Merry Mailbag

Tis the season to answer emails.  Here are the questions you sent in and my best attempts to answer them. 

Jeff, when you head to a game, what do you like to rock? Are you a jersey guy? If so, who? Green? White? St. Patty's Day? Do you prefer the class and sophistication of the polo? The relaxation and freedom of the tee shirt? - Jon

I've got 3 jerseys.  My favorite is the black Paul Pierce with the wide sleeves and v-neck.  I also like the new green Garnett jersey my wife bought me.  And for throwback purposes, yes, I still rock the green Employee #8 jersey and give the crowd a little wiggle when someone hits a 3.

Of course on the odd occasion that I find the need to use my press pass, I go for the sportswriter-standard of jeans and a collared shirt.  And when I'm at home watching the game, I often times sport the Belichick grey-hoody.  When the team is doing bad, the hood goes up and my wife tells me I look like Darth Maul.

Read More

Brandon Roy has been tearing it up this season. He is averaging 19.2 pts, 4.5 rebounds, and 5.6 assists per game this season. I know that if we didn't trade him and get Ratliff's contract, we would not have gotten Garnett. My question is this: IF the Celtics don't win a title with PP, KG, and RA, and Roy becomes an elite player, will we regret trading away Roy? I think they might, especially if the Celts drop off significantly after the primes of PP,KG, and RA passes. - Matt Powers

Slow down Bob Lobel ("why can't we get guys like that?").  We rolled the dice and took our chances with three potential Hall of Famers.  I'll take that gamble every day of the week, even if it means missing out on 3 or 4 promising young players that might pan out down the line.  We don't get KG without Theo's contract and if a butterfly flapped its wings one second later the deal might have all fallen appart.  I'm cool with how things have worked out.

Why do so many people get offended if you criticize Tommy?  Yes he's a Celtic through and through but let's call a spade a spade.  He has lost his fastball. - Mon

You are welcome to your opinion, but I still love Tommy.  After all these years, how do you not lose something off your fastball?  He's a legend, and that buys you a lot of leeway from the fans.  And when it boils down to it, he's also familiar.  I watch other games and listen to their announcers and they are dull, canned, and often flat-out wrong.  Few are anywhere near as entertaining as Tommy (in my humble opinion).  But to each his own.

In their prime, who do you choose for your team, McHale or Garnett?  - Brett Davey

Good question but I think I would go with Garnett hands down.  McHale is by far the better low post scorer, but I think KG has the edge in just about every other category.  Ok, maybe McHale is a better post game interview, but at least KG hasn't run a franchise into the ground.  Oh, and if KG played with Bird and Parish, he'd have just as many rings.

[The Detroit game] was a great game, and the fact that we lost is not a big deal in the scheme of things. What does matter in my opinion is the unanswered question the character of this team in the closing seconds of a big game.

How do you think this question is going to be settled over the course of the season and into the playoffs? - jerious norwood

I think looking back we can actually look to that game as a positive.  Kind of like when the 86 team was embarrassed at home and got ticked off enough to win the rest of their home games.  This game taught them what it will take to win playoff-level games against quality opponents.  They got a lesson on why it is important to put opponents away when you have them down.  They saw firsthand how important it is to manage the clock and play each possession according to the situation.  I don't think Paul will stop taking last second shots (that's part of his game), but I hope he will consider finding Ray Allen from time to time as well.

I mentioned this in a comment a couple of days ago, but no one responded. I am very curious about the state of the Celtics TV deal. Since the previous administration structured their contract with most of the money up front (strip mining come to mind), I was wondering if there is a new deal and any terms (or how long is left on the old deal). I believe that the Red Sox have huge non-box office income, and this lets them compete with the Yankees, so I would like to understand where the Celtics are (and are there other revenue streams they are looking at). They may need to rebuild popularity of the franchise before they can capitalize, but it would be nice to see this as well Thanks. - Silverlock

I don't know much about the TV deals they have, but I know that they are working hard to capitalize on corporate sponsorships and stuff like that.  The difference with the Celtics and Red Sox/Yanks is that the C's have a salary cap that limits the amount of money they can feed into the team's salaries.  If the owners find ways to make oodles of cash, that's great for them, but it probably won't mean the team will start spending money like the Knicks, nor should they.  It just isn't smart to tie up your salary that way.

What is the tattoo on Paul Pierce's arm? - T Nettles

No idea.  Can anyone else help?

Do you think Kenrick Perkins is a good enough center to win the C's an NBA title?  Will Danny find another center and have Perk come off the bench? - Jay

The Bulls won titles with Luc Longley, Bill Wennington, Will Perdue, and an old Bill Cartwright.  I used to have to qualify that statement with something like "but that was Michael Jordan."  I don't feel the need to qualify it when we have Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and Paul Pierce.  Perkins needs to play his role of defensive rock and rebounder.  With that said, yes, I would love to have another big body besides Scot Pollard to come off the bench and keep KG from having to bang with the bigs.  The good news is that free agents and their agents are lined up around the block waiting for Danny to give them the nod.  When we really need someone, there will be players to chose from.

This just seems like one of those special years for our team.  They way this team came together out of nowhere and instantly started winning has reminded me of two other pro sports teams from 1985:  The Bears and the Pats.

Seeing that both teams went on to record songs ("Squish the Fish" and "Bear Busters" were New England's counter to "Super Bowl Shuffle"), I feel the Celts are obligated to put out a single some time during the season.  If this were to come to pass, what genre would you figure this team would lean towards: rap, R&B, or maybe something out of character like folk or punk? - Jimmy Chowda

Considering that the great Miracle Johan is my first choice to produce the song, I'm going to go with rap mixed with influences of rock and techno.  I hope he goes all out and produces some Beck-like stuff from his Odelay days.  He should even get Tommy to come into the studio and lay down some vocals.  Maybe Big Baby could do some beat boxing and KG could lend us one of his hair rising howls to end the track.  How do I make this happen?

Thanks for the mail folks, it was fun as usual.

Have a very Merry Christmas and a happy holidays everyone!