Tag: Boston

Godspeed, Koji Uehara

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So unbeknownst to probably anyone Koji was still an active player until yesterday. He is 44 and didn’t come to the bigs until he was 34 after a 10 year career in Japan.

He is most known for his 2013 run with the Sox when he was the polar opposite of Craig Kimbrel and others we’ve had tasked with recording our final three outs. He was unflappable, reliable, and most of all, giddy as all hell as he posted a 1.61 era as our closer that year.

So happy trails, o ye of the many high 5s. Thanks, in no small part, for the ring.

Could Kendrick Perkins Return to the Celtics as a Coach?

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I first heard this rumor the other morning on 98.5 and I believe CelticsLife was the originator of this theory. With the disaster that was this past Celtics season they are obviously in need of some changes, both on and off the court. What was the one thing the Celtics lacked this year, aside from wins? Grit and Balls. This could all be #fakenews but hear me out for a second.

Would the Celtics consider bringing back Kendrick Perkins as an assistant coach?

Perkins has been extremely critical of the Celtics and their issues, yet all while sounding eerily like an assistant coach on the bench.

Perk has also been making the rounds on TV and radio more recently as he breaks down what he sees as the biggest problems on this Boston team. Hint hint: not a fan of Kyrie playing hero ball.

This sounds like a guy who wants to be on a bench somewhere imparting wisdom to younger players. I mean just look at this article from nearly two years ago about how Perk is “destined” to be a coach.

It makes a ton of sense. There was really no one to tell Kyrie Irving to stop acting like a dickhead because he was surrounded by Horford (quiet, lead by example type), Hayward ($30M bench player), a bunch of young guys, and mild mannered Brad Stevens. On one hand I think its a total crock of shit to say you *need* a coach who has played in the NBA to be successful, but on the other hand perception is reality. If players don’t respect the coach then it doesn’t matter how good of a coach he is. So while Brad may be the best X’s and O’s coach in the league, if Kyrie is tuning him out it doesn’t matter. Well, what if Kendrick Perkins is there to provide that street cred? A guy who played FOURTEEN seasons in the league and is a scary sonofabitch to boot. You think Kyrie, or Tatum, or anyone is going to ignore this guy??

Not to mention, there is suddenly an opening on Brad Stevens’ coaching staff.

Lending more credibility to the rumor is the fact that Perk recently pulled out of the BIG3 League, just a couple of weeks after rosters were officially announced, which I blogged about extensively.

Hmmm. The connection to the C’s is still there with Perk; enough that he actually reached out to Danny Ainge last season about returning as a player for the stretch run, before ultimately retiring. Here’s what I wrote back in November:

I LOVE Perk, but we all saw him last year with Cleveland in a suit. The guy would make a phenomenal coach or more likely a corrections officer, but we all understand his playing days are over…If Kendrick Perkins was born 20 years earlier he might be in the Hall of Fame today. I’m not joking. The guy was straight out of the 1980’s NBA. Bill Laimbeer would have been throwing hands with Perk twice a season. He was just an absolute force in the paint; a real old school bully. And that was exactly what the Celtics needed in 2007. A bodyguard for Rondo, a No. 2 to KG’s crazy, a guy willing to do the dirty work while the Big 3 handled all the scoring. He was the perfect fit for that team and both teammates and fans alike adored him.

So while there has been absolutely zero indication from the Celtics, Danny, Wyc, or even Perk himself about this move actually happening, it’s one that I would be completely on board with. The Celtics have lacked a scary strong veteran voice of leadership in the locker room for a long time and I think Perk could bring some Grit and Balls back to this team.

NBA Conference Finals Preview and Betting Lines

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Here we go guys, this is where the fun really starts. Two of these teams are just four W’s away from the NBA Finals and thank god we won’t be subjected to Golden State vs Cleveland V. No mas. Just look at Rocky as the best example of this. Rocky 1-4 were all awesome and exciting flicks with Rocky 5 being one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. So I’m psyched for some fresh blood this year. But I digress, lets take a look at the Conference Finals matchups.

Golden State Warriors (1) vs Portland Trail Blazers (3)
(Game 1 – Tuesday at 9 pm)

In what ultimately made little difference for the Rockets, Kevin Durant will be out yet again for Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals on Tuesday night. Durant is one of the top 3 players in the entire league, but lets not forget just how stacked this Warriors team still is with Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green. Thats a 2x MVP, a 5x All-Star, and a 3x All-Star/Defensive Player of the Year. Soo yea the Warriors are still in good shape.

It doesn’t sound like Durant is particularly close to returning either though and if he misses multiple games in this series then it starts to become a legitimate threat to the Warriors’ NBA Finals streak.

Unless you’re watching a ton of NBA games, I don’t think many casual fans realized just how good the Portland Trail Blazers are. Everyone knows how good Damian Lillard is 25.8/4.6/6.9 with a ridiculous 28.4 in the playoffs, but his shot just was not falling in Game 7 (13 pts).

Enter CJ McCollum, who is a bad, bad man. After averaging “just” 21 points per game in the regular season, McCollum has jacked that up to 25.6 in the playoffs, including 37 points in a ridiculous Game 7 performance against Denver.

Don’t forget about the brother on brother battle we’ll see with Steph Curry vs Seth Curry. Okay so maybe its not that big of a matchup with Seth only averaging 7.9 ppg to Steph’s 27.3 in the regular season but hey it’s still pretty cool to see two brothers playing against each other in the Western Conference Finals. Man, genetics are a trip.

While I can’t pick against the defending champs until I see them stumble, I really really like this Portland team. I just don’t know if they’ll be able to defend all of the Warriors elite shooters. If Durant misses a couple of games and Lillard and McCollum can keep scoring in the 25-30 points range each night, then I think they’ve got a real shot to dethrone the Warriors.

 

Milwaukee Bucks (1) vs Toronto Raptors (2)
(Game 1 – Wednesday at 8:30 pm)

The Kings in the North now turn their gaze towards conquering the East, which won’t be easy if you saw Giannis Antetokounmpo dropping 30 and 40 point games on the Celtics in the second round. There’s a reason the Bucks were the No. 1 seed in the East and why Giannis was my pick for MVP.

Kawhi Leonard is what Kyrie Irving wants to be when he grows up. Kawhi has singlehandedly willed this Toronto team from an annual playoff disappointment into one on the brink of the NBA Finals. He also produced the biggest shot in Raptors history with the immediately iconic Game 7 buzzer beater three over Joel Embiid.

After being acquired by the Raptors in a risky one year rental he’s proving exactly why it was worth the risk for Toronto. He’s averaging 31.8 points per game in the playoffs, up from 26.6 in the regular season, while also leading the team in rebounds per game at 8.5. This guy is getting it done all over the court.

He literally made Joel Embiid cry for christs sake. And I love Embiid so thats not a knock, but do you know how badly you have to rip a guy’s heart out to make him cry on the court?

Giannis showed just how borderline unstoppable he can be though after personally breaking the Celtics’ will to live. Now do I think the Celtics played garbage defense and failed to adjust to Giannis (and his goddamn spin move)? Yes. Does that mean I think any less of Giannis’ dominance? Hell no.

The Bucks destroyed the Celtics in games 2-5 in a gentleman’s sweep, but had huge performances from guys that aren’t exactly household names like George Hill, Pat Connaughton (did you know he’s from Massachusetts?!), and Ersan Ilyasova. Thats not exactly a second unit I would bet my mortgage on, but the Bucks moved like a well oiled machine with everyone playing a specific role, so what do I know? They were the No. 1 seed after all.

We’ll also get more of Mallory Edens on national TV too and thats never a bad thing.

Ultimately, the 2019 Finals could very well be the long-predicted battle between the Warriors and Bucks, who are -550 and -300 favorites to oust the Trail Blazers (+375) and Raptors (+250), respectively. Any bettors out there looking for a great mobile betting experience prior to betting should check out this site. In terms of valued odds, you could definitely do a lot worse than Portland at +275 to win Game 1 vs Golden State. The Blazers have been road warriors in the playoffs and won’t be at a size disadvantage with Kevin Durant out. Golden State is susceptible when opponents beat them on the offensive glass, and Portland is the third-best offensive rebounding team in the league (regular season and playoffs).

While I’m bummed the Celtics bowed out like absolute dogs, we’ve got some awesome storylines to keep an eye on in the Conference Finals regardless. Who ya got? Tweet me @The300sBoston and let me hear it.

Are the Celtics a Disaster? Look at Some of These Quotes and You Tell Me

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After getting blown out in an elimination game and just rolling over I was too pissed off to go to sleep so I watched about an hour of postgame interviews. Granted it was just minutes after their season ended, but there was a lot of stuff bubbling to the surface. And as Felger said on 98.5 yesterday, I cannot wait for the inevitable Jackie MacMullan tell all story that will give us all the juicy details of what went on behind the scenes this year.

Brad Stevens

Brad took a lot of the blame for the way this season went, and rightfully so because at the end of the day the coach’s job is to manage the players. Whether Brad is up for that task remains to be seen, but he seemed to empathize with his young lottery picks having to adapt to a lot.

Jaylen Brown

Jaylen is routinely the most outspoken, or at least up front, Celtics player and he was no different after last night’s game all but calling out Kyrie. While thats not great for building a relationship I don’t blame him at all; Kyrie openly dumped on the young guys all year long so Jaylen would often snipe back through the media.

Terry Rozier

Scary Terry had quite the fall from where he was a year ago going from playoff hero to bench mob. While I don’t know if Rozier is truly the franchise point guard he probably believes he is, it’s hard to blame him for being bitter. Doesn’t sound too optimistic about his future in green though.

Marcus Smart

Smart on the other hand came out and strongly defended Kyrie Irving so its not like everyone was ripping Uncle Drew.

He also seems like he wants to play the role of peacekeeper, which is what a LEADER does. Might be too little too late though in terms of Kyrie.

 

Kyrie Irving

Oh he’s already on vacation so we may never see him in green again.

The Celtics and Kyrie Got EMBARRASSED. My Advice? Do Not Trade Jayson Tatum (i.e. 2014 Klay Thompson)

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The Celtics are at a crossroads after that disastrous end to a confounding season. Going into the year, just about everyone had the C’s pegged to win 60+ games and take Golden State to 6 games if not outright win the title. It all made sense too. Boston went to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals last year without Gordon Hayward and without Kyrie Irving. Plus they match up with Golden State better than any other team in the NBA. It seemed like a virtual lock for the C’s to make the Finals, or at the very least the ECF. Welp, the team came out of the gates slow, publicly bitched and moaned about each other, and never got on track en route to finishing as the No. 4 seed. That was all before sweeping a Victor Oladipo-less Pacers and ultimately getting their skulls caved in by Giannis and the No. 1 seed Milwaukee Bucks.

NOW, this brings me to my main point. Kyrie Irving has been a pain in the ass all year long, from the bizarre flat earth trolling, to saying the Celtics *needed* another veteran player, to openly questioning the coach, to publicly bitching about the young guys, to calling LeBron for advice, and now infamously punting on the regular season while looking ahead to the playoffs. As we all know, Kyrie had an excellent Game 1 (12/21 – 26 pts) before having all-time shit bombs of games the rest of the series. He statistically got worse as the series went on going 4/18 – 9 pts in Game 2, 8/22 – 29 pts in Game 3, 7/22 – 23 pts in Game 4, and 6/21 – 15 PTS in Game 5.

Jesus christ.

That all brings up the question of will Kyrie re-sign with the Celtics this summer? It also brings up the question I never imagined I would ask; do the Celtics even want to re-sign Kyrie Irving?

The Celtics are now the third favorite according to Las Vegas in terms of where Kyrie ends up this summer, behind the Nets and the Knicks. So it would seem like the Celtics have two options if they do indeed want Kyrie back. They can offer him the max and hope he wants to build a legacy in Boston (as his motherfucking Nike commercial would make it seem)

and then trade anyone on the roster not named Hayward (Horford’s probably gone due to matching salaries) for Anthony Davis. Thats not *as* risky as it sounds because at least it would be a plan that only goes into action after Kyrie re-signs. But you’re still trading half your team including Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown for a one year run at it with Kyrie and Davis and hoping Davis then re-ups. After this year I’m not so sure I want to bank on a guy enjoying his time in Boston enough to sign a max deal.

The other option is to do what the Warriors did in 2014 with Klay Thompson. Play it out. The Warriors were reportedly on the brink of trading Thompson for Kevin love to “put them over the top” before they evolved into the dynasty they are today. The Warriors had gone from a disaster of a team to a pretty good squad with a new coach in Steve Kerr, yet one that still felt a player or two away. Luckily Kerr, and most importantly, Jerry West advised the Golden State GM of nixing the deal and the Warriors promptly turned into an all-time team led by Steph Curry and an even better Klay Thompson.

I bring this scenario up because I see a ton of similarities between 2014 Klay Thompson and 2019 Jayson Tatum. Thompson had just finished up his third season in 2013-14; Tatum just finished his second. Klay was a key piece in a potential trade for an “established all-star big man” as Tatum is now. Not to mention the numbers. Take a look at Klay’s first 2 years compared to Tatum’s.

Uncanny.

People sleep on Klay Thompson because he’s not the star of the show in Golden State, but theres a reason the best basketball team of my generation is going to offer him a max (if not super max) contract at 12:01 am on July 1st.

The Ringer also asked the same question in their Celtics post-mortem last night:

“Irving may stay, Irving may go, but the referendum on Tatum’s career is coming no matter what. A year ago, the then-rookie looked like an MVP candidate-to-be, but a season of floating around on offense, settling for midrange jumpers, and getting IRL subtweeted has sent many a Tatum stan retreating into the bushes. It’s worth noting that Tatum actually improved in his sophomore season—virtually all of his raw totals are up, and while his scoring efficiency is down, expecting Steph Curry–level shooting from 3 again, even on low volume, was a bit ambitious. Punctuating any Tatum commentary, good or bad, with his age has become the internet’s favorite gag for two years running, but here’s the thing: He’s only 21—and was only 20 for most of this season. Only five players 20 or younger averaged 15 points or more this season, and Tatum had the highest effective field goal rating of anyone of them who didn’t always shoot right at the basket. Tatum hasn’t been great, but it’s worth remembering that it took Brandon Ingram only a couple of games this spring to regain traction before a fluke blood clot issue derailed the rest of his season.”

Now Tatum may have not been the 20 ppg guy everyone expected him to be in Year 2, but that may not be fair just because he dominated in the playoffs the year before. Not to mention he had to adjust to playing with guys like Hayward and Kyrie. Would the Celtics be better off letting Kyrie walk and giving Tatum more time and space to grow into the player we all think he could be?

…Maybe.

The Bruins Are Everything That is Right With Sports, the Celtics Are Everything That is Wrong

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Watching the Bruins and Celtics these past couple of weeks has been like night and day. The Bruins have been tough, relentless, clutch, and generally fun to watch. The Celtics? Not so much.

After an incredible performance in Game 1, Kyrie has been abysmal in Games 2, 3, and 4 with defense that borders on “bad” and “not giving a shit.” After dropping 26 points in Game 1 when he shot 57% and was a +22, he’s gone 9/22%/-9, 26/36%/-7, and 23/31%/-6. So while he’s had three games with 20+ points, his shooting percentage has fallen off a cliff and he’s finished in the negatives in terms of +/- in 3 of the 4 games. Not great.

The Celtics have routinely packed it in this series too when the Bucks go on a run and the game starts to get away. It’s a pretty shitty attitude to just assume you’ll get it back the next game, especially when playing the No. 1 seed and the potential MVP in Giannis. Thats what this team has been all year long though. Kyrie punted on the regular season months ago legitimately saying talk to me when we get to the playoffs. Welp the playoffs are here bud, time to pick it up.

The C’s had one guy after the next playing hero ball and bricking shot after shot. From Kyrie (7/22, 1/7 from 3) to Terry Rozier (1/5, 0/3 from 3) to Al Horford going 3/8 from 3 to Jayson Tatum lacking awareness in key situations last night.

Not to mention Gordon Hayward scoring all of 2 points on 5 shots.

To top it all off, Kyrie came out to the post game presser and basically gave everyone the double freedom rockets despite another poor performance from him.

MEANWHILE, the Bruins had all the history in the world against them heading into Game 6 with an opportunity to close out the series.

They could have very easily fallen victim to recent history especially after having a huge goal taken off the board in the first period.

But unlike the Celtics, this Bruins team has shown huge balls and mental toughness all season long. They’re looking more and more each day like a team that could be raising a trophy soon.

The B’s have battled back all series while Sergei Bobrovsky has been playing out of his mind, they’ve gotten jobbed by the refs, and they nearly collapsed in Game 5 before scoring in the final 90 seconds to secure the W. Mental toughness like you read about. Speaking of mental toughness, shoutout to Tuukka Rask who closed his excellent series out with a 39 save shutout performance. Buffs wings on me, Tuukka.

Oh and the Bruins even have guys laying their bodies on the line in meaningless plays with the game already in hand.

So while the Celtics continue to be the inconsistent, hot and cold, unreliable team they were all year long, the Bruins just keep getting better and look like a team that could make a legit run at a championship.

David Price and His Unique Elbow Placed on the IL With Another Elbow Injury

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ESPN – Boston Red Sox left-hander David Price has been placed on the 10-day injured list because of tendinitis in his pitching elbow. Boston announced the move Monday, a day ahead of Price’s scheduled start at Baltimore.

The 33-year-old Price is 1-2 with a 3.75 ERA in six starts and has allowed three runs or fewer in his last four appearances. The 2012 AL Cy Young Award winner with Tampa Bay, Price was slowed by elbow problems throughout 2017. He did not make his first start for Boston until May 29 due to a strained elbow and did not pitch for the Red Sox between July 22 and Sept. 17 because of elbow inflammation. He was 6-3 with a 3.38 ERA in 11 starts and five relief appearances, then rebounded to go 16-7 with a 3.58 ERA in 30 starts last year as Boston won the World Series. Boston made the roster move retroactive to Friday. The Red Sox selected the contract of 28-year-old right-hander Ryan Weber from Triple-A Pawtucket.

David Price has been more or less our best pitcher to start the year, which says more about the shitshow this rotation has been than it does about Price’s start. He was pitching well as of late though so this is the last thing the Sox needed right now.

I can’t say I’m super optimistic about another elbow injury for a 33-year-old starter coming off his shortest offseason ever after a World Series run. This shouldn’t be a problem though if you remember what Price said about his “very unique elbow” in 2017.

“[They told me] that I have a very unique elbow, and I’ve heard that before but not from guys that have done the surgeries they’ve done and looked at as many elbows as they’ve looked at. So just to hear it from those two guys, it felt good,” said Price, via MLB.com.

Heres to a speedy recovery for Price because love him or hate him we need him to pitch well if this team is to go anywhere.

This Year’s Boston Calling Seems to Be Devolving Into the Shitshow It Figured To Be

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Boston.com – Back in March, Boston Calling Musical Festival announced that hip-hop duo Black Star was no longer able to perform at the festival due to “unforeseen circumstances.”……“It’s simple. Black Star asks for 50% deposit in order to guarantee a show,” Kweli tweeted. “Boston Calling refused to pay that. So we had to cancel. They replaced us with Lil Nas X. Enjoy!” That prompted the festival’s official Twitter account to call Kweli’s tweet “factually incorrect,” though it did not specify which part of Kweli’s multi-sentence tweet was inaccurate……Boston Calling has had to replace several artists on its three-day lineup since announcing the festival slate back in January. Along with Black Star, previously announced acts Janelle Monae, Sasha Sloan, and Young Fathers will no longer be performing.

I believe it was Harvey Dent in “The Dark Knight” but could have just as possibly been Alfafa in “Little Rascals” who said “You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” In the case of music festivals and the general cynicism of the Boston public, Boston Calling may need quite the hail mary to not become the villain. More to the point, my admittedly limited but still cursory knowledge of promotion/events tells me that absolute disasters like this one could financially spell the end to the once promising endeavor.

Which would suck.

Boston Calling is one of those things we didn’t realize we needed until we had it. It makes too much sense. Boston is a major, albeit small, city. It has a booming sports fanbase, a noted nightlife and, most of all for these purposes, historically it has been revered for its music scene. Yet until a few years ago we didn’t have our own festival. Way back in the day we had River Rave for alt-rock, where some of the more mainstreams bands could bleed into. There’s still Summer Jam for hip hop (see: soundcloud rap) and Kiss Concert for top 40. But there really hasn’t been an all-in-one celebration of the best music has to offer the way New Orleans has Voodoo Fest or New York has Governor’s Ball. Then Boston Calling came out of nowhere and we were like, o  ya, this is actually kind of sick. It took a little bit to get used to the prices and ya the crowds were insane to us small city folk who had never experienced Manhattan at rush hour, but over the last few years I think it has stuck the landing well.

Then this year happened. I just cannot fathom what went through the promoters of Boston Calling’s heads. In 2017 the festival was headlined by BLOWING UP rapper and actual cultural spearhead and phenomenon Chance The Rapper. Last year, one of the most revered and successful artists of the past three decades as well as one of the most famous people period on earth, Eminem, made his first trip to Boston in 20 years with Boston Calling as his conduit.

This year? This year will be headlined by Twenty One Pilots.

::Crickets::

Look I know I am one to have the occasional haterade cocktail but I don’t hate Twenty One Pilots. I actually don’t really have an opinion of them either way. If there’s nothing else on the radio I might listen to them or I might throw in a CD or something. Fair enough? (Blogger’s Note: Twenty One Pilots indeed cucked Papa G out of stardom but that is a different story for a different time and I’m not holding it against them). But I don’t think it is a burning hot take to say going from Chance and Marshall Goddam Mathers in consecutive years to rolling out Twenty One Pilots as if they are what’s hot in the streets is kind of nuts, possibly bordering on batshit. I’ll admit this could be another example of the “Logic Fallacy,” where I as someone who casually enjoys Logic but did not think he had built up a gigantic fanbase, went to his show to find 15,000 screaming kids. However, given the amount of emails and tweets I’ve seen from festival promoters that have begun imply “please God please come to this” I don’t think that’s that case.

And much like promoting a fight card or even a backyard barbecue, if the main event doesn’t feature the pound for pound elites that people want to see, you better play some money ball and aggregate that fanfare somewhere else. No title fight? Have a slew of fun stand up brawls and famous names to make your money up. No brats with stadium sauce? Make sure those dogs are the best Kayems money can buy? No actual headliner because Twenty One Pilots was the best you could come up with? Ok, but make sure fanbases like hardcore hip hop heads are appeased by having acts like Black Star actually show up and play. To do that though, you indeed may have to pay them.

So now Boston Calling has a headlining act that I can’t be sure people give a shit about. They have genre-centric acts such as Black Star and Janelle Monae cancelling because of things like, uh, not getting paid. The promoters’ heads are falling off. Just an overall disaster which again, to be completely pessimistic, could lead to the downfall of what has become a cool feather in the cap of Boston in the summer. There’s a thousand things that go into promoting and booking an event of this magnitude and I’m sure my basic brain just doesn’t get it, but a lot of this looks clumsy, foolhardy. Or maybe they just asked the wrong cross section of BU students living in Allston who they should have play the show.

I just hope this isn’t it. As my friends and I have one by one crossed the threshold of our third decade, I could see myself getting to maybe one or two more Boston Callings depending on the acts. But the accounting and the booking is not my responsibility. Showing up, getting hammered and resisting paying for a $300.00 Lyft home because of surge, is. So get it together, promoter people. Our city has come to depend on you.

-Joey B.

 

The BIG3 Just Announced Its Team Rosters and Boy Oh Boy They Are STACKED

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The BIG 3 is returning for its third season this summer and it seems to only be growing as it released their team rosters today and they are STACKED.

Just in case you forgot, we are quite fond of the BIG3 here. We even had Mattes go cover a game in person last year. And that was before they stacked the deck with some big time names.

Top names playing in the BIG3 this year include Kendrick Perkins and Greg Oden on the same team to create maybe the biggest “What if these guys never got hurt” duo in basketball history. The Celtics win 2 out 3 NBA titles, the Trailblazers are still one of the best teams in the league, going to war with KD and whatever team he’s playing for at the time.

Mario Chalmers!

Brian Scalabrine returns of course and should probably have equity in this league if he doesn’t already because the White Mamba puts asses in the seats.

Agent Zero himself Gilbert Arenas joins the BIG3 this season and I could not be more excited. Arenas, before all his gunplay problems, practically invented the 28 foot pull up jumper that is so common today. Where you think Damian Lillard learned that move?

Lamar Odom is returning from the grave/the clutches of the Kardashians to play some ball and you gotta think that guy is happy to just be alive at this point. Good for him.

Mike Bibby, Ricky Davis, and Carlos Boozer just seem like a pretty solid, well built team. Plus, if they get into any scuffles Mike Bibby 2.0 will just start beating people up as all he’s done since retiring is lift anything and everything.

Stephen Jackson and Metta World Peace are teaming up to become the bad boys of the league. Coached by the goddamn oak tree himself Charles Oakley no less. Nobody is messing with that team.

The Power will be a trip down elite bench player memory lane for anyone my age with guys like Corey Maggette, Chris Birdman Andersen, Ryan Gomes(!) and Glen Big Baby Davis who somehow avoided going to federal pound me in the ass prison after a drug arrest.

Jason Terry is also playing this year, which raises the question is Jason Terry finally retired orrrr

Nearly spit my drink out when I saw Terry pulling up for 3 in a game for Milwaukee last season.

Former Celtics draft picks Joe Johnson and Big Al Jefferson will be joining forces to be the favorite team of any Celtics fan over the age of 30.

To round it all out we have Jermaine O’Neal, Amar’e Stoudemire and Nate Robinson, but I have to say it is an absolute crime that Ice Cube doesn’t have Nate Robinson and Glen Davis on the same team. Does he not remember the days of Shrek and Donkey??

They even got legit AF names coaching as well with Gary Payton, Rick Barry, Rick Mahorn, Charles Oakley, Kenyon Martin, Lisa Leslie, and Dr. freaking J just to name a few.

How about the BIG3 being the only new sports league to not only avoid going out of business, yet actually thrive? The AAF went out of business before I even needed to refill my car’s tank of gas, the XFL is looking to improve upon its high score of 1 season completed, meanwhile the BIG3 is just adding teams and big time names left and right.

Maybe we’ll send Mattes back out to another BIG3 game this year with a real mic so he can actually get Scal namedropping The 300s Podcast on tape.

I’m Not One for Hyperbole But I Think Michael Chavis Might Be Headed for the Hall of Fame

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Listen I’m not one for hyperbole, but I’m pretty sure after watching Red Sox rookie Michael Chavis for 9 games, he’s headed to the Hall of Fame. The dude has come in and immediately started to rake. While its common for rookies to sometimes get off to a fast start before the league puts together the book on you and starts pitching to your weaknesses; its less common for a rookie to immediately look like he *belongs*

Since getting called up Chavis has pretty much been an every day starter, especially after CROAKING a double in his first career at bat, in a clutch situation to boot. As a pinch hitter off the bench no less.

In 9 games Chavis is batting .286 with a .429 BP and an OPS of 1.071! He’s also got 3 homers and 8 RBI in that timespan so the kid can play.

In the interest of full disclosure I was not super optimistic about what Chavis was going to look like after returning from a PED suspension, but as I blogged about when the Sox called him up he’s actually been *better* at least in terms of OPS..

I don’t wanna jump the gun or anything, but do we have enough room in right field for his retired number?