Early Links

A few sleepy eyed, early morning links for ya:

The Biz of Basketball has an interview with Rich Gotham , President of the Boston Celtics

Gotham: I’ll put it this way: We’ve just about doubled our season ticket holder base, so it’s been a good deal more than 2000. We’ve really ratcheted-up since July; it’s just been a wave of demand, to the extent where we actually put a cap on season tickets. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have had any individual ticket inventory left over, and we wanted to give ourselves some flexibility from an inventory management standpoint.

HoopsAddict has a new site design and an article on the Celtics:

The Celtics have lost 2 games since Kevin Garnett got hurt. The first was in Orlando, where Hedo Turkoglu hit a fadeaway three at the buzzer that Stan Van Gundy himself referred to as a "miracle shot". The other was one-point loss in Cleveland where Lebron James had another of his near-triple doubles. The Boston Celtics are not just a three-man show, and are showing it in KG’s absence.

"A Rondo Plause for Rajon" - clever title

Tonight was just the latest showing by Rondo that should have all Celtics fans believing he is the real deal. Rajon went for 12 points to go along with 7 assists and 7 rebounds, including the key board to clinch the game. All season long he has been highly effective at distributing the basketball, has played outstanding defense, and has provided the energy this team needs when it seems to be playing flat. These are the intangibles the Celtics would be without if we had Brevin Knight or Andre Miller running the point.

Game Recap at Celtics 17

Gary Tanguay made a great point while I was writing this. He mentioned how the Celtics just came off a big win, the Pacers are depleted with injuries, the Celtics have another game on Wednesday and the crowd was light due to a storm in Indianapolis. All that is usually the recipe for a huge letdown, a stinker. While the Celtics didn’t play their best something can be said for simply winning these games. Regardless of the opponent these dog day games are not easy, especially with the break coming up. It is easy for guys to pack it in a game or two early, especially after a win over a team like the Spurs.

Patrick Gilroy takes some time to reflect:

Red Auerbach used to say that it took an entire team to win a championship. Everyone had to be on the same page and know and embrace his role. It appears that Ainge has built this team following Red's mold. Red Auerbach won 16 championships; this hungry Celtics fan would be thrilled with one.

Ray Allen has other plans for All Star weekend.

Allen said he has a commitment to appear on NBC's "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" in New York City Thursday, and if he isn't named to the All-Star team, he plans on taking a private plane to the Bahamas after the taping. If he is an All-Star, he would depart for New Orleans after the taping.

What if the Celtics traded for Gasol instead of KG?

But the real reason I'm bringing all this up isn't because I don't think we should've traded Big Al for KG (obviously that was a good trade) -- but had we not jumped on that opportunity, there may have been another had we just waited.   And yes, I'm talking about Pau Gasol.