakest bench in the league.
> Why shouldn't he?    I mean, someone had to say it.   In three trades
> (Telfair, Allen, Garnett) we have fallen from arguably the 1st (if you
> include Brandon Roy and Jianlian) to the 30th ranked team in promising
> youth.   After five Danny drafts we are left with Rondo, Perk, and
> injured Tony Allen, second-rounders Powe, Davis, and Pruit,   and the
> undrafted Wallace and Manuel.   Add Scals and House, and that my
> friends, is our bench and our future.   But we do have Garnett and
> Allen, with only a finals series or a long-awaited Championship
> proving they have been worth it.
>
> Bob Ryan certainly hit a nerve.   Was that because fans here
> in the olive grove of cyber academe know that Ryan knows what
> they didn't want to know in this hour of their earthly bliss?   That
> the Allen and Garnett trades have been ALL ABOUT MONEY and
> less about actually winning a Championship.   That we have merely
> temporarily gilded the lily with the troublesome disguises that our
> owners continue to wear.
>
> The team's Financial/PR/Marketing Consultants have spoken (along
> with owner Steve Pagliuca finally taking a stand).   Their advice:
> For every $1 mill in luxury tax our team pays (estimated at $6 mill
> this season) they will receive back an expected minimum of $5 mill
> in additional ticket sales, playoff revenues, future broadcasting
> revenues, and merchandise sales.   Maybe even a cool $8 to
> $10 mill.
>
> You can bet on the NBA as being first and foremost a business.
> It's a lot safer bet than that we will actually win a Championship
> with Garnett, Pierce, Ray Allen and this eclectic bunch of
> complementary scrubs.
>
> Egg
>
> < It's {Ryan's column} the kind of post that most of us write out
> and then delete because it's too overstated.   He could use a little
> "on the other hand" in his approach. >   - Gene
>
> Ah yes, like we are all sooooo subtle in our opinions.
>
>
>
>
>
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