Kris Joseph was born in Montreal Canada. He grew up in the Cote-des-Neiges neighborhood, which is north of downtown Montreal. Unlike fellow Syracuse alum Fab Melo, Kris started playing basketball very early, first playing in second grade. In his early days, he and his older brother Maurice shot at garbage cans because they didn't have a court to play on. Their neighborhood eventually got a court and the two brothers spent hours on the court battling each other.
You could say that basketball is in the Joseph family. His older brother Maurice, with whom he honed his game in those early years, played for Michigan State and Vermont. He is now the Assistant Director of Basketball Operations at George Washington University in Washington, DC. Kris is also second cousin to Cory Joseph who is a reserve guard for the San Antonio Spurs and Devoe Joseph, who was the leading scorer for the Oregon Ducks of the Pacific-12 Conference during the 2011-2012 season. Read more » Leave a comment Link backs Tweet
Per league sources, the Celtics' D-League affiliate in Maine will name Mike Taylor head coach.
— Paul Flannery (@Pflanns) September 15, 2012
This season Red Claws news should be of particular interest to Celtics fans. The Celtics are the sole affiliate of the Red Claws this season and they have also taken over the basketball operations for the team. The Celtics will be running their own system this season so that players they send to the Red Claws will be working in the same system that they would be on the parent team. Young players like Fab Melo, Kris Joseph, Dionte Christmas, or even Jared Sullinger can get experience with the Red Claws and that experience will actually help them to work on the plays and defense that the Celtics run.
The Red Claws new head coach will be Mike Taylor. He has covered German basketball for Eurobasket and is a published basketball writer. He is the son of Dick Taylor, a former NCAA Head Coach, New York Knicks Asst and Asst under Bob Knight at Army. Mike has coached in the Dleague, in Germany, in England and in the USBL. He has also been an NBA TV analyst. Read more » Leave a comment Link backs Tweet
I just found this video with Celtics Coach Doc Rivers sitting down with the now retired legendary reporter Bob Ryan (aka: Grampa Celtic) at the Action for Boston Community Development 2nd Annual Hoop Dreams on September 13, 2012.
A couple of very interesting things here. First, Doc says that KG feels fantastic and that this is the best he has felt in years going into a season. (If I appear a bit giddy over this news, it's because I am.)
Doc discusses how moving KG to center made it so that teams struggled to guard us by putting 2 shooters at the four and five. He also explained that before the season he had stated 2 things that he would love to do. One was that KG was a five and he wanted to play him there but at the beginning of the season he didn't think he had another starting 4 so kept KG there. A second thing that he wanted to do was to find a starting 2 so that he could move Ray to the bench to give the bench a scoring boost.
At midseason, Jack Nolan, one of the Celtics' scouts, came to Doc and reminded him of what he had said before the season about moving KG to the 5 and bringing Ray off the bench. By that time, both Brandon and Avery had emerged and Doc was able to make the moves that he had envisioned before the season and it made the Celtics a better team. He's happy that JT (Jason Terry) wants to come off the bench this season and Courtney Lee will start to begin the season and when Avery comes back, "We'll see." Good stuff!!!
The Celtics may have gotten the steal of the draft when Jared Sullinger dropped to them at #21. Jared Was rated by most major recruiting publications as the #1 player at his position and one of the Top 3 high school players nationally as a senior at Northland High School in 2010. He earned numerous honors in his high school career, including 2010 McDonald's All-American, 2010 High School Naismith Award winner, 2010 Jordan Brand High School All-American and the 2010 Parade Magazine Player of the Year.
As a senior in high school, he averaged 24.5 points, 12.3 rebounds, 3 blocked shots and 2.4 assists per game while shooting 78 percent from the field, 38 percent from beyond the arc and 77 percent at the line. He finished his high school career with 1,910 career points and more than 1,200 rebounds. Read more » Leave a comment Link backs Tweet
Chris Forsberg posted these videos from today's community event. It is so great to have him posting again! One of the best to keep Celtics fans informed on what's going on. You should get all 4 videos one after the other.
Kris Joseph interview.- "We have a reputation to uphold... working hard is just second nature for us."
Dionte Christmas interview. "I can't thank the Celtics enough for this opportunity."
Jeff Green Interview. - "I can play the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. It doesn't matter."
It was so good to see some tweets on the Celtics today. The season is getting closer and it's exciting to see Celtics in town and reporters talking about it. First up was a picture of the parquet floor being shipped out to be refinished for the start of the season. Hopefully they get it back all shiny and new in time for the season.
And the morning started out with Dionte Christmas tweeting this
This video about Rondo's internship at GQ is too funny. My favorite part is how he delivered the mail. I guess delivering a package with a bounce pass isn't the best method. Enjoy! [Discuss on CG Forums!] Leave a comment Link backs Tweet
Fabricio Paulino de Melo, better known as Fab, was selected by the Celtics with the 22nd pick in the draft. His game is very raw and he is definitely going to be a project. He just started playing basketball 3 or 4 years ago, and spent just 2 years at Syracuse honing his skills so he still has much to learn. But, coaches and scouts have been impressed with his willingness and ability to learn.
A native of Brazil, Melo did not start playing competitive basketball until the ninth grade. Melo's lost his dad to a heart attack when he was just a toddler. Melo's mother sent her teenage son away from his hometown in Brazil to live in Florida with a host family and with a dream of playing professional basketball, but little else. Soccer was his first love, and he was very good at it, but at 7 feet tall and with size 18 feet, he had outgrown that sport and was encouraged by his coach to play basketball.
He enrolled in Sagemont High School in Weston Florida in 2008 as a junior. He sat out a year of interscholastic competition because of Florida High School transfer rules for international players and played his senior year. Sagemont finished the year with a 23-8 record and Fab was ranked the top center in the ESPN Top 100 rankings for the class of 2010. Read more » Leave a comment Link backs Tweet
Everyone, not just Celtics fans, have been concerned about Bill Russell since news of his heart procedure came out. Today, NBA.com posted an interview with the Celtics legend where he addresses the procedure and the state of his health, his Mentors' Golf Challenge, Team USA's performance in London, Ray Allen's departure, Jeremy Lin and much more.
NBA.com: Focusing on the offseason, the Celtics made a few moves. Do you think they can emerge out of the East with the additions of Jason Terry and Courtney Lee, despite losing Ray Allen?
Russell: You don't know how they will play together. Getting a better player doesn't necessarily make you a better team. That may sound kind of weird. You may acquire a player with better statistics but may not make you a better team. Red Auerbach and the Celtics, we used to talk about that all the time.
The question you have to ask yourself, 'How does his style fit with what you are going to put him with and will it make you a better team?'
What Miami is doing is similar to a theory that Red used to have. You have a core group and you bring in some veterans so you don't have rookies coming off the bench. Most of the time it worked but sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes, we would bring a veteran in hoping to get one more year out of them but they were psychologically destructive, so we can only use them one year. They were not about winning. They were about their career.
See, a lot of guys give lip service to the concept of winning but they don't mean it.
Source says Rob Kurz has signed with Bostonon a nonguaranteed camp deal.
— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) September 13, 2012
Just saw this tweet and my first thought was, "Who?" So, I had to do a search to find out just who the Celtics have signed. So you don't have to, here's what I found. Kurz is a 6'9" forward out of Notre Dame. He played 4 years at Notre Dame and went undrafted in the 2008 draft. He was invited to the Warriors Summer League in 2008 and then played 40 games for the Warriors that season averaging 3.9 points and 2.0 rebounds in 11 minutes per game.
The following season he played for Fort Wayne Mad Ants in the D-League where he played in 39 games, averaging 18.9 points and 10.9 rebounds in 37 minutes per game. He played in Europe the past 3 seasons with declining stats each season. His points per game went from 13.9 to 6.9 to 6.7 in the three years overseas while his rebounds per game went from 9.1 to 4.9 to 3.9.
He played with the Sacramento Kings Summer League entry this summer and appeared in 3 games, scoring 1.7 points per game and pulling down 6.0 rebounds per game. In their game against the Celtics, he played 15 minutes and didn't score but grabbed 8 rebounds to go with 4 personal fouls and 4 turnovers.
I wouldn't get too excited about training camp invitees. Remember that a very out of shape Michael Sweetney was a camp invitee a couple years back.
Dionte Christmas opened a lot of eyes with his play in Summer League. He was originally scheduled to play with the Celtics in Orlando and then was going to play with the Suns in Vegas. But, things went so well with the Celtics, he stayed with them through both leagues. When E'Twaun Moore was traded in the middle of the Vegas league, Christmas got even more playing time to show what he could do. After Summer League ended, he signed a 2 year partially guaranteed contract with the Celtics.
Christmas attended Samuel Fels High School in Philadelphia and Philadelphia's Lutheran Christian Academy. He averaged 18 points per game on a team that went 35-3. Christmas stayed in Philly for college, attending Temple University. In his freshman year, he was a reserve on a team that went to the NIT. In his sophomore year, he led Temple and the Atlantic 10 in scoring at 20 points per game. He was named second team All-Conference and the league's Most Improved Player.
In his junior year, he again lead the Atlantic 10 in scoring at 19.7 ppg, becoming only the third player in the history of the conference to lead the league in scoring in back to back seasons. In the 2008 Atlantic 10 tournament, Temple won the conference title and an automatic berth to the 2008 NCAA tournament. Christmas was named Most Outstanding Player, scoring 57 points in the three games, including 22 in the final game. Read more » Leave a comment Link backs Tweet
The Celtics have released a photo on instagram of the new plates that will go on the Celtics lockers this season. The season is getting closer and closer. I'm getting more and more excited for it to start. A neat feature of the locker plates is that they feature the names of all the Celtics that wore the numbers before. I love that they put the former players on the nameplates. Every time a player looks into his locker, he gets a sense of history. Of course, all of the numbers that the legends wore have been retired, but there are still plenty of great Celtics who have worn each of these numbers. The new guys have chosen some numbers with lots of history behind them.
For instance, Jason Terry will be wearing #4 this season. This was previously worn by Wyndol Gray (1947), Saul Mariaschin (1948), Tony Lavelli (1950), Sonny Hertzberg (1950-1951), Kenny Rollins (1953), Carl Braun (1962), Clyde Lovellette (1963). Gerry Ward (1965), Jim Paxson (1988-1990), Larry Robinson (1992), Sherman Douglas (1992), Alaa Abdelnaby (1993-1994), David Wesley (1995-1997), Chauncey Billups (1998), Popeye Jones (1999), Tony Battie (2000-2004), Chris Mihm (2004), Ryan Gomes (2006-2007), J.R. Giddens (2009-2010), Nate Robinson (2010-2011), Nenad Krstic (2011), and Marquis Daniels (2012).
Rajon Rondo is back from his trip to Asia on behalf of Red Bull. Since coming back, he's been out and about and very visable. He's been interning at GQ and appearing on BET. The guys at Red Bull caught up to him and got some reactions about his trip through Asia where he met with some Red Bull King of the Rock qualifiers and held skills clinics. Rondo will be hosting the King of the Rock Tournament on Alcatraz on September 22, just ahead of Celtics training camp, which begins on September 29. This year, there will be 64 finalists from 24 countries, 23 U.S. cities and seven U.S. military bases. Here are a few quotes from Rondo about his busy trip.
He talked about how great this summer has been for him.
"I don't know how I'm going to top this summer," he said. "Asia is amazing. The people have embraced me. I had a great time, everywhere I go people are supportive and fans are crazy. They know the game of basketball. The NBA is a global game and games are televised."
He also went to the Philippines to put on clinics although Red Bull didn't have any qualifiers scheduled there.
"I did a camp in Manila, Those guys were pretty advanced, so I taught them a little bit more of my tricks and why I do them."
He discussed his excitement and expectations for this coming season.
"We re-signed Jeff Green, Brandon Bass and Kevin Garnett so it was a great effort by the organization. Jason Terry of course, as well. We don’t want to just go to the playoffs. We expect to win."
He also talked about the food and whether what he ate over there would urge him to adopt new pre-game eating habits.
"The food here was great. A lot of great restaurants. I don’t think my diet will change when I get back to the States though. Sushi was already in my diet, so that won’t change."
Rondo has certainly kept himself busy this off-season. I'm not sure if he was able to find time in his busy schedule to work on his game and his shot in particular. Hopefully he will come back even better than ever. And also, hopefully not too tired to lead the Celtics to Banner 18.
According to a report on ESPN, Bill Russell is healing and feeling better after undergoing a heart procedure in the past month. According to Stuart Layne, Russell's business manager, the Celtic legend is healing and feeling better every day. He is planning to make a trip to Boston in October (and hopefully in June when the Celtics win Banner 18). All of Celtic Nation continue to send thoughts and prayers to Mr Russell and wish him all the best and a speedy recovery.
I don't usually post a lot of videos, and now two in a row. But, a picture is worth a thousand words. So, here is Reebok's video catching up to Jason Terry as he lands in Boston with his family and shows us his new home. Every time I hear Jason talk, I get excited. He's so excited to be a Celtic and when he talks about his intensity for the game mixed with KG's intensity for the game, I get giddy. I can't wait for this season to start!!
Also in the news, Dionte Christmas was tweeting last night. First, he and Jason Terry attended the Red Sox game with the Reebok family and doing a commercial there with them. He tweeted that they crowned Jet king of Boston. This is another one you have to see.
It's also worth noting that he tweeted that he left the game to put in some extra work in the gym with Jason Terry. As I said, I can't wait for this season to start!
Rajon Rondo looked relaxed and in his element as he appeared on BET's 106 and Park. He discussed King of the Rock, his trip to China, and his internship at GQ. When asked if he talked to Jesue, Ray Allen, he asked "who?" and when they repeated it, he said, "Oh that guy." Something tells me that Rondo isn't going to miss Ray all that much this season.
After the Jump find more video of Rondo in a back stage interview.
In recent years, the Atlantic Division has won the nickname of the Titanic Division. The Celtics have had an easy time of it in their own division, winning the last 5 division championships. In recent years, the other 4 teams in the division have been easy pickings for the rest of the league. And, before 2008, even the Celtics were included in the weak teams of the division.
But, things have changed and this season, the Atlantic Division might be one of the toughest instead of the soft division of the past. Let's take a look at each team along with the changes each team has undergone going into this season. Let's start with the Celtics.
The Celtics have had a good off-season and will once again be contenders for the title. They have brought back their core of veteran players other than Ray Allen. But they have also added some youth and athleticism in Jeff Green and Courtney Lee. They have returning from last year's surgery Chris Wilcox. And also have a key addition in Jason Terry. Rookie Jared Sullinger was a lottery talent who slipped to the Celtics at 21 and should help this season. The Celtics will be talented and deep. The key for the Celtics will be health and staying away from injuries. If they can stay healthy, my money is on the Celtics to win their 6th division championship in a row. Read more » Leave a comment Link backs Tweet
Here is the third and final part of this series on the Celtics' retired numbers and the players behind them. I hope you've enjoyed this walk through memory lane and the banners that host the 22 retired numbers of Celtics legends.
Number 24 was retired on March 9, 1969 for Sam Jones. Sam was named, "Mr. Clutch" by his teammates and peers for his consistent and all-around skills. He played 12 seasons in the NBA, all with the Celtics and was on 10 Championship teams. Considered one of the fastest NBA guards with superb court vision and savvy, Jones led the Celtics in scoring three times, averaging a career-high 25.9 points in 1965. Shortly after leaving the NBA, Jones became the athletic director and coach at Federal City College in Washington, D.C. (which later became the University of the District of Columbia). He later coached at his alma mater, North Carolina Central, and then worked as an assistant for the New Orleans Jazz. Perhaps the greatest compliment anyone every paid to Jones was supplied by Red Auerbach at a special ceremony at Boston Garden. "I would like to thank Sam Jones," he said, "for making me a helluva coach." Read more » Leave a comment Link backs Tweet
Peter Vescey posted about attending Russ's 2nd annual Mentoring conference that also included NBA greats John Havlicek, Clyde Drexler, Sam Jones, Rick Barry, George Gervin, Artis Gilmore and Bruce Bowen along with other sports figures. He then posted the above tweet about Russ's health preventing him from attending.
The event benefited The National Mentoring Partnership champions youth mentoring in the United States. Its goal is to help children by providing a public voice, developing and delivering resources to mentoring programs nationwide, and promoting quality for mentoring through standards, research and tools. It works closely with state mentoring partnerships and more than 5,000 mentoring programs and volunteer centers throughout the country, serving more than 3 million children in all 50 states.
This is a great program that Russ has championed very successfully. My thoughts and prayers along with those of the entire Celtic Nation go out for a quick and full recovery for Mr Russell. We want you there to see the Celtics raise Banner 18 this season.
Just as I'm writing about the retired number, Chris Forsberg has a piece on Jason Collins picking a number. It seems that Collins work #35 for his first 7 seasons but as we shall see, that's been retired for Reggie Lewis. He wore #34 since his 7th season but we all know that's not happening. It appears that he has gone way off the grid with #96. Players used to come to the Celtics and spend their whole careers there and so it seemed like the natural thing to retire their numbers after all their years with the team. That doesn't happen too much these days, but I expect Paul Pierce's #34 will one day hang from the rafters along with all of the Celtic greats of the past. Here is part 2 of our look at the players whose numbers have been retired in Boston.
Number 16 was retired in January of 1973 for Tom "Satch" Sanders. Satch grew up in Harlem and played basketball for Seward Park High School and New York University before going on to play in the NBA. He played all of his 13 years with the Celtics and was part of eight championship teams from 1961 through 1969. He retired in 1973 and went on to coach the Celtics for a brief time in 1978 and 1979. Today, 'Satch' is the NBA's Vice-President and Director of Player Programs. Based in New York City, his birthplace, 'Satch' designs programs to help both veteran and rookie players take advantage of their unique status as professional athletes and to assist them in coping with the special pressures they face. Player Programs is responsible for facilitating the following: post-career counseling; educational and employment opportunities; the NBA/PA (Players Association) Anti-Drug and Alcohol Programs; advice on dealing with celebrity status and media attention and a nonprofit foundation that benefits former players. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2011. Read more » Leave a comment Link backs Tweet
As I have been anxiously awaiting the upcoming season, I've also been thinking back on how things have changed since that day in July 2007 when the trade for KG was announced. That move, along with the trade for Ray Allen and the signings of solid vets for the bench brought the Celtics their first championship in 22 years. We are now once again contenders and life is good for Celtics fans. But, as the saying goes, you can't really appreciate the sunshine until after the rain. I have been thinking back through those 22 years and it makes me appreciate where we are so much more.
The Celtics are a proud and storied franchise with a history that reaches back to the early days of the NBA. There have been many players who have come through the franchise, some good and some bad. We remember the glory days of the 60's, 70's and 80's when the Celtics were perennial contenders and never went more than a couple of years without a contending team. Then came the 1986 championship and the Celtics were on top of the world with a team that will go down as one of the best ever and they had the second pick in the draft to boot. But the 22 years following that championship were marked with tragedies and setbacks and years of mediocrity. Read more » Leave a comment Link backs Tweet
The biggest quandary that players have when coming to Boston is trying to find a number that hasn't been retired. When Danny was trying to get Karl Malone to come to Boston, one issue was that his number was retired there. And most of the players coming in have to pick a different number than they had been wearing for the same reason. The Celtics have more retired numbers than any other team in the NBA. I thought it would be a good time to revisit a series of posts I did back in 2005 that took a look at the retired numbers and the people that they have been retired for.
Number 1 was retired on October 17, 1964 for the Celtics founder and the first owner of the franchise, Walter Brown. After succeeding his father as manager of the Boston Garden, he helped to found the Basketball Association of America in 1946, and was instrumental in merging the BAA and the National Basketball League into the National Basketball Association in 1949. He founded the Celtics in 1945, and helped to transform the team into a dynasty, as the Celtics won six championships in the seven years prior to his death in 1964. He also was instrumental in the creation of the first NBA All-Star Game in 1951, which was played in the Boston Garden.
Number 2 was retired on January 4, 1985 in honor of Arnold "Red" Auerbach. Red is the face and the heart of the Celtics. The number 2 was retired for him to signify the fact that Red is second only to Walter Brown as the most significant person in the history of the Boston Celtics.... He was the Head Coach of the team from 1950 through 1966, during which he won nine Championships that included eight straight from 1958 through 1966...After his coaching career, he went on to serve as President and General Manager, leading the Celtics to an additional seven NBA championships. Red could always be seen in the stands lighting his trademark cigar at the end of every Celtics victory until his death in 2006.
