The Celtics Suck

I'm going to be totally honest and admit that it nearly broke my heart to write the headline that I did for this article, but as a national sports columnist, I get to paid to call it like I see it - and no matter how deep and lengthy my allegiance is to the Celtics - I have to say that, after their season-opening 91-87 loss at home to the New Orleans Hornets, one which came only days after the death of the franchise's greatest personality (Red Auerbach), the Celtics may have sunk to their lowest point since they last hoisted the NBA championship two decades ago.

If the Celtics can't get up for a game in which they could honor Auerbach with a win, and following an emotional pre-game ceremony honoring one of the sport's biggest contributors, especially against a team that is roughly their equal, they should be ashamed and embarrassed to disgrace the legendary Celtics jerseys that they now make a mockery of, not to mention the famous Boston slogan, "Celtics Pride."

As a matter of fact, after two games, it would appear that the Celtics are as clueless as ever - and are going to waste the remaining years of their best player, superstar, Paul Pierce - with general manager Danny Ainge's idiotic youth movement.
What's worse is the fact that both Ainge and head coach, Doc Rivers, actually believe that the route they are currently taking, is going to get the Celtics back into championship contention at some point in the near future - and Rivers is already making excuses for his young team.

''Our guys are close; that's all I can say,'' Rivers said after the team's second loss of the season to the Detroit Pistons. ''I like this team. They're fighting their butts off. They're close. This is frustrating. But I like them.''

Rivers must be smoking some serious stuff - along with Ainge of course. The Celtics have some young talent, I'll admit that, but young talent does not win in the NBA. Besides, what is there to like about the Celtics, besides Pierce and maybe Wally Szczerbiak?

Boston, or should I say, Ainge idiotically went out of his way to sign former New York high school phenom, point guard, Sebastian Telfair, but unless I'm missing something, this kid is not the answer and the Celtics obviously can't see that they already have two better leaders at the point guard position, Delonte West and Rajon Rondo.

In two games, totaling 47 minutes, Telfair has all of one assist. That's right, one stinking assist. Believe me when I tell you I could get at least five assists in half that time playing alongside Pierce and Szczerbiak.

Maybe it's me, but for a guy that ran all up and down my block in jubilation (in Philadelphia no less) after each of the Celtics three championship victories during the Larry Bird era and one before he arrived, in 1976, I am having an extremely hard time watching the Celtics wallow in mediocrity.

Heck, even mediocrity would be good these days. The Celtics are downright atrocious right now.

Even if I were to have the slightest inclination to go along with Ainge's youth movement (I don't) by the time all the young Celtics come of age, the LeBron James led Cleveland Cavaliers or the combination of Dwight Howard and Jameer Nelson in Orlando, will probably be ruling the eastern conference, not to mention the fact that another fairly young player in Miami, (Dwayne Wade) should have some new teammates with which to contend for championships with.

The bottom line is that if the Celtics want to win anything significant before the end of this decade, they had better get a much more balanced mix of veterans to go along with their talented young players.

If not, I guess I'll continue to be in mourning along with every other Celtics fan who has to reach back in the recesses of their respective minds to recall the good 'ol days when this franchise actually had something to stand up and shout about.
Here are the Celtics pitiful statistics after two games.

TEAM STATS
AVERAGES
REBOUNDS
Rank Player G GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% OFF DEF TOT APG SPG BPG TO A/TO PF PPG
1 Paul Pierce 2 2 39.0 .472 .333 .609 1.0 12.5 13.5 4.0 1.0 0.0 2.5 1.6 2.5 25.5
2 Wally Szczerbiak 2 2 35.0 .481 .250 .800 0.5 4.0 4.5 2.5 1.0 0.0 3.5 0.7 3.0 19.5
3 Al Jefferson 2 0 25.0 .526 .000 .571 3.0 4.0 7.0 0.5 0.0 1.5 0.5 1.0 3.5 12.0
4 Sebastian Telfair 2 2 23.5 .429 .333 .000 0.5 1.0 1.5 1.0 0.0 0.5 1.5 0.7 3.0 7.0
5 Rajon Rondo 2 0 27.5 .385 .000 .500 0.5 4.0 4.5 4.5 0.0 0.0 2.0 2.3 3.5 6.5
6 Ryan Gomes 2 1 28.5 .400 .000 .000 1.5 2.5 4.0 2.5 0.5 0.5 1.0 2.5 2.5 6.0
7 Delonte West 2 1 19.0 .154 .200 1.000 0.5 2.5 3.0 4.5 0.5 0.5 2.5 1.8 1.5 3.5
8 Gerald Green 1 0 2.0 1.000 1.000 .000 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.0 3.0
9 Kendrick Perkins 2 2 18.5 .750 .000 .000 0.5 6.5 7.0 1.0 0.0 1.5 2.0 0.5 2.5 3.0
10 Tony Allen 2 0 14.0 .000 .000 .667 0.5 1.0 1.5 0.0 0.5 0.0 1.0 0.0 2.0 2.0
11 Michael Olowokandi 1 0 19.0 .500 .000 .000 1.0 2.0 3.0 0.0 2.0 1.0 1.0 0.0 1.0 2.0
Total: .427 .286 .661 9.0 39.0 48.0 20.5 4.5 5.0 17.0 1.2 25.0 87.5

TOTALS
REBOUNDS
Rank Player G GS MIN FGM-A 3PM-A FTM-A OFF DEF TOT AST STL BLK TO PF PTS
1 Paul Pierce 2 2 78 17-36 3-9 14-23 2 25 27 8 2 0 5 5 51
2 Wally Szczerbiak 2 2 70 13-27 1-4 12-15 1 8 9 5 2 0 7 6 39
3 Al Jefferson 2 0 50 10-19 0-0 4-7 6 8 14 1 0 3 1 7 24
4 Sebastian Telfair 2 2 47 6-14 2-6 0-0 1 2 3 2 0 1 3 6 14
5 Rajon Rondo 2 0 55 5-13 0-1 3-6 1 8 9 9 0 0 4 7 13
6 Ryan Gomes 2 1 57 6-15 0-0 0-0 3 5 8 5 1 1 2 5 12
7 Delonte West 2 1 38 2-13 1-5 2-2 1 5 6 9 1 1 5 3 7
8 Kendrick Perkins 2 2 37 3-4 0-0 0-0 1 13 14 2 0 3 4 5 6
9 Tony Allen 2 0 28 0-6 0-2 4-6 1 2 3 0 1 0 2 4 4
10 Gerald Green 1 0 2 1-1 1-1 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 3
11 Michael Olowokandi 1 0 19 1-2 0-0 0-0 1 2 3 0 2 1 1 1 2
Total: 64-150 8-28 39-59 18 78 96 41 9 10 34 50 175