CELTICS GREEN BLOG by and for boston celtics fans: Fiddlin' and Diddlin' on 7/22

Once again, there is a lot of talk about the ref betting scandal. Jackie MacMullin weighs in on it in the Globe. The NY Daily News insinuates that there may be other refs and players involved and that Donaghy may blow the whistle on them. Celtics 17 discusses the tainted ref controversy. Hoopshype talks about the NBA having to pick up the pieces. The NY Times also discusses the controversy and mentions Doc's run in with Donaghy in 2005.

Now that is out of the way, there is some Celtics news today. The Herald reports that Doc is trying to temper expectations for Big Al.

“I walk around Boston right now, and if I didn’t know any better, I would have thought Al had been on the All-Star team the last five years,” Rivers said. “He’s got a chance to be a great All-Star player, but he ain’t yet. He’s still got a lot of room to improve. That’s where coaches are more realistic than the public sometimes.”

And Danny is just slightly more positive.

“He hasn’t done things at the All-Star level yet and proven that he can do all those things and help us win consistently. But there’s also never been a player at age 22 who has done what he’s done and hasn’t gotten better. Al has room to grow like every 22-year-old. Al will have room to grow until he’s 28. But he’s definitely trending to be a very good NBA player.”

Are they trying to soften up the Boston fans for a trade? Also in this article, Bill Walton discusses his ideas why players don't want to come to Boston:

“Right now the places people want to go are Phoenix, San Antonio and Miami, and that’s Steve Nash, Tim Duncan and Shaquille O’Neal and the chance to win. The challenge for the Celtics is to get a player that everyone wants to play with like those guys. The history of the Celtics has always been that they get these core guys - a Bill Russell, a Larry Bird - and they continually build around them. Right now the Celtics are in a prolonged drought, like the western United States. But with the Celtics it’s a drought of trying to acquire that core superstar that everyone wants to play with.”

Obviously his opinion of Paul Pierce isn't very high. I was under the impression that the Celtics were building around Pierce as their star. Very interesting. Also in the Herald, Ryan Gomes explains his comments from the end of last season that caused some controversy. The Globe has a couple of token mentions of the Celtics in Peter May's column including some thoughts from Gomes and notes on Brandon Wallace's contract.

Scott Souza has always done a good job of keeping us informed over the offseason and today he has a good interview with Sean Grande. Sean doesn't feel that we are through trading but is optimistic about the Celtics for next season. The American Chronicle has an article that puts the Celtics in the playoffs this season, but only because the Atlantic division and Eastern conference are so bad.

Other things of interest are Sasha's Celtics Dancers' blog, The Clippers targeting Brevin Knight, The Bucks ongoing saga with Yi, Seattle not done dealing yet, and Kidd ready to improve on undefeated record on Team USA.

Finally, Celtics Stuff Live will have Mike Gorman on their show tonight from 8-10. Don't miss it as Gorman always has a lot of good stuff to share with us. 72 days till training camp starts.
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