Say Hi to Milt when you see him. : )

Enjoy your time off

Greg Stiemsma is a better player than Kendrick Perkins this season. You may want to qualify that. Gran Torino does things that don't show up in stat books, like keep bynum out of the box and scoring easy points. The intimidation factor is underestimated too. Stiemsma is OK in general, a good shot blocker, and a decent rebounder. Whether he is a better player than KP is dubious.

Shorty never gets any credit

mountain man

Does it get any better than Jackie Mac? I think not. Bob Ryan on occasion, perhaps.

atta boy, chief

Rondo is one of the best players in the league, when he takes a mind to it, which is more often than not. Starting with that premise, you don't want anything coming back except an elite player. That ain't happening.

I will concede some ground, minimal as it may be. Old Paul Pierce is a much better score than Old Larry Bird. Paul Pierce's body has held up well. Larry Bird's? Not so much. But if we compare the two in their primes. Larry could have dropped 50 on any given night without anyone really noticing. Paul Pierce really needed to have it going to have a chance at 50, and, once he did, still would have charged and turned the ball over at a high rate on his way to scoring 50 more than once a year. Again, for anyone who saw them both play, there is no debate.

It's about like disputing that Magic Johnson was a better closer than Rajon Rondo.

This point isn't even remotely disputable.

any word on rondo for pau?

Hell of a team we got

I would submit that for contenders, KG and Ray Allen also have high value. Sure, their salaries come off next summer. But are we really gonna land a game-changing free agent?

No one expects you to score more than 5 points per game. ++ Well, this is kind of complicated. Not expecting JO to score more than 5 points per game is a bit ridiculous. He is a better offensive player than perk, and that is about what perk scored. So all things equal, I would expect JO to score 7-12 in 18-28 MPG. Problem is any games he plays is a surprise, and having any expectations at all is almost as ridiculous as having no expectations re scoring. it is a catch 22.

Privately, I'm betting Doc just can't wait for this season to be over. ++ I'm thinking the season is pretty close to over now

was my 28 win prediction optimistic?

100% of what? We don't really know what 100% of paul pierce gives us anymore at his age.

This will probably surprise, but I learned to respect the pistons,especially after they stopped the Ls from threepeating. In any event,my main point was that the racist comments were actually initiated by DR, not Zeke

and finally Said Bird: "A player of Isiah's stature should have known better because . . . everybody pays attention to a superstar's quotes . . . Rodman can blow off steam and nobody will notice." Bird said he knew Thomas was in trouble when he called twice. "I told him not to worry about it," Bird said. "I said one thing you'd better do . . . you'd better call Mom." Bird's mom is a big fan of Indiana University, Thomas' former school. Said Bird: "She always loved Isiah and thought he was the neatest little guard."

Bird, famously, was double-teamed by Dennis Rodman and Isiah Thomas in the spring of 1987, fewer than two months after Campanis handed his career over to Ted Koppel. "He can't run with me, and he's slow," Rodman said. "Go ahead and tell Larry I said that. I don't think Magic gets the credit he deserves because Bird is white." Added Zeke: "I'd have to agree with Dennis. If he was black, he'd be just another good guy."

MAY 30, 1987: Basketball player Dennis Rodman says of Larry Bird: "I don't see him as the greatest player in the game. I think it's because he's white. I think if he was black, they wouldn't say he was the greatest player."

so really, it was all connected

True . . . but Curiously, later in Bird’s career, after he led the Boston Celtics over the Detroit Pistons in the 1987 Eastern Conference finals, former Pistons forward Dennis Rodman said the only reason Bird had won three straight NBA Most Valuable Player awards “is because he’s white. That’s the only reason.” When told of Rodman’s comments, former Detroit guard Isiah Thomas agreed, saying, “If Bird was black, he’d be just another good guy.”

speaking of dennis rodman and race, i believe the worm once said larry bird would have been "just another player" had he been black.