Looking Back - Summer Of 2007

by Jeff Clark on Jul 20, 2009 10:25 PM EDT in Boston Celtics Articles

Lately I've been flipping through my copy of Peter May's "Top of the World" - which tracks the Celtics' Championship season. Mostly I've been looking at the offseason notes from the summer of 2007 to get a better behind the scenes look at how the Celtics conduct business. There's a lot there, but two items jumped out to me.

First was Wyc's involvement in the KG trade. Basically he drew a line in the sand and kept Rondo. At some point the negotiations with Minnesota were handed off from the GMs to the owners.

"Glen called and said, 'Give us Rondo and the deal is done. You'll be the talk of the league. You'll have Pierce, Allen, and Garnett, and you'll be the favorites to win it all. But you have to give us Rondo"

That's pretty straightfoward right? But Wyc knew how much Ainge valued Rondo and refused. Eventually he agreed to pay part of Telfair's salary and after some nervous moments he got the call that they had a deal.

The other moment that was telling was the James Posey situation. It turns out that before signing with the Celtics, Posey actually made the decision to join the New Jersey Nets.

"It was basically a done deal," he said. "I was just frustrated, a lot was going on in my mind, and I wanted it to be over, so I just said, screw it. I remember it was on a Saturday and I called my agent and told him to call New Jersey and tell them I was coming. He said 'Are you sure? I'll give you some more time.' He mentioned Boston."

Then Posey heard from Eddie House, who said flatly, "Pose, what are you doing?"

Then Doc and the coaching staff got him on the phone and wouldn't let him off till he was convinced.

Anyway, what I wanted to get across is that a lot of stuff happens that we don't hear about and you never know till long after the fact just how close we were to not having the team that we did that year. There's a lot of preparation, research, negotiation, and skill that goes into the offseason maneuvers. However, clearly there's a lot of luck involved too.

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Thanks for sharing..

I vaguely recalled the line in the sand with Rondo, although I did not know of Wyc’s involvement. Very interesting about Posey. Wow, if he had signed with NJ, good chance we don’t win 17. Good stuff, Jeff.

by footey on Jul 20, 2009 10:46 PM EDT reply actions

Everyday I thank GOD for giving us the luck to get Banner 17... Hopefully we will have the same or better luck this year and win Banner 18!

by Mike-Dub on Jul 20, 2009 10:58 PM EDT reply actions

I hope so... Seeing the Sox win the series in 2004 was pretty darn good too!

by Mike-Dub on Jul 20, 2009 11:05 PM EDT reply actions

Yeah Iike This Post...

Honestly I Miss James Posey. To Me He’s Still The Missing Piece for Our Next Banner. He Needs To Come Back. Our New Squad Is Decent But I’m Not Sure If This Team Is Going To Have The Same Celtics Energy. Whatever Happened To “Unbutu”? It Was Hardly Mentioned Last Year. The Brotherly Love Posey Showed Before The Start Of Games Was Also Great To See :(

by Rtpas11 on Jul 20, 2009 11:17 PM EDT reply actions

It's alot of luck...

But its also the owners willing to pay the little extra things in order to win. Without that, we don’t win 17. Without it we don’t possibly win banner 18.

by WBrownTrophy on Jul 20, 2009 11:35 PM EDT reply actions

What else do we not know?

I hope a Po(we) story comes out later that makes me feel better about DA than I do now.

Of course it’s been 40 years today since we supposedly landed on the moon. And I am still waiting for a story on how a rocket engine fires on the surface but doesn’t leave a small crater underneath, or even move the moon dust around?

Or what’s the real behind the scenes story on Scali’s concussions? Can we get an “after the fact story” ??? Did it really happen on the court during the games? or was that merely a cover story and Scal was repeatedly beaten about the head in the locker room by DA after Danny watched Matt Bonner and David Lee highlight films?

Is it Soup Yet?

by Master Po on Jul 20, 2009 11:52 PM EDT reply actions

There's no atmosphere on the moon, everything's pretty static

by SalmonAndMashedPotatoes on Jul 21, 2009 1:01 AM EDT up reply actions

Lunar landing

Po:
The jet nozzle was 54 inches in diameter, or about 2300 sq. in. The lunar lander was about 5300 pounds. The jet applied just enough thrust to gently lift the module off the lunar surface — i.e., basically 5300 pounds of thrust. That’s about 2.3 pounds per square inch, or about 15% of atmospheric pressure on Earth (which is 15 pounds per sq in). In other words, this was not a terribly strong jet. Furthermore, since the Moon is a vacuum, your intuition about how jets behave is not calibrated properly. You think of jets maintaining their column, but that’s because the Earth’s atmosphere helps keep the column of a jet in a line. On the Moon, with no atmosphere, the jets spread out even quicker. By the time the jet hits the lunar regolith, it is not strong enough to glow around the dust, as you suspect it should be.

by dslack on Jul 21, 2009 1:44 AM EDT up reply actions

oh yeah?

well how do you explain the crater on the grassy knoll?

"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers" Henry V

by Jeff Clark on Jul 21, 2009 7:21 AM EDT up reply actions

glow=blow

by dslack on Jul 21, 2009 9:22 AM EDT up reply actions

look at lunar landing pads (gold foil) not one speck of moon dust on them?? Now that's a weak jet

I guess no ones touching the Scali head band conspiracy….and Ranter – get off my grassy knoll!!!!!

Now excuse me while I go back and put on my tin foil hat

Is it Soup Yet?

by Master Po on Jul 21, 2009 9:56 AM EDT up reply actions

conspiracy

I think Kobe shot KG’s leg from the grassy knoll

"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers" Henry V

by Jeff Clark on Jul 21, 2009 10:06 AM EDT up reply actions

Exactly my point,

It IS a weak jet. It’s only 1/6 as strong as the atmospheric pressure in your room.

Plus, lunar regolith isn’t like ordinary dust. Dust on Earth has been blowing around and getting polished by collisions. It’s quite “slippery”, and therefore does not cohere well. Lunar regolith is a different kind of dust, each piece of which was created in a violent collision event. These violent collision events literally rip molecules apart, leaving electrically charged, irregularly shaped protuberances on the surface of the dust particles. The microscopic shape and electrochemical character of the lunar regolith makes it much stickier than dust that we are used to here on Earth. As a result it would take a particularly strong jet to kick it up in the air, when in fact there was a particularly weak jet blowing on it.

Finally, on Earth we are used to dust staying in the air for a long time before settling, and swirling around in random patterns because of random air currents. On the Moon, where there is no air, dust is kicked up and falls right back to the ground, much like how a baseball falls. It follows a simple trajectory, and there is no reason to expect the lunar lander to have any dust on top of it.

Look, there are lots of interesting questions about the lunar landing. “Why wasn’t there a blast crater?” is one such question. I just provided an answer for that question. But make no mistake: there’s no reasonable question about whether human beings did, in fact, walk on the Moon. Perhaps the best proof (although there are many, many independent pieces of evidence) is that there are mirrors on the Moon that we can bounce lasers off of, mirrors that only human beings could have set up.

by dslack on Jul 21, 2009 11:02 AM EDT up reply actions

Wow

Dslack, I had to login just to thank you for that. That’s about 3 things I didn’t know when I woke up today!

by Thruthelookingglass on Jul 21, 2009 10:36 AM EDT up reply actions

Dslack - works for NASA

which stands for Never A Straight Answer (NASA). anyway – thanks Dslack – I am still not convinced

Is it Soup Yet?

by Master Po on Jul 21, 2009 10:50 AM EDT up reply actions

A few points of correction

(1) I do not work for NASA. In full disclosure, I used to work for NASA, but I do not now and probably will not again. I am no NASA apologist; indeed, I have been highly critical of many aspects of NASA policy (not on this blog, but I do have an existence outside this blog, too).
(2) Despite not currently working for NASA, I am quite aware of many aspects of their policy.
(3) I tried hard to give you a straight answer. If you still find it to be less than straight, let me know why, and I’ll try again.

Human beings did walk on the Moon. (Mirrors pointed directly at Earth are not a natural occurrence.) Our journey to the Moon was one of the greatest achievements in the history of humankind. That many people do not share in the sense of wonder and human accomplishment that this knowledge inspires is sad to me.

by dslack on Jul 21, 2009 11:30 AM EDT up reply actions

How about Larry Brown accepting a job as assistant coach?

I found it very interesting. He was offered the job, before we got KG and he accepted. He then decided to go to Charlotte, then once the KG trade was made he called Doc back asking if the job was still open. By then Celtics already had signed Thibs. Had Larry Brown stayed with the team in the first place, Thibs would not have been hired. Funny how things work out.

by afflatus on Jul 20, 2009 11:59 PM EDT reply actions

wow

I didn’t realize that Larry Brown wanted to come back after the Cs got KG…Thibs was critical in winning banner 17 though

by WBrownTrophy on Jul 21, 2009 1:18 AM EDT via mobile reply actions

Yeah, I've read this book a few months ago.

It’s really interesting to learn what happened behind the scenes and how close we were of acquiring or not player X or Y!

Fortunately things turned great for us, but it’s funny to imagine what would have happened if we had Larry Brown as an assistand coach instead of Thibs for example.

by Drucci on Jul 21, 2009 5:21 AM EDT reply actions