2020 was a weird year to say the least. Remember when we literally had no sports to watch except for Korean baseball at 5 AM? Thankfully the sports leagues figured it out as some simply removed fans and resumed play as normal like the PGA Tour whereas others created full on bubbles like the NBA and NHL. We also had some tasty pop culture blogs sprinkled in throughout the quarantine so buckle up you’re in for a treat. Without further ado, I present The 300s Top 10 Blogs of 2020.
Jayson Tatum has already blessed Payton Pritchard with the honor of an official nickname and we’re only four games into the season. Is 8 Mile the most original nickname for a white boy playing ball? No, not really. But Pritchard does have the dark high fade buzz cut so he actually looks pretty similar to B-Rabbit.
Finkle is Einhorn, Einhorn is Finkle!
Plus if the nickname sticks then it’s definitely a future t-shirt we’ll cook up in the lab. More than anything though it gives me an excuse to post the 8 Mile rap battles every time Pritchard has a big game. Again it’s only been 4 games, but it’s looking like Danny may have hit on something here with the rookie PG out of Oregon (8.3 PPG in 22 MPG) so you may be seeing a lot of 8 Mile rap battle videos this season. 3-1-3!
Is Kyrie gonna read some horoscopes and tarot cards like your earthy crunchy ex-girlfriend after the game too?
I understand this probably comes off as sour grapes to anyone that hasn’t had to listen to Kyrie’s bizarre press conferences and media appearances on a daily basis (buckle up Nets fans), but I swear the Celtics dodged a bullet when this guy decided to skip town. I’m not a very religious or spiritual person so I’m not here to dump on anyone’s beliefs, but seriously what in the hell is Kyrie doing here? He is legit every girl I went to school with that uses crystals and what position the moon is in to guide their life decisions.
If there’s one thing I give credit for it’s for just not giving a shit how out to lunch you appear to be to just about everyone because this little act came just hours after Charles Barkley roasted Kyrie for his media act.
"Stop acting like you’re the smartest person in the world.”
Charles Barkley had some thoughts on Kyrie Irving's recent comments about the media.
As others on the internet have already pointed out, Barkley came dangerously close to “shut up and dribble” here, but that’s not what he’s saying. Speak your mind, say what you feel, but stop acting like the kid that talks down to everyone because he took Philosophy 101. Agree with Chuck or not, “you only went to college for six months” is a laugh out loud funny line.
The Nets better win 65 games this year and get off to a fast start because I’ve seen the media begin to circle when things are going poorly and Kyrie does not handle it well. Nothing like moving to the biggest media market in the world to help with that.
Jayson Tatum was recently named the No. 11 player in the NBA according to ESPN (so it’s a good thing we have a fire flames JT t-shirt you can buy) with three of his teammates also landing in the Top 50. Jaylen Brown was ranked No. 32, Marcus Smart No. 37, and Kemba Walker No. 48 to round out the list.
I would expect Kemba to be ranked higher, buttt he did deal with a knee injury before returning to the bubble last season and looking less than 100% and now he’s out until at least January so I’m sure that knocked him down this list a bit.
Jayson Tatum was ranked No. 35 by ESPN before the start of last season so it’s a substantial leap for the young forward prior to his fourth NBA season. It’s not like Danny offering the deal was ever in question, but all this talk of Tatum knocking on the door of becoming a Top 10 player in the NBA makes his recent 5-year $195 million max extension look even better.
Tatum also came in at No. 2 on Complex’s Top 24 Players 24 and Under list (Jaylen Brown was No. 12) behind only Luka Doncic. Here’s what Complex had to say about Tatum, which has me looking like the Three Eyed Raven (or an overly optimistic Celtics fan).
“We all thought Tatum would be pretty good coming out of Duke when the Celtics made him the third pick in the 2017 NBA Draft because Danny Ainge usually knows what he’s doing up in Boston. But if you saw Tatum elevating his game to All-NBA status in three short seasons you need to play the lottery because Tatum really burst onto the scene last season. “
I don’t think it was a stretch to assume the No. 3 overall pick was going to become a very good player, but not many people expected such a meteoric rise for Jayson Tatum. I know they lost the series and there’s no moral victories in sports, but Jayson Tatum ended his rookie season by dunking over LeBron James in the Eastern Conference Finals.
If that didn’t tip people off to greatness bubbling under the surface then you just weren’t paying attention.
Depending on where you fall on the blind optimism meter, Danny Ainge is either a so-so GM whose won just one title in nearly 20 years on the job and is a terrible drafter OR he’s a master chess player that turned a bunch of scrubs and Al Jefferson into Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and a Larry O’Brien Trophy and THEN turned those guys in their late 30s into Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart (and Kyrie Irving). I fall somewhere in the middle because Danny obviously orchestrated the Brooklyn trade and has nailed his picks when the Celtics get that high up in the draft. BUT he has also had some horrific misses like trading up to draft Kelly Olynyk over Giannis Antetokounmpo as well as some really bad draft picks like Guerschon Yabusele, RJ Hunter, James Young, Fab Melo etc.
As we all know Danny has borderline fetishized acquiring assets and stockpiling draft picks, so much so that he often hurt his own leverage because teams knew he couldn’t actually use all the picks he had. Thats how you build the best G-League team in the entire NBA! But seriously, this led to years like 2016 when Danny drafted 6 players + two more guys that he traded away. So my point is, over the years I have seen A LOT of Danny’s crappy draft picks playing meaningful minutes for the Celtics and none of them ever had the potential that Jayson Tatum had on Day 1. Again, obviously he was the No. 3 overall pick so he should have great potential, but even Jaylen Brown was a No. 3 overall pick and for the first few years of his career he was looked at as a jack of all trades, athletic, defensive specialist type player. Marcus Smart was the No. 6 overall pick and is the heart and soul of the team, but I still cringe when he pulls up for a 3 in a big spot. Tatum though, from Day 1 you could see they had something special, and he’s only gotten better ever year.
He’s improved in just about every statistical area significantly including Points, Rebounds, Assists, Steals, and Blocks per game. Even the nerds love him as Tatum’s advanced analytics have improved substantially from Year 1 to Year 3 including his PER (Player Efficiency Rating) and his VORP (Value Over Replacement Player). Thats the full package, folks.
Tatum is now signed through 2026, which means the Celtics are married to him and are quite frankly dependent on him turning into a Top 5 player if they have any hope of winning their first title since 2008. Top tier free agents never have and never will make Boston a destination so the Celtics are all in on Jayson Tatum being that piece. The way things are looking now, so far so good.
Yahoo – The former Seattle SuperSonics big man found out the hard way just how ruthless of a trash-talker Bird was when he faced him as a rookie in 1989. During a recent appearance on the Knuckleheads podcast with Quentin Richardson & Darius Miles, Kemp recalled a meeting with Bird that has stuck with him to this day.
“We were playing the Boston Celtics, so the great Larry Bird. I’m from Indiana and Larry’s from Indiana,” Kemp said. “I knew about the history of Larry but I didn’t realize how he really got down. …
“Larry gave me 50 [points] in three quarters. And he talked to me the whole entire game. He asked me at the jump ball, ‘You’re the one that broke all my records in high school right?’ and I said ‘Yeah, that’s me.’ and he said ‘I’ve got something for you tonight.'”
In honor of today being Larry Bird’s 64th birthday, it’s a great time to remind everyone how Larry Legend wasn’t just a basketball icon, he was also a shit talking savant.
Michael Jordan gets tons of credit for being a master trash talker and somehow figuring out a way to make everything a slight against him,
But people don’t realize how ruthless Larry Bird was because he looks like an unassuming white dude putting up mid range jumpers at the Y.
Here comes this rookie in Shawn Kemp and Bird already knows his whole life story and takes it personal that Kemp broke his high school scoring records. Mind you, this is after Bird had already won three championships and three MVP awards in the NBA. Just an all-time shit talker from his “Who’s coming in second?” line at the 3 point contest, to playing a game left handed, to his “Merry fucking Christmas” line during a Christmas Day game, to telling Reggie Miller “I am the best fucking shooter in the league.”
Check out a collection of the best stories here, put some Larry Bird YouTube highlights on loop, and then weep that we were too young to watch him play. We did get another Hall of Fame shit talker in Kevin Garnett though and for that I am grateful.
It was announced this week that Kemba Walker will be out until at least early January with a knee injury that continues to bother him and it got me thinking, why are all of the Celtics point guards almost always suffering from a debilitating injury? Is there some sort of curse on this team? Is this the curse of trading Rajon Rondo? The Celtics traded their, at the time, best player and 4x All-Star in Rondo on Dec. 18th, 2014 and the team has been like the Red Sox trying to replace Nomar at shortstop ever since. Pokey Reese, Orlando Cabrera, Edgar Renteria, Julio Lugo, Alex Gonzalez etc. etc. Ever since trading Rondo it seems like Celtics have seemingly always had a point guard dealing with career altering injuries.
Kemba met with the media today and detailed how his knee is still bothering him and how he got a stem cell injection to hopefully help, but he still doesn’t really know what the issue is. Cool. Kemba played his fewest minutes per game since his rookie year last season and started just 56 games in his first season with the C’s, which obviously was a disjointed mess due to the pandemic. Even Danny Ainge admits the team probably brought Kemba back from injury too soon as he played on a gimpy knee throughout the entire bubble it seemed.
Before that is what Kyrie Irving who missed 20+ games in 2017-18 plus the entire postseason with a knee injury of his own. Kyrie then missed 15 games the following season as he nursed the injury on his way out of town. I guess that shouldn’t have come as a surprise as Kyrie missed 10 or more games in five different seasons prior to his time in Boston, not to mention playing just 11 games at Duke before an injury ended his brief college career.
Before that it was Isaiah Thomas who had a debilitating hip injury in the 2017 playoffs. Granted it was in the playoffs and the Celtics traded him that offseason, but his absence killed a surging Celtics team that was making a run. Before that Isaiah was absolute nails as he finished 5th in MVP voting, playing in 76 regular season games (28.9 Points per game) that season, and 82 games (22.2 PPG) in 2015-16.
The Celtics did also draft Marcus Smart before the 2015 season at No. 6 overall, but opted to use him more as an off ball player/backup PG. Maybe Danny was protecting Smarf from the curse??
Looking back at the timeline of all this, the Celtics actually acquired Isaiah just two months after trading away Rondo so now I’m torn. Is this the curse of Rondo or Isaiah? Since the C’s traded Rondo he has yet to make another All-Star team and has only averaged double digit points once, but he did just win a ring with LeBron and the Lakers. Isaiah however has continued the #SlowGrind as he works his way back from said hip injury, but a lot of the league still thinks Danny did Isaiah dirty.
So name it after whoever you want, but one thing is clear, the Celtics are cursed at the point guard position.
Christmas Day NBA is my favorite sports day of the year hands down. You get five marquee basketball games to watch from your morning mimosa coffee all the way to your post-Xmas dinner blackout when all the IPAs you’ve been guzzling catch up to you late night. Obviously 2020 is a little bit different as I had Thanksgiving dinner at my house with just my wife and my dog like I live in Siberia, but Christmas Day NBA is a tradition that needs to continue. Not to mention we get gifted with the excellent Christmas present sneakers (we used to get Christmas Day jerseys before the Nike overlords stole that joy from us).
The Celtics are no stranger to Christmas Day games as they were featured for five straight seasons during the Pierce, KG, Ray Allen era when they were routinely one of the best teams in the league. They got relegated to spectators during much of the post-Big 3 rebuilding era and didn’t play again on Christmas until 2016, but the Celtics actually hosted their first Christmas Day game *ever* in 2017.
Now we turn to the actual matchup, which is so choice. Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Marcus Smart and co. vs the rebuilt on the fly sudden powerhouse New Jersey Brooklyn Nets led by Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant. Now Kyrie would like everyone to think he doesn’t care about any perceived “rivalry” with his former team in Boston, but he does seem to dodge the Celtics every time the Nets play them. This would be Kyrie’s first game back in Boston since leaving the C’s in free agency if he does indeed suit up. With his buddy KD back in action though I would expect Kyrie to want to show off his shiny new toy.
And for that reason…
This will be the biggest rivalry shit talking season between myself and James in a decade when the Patriots made a habit of breaking my heart and losing to the Giants. Well after YEARS of us roasting all Nets fans for the trade that shall not be named…
…Brooklyn is looking for some long awaited revenge. How this Nets team is actually going to mesh though remains to be seen. With notable pill Kyrie, otherworldly talented yet hyper sensitive KD, and a brand new first year coach in Steve Nash, the Nets are either going to come out of the gates on fire like the ’07-’08 Celtics and win 66 games orrr they’ll be a complete dumpster fire.
So even though Kemba Walker will miss this game with his everlasting gobstopper of a knee injury, I need Tatum to drop 40 on the Nets on Christmas Day. Don’t want it, need it.
Whether you’re looking for a new C’s shirt now that Tatum has signed a long term extension, some Pats gear, Bear Force One swag, or just shirts that generally mock the Red Sox, we’ve got you covered. We also have plenty of The 300s merch too if you want to rep the brand around town. So grab your shirts, stickers, hoodies and more today and save 20% with code DEALS2020. Shop now!
With Tom Brady retiring down to Florida there’s been a huge void created to be named the new First Couple of Boston. Most of the top athletes in Boston now are either single or understandably private about who they’re dating. Julian Edelman lives in town year round, but he’s yet to take the plunge. Jayson Tatum is only 22 and while his son Deuce is already a bigger celebrity than most players in Boston, Taco Jay remains a bachelor as far as I know. Hockey players in general are pretty private guys so you don’t hear a whole lot about the WAGS in that sport. Although the Real Housewives of the North End is a show I would watch every single week. And with the Red Sox in a constant state of flux there hasn’t really been anyone established enough to take the mantle with their Queen by their side.
Enter Aaron Nesmith and his Vanderbilt track star girlfriend Jordan Smith and we have without a doubt the most athletic couple in Boston, if not contenders for First Couple status. It’s a lofty title, but it’s something a 1st round draft pick has on their career Bucket List right alongside Larry O’Brien trophies and All-NBA selections. Probably.
I think the Celtics/Nike got spooked by the reaction to last year’s Irish Pub City Edition jerseys (that Enes Kanter leaked) because people were massively split on those. They were fine (aside from the blue/green debate), but I think a lot of people saw them as pandering to the Irish fans in New England. I mean the team is called the Celtics so I get it, but still.
Now lets take a closer look at the just unveiled 2020-21 City Edition jerseys.
These new jerseys are an explicit homage to the 17 banners hanging from the rafters, which is a pretty cool idea when you think about it. But, when I see it on a jersey I don’t know, it doesn’t really translate for me. I think this is something that is better in theory than in actual practice. I give the team credit for mixing it up and being creative without just rehashing a slightly different throwback or doing a vomit inducing jersey with different colors. This jersey is clean and simple, but the block letters and stacked Boston Celtics on the front do sort of make it look like a knockoff.
You won’t see it during most games when the jerseys are tucked in, but there is an excellent subtle feature to these tops though; a quote from Red Auerbach in the bottom corner.
“The Boston Celtics are not a basketball team, they’re a way of life.”
A+ attention to detail here.
It was definitely a smart bet to play it safe this year as the Celtics have had some truly ghastly alternate jerseys over the years:
Full disclosure, I dig and own a pair of the grey shorts
One of my favorite jerseys to this day was the old Christmas Day uni that Nike canned when they took over in 2017 in favor of City Edition jerseys they can pump out every single year. The cursive lettering with the snowflake on the back collar was perfectly simple. Good luck finding one of those gems these days.
Maybe I’ll feel different when I see Jaylen Brown slam down a dunk wearing this, but until then I am an enthusiastic “meh” on these unis.
The 300s 