When looking for hope, the Red Sox need to look no further than the Celtics. Below .500 in early January and now in the NBA Finals.
So, for Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom, conversations and the exchanging of ideas with Brad Stevens - chief decision-maker for the Celts - only made sense.
"It’s been a lot of fun to watch their season turn and watch things come together. Seeing this vision come to fruition, more and more," Bloom told WEEI.com.
"That’s always a challenge in any sport. You don’t want to be blind to flaws. You don’t want to be blind to things you need to change. But if you react impulsively to everything that goes wrong you will never be able to execute upon a big plan. It’s really about constantly learning while sticking true to the real foundation of what you’re trying to accomplish."
There has been no better example of the patience and persistence Bloom continues to try and muster than what Stevens put on display earlier this year.
After 39 games of the Celtics' 82-game season, the C's found themselves a season-worst three games under .500. One month and four days later, Stevens made his move in the midst of what would be a season-altering nine-game win streak. He shook up the roster a bit, dealing for Derrick White and Daniel Theis.
The Red Sox are in a similar no-man's land than the Celtics found themselves in early January, sitting at 23-25 and 3 1/2 games out of a Wild Card spot. While the first two months wasn't likely going to lead to major shake-ups, the time for deal-making isn't that far off.
That's when lessons learned from Stevens and other Boston sports executives can serve Bloom well.
"What I would say is I think sometimes, whether it’s in the offseason for the trade deadline, we all face similar challenges but with different constraints, different parameters," Bloom explained. "Sometimes it’s nice to bounce that off who sees the world a little bit differently but understands what it’s like to face some of the challenges."
The back-and-forth between Bloom and his Boston sports community counterparts hasn't been limited to just the parallels drawn with the Celtics. It has been two years of conversations which don't figure to stop any time soon.
"That’s been one of the neat things about coming here, people reaching out, including the people from other pro teams in this city," Bloom said. "Building relationships there has been a cool part of this. We’re all on Team Boston, although we’re in different sports, but in some ways that allow you to speak more freely and you learn things from each other and you can help each other out in different ways. That part of it has been fun. Every sport is different so some of the lessons aren’t applicable directly, but because of that, it might also cause you to think differently about a problem you’re having. Hearing someone talk about what they do in a different sport, different rules, different roster construction, different parameters, might help shake something loose for us."
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