Sean Grande is the voice of the Celtics for the Boston Celtics Radio Network. Sean joins the program to discuss the Boston Celtics place in history, what a championship means for certain people, and why people have a hard time accepting this team's greatness. Twitter: @SeanGrandePbP
3:41 Celtics past scars clouded public’s judgement
15:40 What a title means for Mazzulla
20:42 Title will give Wyc and company reason to spend
25:01 Does continuity really matter?
37:00 Where does the story of this Celtics team begin?
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3:41 Celtics past scars clouded public’s judgement
15:40 What a title means for Mazzulla
20:42 Title will give Wyc and company reason to spend
25:01 Does continuity really matter?
37:00 Where does the story of this Celtics team begin?
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SportsTranscript
00:00is powered by Prizebase, the exclusive daily fantasy partner of the CLNS Media Network.
00:09What's up everyone?
00:10Welcome in, new edition of Celtics Feed.
00:12I feel like I should start by just kind of apologizing because the last time that we
00:16spoke with you, it has been, I mean, technically we are, you know, within the confines of what
00:22we do, which is technically one show per week, but as the calendar has played out, that last
00:29one show, which if I remember right, was with one Donny Wahlberg, Ev, that preceded
00:35the NBA finals.
00:36And here we are three games in and the Celtics effectively champions, historically effectively
00:43champions.
00:44They were up three, nothing on the Dallas Mavericks.
00:46Game four is Friday night there in Dallas, but with the seas, one win away, four quarters
00:51away from immortality.
00:54The reason that I say is this is over is because by NBA standards, it is, we have seen
01:02in history, whatever the round in totality, 155 teams take a three Oh series lead and
01:11not a one, not a one single team has blown it 14 times.
01:17It's happened in the NBA finals.
01:18So the Celtics they're champs.
01:20I know it hasn't happened yet.
01:21I, I, I, I, I hate even talking about this in this way, because in the back of my head,
01:28I know what the Red Sox didn't know for, I know what happened with the Bruins the year
01:32they blew the three Oh against Philadelphia, albeit not in a championship round.
01:35So we've just never seen it in the NBA and here's hoping it doesn't happen now, but we're
01:41going to get into it.
01:42We're going to talk a little bit about what we've seen so far, what we should expect in
01:45game four.
01:46Will it go five back to Boston?
01:48Is this thing going to end in a sweep and just the context, the historical context of
01:52what it all means.
01:53And there's really no one better to join us and break that down.
01:56Then of course, the man who is on the mic for each and every one of these games.
02:01And you can even see him on social media on camera, on the mic with Cedric Maxwell, breaking
02:06these things down.
02:07It's a lot of fun to watch behind the scenes as well.
02:09Sean Grandy, the radio voice of the team and has, has been through, you know, truly the,
02:16the highest of highs with this team, the championship in 08 to the lowest of lowest,
02:21which in your tenure, Sean is probably the breaking up of, of the new big three and,
02:27and the beginning of the Brad Stevens era as a head coach and the rebuild to where we
02:32are now.
02:33Oh, obviously where he in, in, I don't want to leave Danny Ainge out of this, but those
02:37two men in constructing this team into the champions that we are about to see this final
02:44series so far.
02:46What has this been like?
02:47Well, all you have to do is what's the last time we talked and then we have a conversation
02:53in which there were still all of the angst that everybody lived through all year.
02:57And I said something, I don't remember, but I think I said something like, what if it's
03:01not what we think it's going to be?
03:03What if it becomes walking backwards into this?
03:05What if it becomes like Denver last year?
03:07What if they play in the playoffs the way they played the regular season?
03:10And like most pieces of history, they are inconceivable until they become actual history.
03:18And the 30,000 foot view of this team all year is that they have been miles better than
03:25everybody else.
03:27So why would anybody be surprised that they've been miles better than everybody else through
03:31the playoffs?
03:33It shouldn't have been a surprise, but the scars of the last few years, I think just
03:40didn't allow people to see this team for what it really was.
03:43And to me, the notion of, well, it was only Dallas in the finals and Donovan Mitchell
03:49didn't play and Jimmy, but I think the Celtics, if anybody gets quote unquote hurt by it,
03:54historically, it's going to be the Celtics who were victimized by those teams not playing
03:58because spoiler alert, if you guys haven't figured it out yet already, the Celtics were
04:02going to win this year, no matter what.
04:04And that includes Denver, by the way, where they have gone 15 and two with a double digit
04:08scoring differential through the playoffs, if the path had been harder, probably not,
04:13but you don't need to go 16 and two.
04:14You just need to go 16 and 12.
04:17Yeah.
04:18And it's the perspective here is, and it gets lost in the weeds a little bit because it
04:23just feels like everybody has tried to poke holes through this thing on the way there.
04:28But what you're not realizing is the historic run this team has gone on, not just this year,
04:35the last couple of years.
04:37Sean, I think you might've had this last night, what are they, 21 and seven on the road the
04:41last three years, which is like the best mark in NBA history.
04:46This team is just every step of the way, checked every single box.
04:50And Sean was on this early, Sean, before the season ended, you were like, look, if this
04:53thing ends the way it's supposed to end here, we're going to be talking again about a team
04:58that has won their 18th title and they're going to raise a banner.
05:01You called it pretty early on, I think in the process, but I think what has gotten lost
05:05is how historically great this team is, how unbelievable it is that this team led by two
05:11guys in their mid twenties is about to become immortal, right?
05:16It's if you look at the shot charts of things in the, in the, the flow charts of things,
05:22what people are missing is a complete team effort on both ends of the floor.
05:26Everybody's connected.
05:27And that's why they're so dominantly good instead of poking fun at, you know, Jason
05:31Tatum didn't shoot well.
05:33We're missing the forest through the tree.
05:35So help guide us here.
05:36This is the season, but on the precipice of this for a while now, now that they're about
05:42to kick the door and claim immortality, help us put this in perspective.
05:46This is one of the greatest teams potentially in NBA history here.
05:52There can be no argument against that at this point.
05:55And what I said all year, it was a season of watching the history unfold.
06:01And then I would, you know, in doing my prep, obviously a lot of people who follow me on
06:04Twitter know that's just my game prep and I'm doing it late at night and I'll just throw
06:08something up there.
06:09And it was inevitably the Celtics just did this thing, which has never been done before
06:14in NBA history.
06:15And invariably in the replies somewhere there would be, yeah, but they haven't won the championship.
06:21Okay.
06:22I get that.
06:23But there was no championship to win in November.
06:25There was no championship to win in January.
06:27There was no championship to win in March.
06:29And all along for all the people, I kept saying, if the Celtics don't win the championship
06:33this year, yes, they will be one of the greatest teams in NBA history to not win the championship.
06:40But if they do, they will be one of the greatest teams in NBA history, period.
06:46And here is the secret sauce and why the 2024 Celtics fit like a glove with the other Celtic
06:53championship teams.
06:55The secret sauce of Boston Celtics tradition isn't that they've won the championships.
07:01It's how they have won the championships.
07:03And all of these teams have something in common.
07:07They don't just have great players.
07:08They have great players that have accepted smaller roles for the betterment of the team.
07:15That is the Celtics tradition.
07:17And that is where the 2024 team fits with all of the others.
07:22Obviously, I was here for every minute in 08, and that was a special team in and of
07:25its own way.
07:26But the statistical comp here has been 86.
07:30From game one to game 99, this team has been in stride, almost this simpatico with the
07:3886 team, not just in how many games they've won and how they have dominated statistically,
07:43but how they have played the game together.
07:46I'm glad that you mentioned game 99 because that, of course, makes the next one 100.
07:50And if the Celtics can complete this in a sweep, as much fun as it would be to say,
07:56well, that's 14 straight wins over Kyrie Irving, since he stomped on the lucky logo at the
08:00garden.
08:01There is a more significant number at hand, Sean, and that is, of course, 80-20.
08:05That is what the Celtics record would be this year if they can finish this in a sweep, 80
08:10and 20.
08:11Your pal Bill Simmons over at the Ringer, he tweeted it out.
08:15There's a 20-loss-or-less club for NBA champs, and only six teams have done it with 80-plus
08:23wins, too, of course, going into this year.
08:26Those include the Bulls of 96 and 97, the Warriors of 17 and 15, the Sixers in 67, Celtics
08:35did it in 86, the team you were just talking about, Lakers in 87, the Bucs in 71, Sixers
08:40also in 83.
08:42So Celtics are trying to obviously join this club here and do it for the second time.
08:49But I think what's so interesting, not surprising, I mean, people, it's just sort of cliche at
08:55this point for people around the country who are not Boston fans of whatever sport to hate
09:00Boston teams of whatever sport, but I'll hear from friends who, there are a lot of people
09:06around the NBA that want to do this, that want to pick this apart.
09:09I sent that text, that tweet, rather, from Simmons to a few friends.
09:13And one wrote, I understand what the numbers say, but there's some nuance in these conversations.
09:18The 2017 Warriors would probably have beaten the Celtics in five.
09:22That Cavs team they stomped was way better than this Mavs team.
09:26Celtics are worthy champs of 23-24, no doubt about it, but I'm not crowning them anything
09:32beyond that.
09:33And that is going to be the mindset of a lot of people.
09:37I wholeheartedly understand that.
09:40But I sort of feel like you can do that with any champion of any sport.
09:43You know, you can go back through history and cherry pick champs all you want and compare
09:48and contrast.
09:49We do that.
09:50That's what people in our space do.
09:51We like to rank things.
09:52That's fine.
09:53I don't care about that.
09:54But to say that this team, certainly statistically, but even on the floor, is anything less than
09:59a historically great NBA team, I just don't know how to help these people at this point.
10:04I mean, it's just a fact.
10:08If this happens in Game 4, or whenever it happens, if this inevitability happens, and
10:12I do believe one day somebody's going to come back from 0-3 and win a series.
10:16And when it happens, probably one of the single most likely teams to ever do it was the Celtics
10:21team last year.
10:22It's going to be a higher-seeded team that is really, really good, that struggles for
10:26whatever reason early in the series, that has five and seven at home.
10:30You know, you can sort of see the pieces that are there.
10:33This obviously doesn't look like it's going to be that, you know, for a variety of reasons.
10:39All of those discussions are about to become irrelevant.
10:42Because when this team walks through that magic door and takes the 80th step, the discussion
10:48isn't going to be about no one's going to care anymore about the set.
10:53I mean, think about what you're talking about.
10:54This 24 Celtics versus the 17 Warriors and the greatest teams of all time.
10:59Things are about to happen, possibly within the next 24-36 hours.
11:04Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown, their numbers getting retired.
11:07Al Horford's number could easily be retired.
11:10Al and Drew Holiday becoming Hall of Famers.
11:13These are the things we're talking about that are going to happen.
11:15And that discussion, the angst, and the finger-pointing or whatever that has been aimed at Jason particularly
11:24and Jalen and the Celtics the last few years, we've already seen it in the last 24 hours.
11:30How narratives are going to begin to shift.
11:33What was the big, what was the sexy discussion last night?
11:36Where the Celtics rank all-time or how Luka Doncic had a meltdown on the big stage just
11:42as he did in the World Cup.
11:44It's not going to be about where the 24 Celtics rank all-time.
11:47It's going to be, why does Luka always lose it in these situations?
11:52Why does Anthony Edwards always smile after the Timberwolves lose?
11:55Why does this player, who hasn't won a championship yet, act the way he did?
11:59Because that is the way of it.
12:00People will move on to what's next and you will never, as a Celtics fan, if you're worried
12:06about people pointing to the 96 Bulls or the 17 Warriors, know that you will never, ever,
12:12ever have to apologize for winning a championship.
12:16They didn't in Toronto when Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson both went down in the finals.
12:21They didn't last year in Denver when the Nuggets beat eight seeds in the conference
12:26finals and finals.
12:27It is a concrete part of history.
12:30It is a championship.
12:32It is bulletproof and it's about to be yours.
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13:53I guess like this, this championship does a lot for everybody in terms of narratives
13:59for everybody.
14:00But I think the most interesting one, just given the little history we have with him
14:06is Joe Mizzoula, who is thrust into a situation from, you know, division two, Fremont State
14:13to the main Celtics to the second group of coaches and the main Celtics squad that the
14:20actual Boston Celtics and becomes head coach and all of a sudden is leading this team.
14:26I think every narrative about this guy that's ever existed is just completely evaporated
14:31because I don't know.
14:33Think about how, what, 80 and 20, I mean, it could be like 85 and 15 if they had a good
14:38head coach.
14:39I know.
14:40And this to me, because he's so different than everybody else, I think in terms of just
14:45how he sees the game, I think a lot of people haven't figured out that this guy's really
14:50into the intricacies of coaching a basketball team and cares way more.
14:54Like when JJ had his interview with Joe in the beginning of the season, he talked about
15:00afterwards how much battery felt about the Celtics in their future because of that interview.
15:06So I watched it and I understood what he was saying, what Joe has done here in two years
15:14is win at the highest level humanly possible is a tatum rolled ankle away from going to
15:20back-to-back finals and is doing it under intense scrutiny that doesn't even make any
15:27sense.
15:28Again, there's so much to dissect here, but from where you're sitting, does it feel like
15:36for Joe, this is what shuts everybody up about his coaching style and how quirky he is and
15:44how different he is?
15:45Can we allow him to be Joe Mizzoula now?
15:47Does this allow him to be himself in front of everybody else?
15:50Of course, because everybody is going to wear the championship in a different way.
15:55It makes you bulletproof in a lot of ways.
15:59There'll be Joe Mizzoula issues in years going forward, but he'll always be the championship
16:02coach.
16:03I've said this now publicly, but it's something I'll tell you guys I've been saying to him
16:08for quite a while.
16:09Five years from now, Joe Mizzoula, I've been saying this since February.
16:13Five years from now, Joe Mizzoula will be a championship coach or a multi-time championship
16:17coach.
16:18That'll be the new one, by the way.
16:19Can you win again?
16:20That'll be the first question.
16:21The pressure for the Celtics to win multiple championships, to be one of those really great
16:25teams, problems to worry about.
16:27But five years from now, Joe Mizzoula will be coaching against some new dude that maybe
16:33came off as an assistant some way, and Joe will be Eric Spolster.
16:36It'll be the new guy who has no chance to win a playoff series against Joe Mizzoula,
16:41because look at the coaching matchup.
16:42Look at the disparity between the great championship coach, Joe Mizzoula, and this new guy, when
16:47Joe's always been the same.
16:52I am not a hater of hot take theater.
16:56I love it as much as everybody else.
16:58It's fun.
16:59It's breakfast cereal, right?
17:00It's great.
17:02We need it.
17:03We love it.
17:04Try to imagine, if you will, being a Celtics fan or an NBA fan of the 60s, and being transported
17:14into 2024, the game would look like it's being played on Mars.
17:19Not to mention the fact you would have first take killing Bill Russell for his free throw
17:25shooting and forensic analysis of Larry Bird's reaction to Cedric Maxwell getting the MVP
17:33of the finals in 81.
17:36It's a different world.
17:37It's a hot take world, and it's fun, and it's great, but at the end, there's real life.
17:43And in real life, Joe Mizzoula was thrust into a spot over the exception, as we've talked
17:48about, of Jack McKinney getting thrown off his bike in 1980.
17:54This doesn't exist, the situation he had to walk into, and he has stayed, I think the
17:59most impressive thing was so much pressure to do otherwise.
18:03He has stayed true to himself, and he has coached the way he felt he needed to coach,
18:09and he's going to have the ultimate honor of and reward for something in life that's
18:16really important, which is staying true to what you believe and doing it your way.
18:21So building on that, I don't know if you guys saw it, I tweeted out last night just
18:25in the sort of aftermath of that game and being excited, being on the precipice of what
18:30we know is coming, or at least presume is coming, barring a truly historic collapse.
18:35You know, what would Banner 18 mean to Boston?
18:38This is, you know, elements of this we've touched on over the course of the season.
18:41Sean, you mentioned a couple of them already, you know, that it ensures Tatum.
18:45It is a five and a half year drought in Boston.
18:49This is just, I mean, my gosh, do you realize there are kids who are nine years old, kids
18:55who are eight or nine years old that haven't experienced really truly a championship in
18:59town?
19:00It's tragic.
19:01I mean, you're obviously you say that in jest, but like my 11 year old who is really into
19:05this playoff run and the nine year old to a lesser degree, but the 11 year old especially,
19:10you know, has said that, I mean, he really wants to go to the parade and all of this
19:13stuff, obviously, but it's like, I mean, he doesn't really remember the Red Sox in
19:1818, you know, so this is sort of the first time that that he is going through this.
19:22And so, yeah, I mean, it for for certain generations, age gaps, whatever.
19:27This is significant.
19:28I mean, he barely even, you know, was following it as intently when the Celtics were in the
19:31championship round two years ago.
19:34So interest in all of that passionate evolves over time.
19:36But like, you know, as as you alluded to Tatum Brown, maybe Horford, you know, this ensures
19:42their numbers are going up in the rafters.
19:44And I think everyone assumed Tatum and Brown anyway, but this crystallizes it.
19:48You know, Horford and and the holiday Hall of Fame cases, as you brought up, you know,
19:54as I touched on before, the sort of, you know, finishes what what Danny Ainge was working
19:59so hard toward in in the multiple stages of the rebuild that began, of course, with that
20:04infamous Nets trade.
20:07The you know, the the new NBA record for championships of 18 separating from the Lakers, although
20:13people have pushed back on that and said they don't have 17.
20:16Minneapolis doesn't count in the same way that, you know, like I saw Shea Serrano post
20:20on Twitter.
20:21Hey, Celtics fans like anything pre-merger doesn't count.
20:24So like you begin in 86.
20:26So every or the stuff that happened in the 80s, like that's where you start.
20:29So, you know, everybody has a different view, obviously, of what counts, what doesn't that
20:33are the you know, I and and of course, there's like the we've talked about this before the
20:40storybook ending for Mike Gorman and all of that going off into the sunset, you know,
20:44with his broadcast career.
20:45But I think one thing that we're not talking about enough in the whole what does it mean
20:49context is that I think that this.
20:54Insures guarantees if there were any doubts anyway, and maybe there shouldn't have been
20:59that Wickrow Speck and company continue to spend now, Jason Tatum obviously was getting
21:03his contract doesn't matter.
21:06But let's say the Celtics lost in six to Dallas lost in five to Dallas didn't reach the NBA
21:13finals lost in the conference finals.
21:17There would be a lot of conversation around.
21:19All right.
21:20Do you have to break up the Jays?
21:21Is Jalen getting traded?
21:23Do you really need to extend Derek White?
21:24Do you give him that payday?
21:26He's the guy at this point, you know, Tatum's getting his Brown has his Porzingis has his
21:31holiday has his owl be here till he retires.
21:34It's you know, it's it's white at this point in time.
21:38And I think that this championship if it wasn't already set in stone guarantees that white
21:43gets his money that that WIC and and that ownership group are going to chase as many
21:48banners as they can, which is a good thing.
21:50By the way, if anyone takes that any other way, that is a great thing.
21:54Do you think the ownership and the spending has anything to do with this at all?
21:59I think you have to have an ownership that is willing to do whatever it takes to compete.
22:05And that seems like an easy thing to say, but we know that it doesn't always happen.
22:10There are owners in other sports and in this sport that have other agendas when it comes
22:14to doing whatever it takes to be done to win a championship.
22:18And that's one thing you can say about this ownership group from day one.
22:22They literally named the they named it Banner 17.
22:25That was what mission statement was.
22:29Mission statement, mission accomplished, which, by the way, had to do with I just got
22:32asked about that.
22:33Obviously, as you can imagine, people are asking that question, too.
22:37In 2008, mission statement, mission accomplished was I always wanted to do something about
22:41the mission statement because that to me was the idea that they had set out on this journey
22:46from the start saying this was the impossible goal.
22:49We want to get there and trying to figure out a way to honor all the people in the office
22:52and everybody behind the scenes.
22:54I wanted to get mission statement in there.
22:56And if you remember.
22:58Maybe you don't, because it's a long it seems like 2008.
23:01It was that a long, long time ago now.
23:04The great Tim Russert, NBC News died that week.
23:09In fact, one of his last conversations was with Mike Barnacle, and they had talked about
23:12the comeback in game four in L.A.
23:15You see that game last night.
23:16That was one of the last conversations that Tim Russert have with anybody, let alone,
23:19you know, with Mike Barnacle.
23:20He told that story the Sunday of game five.
23:23Indeed, the press was completely devoted to Tim Russert.
23:26It was an all Tim Russert episode to honor him.
23:30And the feature of that episode was his famous interview with Donald Rumsfeld, rushing, pressing
23:36him on that statement that they made it as an administration mission accomplished in
23:41Iraq and whether it was or whether it wasn't or whether he should have said it.
23:45But that was sort of the signature moment of Tim.
23:47And I watched that interview and going back and forth over that statement mission accomplished.
23:51That was the morning of game five.
23:53There's some people think things pop into your head months earlier and mission statement
23:58mission accomplished.
23:59That's what I came from was actually a Tim Russert thing that happened on the morning
24:02of game five, which I still to this day, and I've given literally half of my life now to
24:07the NBA.
24:08I'm 26 years in the league and half of my life has been in the NBA, and I've still never
24:11been more surprised by a result of any one game than the Celtics not winning game five
24:16in 2008 and winning the championship there.
24:21Adolescent kids don't win that game.
24:23So you can get on a plane and fly 3000 miles and take a beating of a lifetime, which is
24:27obviously what happened.
24:28That's why teams lose that game.
24:30That's why the Celtics, by the way, have all of these have won five consecutive closeout
24:34games on the road.
24:36This is often how this happens, by the way, five straight closeouts for the Celtics five
24:41and all in their last five chances to do this on the road personally, on a personal level,
24:47and in a lot of ways that they're going to be a lot cooler for the Celtics to lose game
24:50four and to win, you know, to win in Boston on Monday night.
24:53But that's there's all these different, you know, historical perspectives that you have
25:00when things like that happen.
25:02Quick break from today's show to tell you today's show was brought to you by Game Time.
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26:55Quick break.
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28:33Yeah, and history is going to be a big part of what everybody talks about from here on
28:36out.
28:37I'm just, you know, I'm almost I'm trying to stay in the moment here and like not get
28:42too caught up in things, but it's it's hard not to and the one thing that I just keep
28:45coming back to is just both Jalen and Jason, you know, these two guys and how much they've
28:52gone through and battled together and and you know, ups and downs all over the place.
28:57I mean, both of them, you know, when they're, they're, they're rookies and Jalen's not starting
29:01and Jason's just sitting in the corner as a spot of three-point shooter and then, you
29:06know, they're ushered into the next era where they have a little more responsibility and
29:09here we are now they're on the precipice of their first championship together and throughout
29:14all of that people have wanted to just break those two guys up.
29:18What do you think this championship says about continuity within a team structure and keeping
29:24guys together for the long haul?
29:26Well, that's an interesting way to phrase it because it certainly applies to those two.
29:31But on the other hand, it will also the great lesson of the championship will be that you
29:35can't just run it back when you get close because as much as sticking with Jalen and
29:40Jason is the centerpiece of it.
29:43I mean, think of what it took to trade Marcus Smart and Rob Williams and the sixth man of
29:48the year, Malcolm Brogdon, when you're right there, as you just said, 10 minutes ago, a
29:53turned ankle from Jason Tatum not only keeps the Celtics from the finals, but being what
29:57we just said, the first team ever to come back from 3-0.
30:00That's how close they were to do that.
30:02The temptation when you're that close is to not make changes.
30:05And yet the hard decisions, the impossible decisions, the under 45 minutes of pressure
30:11before Porzingis can opt out of his contract and having to make this decision to trade
30:15a guy a lot of people felt, including in my house, a devastated 11 year old at the time
30:20that Marcus Smart was the heart and soul of this team.
30:22And I hope every Celtic fan tomorrow night, or whenever this happens, holds a special
30:29place in their heart for Marcus Smart, because there are, Max and I certainly are two people
30:35that felt the Celtics were, when they eventually won a championship, that Marcus was going
30:39to be a part of it.
30:40And he is a part of it.
30:41He may too, by the way.
30:42I don't think he should be forgotten in all this, in this run of the last couple of years.
30:45But there are, there's a history of this, right?
30:49Didn't Nomar get kind of booted out, right?
30:51In 2004.
30:52And I brought this one up too, Tony Amante from Hingham, great BU hockey player was on
30:56the 94 Rangers.
30:57He got, there's always that guy that gets, you know, traded right before a championship,
31:02but it's a, it's an entire process.
31:04But with Jalen and Jason, the thing about them that's going to, that separates them
31:11is that this path to get there, a lot of great players have had to walk it, but virtually
31:17none have had to walk it constantly in the, in the conference finals every year and in
31:23the constant spotlight.
31:25You know, Michael Jordan making the playoffs, you know, in eight, in 86 and losing the first
31:30round of the Celtics, having those great games and how many years they look, there's very
31:34few comps other than like Michael, because he was such a high profile player.
31:38You know, Luca is now under the spotlight and he's losing in the finals and he's having
31:43these meltdown moments that we talk about.
31:45Was Dallas, has Dallas been in the conference finals the last four or five years here?
31:49No, they missed the play in last year.
31:52So a lot of guys continue this, you know, this ramp forward.
31:56They're not under the constant spotlight.
31:58So the reason there was all this discussion about Jason Tatum and about breaking up Jason
32:02and Jalen and the things that are devoid in their game, the things that set them, is because
32:06people had so many cracks at them on the high stage, on this big stage to watch.
32:13And look at what happened to Anthony Edwards, who we spent the entire season anointing the
32:17next Michael Jordan until what happened?
32:20You saw him look like a human being, where?
32:23On the big stage, because he finally got on it.
32:26It's easy to call a guy the next Michael Jordan when he's having a good regular season.
32:31It's a different, it's a different thing to actually win it.
32:35And what Luca is learning is that you have to have guys around you that you trust and
32:40believe in.
32:41Michael Jordan did win a championship.
32:42And still, he started trusting the guys around him.
32:45When he was playing for Doug Collins, every play was Michael Jordan.
32:48Jordan left, Jordan right, Jordan scoring 50.
32:51It wasn't until he trusted his teammates that he learned how to win.
32:54And to me, if this thing that you guys have said is a done deal that we're all talking
32:58about happening happens, if it happens tomorrow night, there's a reason that Jason Tatum is
33:03going to have more world championships at age 26 than Jordan, LeBron, Steph, and Shaq
33:11combined.
33:12Durant, the list goes on.
33:15No, it's, it's, it's incredible.
33:17Obviously, you know, I, you mentioned Brad Stevens or, or some of the moves that he has
33:20made obviously to help get them here.
33:23And I'll be honest.
33:24I, I miss head coach Brad Stevens, not in the sense that, you know, I wish he was coaching
33:28this team instead of Joe Missoula, but in the sense that I just always find him such
33:32a fascinating basketball listen.
33:34And obviously, you know, I'm sure part of you misses talking to him as frequently as,
33:39you know, you did when you were doing all the pregame interviews with him versus now.
33:44I'm certain you're still in touch, but not in the same way, obviously.
33:47I just think that, you know, guys move into these front office roles.
33:49You don't hear from them as much publicly and it's, it's not the same.
33:52And I think that he is such a great basketball mind.
33:55So is Joe Missoula.
33:56So this has nothing to do with Missoula, but he's such a great basketball mind to where,
34:00you know, he got this change in role.
34:03We'll call it a promotion.
34:04It is, but it's also just a, you know, it was a fork in the road and one path went one
34:10way and one went the other way.
34:11And, you know, I, I thought that I was very high on, on head coach, Brad Stevens.
34:15I thought he, you know, had, had the ability to be a championship winning head coach in
34:19the NBA.
34:20Instead, what he is about to be is a championship winning executive, an executive of the year
34:25and, and a guy that, you know, you can look at a lot of the moves that he has made that
34:31I'm not sure that, and it's not, I'm not comparing one versus the other, just talking about what
34:35we've seen moves that I'm not sure that Danny Ainge would have made, you know, whether it
34:40was, you know, unloading the first round pick with Kemba Walker to bring Al Horford back
34:45here, whether it was, you know, Derek White and that trade, obviously, you know, does
34:49he go out and, and trade Marcus smart for Chris taps for Zingas under the wire there
34:54when Brogdon falls through and then turn around and bring in drew holiday, who knows?
34:58I mean, there's no way to answer that question, but Brad Stevens and company Austin age, Mike
35:02Xaron, everybody else involved, they have just put together such an incredible run of
35:08moves since he ascended to that role to where obviously they're about to complete this puzzle.
35:15And, and I'm just not sure.
35:16And I guess I lean toward you, Sean, to put this in the proper perspective, because I'm
35:20not sure I have the words for it to truly celebrate the fact that he is just, I always
35:27thought he could be good at this job.
35:29Who knew?
35:30We didn't know whether he would be, but he could be, he's got the right head for it.
35:34But the fact that he has done what he has done with everyone around him so quickly and
35:40so emphatically to where I just don't think his coaching ceiling looking back was as high
35:50as his executive ceiling and what he is still capable of doing in the years to come.
35:55Brad Stevens took over a team that the night before in a playoff game started Evan Fournier,
36:03Romeo Lankford and Tristan Thompson.
36:07Ponder that for a second.
36:09And three years later, he has anybody, and I think you guys know as much as anybody how
36:15much it physically pains me to say nice things about Brad after we battled for eight years
36:22on the air every night.
36:25And now you simply, if you're me, how about some sympathy for me?
36:28You have no choice.
36:30What on earth is there to say?
36:32Has any GM had a better three years ever in any sport?
36:37And for a guy who preached for all these years to hit singles, he just has driven him into
36:43the gap time after time after time.
36:47And again, I bring that up because I don't think people truly remember how ugly that
36:52I think people skip over 2021.
36:55And they skip over the fact that in 2019 when Kyrie left, Al Horford also left.
37:00It was that it was inconceivable that one of the most underrated teams in Celtics history
37:04is the 2020 team because of the pandemic and the bubble.
37:08And when they go to the conference finals, that was supposed to be a pseudo rebuilding
37:11time.
37:13And they were one of the last three teams left standing, which is amazing.
37:18But that 2021 season was ugly with COVID and everything else that hit.
37:22And the lineup that I just said that you played in the final game because of the injuries,
37:26you had to move on from Kemba.
37:31That seemed like a move you were making to fill the Kyrie spot.
37:36History is so concrete.
37:37You say, oh yeah, they were on the path this whole time.
37:41What Brad Stevens walked into his first day was not a team that was close to a championship.
37:47And methodically, move after move after move, he got them here.
37:53And history is going to record this.
37:56We always thought Danny was in the great tradition of Brad, and he was.
38:00But Danny and Brad both had extraordinary success doing it in completely different ways.
38:06And yet both have really carried on that sort of red hour back tradition.
38:11Remember the joke a few years ago is that nobody wanted to answer a call from Danny?
38:14Well, who wants to answer a call from Brad now?
38:17I agree.
38:19Yeah.
38:20Well, before we wrap this up, this has all been, and we're a big picture show, so it's
38:25been big picture conversation about what does the title mean and legacies for all of these
38:29guys and all of that.
38:30And we'll have more time throughout the summer to celebrate this because I really do believe,
38:35in history what it is, that this thing is over.
38:39But the question is, does it actually end in Dallas, or does it come back to Boston?
38:46What does it take for the Mavericks, in your mind, Sean, to force this back on Monday,
38:52to make people out there a little, give the talking heads a little ammunition, make people
38:57a little bit nervous?
38:59We know the talent is there in terms of Luka and Kyrie and the depth, and Luka after that
39:04lashing that he took from Windhorse, he's probably going to be out there trying to answer.
39:09What does it take?
39:10Because it seems like whether it's Celtics winning in a blowout in game one, winning
39:17the we can't shoot game in game two, and winning without Porzingis in game three, I don't know
39:22what the Mavericks do to counteract.
39:24Well, everything we know says that it ends right in game four, because that's historically
39:31the way this goes.
39:32Everybody knows their beat, they find a way to lose, the exception of that Lakers team,
39:36you don't get on a plane to go and lose when you know you can't win the series.
39:40But if you look at it individually, if you take the emotion out of it, the recipe for
39:44Dallas to win game four is very much there, because obviously you're not going to have
39:49Porzingis, right?
39:50You're not going to play Porzingis when you're up 3-0, if there's any scenario that you might
39:53need him or want him later in the series, you're certainly not going to play him.
39:56Then we move to the fact that there's only one day in between games, and not two days
40:00between games, then add to that the Al Horford minutes that he had to play.
40:05So all of a sudden, if you look at it as an individual game, it's silly to subtract emotion,
40:12it's a big part of everything this time of year, but if you subtract all that, the recipe,
40:18not to mention the law of averages, where the Celtics now have the second longest road
40:22winning streak in NBA playoff history, they've won nine consecutive road playoff games.
40:27How much longer can that go on?
40:29The 2001 Lakers are the only team to ever go 8-0 on the road in the playoffs, a team
40:34put together, by the way, by Jerry West, as if you don't think there's bigger forces at
40:39work here.
40:40I'll tell you this, I did say, as I felt there was no way the Celtics could lose on a day
40:46we lost Bill Walton, I really felt genuinely going into game three on Wednesday night that
40:51there was no way that the Celtics could win on a night we lost Jerry West.
40:56We were at the end of the night, I was kind of looking up to see if we could hear any
40:58furniture being tossed around up there, and there was part of me that enjoyed the idea
41:04of maybe Jerry and Red being together last night, but maybe Bill in between them to make
41:09sure that it stayed civil.
41:12I think you referenced earlier, it's so funny, because the last thing we think of is being
41:16on camera while we're calling games.
41:19I know my dear friend Kevin Harland is not really warmed up to that idea, but that's
41:23the way of the world now, right, we're on camera, and that stuff went viral with Max
41:28at the end of the Eastern Conference Finals.
41:30But the one thing, my favorite thing that I said that night was never part of all the
41:36videos that went around, which is that night I really felt, I said, somewhere tonight,
41:44Bill and Red are together lighting one up.
41:47Not the same stuff, but they are together lighting one up tonight, which is, again,
41:55to lose Bill and then to lose Jerry in the middle of the finals, I think it's easy.
42:00Listen, I wax historic because that's my job.
42:04My job isn't to call game four tomorrow night, my job is, if this is the 100th and final
42:09game, to tell the story I've been telling since the start of the year and for the better
42:13part of three years since Brad took over.
42:16One of the things I've had sort of difficulty trying to figure out is, if the story ends
42:20tomorrow night, where did this story begin?
42:24Did it begin after winning the championship in 08?
42:27Did it begin on the night Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce got traded?
42:31And remember what I told you last time about Kevin McHale being the second greatest McHale
42:35now in Celtics history, because it was McHale Proker off that made that trade that gave
42:40the Celtics, you know, Jalen and Jason.
42:45When you, where did this story, the one that's about to end, where did it begin?
42:51And that's sort of a, it's an interesting element to me, but the big picture, I thought
42:56about 2024 in real time, in a season, as I've told you guys all year, is going to be remembered
43:03for decades to come.
43:05And as Eddie House, and obviously Scouse's own entity, and Perk, and those guys walking
43:10to Paul Pierce, when they walk in the building now, 10 years from now, 15 years from now,
43:15Jalen, Jason, but when Drew Holliday, when Derek White, the cousin from Boston, when
43:20he walks back in the building, there's an element of Celtics royalty here.
43:25When you, when you go, when you're through the looking glass, because the Celtics are
43:27about to take that final step, you are, you are a legend, you are a made man.
43:33And to be a made man, in the most storied tradition in the history of the game, to be
43:39the team that, however you count the championships, let's say right now, as we're talking in real
43:44time, it's 17-17, however you want to count, Bubbles or Minneapolis, nobody cares.
43:50The Celtics are about to take their place now, not just on the top of the mountain in
43:53real time, but on the top of the all-time mountain, and this is the team that did it.
43:58So I don't know where this particular chapter of the story began, but I know where it's
44:05going to end.
44:08Eight straight wins on the road, 10 straight playoff wins overall for the Celtics going
44:13into Friday night, an opportunity to close this out.
44:17One more in each category, you get yourself a 9-11, 9-1-1 is the number that the Mavericks
44:22may want to call at this point, because we've got something serious going on here.
44:27That's why I closed this on a bad joke.
44:29All right, listen, I want to thank Sean Grandy, who does such a wonderful job, as always,
44:33whenever he's on with us, but you know, on the call, every, you know, single game, obviously,
44:37and just putting everything that we are seeing and hearing and witnessing in the proper perspective.
44:44We're going to have a whole lot of summer to be able to react and celebrate and look
44:49ahead and all of it, but you know, it's, it's coming folks.
44:53And hopefully it is coming on Friday night and social media is going to be pointing a
44:58lot of fingers at a lot of different people.
45:01And I'm here for it.
45:02I'm here for all of it.
45:03All of your tweets, I'm going to be, I'm going to be enjoying every second of them.
45:06Sean, thanks so much for hopping on as always.
45:09You got it guys.
45:10Enjoy it.
45:11Hi, I'm Andy.
45:12I'm Valenti.
45:13I'm Adam Kaufman.
45:14Another Celtics beat, hopefully to discuss the eight time champion Celtics next week.