Thinking out loud, while wondering if coming to a conclusion is the part where you got tired of thinking ...
Facts are facts – and the Celtics blew this.
Three straight losses. If they played smaht (not Marcus), they would have slowed it down and taken advantage of the Warriors’ lack of size inside. Instead, they largely chose to run and shoot with Golden State.
And they chose poorly.
Defense is/was supposedly Boston’s calling card, yet they allowed Andrew Wiggins to have the night of his life in Game Five, knocking the C’s back on their heels. In Game Six, Steph Curry put on his “S” cape…and led a devastating 52-19 run.
They simply forgot who they are. Live by the three, lose by the three. And the turnover.
Jayson Tatum may have made 1st team all-NBA, but after watching this series, he is not a Top Five NBA player.
Tired? Hurt? Mentally fatigued? So what? Transcendental players figure it out.
But we should remember…considering where this team started, and where they stood in January, this was an entertaining ride. Respectfully, however, New England (Boston) doesn’t just do “rides.”
Also hearing that the days of Dunkin Donuts as the presenting sponsor of the Dunkin Donuts Center – as it has been called for the past 21 years – are numbered. That’s right. There may be no more “Dunk.”
Instead, Bally’s and Amazon are two strong candidates to swoop in and claim the naming rights for the former Providence Civic Center, a building which is now 51 years old but underwent a major transformation 14 years ago, in 2008.
A decision on what to call the home of the Friars and Providence Bruins should be forthcoming by the end of this month…when the contractual “Dunk” naming rights officially end. Bally’s is an obvious choice – what with the casinos at Twin River and Tiverton, the influence of their sportsbooks and the presence of regional cable sports channels across the country.
Amazon would be a great fit – the company is apparently looking to put its’ own name and brand on an arena, even though they are paying for the name on the new building in Seattle (Climate Pledge Arena) where the company HQ is located.
Who doesn’t run into Amazon.com delivery trucks on the road every day? I know we’d miss “The Dunk,” but how about “Welcome to The Jungle?” Guns ‘N Roses would approve.
And as long as we’re on the subject of buildings and arenas…WJAR’s Joe Kayata had it first – Gillette Stadium will host the 2023 Army-Navy football game, and Providence will be the host city for the Midshipmen.
The RI Convention Center will host some 4000 Midshipmen making the trip in from Annapolis, and while Boston serves as the HQ for pregame events, Army’s team will likely drive in on the day of the game – scheduled for Saturday Dec. 9th, 2023.
Next year’s game (2022) will be in Philadelphia, where a majority of Army-Navy games have been played in the past. Boston (Gillette) was one of seven finalist cities to host in 2023, beating out Charlotte, Orlando, Washington DC, Baltimore, Philly, and E. Rutherford, New Jersey.
Want some historical perspective? It’s the 3rd time Kraft Sports + Entertainment has put out a bid to host the event…and it just so happens 2023 coincides with the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party.
If you’ve never been to Army-Navy, well, trust me. It’s quite the American experience. Pomp, circumstance, pageantry, patriotism, football. It should be required attendance for all students of American history.
Oh, and Gillette Stadium will be hosting World Cup games in 2026, getting the nod from FIFA this week. They’ll be pulling natural grass in for however many games they host – which will be referred to as “Boston,” and not necessarily Gillette.
But it’s still cool to have the world in for a visit over a month in a few years…like we did back in ’94 at old Foxboro Stadium. International matches have always drawn well here – the Cup should be no exception to that standard.
Plus the fact that World Cup soccer will be played in 11 different NFL stadiums across the US. There won’t be any lack of attention. Or economic impact – with the Boston Consulting Group claiming a $5 billion wave across North America.
Have you seen or heard about what this years’ World Cup country, Qatar, is cracking down on? Remember, these people think, act, believe and live differently than the western world.
Fans caught with drugs could face the death penalty, in accordance with Qatari law. Protesters could face five years in prison for simply ‘stirring up’ public opinion.
Throw in the alleged human rights abuses toward migrant workers who built the stadiums in that part of the planet, and Qatar isn’t exactly painting itself as a vacation paradise. By comparison, the US in 2026 looks like a veritable playground.
Soccer in this country, at least MLS, gets some focus with this week’s announcement that beginning next season, EVERY MLS game will be streamed by Apple +. No blackouts. Cool, but you’ll still pay for the app…and the cost is yet to be determined.
Not for nuthin’, but the NFL is still top dog. 75 of the Top 100 TV programs in this country in 2021 were live NFL games. Sunday Night Football has been the #1 show in prime time for 11 straight years. It’ll probably reach a dozen years in 2022.
Did anyone realize that a billion dollars (that’s with a “B”) has been spent on current NFL TV talent? Front Office Sports reported this week that over the past 27 months, more than $1 billion has been spent on analysts and play-by-play announcers.
When you think someone you’re watching or listening to isn’t worth it – you’d be wrong.
Welcome to the Dead Zone, as has been described by others in the media. Quiet time is here. Vacations abound around the NFL, with Patriots Training Camp not set to gear up until July 27.
Honest question. Horrible time of the year, or is the respite welcomed?
Among the questions that will need to be answered soon enough…what will the Patriots do to create enough cap space to sign everyone that still needs to be signed? Our buddy Pats Cap – we turn our lonely eyes to you.
As we told you to watch for a couple of weeks ago – and our buddy Joey Mac reported this week – former Friar and Providence Bruin coach Jay Leach is among the candidates to be interviewed for the Boston Bruins head coaching spot. And so is Cranston’s David Quinn, along with former P-Bruins assistant Spencer Carbery.
It certainly didn’t take Bruce Cassidy long to find work again, did it? Vegas, baby.
What does that say? Something tells me it would take the guys who fired him a little longer to find a new gig…if they needed to.
Tweet of the Week, from @PeteAbe: “The #RedSox were 11 games behind the #Yankees when they started their West Coast trip. They went 8-2 and came back 12.5 games behind. On the plus side, they now hold the third wild card spot.”
The Red Sox return home after their best West Coast swing in 27 years, and the homestand began with taking two of three against Oakland. I know, it’s Oakland, worst record in the AL. They’re beating up on teams they should beat up on.
The true test(s) lie at the end of this month against Toronto, and through the Fourth of July holiday week against Tampa and New York. The record against the AL East is still a losing one.
But 12-4 in the last 16 roadies? You’ll take that. So will the Sox.
Tanner Houck, love him or not, is the closer. Make it happen.
Tradable commodities before the deadline? Perish the thought…but if you can’t sign ‘em all, or any of ‘em, Xander Bogaerts should bring a premium return. Still holding out that sanity prevails and Rafael Devers isn’t treated like Mookie Betts…and that JD Martinez realizes he’s a DH with a great friend in the Green Monster.
On the other hand…if the Red Sox decide to act like a big market team in a pennant race – which they are and they should – potential trade targets begin and end with Cincinnati pitcher Luis Castillo and Baltimore first baseman Trey Mancini.
Both can be had; both represent upgrades to what you presently possess. Just sayin’.
Washington’s Nationals are for sale. No one should be surprised that Larry Lucchino has put together a group interested in making that purchase.
Rarer than my lady buddy Bobbi likes her steak: The TWO immaculate innings thrown by Astros’ pitching this week in the same game against the Rangers…which was a first in itself? They came against the same three batters. Wow.
My buddy “Big E” sez his grandson asked him the big question this week: “Grandpa, what’s sex?” Big E stammered and stuttered, and eventually decided to be truthful about it, since his grandson seemed honest with the inquiry.
“People define sex in different ways,” he explained, “but it’s really what two people decide to do when they love and care for each other.” His grandson crinkled his nose, and said, “Eww. Grandma told me to tell you dinner would be ready in a couple of secs.”
Mark your calendars: Brown and Bryant will hoop on Friday, Dec.2, the night before PC and URI battle in Kingston on Dec. 3. That’s a solid night/day of local hoops.
We’re so close to the forest, we can’t see the trees. There are four new Big East coaches for next season, all with a solid sense of déjà vu on their sidelines. Each one (Sean Miller at Xavier, Thad Matta at Butler, Kyle Neptune at Villanova and Shaheen Holloway at Seton Hall) has coached previously at his present school.
Familiarity breeds success. Or contempt.
The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Committee FINALLY fixed an egregious oversight – the flop. Players who fake being fouled – flop, head fake, whatever – should be assessed a Class B technical foul, which would result in the opposing team receiving a free throw.
Ruh roh, Shaggy. Sports Illustrated reports NCAA investigators spent at least two days in Coral Gables, FL this week inquiring about Miami’s NIL transactions. The Friars have the Canes on the schedule this next season at Mohegan Sun Arena.
And Miami has two of the more recently notorious NIL recipients in Isaiah Wong, who threatened to transfer if he didn’t “get his,” and Kansas State transfer Nijel Pack.
Remember Topps trading cards? The company now has a deal with nearly 200 student athletes across the country and more than 100 colleges and universities for rights to produce trading cards, digital cards and NFT’s.
The Atlantic-10 announced this week it is upgrading schools’ streaming capabilities and providing each school with $50K of new equipment to improve their ESPN+ broadcasts.
Kudos to Providence’s Shannon Flockhart, who was named a 1st team track all-American by finishing 7th in the NCAA Track and Field Championship 1500-meter race.
There are new lax coaches at both PC and Bryant – Bobby Benson (NOT the actor who played in the movie Blue Chips) is the newest Friar coach, after assisting Maryland the past two years to a 33-1 record and this years’ natty. His wife is an ’03 PC grad and a former member of the swim team.
At Bryant, Brad Ross takes over for the retired Mike Pressler after having served three seasons at Navy. Ross is a former associate head coach at Bryant and was a three-time all-American at Duke. Seems like a couple of pretty solid hires, don’cha think?
UConn baseball (#HookC) had 2nd ranked Stanford right where they wanted ‘em last week in the NCAA Super Regional, winning Game One out of a best-of-three. And the Cardinal bats ended up blasting their way to Omaha and the College World Series anyway, with two straight wins.
But a program-record 50 wins for the Huskies is no small matter for a college baseball team in the northeast. No team from New England has ever won as many in a single year.
ICYMI, Cincinnati, UCF, Houston, and BYU are all in for the Big 12 in 2023. They have their marching orders, and their release, from the American. But it came at a price - $18 million each.
Small potatoes, however, when you consider the $40+ million annually they’ll eventually receive from Big 12 membership. And they’ll likely get a couple of years with Texas and Oklahoma still in the league, too, before the two schools who started this realignment wave take off for the SEC.
And in lock step with these seismic shifts, the AAC officially introduced six new members this week to replace the departures, with five directional schools – Alabama-Birmingham, North Carolina-Charlotte, Texas-San Antonio, Florida Atlantic, North Texas – and Rice. The American will have a presence in four of the country’s Top 10 markets.
Dumba** of the Week: Former Louisville star and current (for now) Charlotte forward Montrezl Harrell faces felony distribution charges after being caught with three pounds of marijuana in his car. Was that all for you, Montrezl? Stupid is as stupid does.
A shot across the bow in the battle of the PGA vs. LIV Tours: USGA CEO Mike Whan said this week at Brookline he could “foresee” a day when LIV golfers, suspended by the PGA, could face a tougher road in playing the US Open.
And the money grab is the thing here…but a sense of competitiveness has certainly already begun between the two entities. Jon Rahm sez he compares the LIV Tour to a “retirement fund” and added LIV “doesn’t qualify as golf.”
Whoa. Golf smack talk.
But the truth here – LIV has more money than, well, you-know-who…up to $1 trillion in a war chest expected to grow over the next few years. They also just signed underwriting deals with streaming services DAZN, SuperSport and Sky Deutschland.
Just an observation, but it’s kinda sad Phil Mickelson has turned heel. The greed and lack of understanding public perception – even though he sez he understands – over the money grab for LIV Golf is real. He doesn’t care…blood-money or not…and neither does anyone else taking Saudi $$$.
Perspective: Dustin Johnson reportedly will earn $125 million to simply show up and play in LIV events. Tiger Woods – for all of his renowned prowess – has earned $120 million in his CAREER on the PGA Tour.
LIV guarantees a six-figure payout to every tournament participant over a five-month season, with eight events per season. Charl Schwarzel won $4.7 mil this past week at the inaugural LIV tournament, while Rory McIlroy won $1.6 mil at the RBC Canadian Open on the PGA Tour.
You can heckle Johnson, Mickelson, and other greedy golfers all you want this week – but they’re laughing back at you all the way to the bank…bank you only wish you could make.
Brian sent an email this week: “A friendly message from a consumer: Stay out of politics please. WEEI in general has felt the need to inject political opinions. I’m sorry, this is a sports forum, I don’t come here for political messaging. Keep in mind half your listeners/readers disagree with your politics and don’t want to hear it from a sports journalist. If I want politics I’ll go to my site of choice for news. Pass this on if possible, because this is a huge turnoff to visto (sic) this page.”
Appreciate your note Brian - and while I don't control the thoughts and opinions of anyone else at WEEI, speaking for myself, I also vote. And I’ve been affected by the pandemic as well as the current economy like everyone else. You don't have to agree with me. But I'll always reserve my right to speak - just like you do!
Interested in having your questions on local Rhode Island sports (and yes, that includes the Patriots, Red Sox, Bruins and Celtics) answered in a somewhat timely fashion? It’s your chance to “think out loud,” so send your questions, comments, and local stories to jrbroadcaster@gmail.com. We’ll share mailbag comments/Facebook posts/Tweets right here! Would appreciate the follow on Twitter, @JRbroadcaster…and join in on Facebook, www.facebook.com/john.rooke ...
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