Historically DOMINANT Season Ends with Boston Celtics Championship | Celtics Beat
Dan Greenberg covers the Celtics for Barstool Sports. Greenie joins the program to discuss Banner 18, the development of Tatum and Brown, and Joe Mazzulla's emergence as a great head coach. Twitter: @StoolGreenie
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00:00:00Celtics Beat is powered by PrizePix, the exclusive daily fantasy partner of the CLNS Media Network.
00:00:09Today is Thursday, June 20th and this is Celtics Beat on the CLNS Media Network, the leading
00:00:15online provider of audio video coverage of the world champion Boston Celtics.
00:00:21I'm Adam Kaufman, episode 577 features Barstool Sports' Dan Greenberg.
00:00:26And I'm champ Evan Valenti.
00:00:28Today's show is powered by PrizePix and GameTime.
00:00:31PrizePix is the official daily fantasy partner of CLNS Media.
00:00:36Download the app, use the promo code CLNS for a first deposit match up to $100.
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00:00:49Oh, gosh, I don't even, where, where does, does one, I need to like channel Jason Tatum.
00:01:06We did it!
00:01:07We did it!
00:01:08Oh man, they did it.
00:01:11They did it.
00:01:12Honestly, we were just along for the ride.
00:01:14Welcome in.
00:01:15This is Celtics Beat.
00:01:16Adam Kaufman, Evan Valenti.
00:01:17We're always here with you and pleased to have with us, at least when it comes to social
00:01:22media, perhaps the biggest Celtics fan on the planet, Dan Greenberg, Barstool Greeny,
00:01:27get them on Twitter at Stool Greeny.
00:01:29And this, this is just, this is special because yes, I've got my nightly radio show in Boston,
00:01:35but it's a betting focused show.
00:01:37So we, we certainly talked a lot about the championship, but in much more of a betting
00:01:43sense, Kenny Anderson, the former Celtic came on right after Boston won and chatted
00:01:48with Kenny for a while.
00:01:49And I can tell you, he still bleeds green deep.
00:01:52So, so that was a really good time.
00:01:55This show though is, is another animal entirely.
00:01:58This is a very special show because this is the, you know, no matter how many Celtics
00:02:04podcasts there are out there and no matter how many Celtics podcasts there are at CLNS,
00:02:11this is flagship Celtics podcast of the CLNS media network.
00:02:15This is where it all began.
00:02:17And we are privileged to be here with you because, you know, I, I can go back to when
00:02:22I started doing Celtics at seven on the sports hub, Brad Stephens was hired and the Nets
00:02:29trade was made.
00:02:30And it was Chris Humphries and Keith Bogans and Gerald Wallace and you know, whoever else
00:02:38like that, that group to where we are now, obviously, and there's just so much connectivity
00:02:45from those days and how it all began to finally, after many years of waiting and chasing and
00:02:53national negativity and discourse and question marks surrounding the core of this group,
00:03:01they've reached the top of the mountain, the culmination, the Boston Celtics for the 18th
00:03:05time, our world champions, the most titles in NBA history.
00:03:10And part of the reason that I say this show is so special is because for what it is and
00:03:15what we do here for me, for Evan and for Dan, who has done his fair share of interviews
00:03:21throughout the playoff run, this is really the first sigh and decompression of all, of
00:03:29all that has happened and all that has been said and where we are going, where we are
00:03:36at and just asking in the glow of the moment, fellas, a lot of the time we do these shows,
00:03:42I will have my notes, my talking points, my, I want to make sure we get to X, Y, and Z
00:03:46before the end of the show.
00:03:47I have done none of that deliberately. This is a show that is for the fans by the fans
00:03:54because we all are at our core fans of this team, incredibly excited about what they have
00:04:01accomplished. And I just wonder, and Dan, we'll start with you, obviously, whether
00:04:06people, and I know Celtics fans, this applies to them, but outside of Celtics nation, I
00:04:13wonder if people even still recognize and fully credit the fact that we were just witness
00:04:19for the last X number of months to an all-time team, not the all-time team, not even the
00:04:26greatest team in Celtics history, but an all-time team.
00:04:30Yeah. And I mean, I think before we dive in, right, I imagine this is a family show. We
00:04:37should warn the audience here. We're about to go from six to midnight, like real quick.
00:04:44Like this is, I can't believe you're going to go from six to midnight. I've been at midnight
00:04:48for, for lack of a better, I mean, I called my doctor like five times already. So yeah,
00:04:54my raging porzingis is 85 hours deep right now. I'm not, I'm sitting for a reason, you
00:05:00know, for the duration of this show. It's just not even on a table right now. Yeah.
00:05:07It's just one of those things where, you know, I feel like we, us three have chatted almost
00:05:12at every step of this journey through each of the errors, right? So to be here and for
00:05:19it to be real and not just a figment of my imagination that I would spend every night
00:05:25praying for, for the last, you know, 10 plus years since that big three trade is, it's
00:05:30just surreal is the word you want to use, but it almost doesn't do it justice. You mentioned
00:05:36we just saw one of the greatest teams, like we're not talking Celtics history. We're talking
00:05:41in the existence of the national basketball association. So to just take a step back and
00:05:47say in our formative years where we're cognizant and able to process what's happening, we have
00:05:53just witnessed one of the greatest seasons and greatest collections of talent in the
00:05:59history of the NBA is like, it's 2k. It's like, it's like we had life on easy mode and
00:06:06we cheated our way to it through, you know, playing the computer. And it's just, I'm not
00:06:12like a loss of words. It's never going to set in for me. I've already pissed off my
00:06:16dad having 1986 combos that he doesn't want to have, but you have to. And the fact that
00:06:23those are real and have substance behind them is like, I don't know what I envisioned, but
00:06:29this is better than even my wildest dreams. That's the only way I can phrase it.
00:06:33You know, what's really funny is I've, I've gotten a lot of texts from friends who are
00:06:38not in the least Celtics fans that are very critical of, of this team and the path. And
00:06:44like you said, easy mode and you know, not having to deal with a healthy Halliburton,
00:06:49a healthy Mitchell, you miss Jimmy Butler. You didn't have to go against Yoka or even
00:06:53Anthony Edwards, that type of thing. All the stuff that obviously national people have
00:06:57said these people are feeding off of it. I get it. You know, people want to be critical
00:07:01of, of Boston. They're tired of Boston winning, even though in this blew my mind, this is
00:07:06actually the second, albeit the last title came in August, right? This is the second
00:07:11longest drought in Boston sports history. You know, second longest championship drought
00:07:16since all four of the, you know, Bruins Celtics, Patriots, Red Sox have been in existence,
00:07:21which is, and it's the drought has been what six years. So that's just insanity to me.
00:07:26But putting that aside, people are tired of Boston and I get it. But one of the conversations
00:07:30because you, I wasn't even going to go there, but you brought up the whole 86 versus now
00:07:34thing. I think it's so I, I like, I I'm kind of like your dad, I guess. I won't even really
00:07:41stand for that conversation. Not because of a, like, you know, a, how do you not respect
00:07:4686? I just think it's impossible across sports to compare errors at a certain point because
00:07:53the players change the, you know, health and fitness and training regimens. And, and
00:08:00obviously the rules of the sports themselves, everything evolves. Like you could make the
00:08:06case, this is like, might be blasphemy for some people out there. You could make the
00:08:10case that like this Celtics team would have kicked the crap out of bill Russell's teams.
00:08:15Just because again, like, look at the, look at the shape. These guys are in, they're bigger,
00:08:19they're stronger. They're more athletic than, you know, the average guy now versus the average
00:08:24guy then. So that's why the whole like comparing errors thing. I just, I don't think you can
00:08:28compare this Celtics team fairly reasonably. I don't think you can compare this team to
00:08:33any team in NBA history before the year, like 2000.
00:08:39I think at that point in time, it like, like you, you want to compare them to like dominant
00:08:44LeBron teams, dominant warriors teams, like go ahead. You know, you, you could talk about
00:08:49that. I don't think you could compare it though, to like one of the Jordan bulls championship
00:08:55teams, because it's just, it's a, it's a different game now. I don't think you can do that.
00:09:00Whenever, whenever I think of like comparing errors, like, like you said, right, obviously
00:09:04the rules have changed. I look at it as the 1986 team is the ultimate, you know, embodiment
00:09:11of Celtics basketball plus dominance plus hall of fame talent. This, if you just go
00:09:18by those three criteria in terms of buying into the idea of the Celtics, what it means
00:09:25to win as a Celtic plays a Celtic, the dominance statistically they had in relation to the rest
00:09:31of the league. And then, you know, I mean, they sealed the deal and I just, I don't know.
00:09:36I like, I've waited my entire life to have a 1986 conversation and I'm going to have
00:09:42it, even if it's stupid.
00:09:44I don't think you can do it, but yeah, I think you got to wait for future results to happen
00:09:49before you start bringing an 86. I think the fact that you have so many hall of famers
00:09:54like Bill Walton's coming off the bench is like a real, just monkey wrench in this whole
00:10:00thing. You know, it was so great the other day with the Nick Wright quote of like, if
00:10:06he wants to be Larry bird, he's kind of on his way. But if he wants to be the best player
00:10:09in the world, he's not quite there yet for Jason Tatum. Right. Which I thought was an
00:10:13interesting way to frame that. I'm like the best player in the world guarantees you absolutely
00:10:16nothing in terms of anything like Nicolai, Oakley sat at home in the second round.
00:10:21Like as soon as that was over, he was gone and he's the best player in the world. And
00:10:24he won his, he only won once. And I'm pretty sure he's been the best player in the world
00:10:27for like five years straight. Okay. So it doesn't guarantee you anything. The point
00:10:31being like Tatum is on his way to being the next great Celtic. He's kind of like already
00:10:36there. Yeah. I mean, he's, he just, he's there, but like, again, to put him on the bird, like
00:10:42he's right now at the KG Paul Pierce spot with the one title and the all success he's
00:10:48had. And just with the success, then you factor in these 26, he's obviously going to shatter
00:10:54that those ceilings and move up at a level. And when you move it up a level in the Celtics
00:10:59history books, you're starting to get to the cream of the crop of NBA history, right?
00:11:03And Larry bird, I'll put them over KG. I won't put them over. I was just going to say, I
00:11:07have him. I have the one that haven't yet. He's he's elevated above both, uh, uh, uh,
00:11:15Pearson Garnett for me, just because the all MBAs, the sustained success is, I mean, we
00:11:21all lived through the dark ages of Paul. I mean, it's not like he was dominant and the
00:11:26team was dominant from day one. You get that second title. We're having conversations.
00:11:3290% of this fan base is not ready to have, right. And I want to save the, like the, the,
00:11:37the Tatum and Brown versus Pierce KG. Like I want to save that for a second. I do want
00:11:41to get back to the 86 thing. You can't quite have that discussion yet because you need
00:11:45sustained titles to be compared to any Larry bird era, Celtic team. I think if Boston,
00:11:55and again, we're getting a little ahead of our skis here. If there's a sustained run
00:12:00of excellence that results in finals appearances and titles, but here's the point you could
00:12:07start to have is you can't have this conversation right now. I think this conversation is wrong
00:12:13with that.
00:12:14Here's what's wrong with that. I think what Greeny is talking about is we're like, we're
00:12:17not comparing eras. Obviously that era Dorf's this era. He's just talking about singular
00:12:22seasons compared to the 86 team. But you didn't like it when 80, like now that we've
00:12:29had so much more data after 86, it enlightens how amazing that 86 team was. Right. It's
00:12:39one of the best teams, if not the best team in the history of basketball. I don't think
00:12:43we can have a conversation, that type of conversation about this team until we have a little more
00:12:48data under our belt, because you've got to remember, this is the first year of this core,
00:12:54right? Jalen, Jason, Derek, drew KP out. Obviously we have more to go here. I'm willing. I can't
00:13:03wait to see what happens next, but I won't tolerate a one for one comparison.
00:13:09Just look at it like this though, point differential. This is the fifth or sixth best point differential
00:13:15team ever beats 1986. They won 10 straight playoff games. I'm not sure. Did the 86 team win
00:13:2110 straight and then seven on the road? I can't, I mean, off the top of my head, I can't remember,
00:13:25but I don't think they had reached those, uh, those marks. This is a season in which we saw
00:13:32the 2024 Celtics have the most 50 point wins, 40 point wins, 30 point wins. Like there's just,
00:13:39I don't know if the argument is okay. Who, if they played five on five, who wins? That's not
00:13:46my argument. My argument is you have not witnessed a more dominant eight month stretch of Boston
00:13:53Celtics basketball than what you just lived through from October to June. They did it on
00:13:59the road. They did it at home. They did it against the best teams. They did it against the worst
00:14:04teams. They did it close. They did it by blowout. They did it through threes. They did it through
00:14:09post play. Like everything that you loved about the 86 team you saw in the 2024 team at a more
00:14:18insane production level. That's my stance is if you are looking at how the history of all these
00:14:26teams unfolded, right? None of this would have mattered had they not sealed the deal and won
00:14:31the title. Once you win the title, you're stamped and you get invited into those conversations.
00:14:37If you want to start talking, okay, greatest Celtics of all time, I'm with you. You don't
00:14:42just need two. You need more than two to enter that club. What they've now done with this title,
00:14:48this was the Jersey retirement stamp, right? That's it. Tatum and Jalen, you're it. You are,
00:14:55it does not matter what you do for the rest of your Celtics career. You are now stamped
00:15:00the same way Paul Pierce and Garnett were stamped with one title.
00:15:03We, we had Grandy on with us last week and he said that in, in, and obviously this was right
00:15:08before the title, but they were up three. Oh, we knew it was coming in his mind. Not only those
00:15:13two, which I completely agree with. He thinks this, this puts Al Horford up in the Raptors.
00:15:18So he has the, he has the, the Kevin Garnett debate, right? Six or so type years. Didn't
00:15:25win a DPO. I won the title, his coming to Boston. It wasn't exactly the same
00:15:32monumental league changing move like the KG trade, but we're all around the same age.
00:15:38We had never seen a big time free agent come to the Celtics in our lifetime. Al Horford was that
00:15:45guy. So his impact on culture and impact on winning is of the same ilk as what Garnett,
00:15:53you know, Garnett established. The only difference is he wasn't an MVP. He didn't
00:15:58win DPOI, you know, that first year I can see the case. I don't hold it against him
00:16:04that he left and, and ruin the Sixers. I actually think that helps.
00:16:10Like that's like a, that, that boosts it. So it's an interesting debate. I can,
00:16:15you know, people didn't think Garnett should be up there, but because of the drought
00:16:19that it ended, I mean, shit, we're pretty close to a long ass drought that Al Horford just helped
00:16:25end. So he might be, you know, if it's like a, he's not a first ballot, like maybe he doesn't
00:16:31go in the same, you know, the first go around is everybody else, but it wouldn't shock me if
00:16:36WIC just says, screw it. We're going to invent triple digit number jerseys and just get everybody
00:16:42up there. That's where it's going. Because like you asked him and this is, we're not going to
00:16:45have this conversation. This is a summertime conversation. We're not there yet, but this is
00:16:49we can do whole shows around this, but we've, we've had guests who have come up.
00:16:53Like Randy made the case that if you put Horford up there, which he believes you should,
00:16:56you should also put Ray Allen up there. Gary Washburn has come on this show and said that
00:17:01Marcus smart belongs up there. You know, like there are, you know, we're, we are truly running
00:17:05out of numbers because I agree with you at the very least Tatum and Brown will be up there one
00:17:10day because they won that title, hopefully multiples, but they won that title. And that,
00:17:15you know, that, that is going to stamp it. But I, I mentioned Grandy and, you know,
00:17:19man can call a game. We know it, but maybe my favorite thing about Grandy is the stats that
00:17:24he digs up that he will. Oh, the Grandy bombs. Yeah. And I'm sure. So like we all, I'm guessing
00:17:32like you guys could probably recite whatever yours is across sports. Like we all have that
00:17:36favorite stat, right? That favorite stat that like my favorite stat in sports history period
00:17:43is that Wayne Gretzky has more career assists or, or yeah, more career assists than any other
00:17:51player in NHL history has points. So if you just got rid of Gretzky's goals, dude still has more
00:17:57points than anybody else in history. That is my favorite stat Grandy. And I'm sure you guys saw
00:18:02this on earth. My favorite stat about this year's Celtics that just absolutely blows my mind every
00:18:09time I think about it. And it is that this team had more 30 point leads this season, 10 point
00:18:16deficits. That's insane. That is freaking nuts. You want to talk about dominance of a team over
00:18:25the court. That's not like just in the playoffs that is over the course of the entire year.
00:18:30That is bonkers. That is, that is just undeniable. Any argument you have about whatever
00:18:37soft or unproven or competition, like this is a longevity stat that, that extends what 101 games
00:18:46as they went, you know, 80 and, and 21, 18, 21. Yeah. Like my God, what a stat that is greedy.
00:18:54Yeah. And that's sort of what my point is, is we have to get in the mindset and understand and
00:19:00process that we witnessed something that almost nobody has ever seen before and pick a franchise.
00:19:07They haven't had a season like this. And that's just like, regardless of era, regardless of,
00:19:13you know, who the competition was, when you're that dominant from preseason to game five of the
00:19:21NBA finals, it's like, it's the ultimate mic drop. There's no hole. There's no weakness.
00:19:27There's no yeah. But, and the fact that all of us for the rest of time are Teflon as a result of this
00:19:35title is like, I just don't know how to process it. Like coming from an era where I used to pray
00:19:42that David Wesley was the difference and Vitaly Botonpiko was going to be the one that got us
00:19:47over the hump to be in the gutter that that was of the Rick Pitino era to now be having a legitimate
00:19:54earnest conversation that we have just witnessed one of the greatest seasons in NBA history. And
00:19:59it happened with the Boston Celtics. It's just hearing those words come out of my mouth. I mean,
00:20:05I'm going to have to turn my camera off for five seconds and take care of something. It's just,
00:20:10it's just unbelievable. That's all I can say. It's just unbelievable.
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00:21:31Yeah. I mean, look, this is any way you want to slice it. One of the best teams in recent history
00:21:37and you know, you got to go when you're in the converse and the people don't want to have this
00:21:40conversation because there's just a lot of, I don't know, angst over the path. Like this wasn't
00:21:49going to happen anyway. Like, look, I love basketball a lot, right? Just to tell you,
00:21:58Boston would have done this to most teams in their way. Maybe Giannis and Dane get a game or two.
00:22:05Maybe the Knicks put up a little bit of a fight. Indiana might've been the hardest team they played
00:22:11in the playoffs. Like no joke. That was one of the best offenses I've ever seen in my life.
00:22:17You know, Jimmy Butler on Miami wouldn't have mattered. I wouldn't have been eager to see
00:22:21what the Nuggets series would have looked like. That's the only one though, but like legitimately
00:22:26the only team. And again, I love, I love this. Like, oh, like, like, oh, well, if so-and-so had
00:22:32so-and-so, I'm like, look, let me just tell you again, this particular panel of people
00:22:38watched every game. They get the shit out of everybody, out of everybody except for Denver.
00:22:44And I still think if you put those teams against each other, that Boston probably would have found
00:22:52a way, but it would have been really tight. It would have been really close. It would have been
00:22:56the series everybody was looking for, but Boston winning the season after just demolishing
00:23:03everybody, it was almost, let me get this by you. This feel like a Patriots post, like a vintage
00:23:11Patriots post-season run to you? Because for me, I never sweated a second until I got to the finals.
00:23:17Then after the first two games, it was really like, do they even need Chris Hapsburg-Zingas
00:23:22to win the finals? Like that's, that's the conversation I was having in my head. I'm like,
00:23:26do they really actually need him out there? Or, or is he just like the,
00:23:31just a cherry on top of this dominant Sunday? Yeah. I mean, it felt like it's, this is not a
00:23:38good comp at all. You would need a less important player, but it, it reminds you of some of those
00:23:44playoff runs where it was, you know, like Gronk got hurt and it was like, do they need Gronk?
00:23:48Or can they, can they still win in spite of, you know, Rob Gronkowski not playing and,
00:23:53and it just, yeah. I mean the, we we've said it a number of times over the course of the year
00:23:58that for better or worse, I guess in the bigger picture, better, but worse in that now, you know,
00:24:05you're going to have what we once called in, in Red Sox nation, pink hats, you're going to have
00:24:11the people that, that sort of come along and this is what happened over the course of the 20 years
00:24:16of dominance for the Patriots. It's the, you know, who cares about the regular season? They're
00:24:21going to win their 12 games. I don't even need to watch, you know, wake me, wake me when we
00:24:25get to the post season. But, but then eventually, like after the first three titles, it wasn't even
00:24:31that it was wake me when we get to the AFC title game, you know, they're going to have their
00:24:36actual buy and then they're by, you know, pseudo buy against a crap seam.
00:24:41So the, the double buy to the AFC title game. And, you know, in some years, depending on the,
00:24:46the path, some people said literally, you know, well, it just, when we get to the Superbowl,
00:24:51we can start to pay attention to this thing. And that's what it was for a lot of, I don't know
00:24:55about Celtics fans, like real Celtics fans. I think real Celtics fans truly understood where
00:25:01they had come from and enjoyed the journey. And maybe not to the level of Greeny where you're
00:25:05sweating every second of every actual regular season. I'm already nervous about summer league
00:25:09in a month. I mean, what are we talking about? But some people out there, certainly the casual
00:25:14Boston sports fan, you know, it was like, all right, well, they're, you know, one of, if not
00:25:18the best team in the NBA, they're going to be in the playoffs. They're going to have home court.
00:25:22They're going to win the first round or two. So, you know, right back in the this, the they're,
00:25:26they're always in the final four now, you know, six out of eight or whatever, they're going to
00:25:30be in the Eastern conference finals. So wake me when, when they get there and let's see how they
00:25:35blow it this time. And they didn't, they, they did it and they did it easily. I mean, you know,
00:25:41they're like, there were some people that were saying, and I was not one of them, by the way,
00:25:46there were some people saying at, at the conclusion of beating the Pacers,
00:25:52that was your NBA finals because the Mavericks are going to be even easier.
00:25:56And maybe I just gave Luca and, and Kyrie to a certain extent, but mostly Luca and that depth,
00:26:02by the way, because I like lively and Gafford and Washington and those guys, I looked at that team
00:26:07and I saw what they did to OKC and what they did to Minnesota. And I was like, look, I mean,
00:26:11Celtics are obviously favored and they really should win. You know, it's a failure if they
00:26:16don't, but I think Dallas is going to be a tough out. I think they're going to take a couple of
00:26:20games and yeah, I know it went five, but that was an easy series for Boston. That was a generally
00:26:28light series for Boston that, that, you know, the players would never say it, you know, publicly
00:26:34internally, maybe they didn't break a sweat. I mean, that was, that was not a hard lift.
00:26:40And the fact that that team did this and we get to celebrate it, obviously, and think about what
00:26:46is still to come with a core that is going nowhere, as I've talked about, like Tatum's
00:26:51going to get his Brown, got his Porzingis, got his contract holiday, got his whites under contract,
00:26:57but is going to get his extension anyway. You know, Pritchard has already signed the,
00:27:02the human special teams, NBA player and the, you know, like even Hauser,
00:27:08Hauser's a question Mark. We'll see, you know, we'll see if he gets his contract.
00:27:12And I hope he does obviously in Horford wick has already come out and said that Horford's coming
00:27:16back for an 18th year. So everyone's coming back. And so like, I was listening to Max the other
00:27:21night doing TV. And the question was something to the degree, like something along the lines of
00:27:28what stands in their way next year. And Max, Max's response, which is, I think what we would
00:27:34all answer hell, you know, if this team is healthy, then yeah. I mean, I, I still think
00:27:41your heads and shoulders above the rest of the NBA other there parody is great right now.
00:27:47And there are some teams like even the thunder going out and getting Caruso and getting giddy
00:27:51out of their huge move. Like there are teams that are up and coming for sure. I'm not saying
00:27:56Boston's going to walk to banner 19, but they're going to enter the season as they already are,
00:28:01which is prohibitive favorites and they should be. Yeah. I think what this playoffs in both
00:28:07conferences really hammered home is once you get to this time of year, everything is about
00:28:12match-ups. It doesn't matter how good you were during the regular season. It doesn't matter how
00:28:17good you were in your previous series. If you can't solve the matchup problem, you're cooked,
00:28:24right? Like Minnesota takes down Denver immediately. Everyone is saying, oh, this is it.
00:28:30Anthony Edwards has arrived. This is the team that's going to win the title.
00:28:33They got worked by the maps, right? Because they had a matchup problem. The Celtics have this
00:28:39really competitive series against the Pacers, right? We knew how good the Pacers were because
00:28:44we played them like 10 fricking times during the year. So you go from having to stop that offense
00:28:51to that, which provided matchup problems for you, right? Yeah. You swept them, but it's not,
00:28:56this was not an easy, like this five game finals win was an easier sample of games than the
00:29:03sweep was in the conference finals. So then you get to the Mavs and you're thinking, okay,
00:29:09it's a lot harder to guard a motion offense for 48 minutes where everyone's running around
00:29:15and they have four guys who can attack off the dribble compared to just standing around and
00:29:19watching Luca and Kyrie dribble. So heading into that finals matchup, you're thinking, okay,
00:29:25offensively, you're going to be able to limit the Mavs pretty easily given how good the Celtics
00:29:30defense is. The question was, I think, what was it going to happen when you had to face a real
00:29:37defense? Cause the Pacers isn't a real defense. That's that, you know, the Celtics were putting
00:29:41up 120, but they had their five worst offensive games of the season in the finals. And we're up
00:29:47by 20 and three or four of them because the Mavs couldn't solve the matchup problem. So you go from
00:29:54one end taking down this supposed Minnesota Timberwolves super team who just took down the
00:29:59defending champs. And yet they couldn't, they couldn't handle you even in your five worst
00:30:05offensive games of the season because they couldn't solve your matchup problem. So when I think of
00:30:10future playoff runs, health is going to be important, but matchups are going to be important
00:30:16because I think we all would agree that even if we think the Celtics beat the Mavs or the
00:30:22Timberwolves and the Nuggets, they present way more matchup problems for what you're good at
00:30:28than the Mavs did. And the Mavs, like that's what made it so enjoyable to hear how much the narrative
00:30:35was that they have these two best players and the Celtics had never seen anything like this
00:30:40Dallas Mavericks team. I mean, like, what are you talking about? Oh, they are an ISO offensive team
00:30:47that's going up against a defensive team that does not have a Mike Conley, does not have a go bear
00:30:53that you can pick on in space. I just think whether it was willful ignorance or trying to wish it into
00:31:00existence, people weren't willing to just use their eyes and understand that playoff basketball
00:31:06comes down to matchups and presenting problems that the other team cannot solve due to their
00:31:12roster construction. It didn't matter what Jason Kidd tried schematically. He did not have the
00:31:18horses to match the problems with or without Porzingis, especially with Porzingis. But even
00:31:24without him, it didn't matter because the fact that how Brad built this roster to not have a
00:31:32weakness and to have inflection points at every position. So you don't know where it's coming.
00:31:38You might think it's going to be a Tatum and Jalen Drive. It's actually a Derek White pick and roll.
00:31:44You know, like there's just no way to know. They're like the team. They're like the many
00:31:49face God team where like they're just going to get you from every angle. And until you can prove you
00:31:54can solve that four out of seven, they're not going to lose a playoff series. Even Tillman gave
00:31:59you big minutes, right? Like even if they weren't great, they were good enough, right? They weren't
00:32:05beautiful minutes, but they were good enough. And I think that speaks to the, it speaks to Joe.
00:32:10It speaks to the, the competitive nature of this team. And it speaks to Brad Steven's brain.
00:32:16He found the right mix of guys with the right skillset and the right mentality to where it did
00:32:22not matter what was in their path. They could adjust and figure out a way to win four out of seven.
00:32:30I think we, at this point we've gone, I don't know, I'm going to call it 40 minutes,
00:32:34whatever. I think we have to have at least a conversation like separately about Jalen and
00:32:40about Jason, because again, as you said, they have, their numbers are going up in the rafters
00:32:46now. Like it doesn't matter what happens. They're going up. No question. And I think I'd rather
00:32:51start with Brown just because he's, he got all the, the shine, the, the, the Eastern
00:32:58conference finals MVP and the finals MVP. And what that is, is a culmination of all the hard
00:33:05work that guy put in the gym, every single off season to get better. And I make this joke like
00:33:10kind of all the time on Twitter. I don't think people understand what I'm saying. This, if you
00:33:15cannot see the work specifically that Jalen put out with Tracy McGrady over the past couple
00:33:21of off seasons, you need to open your eyes a little bit more. The Jalen that we saw this
00:33:26post-season was one of the most patient players I've seen in a while. He finally combined the
00:33:34athleticism with seeing the floor and being patient. And now you just have this like
00:33:40unbelievable, unstoppable wing that plays two ways now. And it's so crazy to look at.
00:33:48And I asked this on Barrett's podcast, like I think maybe during the Indiana series,
00:33:54you know, who feels worse, the Lakers, because they don't, they no longer have
00:33:58the same amount of titles, which I don't count anyway. I never did, but that's okay.
00:34:02The Nets who gave the Celtics, both Jalen and Jason, and also had Kyrie and Katie,
00:34:09and that is already gone and passed and totally over with. Or is it the Philadelphia 76ers who
00:34:16have to watch Al, Jalen and Jason, all players, either they had or could have had.
00:34:21Don't forget Drew.
00:34:22Yeah, Drew Holiday as well, like raise a banner, right? So that being said, when you look at what,
00:34:29again, greeny, you know, this, because you have a great memory of this. All I heard about was how
00:34:35the Ben Simmons, Brandon Ingram draft is a two player draft. And the guy in three wasn't going
00:34:40to mount to anything. Right. Meanwhile, drafted later and Jalen Brown draft later, both have
00:34:46titles as number two guys or number one guys on a championship team. So I know we want to do some
00:34:52Tatum stuff in a second, but the journey of Jalen Brown, it needs to be celebrated. Like,
00:35:01like I know people don't want to make the Kawhi comparison because Kawhi is a different level
00:35:08type of player, but sometimes like you got to believe in your development of guys. You have
00:35:13to believe in your scouting. Like this guy, I know it doesn't, didn't happen in college.
00:35:18He had awful spacing, uh, two big guys that weren't worth anything, terrible guard play at
00:35:23Cal. He just needs more space and more guidance. And from the guy that we saw in the, in the video
00:35:32of him at the Warriors finals, talking to Iguodala on the phone, like manifesting that to what it is
00:35:38now, like that needs to be celebrated. And what we need to do a better job of is evaluating talent
00:35:47differently because Jalen, if you go back to high school was given Ben Simmons, the business
00:35:53in tournaments, right? You go back, they played a tournament together, Jalen's team, which I don't
00:35:57remember because I know, uh, Simmons played for Montverde, right? Yeah. And then I think Jalen
00:36:03was on Henrietta or something, something in Georgia. Yeah. Good time. But Jalen's team beat
00:36:09Ben Simmons's team, but nobody cared about that when it came to college, even though Ben Simmons
00:36:13didn't amount to anything in college either. So my point being in a two player draft, the two guys
00:36:18that went after those two guys, both won championships and were either the best player,
00:36:22second best player in the championship team. And for Jalen Brown to come from where he was to where
00:36:26he is now is an amazing accomplishment. It's one of those things where if you close your eyes and
00:36:33someone were to ask you to picture your ideal version of both players, I think what we just
00:36:40witnessed is that we just saw the perfect development scenario, whatever, like this is it.
00:36:51Everything we wanted from both of those guys from development, leadership, mindset, production,
00:36:59skillset, this is it. And they're 26 and 27. So it's like, you got it at the early stages of their
00:37:08NBA prime years. And I think that's what's so exciting, right? Like, the fact that we now get
00:37:13to watch the rest of their Celtic careers for however long it lasts, and we don't have to play
00:37:19the what if game with them. I just have a feeling and maybe it's hopeful, maybe it's green Kool-Aid,
00:37:25but I just have this feeling that like, now comes like, now comes the goods. It's like you thought
00:37:33they were good now. We'll wait till you see what it looks like now that they're stamped for the
00:37:37rest of their life. And they no longer, the question is now, how many are they going to get
00:37:42as opposed to are they ever good enough to do it together. So just having that off your back,
00:37:49I just, I cannot wait to see what the next three to five years look like. Now that they can play
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00:39:27Well, I mean, it won't be pressure free because obviously now there's the pressure to repeat,
00:39:31which, you know, is significant. And, you know, I do like, we don't dock,
00:39:36we don't dock Pierce for never repeating. We don't dock. I'm not, I'm not saying if they,
00:39:40I'm not saying if they don't do it, it's somehow a blemish on their resume or something like that.
00:39:45I'm just saying like, I hope they feel the pressure at the start of next season.
00:39:49And they're not just playing with house money or whatever, because I think that there are honestly
00:39:53internally, like to a man, I think there are like, I I'm not saying Tatum is in any way,
00:40:00shape or form upset, you know, mad that Jalen Brown got finals MVP or East finals MVP or any
00:40:08of that conversation that some people want to have. But I think it's probably motivating form
00:40:14like, all right, you've got yours net, like next one's my turn. You know what I mean? So there's,
00:40:19there's an element of that for him. I think that it's going to be potentially a, a long,
00:40:27a long summer, you know, in, in, I mean, it's going to be short summer. It's a quick turnaround,
00:40:31obviously, but a long summer in the sense that these guys, what would make me nervous about
00:40:35next year thinking ahead is that they don't really get a break. Some of them like Tatum,
00:40:39you know, is more or less, you know, he's, he's going to party his way right to the Olympics.
00:40:43And then all of a sudden it's the Olympics and he's there holidays there, maybe white
00:40:48winds up there, maybe Brown winds up there. I mean, who knows what the final roster ends up
00:40:52shaking out as, and you know, as soon as that's over, it's like, boom, like training camp and
00:40:58here we go again. And so, you know, you don't know how that catches up with you physically,
00:41:03mentally, emotionally, whatever, in any way, shape or form, but sort of going back to everything
00:41:08that I was talking about. One thing that, that I think anyway, I didn't hear you say it. One
00:41:13thing I think he left out and green, he didn't mention, I think it's just really important to
00:41:17the, to the Jalen Brown narrative is this is someone who, and he has talked about it at length,
00:41:24each and every off season, he goes back and, and, you know, finds a deficiency within his game,
00:41:30whether it's the left hand or, you know, working on free throw shooting or, you know,
00:41:35mid range game or whatever it may be. And he goes and he works on it and inevitably comes
00:41:40back the following year. And it's another tool in the chest, right? It's a, it's something that he
00:41:46has improved upon. I don't think anyone necessarily expected like a bad year from him or whatever,
00:41:54but it wasn't probably talked about enough that he went out and he got at the time,
00:42:01the richest contract in NBA history and still came back a better player. There was no, I got mine
00:42:09fat and happy mentality. He got it remained motivated, maybe more motivated, quite frankly,
00:42:17because he still had enough people behind him saying, you can't do it, or you can't do it in
00:42:20Boston, or you can't do it with Tatum. Or if anyone has to go, it's you all of this stuff
00:42:27and goes and obviously accomplishes what he does, which is become, albeit in the very short window,
00:42:32it's been possible. The first player in NBA history to win both East finals and NBA finals
00:42:38MVP. And I'm honestly, I'm, I'm just curious to know what it is that, that motivates him next
00:42:45year. Maybe it's the fact that despite everything he accomplished this year, you know, he wasn't
00:42:49all defensive first team. I was going to say, he talked about getting snubbed for defense. Yeah.
00:42:54Or that he wasn't, you know, one of the top 15, he wasn't an all NBA player this year. So who
00:42:58knows? Maybe like, maybe he'll still find a way after all this to come back next year,
00:43:02pissed about something. I hope he does. I hope they all do in their own way because that
00:43:08kind of full circle it with something Eva was talking about before with the Patriots,
00:43:12that was what made that team. And in particular, Tom Brady, great. As long as he was,
00:43:16he just always, even if it was created in his own mind, had that thing, that chip on his shoulder
00:43:23that drove him, that, you know, kept this thing alive. And I'm, I'm fascinated to see how this
00:43:31team sort of manifest that. Yeah. Tell me if I'm crazy, but I almost think how it shook out
00:43:39between those two in terms of the, the, you know, the bill Russell trophy, the Larry bird trophy
00:43:45to me, it was the perfect scenario, right? You had Jalen Brown, who, like you mentioned,
00:43:50got this huge deal, had the season of his life, earned his validation with both of those MVPs.
00:43:57Then at the same time, everything everybody has ever said about Jason Tatum is in a game like
00:44:04this game five title, you're on your home floor title is there for the taking. He had the best
00:44:10game of his life. And the way that he closed that game in the fourth quarter was like, he had his
00:44:17moment of proving and showing the world. I am who I say I like what you think I am. I am. And that
00:44:26was like his own finals MVP moment of like, when you're in that position, the best franchise player
00:44:35closes the door. Steph Curry closed the door. Janice closed the door with a 50 burger. Tatum
00:44:41is one of five players ever to have 30 points in 10 assists in a closeout game to secure a title.
00:44:48So the fact that Brown gets the national recognition, the MVPs, the pictures, all that
00:44:55stuff, awesome for him. For us who care about the Celtics side of it, you now never have to worry
00:45:03about if Jason Tatum is good enough to be a number one to win you a title. He, on his home floor,
00:45:10broke through that door with authority. And I think that is almost more important for him
00:45:16than had he won the finals MVP. Yes, people will hold that on his laundry list of accolades and
00:45:23rankings and all that stuff. But if you just watched that game, this was his like,
00:45:28fuck you game, I'm going to win this title and end this drought for my fans, for my franchise,
00:45:35and to solidify myself as one of them ones. The same way we think of Jokic or any of these guys
00:45:45that are in that air of, OK, title's on the line, what are you going to go do about it?
00:45:51Jason Tatum just told the world that he's going to go win the title. And I think you could see
00:45:56that in his emotion during the game, both from his approach to his demeanor, to how he defended,
00:46:03to how he was selfless. He played a perfect game. And for it to come with a title at the end of it
00:46:10is just like I said, you close your eyes and you dream of a perfect scenario. I think we saw that
00:46:15in game five. Yeah, I mean, the thing with Tatum is it's going to get lost in the history books
00:46:21here. I will not forget this because I will be one of the guys that tries to remind people of this.
00:46:28And again, Jalen Brown deservedly won the finals MVP. And I'm so thrilled for Jalen.
00:46:35Again, the validity like to be able to be, you know, everybody gave him so much crap for that
00:46:39contract. It's like, guess what? I just won Eastern Conference finals and finals MVP. And I
00:46:43just won the trophy. So like here are the double berets. Like, I don't care what Tatum just did
00:46:49in this finals matchup to play center on defense and point guard on offense.
00:46:55That is like, I haven't seen that since magic. I get it. Yeah. You got to go back to 80,
00:47:00the 80 season to find someone that's done that. And I can't say enough about the player that Tatum
00:47:07has become. And I, Kaufman, you remember me just pounding the table for point Tatum for the past
00:47:14two years of like this team is going to realize how good it is when Tatum can control an offense
00:47:20like that. Now, it looked a little different than what I expected. Totally. However,
00:47:28just the stuff that he does and you really and that's why like we're going to miss JJ Redick
00:47:34because he points this stuff out as he's now the new head coach, the LA Lakers.
00:47:40Won't last long. It'll be back podcast. I'm going to miss that pod. I'm telling you.
00:47:45So good. But the little stuff that he was doing, you'd miss it. And like the defensive stuff,
00:47:53taking away the lob threats, again, playing defense on centers to deter lob threats and
00:47:57being able to switch and move and do all these things. Meanwhile, come down the other end,
00:48:02he's commanding all the attention of the entire team. If you look at the isle,
00:48:06there's a good name of the website right now. I will tweet it out later.
00:48:11There's a great website that shows you the map of the movement of the ball on offense.
00:48:15And I was asking people very simple questions. I would take the end of one game and I'd show you
00:48:20what the Dallas map of their offensive flow looked like. And I would take a picture of the Celtics
00:48:25offensive flow and it looked like I would just ask people which team's hard to guard. You think
00:48:29the Celtics has so much synergy around it from everybody. And obviously, you look at the Dallas
00:48:36map, it's Luca right in the middle. And there's a bunch of stuff outside of that. The beauty of
00:48:40what Tatum was doing was getting everybody involved, whether the primary guy or he gets
00:48:46it and somebody else makes the play because Tatum's attention now drags everybody over here.
00:48:50And now you have a guy coming over this way. But the stuff that him and Drew were doing,
00:48:53the stuff that him and Jalen were doing, that there's just so many passes to Al Horford
00:48:58and Derek White that you just think are easy passes. But because Tatum's gravity pulls guys
00:49:02over here, those guys can get over here. Like his command of the floor was exactly what I wanted.
00:49:12I wanted that command. But how we went and did it was even more special than I could even dream of.
00:49:17So we gave Jim a little bit of his flowers. He got Tatum has evolved into this such a
00:49:25malleable superstar, which I think is getting lost in the shuffle in this whole thing.
00:49:32I mean, at one point, I think it was game two, Dan Devine, Yahoo Sports had the stat
00:49:37that Tatum had more drives in that game than like the basically Shea Geldrich,
00:49:44Alexander's average. And he was the number one league at it.
00:49:47I think it was 19, right? Didn't you have like 19?
00:49:5027, I think. 19 in game one and then like 27 in game two. So basically,
00:49:56you turn to a whole new player. That's what I mean, right? Like we always said,
00:50:00God, Tatum would only just be aggressive and drive to the river.
00:50:0627 drives. That's like what people average for team averages for like a season.
00:50:12Tatum's average during the regular season was nine.
00:50:15Yeah. The go from nine to like 27 is bananas.
00:50:18And so that's my point. And this gets this gets lost in the shuffle of like,
00:50:22where does Tatum rank in the hierarchy of the NBA?
00:50:25Look at what he just did and tell me how many guys could do that.
00:50:30I'll tell you. I'll tell you. Last two years, last year, you know,
00:50:34Nikola Jokic had an all time historic playoff run, greatest, best in the world.
00:50:40What did he do? Led the whole team, points, rebounds, assists, won a title.
00:50:45Guess who just did that to become one of six players or five players ever to do that?
00:50:50His name is Jason Tatum. So if when Jokic does it, it means he's an all time great player,
00:50:56best in the world, best in the league, blah, blah, blah. Well, we just saw a player who was
00:51:01on a better team, a historic team, just do the same thing as this godlike figure.
00:51:08And now I'm being told he's not one of the, you know, 10 best players in the NBA.
00:51:13It's just now that they've won, we can sit back and just laugh at all that stuff. But you're right.
00:51:19Like it gets lost in the shuffle because he didn't win the finals MVP.
00:51:24He literally led, you know, against the Cavs. It was leading everything in a series win since
00:51:29LeBron. Now that they've won the title, it's like, you know, Duncan, Bird, Jokic,
00:51:35you know, it's these legends of the game. And Jason Tatum just did that at 26 years old. Let's
00:51:41not act like that's normal. If it was normal, everyone would do it. And in reality, nobody does
00:51:47it. So, you know, to me, that says he's probably pretty good. Yeah. All right. We've got a few
00:51:52more minutes. And before we wrap, you know, talked about all these different people on the court
00:51:58on that team that are going to be back next year. How about 35 year old Joe Mazula, head coach of
00:52:04this team, who is also going to be back, you know, when he, when he's not busy walking around
00:52:09the North end, hold Larry O'Brien trophy and letting fans touch it. This guy, I'm sure you
00:52:14guys, I don't know about those listening or watching, but I'm sure you guys have been paying
00:52:19attention to at the very least the clips that have been floating around social media of the many
00:52:23interviews Joe has been doing on the national circuit since winning, you know, whether it was
00:52:29Zach Lowe's podcast or chatting with, pardon my take, you know, bar stool, obviously in your
00:52:34family, they're greeny among others, this guy, not that we didn't know or haven't joked about
00:52:39it routinely over the course of his year, especially psychopath. I mean the, and I say
00:52:48it lovingly. I mean, Joe, like I please come on this show. We love you. We've been defenders of
00:52:54the Joe Mazula wall for a very long time. So don't worry about that here, your family, but the,
00:53:00I mean, some of the stuff that he has been talking about since this championship, just in the last
00:53:05couple of days, whether it was like Lowe was asking him, yeah, if you were to rob a bank,
00:53:11how would you do it? And Joe giving this like really straight faced thought out answer as to
00:53:17how he would do it and his role and how he would put a team together. And the, like breaking this
00:53:23thing down in depth, like nothing other than, you know, obviously inspiration from his favorite
00:53:29movie, the town he's talking about how he watched the departed right before game five and all the
00:53:35different things in that movie that he considered inspiration. He was talking about how, and no one
00:53:40knew this, I guess, until after the game, how he, he tore his ACL during the year and, and, and still
00:53:48managed to coach on it. It was after some like regular season game against Atlanta, the back to
00:53:54back Atlanta and, and, and they lost and he was pissed and he went out and you know, the jujitsu
00:54:00stuff, like beat the crap out of his body and managed to tear his ACL and Joe being Joe and
00:54:06the spiritual person he is, you know, one of the greatest things to ever happen to me for all of
00:54:11these reasons, X, Y, and Z about how I started to think about things and take care of my body.
00:54:16And it puts me in a better head space or watching scenes from the dark night with Tatum right ahead
00:54:21of the clinching game. Like this dude's a lunatic, like, and I am, and I am glad that he is ours.
00:54:29You know, of all the validation that is a result of this title, the job is Zula validation. I think
00:54:37is my favorite just because, you know, we've been searching for a long time for the right captain
00:54:43of this ship. And I know he's from Rhode Island, but like, it's fitting that a bastard was the key
00:54:49to winning the elusive banner. Like, he is the living embodiment of that meme that you see on
00:54:56Twitter, where it's like, I called my landlord and told him to raise my rent because I believe in my
00:55:01grinder, you know, whatever that is like, that's Joe Missoula, like, the fact that he is just so
00:55:07psychotic, but in all the best ways. And that everything is so calculated. Like you see him
00:55:13running off all these plays postgame. He's like Rain Man, like his, he's just not a normal human,
00:55:19but he's our psycho. And I think it helps that he understands what it means to be a Celtic.
00:55:28He understands what it means to win in this franchise. He understands what the city and
00:55:33the fan base is like, because he lived it, right? Like he's not being a weird pervert in the office
00:55:39because he knows what it takes to win an NBA title. You know, I don't think we can say he may
00:55:45didn't get it. It's just having him not only back up his year one success and be even better,
00:55:52but now that Joe is stamped and his philosophy is stamped is like, it's the cherry on top,
00:55:59because what can you say now? You don't like when he calls timeouts,
00:56:03who gives a shit? You don't, you think he's maybe a little weird after the game,
00:56:08you know, with three minutes left in game five and they're up by 20 some odd points. He's that
00:56:13may, but you think he's like, you think he's a hard-o because he's challenging jump shots after
00:56:19a timeout. Damn right. He is. And he's a championship part of, but you mentioned,
00:56:25you mentioned the validation and see, here's the thing, because there are a lot of people
00:56:30out there that still are not on the Joe Missoula train doesn't matter, but it doesn't matter,
00:56:34but at least it's, it's harder now because there are certainly ways that the Celtics
00:56:41could have won this title. Like nothing would be different. They could have won this title
00:56:45and you still, if you were a Joe Missoula critic could have looked at it and said,
00:56:50you know, eh, I mean, they won in spite of them. How am I like that? It's like LeBron winning with,
00:56:56you know, whoever like David Blatt, you know what I mean? Like, it's like, is he that good a coach
00:57:03that goes out the window? And I think even for, for the like surliest of Joe Missoula
00:57:08critics, it goes out the window because undeniably he coached his ass off in the NBA finals.
00:57:16He was the best coach on the floor and he was the best coach on the floor in every,
00:57:20every round Spolstra, Bickerstaff, Carlisle. And what is that in kid? I'll coach them all.
00:57:31Spole the God couldn't have it. Like, yeah, he didn't have the talent. I don't give a shit.
00:57:36Still. He's supposed to be a wonder kid. Couldn't figure out Missoula,
00:57:39Missoula got one adjustment after game two worked them. And I think that's,
00:57:44that's what makes this title. So Teflon is the players are Teflon. Joe is Teflon. Brad is Teflon.
00:57:51You're Teflon. I'm Teflon. It's just, there's nothing you can say. And I think that is a
00:57:58problem for people whose job it is to try to play devil's advocate and troll. Like all you do now,
00:58:05like they've moved from, Oh, the Celtics are chokers. They'll never get it done.
00:58:10Now they're just, Oh, they're corny. They're cringy. You're it. You're done. It's it.
00:58:15The discussion is over and it just becomes the only sort of discussion point will be
00:58:21if they're in this situation again and they fail. But as long as they continue to succeed,
00:58:26you just have to take it on the chin. If you're one of these Joe haters or Tatum made or whatever,
00:58:32this isn't your time. You had your time. This is our time now. And I don't think
00:58:36they're lighting up anytime soon. Yeah. I missed it for the Joe Missoula detractors.
00:58:43I believe it's a guy named Ben Taylor on Twitter puts out these videos of like coaching decisions
00:58:48and adjustments. I would love all of you to watch the game three adjustments that the Celtics made
00:58:53to kill the debt, the Mavs defensive switch and how they did it in basically 10 minutes.
00:59:00And they absolutely wiped out them. Like it's to see it, to see someone pointed out. Cause it's,
00:59:07it's, it's hard sometimes to see justice in a game. Cause it's first off, we're all caught up
00:59:11in it a little bit differently. It's like, I'm not looking for coaching adjustments. I'm just
00:59:15trying to see if the ball goes in the hoop and if they're playing, that's really, really about it.
00:59:19So that was the one where they had like the quick swing. Right. And like the,
00:59:23well, so like what they would do is they would have like Gafford or lively cheat
00:59:28on the weak side of wherever the ball was. And then when they went to go drive, they would,
00:59:33there would be another guy there. So what Boston did was like run a couple of actions in different
00:59:37places. And then once they figured out how to manipulate the Mavs defense, then they just
00:59:42toyed with them the whole rest of the game and did a bunch of like window washing stuff to get
00:59:46exactly what the, like, and there's a video, I'll, again, I've tweeted it out. Maybe I'll
00:59:51tweet it out again. The video of that it's 10 minutes long. And if you watch that video, you'll
00:59:57be like, it's Joe and the staff being able to look at that, recognize it, adjust for it, have
01:00:05guys on the team that can quickly pick that up and then just absolutely kill them the rest of the
01:00:11game. And it was, there's that. And then there's also the guard in the dunker spot adjustment to
01:00:16start everything. So it's like, even from the jump, his game plan was, was nails. You don't
01:00:23win seven straight games on the road without being prepared to me that's coaching. So I don't
01:00:28know. I'm just, I'm so happy for him because of all the shit he would take for no apparent reason.
01:00:33Like despite the success, they're treating the guy like he's 10 games under 500 made no sense.
01:00:38So now that he can flip the double bird and say, kiss my Larry O'Brien is,
01:00:43is very rewarding for me personally. Just to think about where they were, like they're down three,
01:00:49nothing against Miami. And if he doesn't win game four, like maybe he doesn't come back to
01:00:55NBA champions. Like crazy. Life comes at you fast, everybody.
01:01:00I'm just looking through too. And I don't have the,
01:01:05I'm just trying to count it on the fly. So I'll, I'll ballpark it for you. And I know I'm within
01:01:10range, but another, like just great stat. And I think it bookends this, this conversation well
01:01:15with Missoula and the defense and the adjustments like Ed was talking about the Dallas Mavericks
01:01:20were held below 100, this great offense held below 100 points this year, prior to the NBA finals,
01:01:28regular season and playoffs. I want to say in totality, there was like six or seven times,
01:01:34something like that. Maybe like maybe 10, something like that. Maybe, maybe it was
01:01:38eight or nine, whatever it was the whole, you know, 90 plus games going into the NBA finals.
01:01:44And then in five games, the Celtics held them below 100 points, four times, 26 and O that's not,
01:01:51that's not just talent. I mean, talent has to get it done, but if you don't see the role of
01:01:57coaching in that, I can't help you. That's the bottom line. So, all right, look, this is the
01:02:04first of many, what I suspect will be somewhat celebratory shows between now and the start of
01:02:11next year, because I feel like we're not doing our job. If we're not, if we're going to spend
01:02:16all those seasons, they come up short, you know, dissecting why and how to change it and what moves
01:02:22need to be made. Well, when they actually get the whole freaking thing done, we need to give them
01:02:26their flowers in a different way. Each and every, nothing brings me more joy than just saying,
01:02:31Oh, they want to move on already. No, no, no. You should not have let me win this title.
01:02:37That was a mistake. I, if not for the fact that Greeny is already doing it,
01:02:43I would be out there. Like I I'd be a copycat, so I'm not going to bother. But if, if, if not for
01:02:48the fact that he's already doing it, you would see me at least once every other day tweeting
01:02:56just at random, you know, like congratulations again to the world champion, Boston Celtics.
01:03:02Oh, I'm doing it every single morning. I'm no longer the defending champ. I got 363 more to
01:03:08go or whatever the number is. I'm that psychotic. That's easy. That's nothing. So, so that will be
01:03:14coming to your feed every single day from now until they are no longer NBA champions.
01:03:18It's as predictable as that Twitter account that the, the, you know, ladies and gentlemen,
01:03:23the weekend. Yeah, that's me. Only it's about the Celtics being NBA champions. I don't know.
01:03:28And it's every morning, but you're, you're just as good looking as James Bond. So don't
01:03:32worry about that. Hey, listen, tomorrow morning, guys you know, at least as we record this tomorrow
01:03:38morning, maybe for some of you listening, it's already happened the parade and psyched. You
01:03:43know, I, I haven't been to a parade here in, in, you know, a duck boat parade in Boston as,
01:03:49as a fan in a long time, I've worked a bunch of them, but I haven't been as a fan in a long time.
01:03:53And I'm, I'm eager to take the kids and they're super pumped. And it's, this is,
01:03:58you know, I, I look forward to being among the million people or whatever it is that are there
01:04:02on this Friday morning. And I hope many of you out there watching or listening are part of the
01:04:06fun as well, because you've earned it. You deserve it. Celebrate this team. When Al Horford gets off
01:04:13his shift, slinging chicken tenders, he's going to be on a duck boat. So it's, it's just, it's
01:04:18going to, it's going to be amazing. I want to thank all of you out there listening. It's been
01:04:21an incredible ride. We're not going anywhere though. It is it's on to banner 19. Now.
01:04:26That's so weird to say. I'm not used to saying banner 19. That just feels weird.
01:04:31Yeah. Well it put it in the vernacular buddy, because hopefully we'll be talking about 20
01:04:36pretty soon as well. Brim Valenti for Dan Greenberg. I am Adam Kaufman.
01:04:40We will talk to you again real soon here on Celtics.