Tax day has come rolling around. So it’s perhaps unlikely to be thinking of Santa Claus right now. But that may be exactly what Celtics fans are doing. Boston may be thinking with no small amount of anguish about the team they had on Christmas Day, compared with the team they have today.
In the Eastern Conference, the second seed Boston Celtics (62-20) take on the seventh seed Chicago Bulls (41-41). In their three-game regular-season series, the Celtics were victorious twice. There is concern as Boston lost to Chicago in the final match-up by a score of 121-127. But Boston has been on a roll, winning eight of their last 10, while Chicago has gone 7-3 over the last 10 games.
There is an impressive amount of interesting news out there today. Let’s get to it:
It’s official – Ken Griffey Jr. is a Mariner again. I thought for sure he was going to Atlanta, but it turns out he fooled everyone. The move makes sense for many reasons. First, he’ll finish his career out as a returning hero. He’ll also be on a team that won’t have a lot of pressure for him because expectations won’t be huge. Most significantly, the AL has the DH. That makes so much more sense than Atlanta. It will be fun to watch.
The Tampa Bay Lightning made Steven Stamkos the number one pick in the NHL Draft. Stamkos is a high scoring center from the Ontario Hockey League. If you live in Canada or a hockey town elsewhere then this comes as no surprise – Stamkos has been pegged as the top pick for five years or so. He’s got a ridiculous scoring touch, he’s strong and versatile, and he is frequently compared to Joe Sakic. He’ll make the team next year as the second center, and he is already the heavy favorite to be rookie of the year.
The Bulls seem determined to make a truly bizarre coaching choice. The latest man to rise to the top of the pile is Vinny Del Negro. His biggest asset in the search is that he isn’t Doug Collins. You probably remember Del Negro from his days as a somewhat average player who bounced around five NBA teams and a couple in Europe for good measure. He had a good college career at NC State under Jim Valvano, and he comes from a basketball family – his dad played for Adolph Rupp at Kentucky. There’s just one problem with an otherwise solid coaching resume – he’s never coached at any level before. Hmmm. He was a broadcaster for a while after he retired before joining the front office of the Suns, peaking at assistant general manager. I’m sure he’s a good guy, and he obviously gave one heck of an interview, but it seems odd that a team with so much on the line (a solid roster, the number one pick, etc.) would give the keys to a guy who has never driven. It’s also a relatively unique-to-basketball thing. The NBA seems much more likely to give a job to an unproven guy than any other league. In the NHL you have to cut your teeth in the minors or as an assistant (unless you are Wayne Gretzky, and Del Negro is no Gretzky). You have to put in your time in baseball, too. The NFL wouldn’t hire someone who isn’t an established assistant or a college coach. This would be like the Raiders firing Lane Kiffin and hiring Scott Pioli to take his place. Doesn’t make much sense, but I wish the Bulls well. At least I will be able to find something else to be fascinated by once they make this hiring official.
A couple of things have me scratching my head this morning.
First, the Bulls are reportedly about to hire Doug Collins as their next coach. Huh? With the first pick in the draft and a pretty decent existing lineup the best you could do is pull a guy off the scrap heap? Surely the lure of coaching Michael Beasley or Derrick Rose would have been enough to hire someone who is, well, good. Collins has already been a coach for the Bulls, and not a particularly good one. He’s also been at the helm for the Pistons and he wasn’t very good there, either. Finally, he was reunited with Michael Jordan with the Wizards. How can we possibly forget what a rousing and inspiring success that whole era was? Overall, he has a decent but not overwhelming regular season record of 332-287, but it’s in the playoffs that he has shown hs true incompetence – 15-23. He didn’t manage to get anything done with the Bulls in the playoffs, but soon after he left the team won three in a row. This move is totally without logic for the Bulls management team. Or maybe not. This must be what they are thinking – Collins hired Phil Jackson as an assistant, and when Collins was fired for being inept Jackson took the helm and won six titles in nine years. Maybe management sees this as the easiest way to identify the next Phil Jackson. That’s the only thing that makes sense, because as a coach Collins make a decent broadcaster. I wrote earlier that I was very optimistic about the Bulls next year because of the first pick and their other tools. A lot of that optimistic will drain away if they go through with this ridiculous hire. It’s not just his record that makes it ridiculous, though. They fired Scott Skiles because he was loud and fiery and it wasn’t working for the players anymore. The mogical thing, then, is to bring in a guy who is loud and fiery and shouts at his players. That’s the ticket. If I was a Bulls season ticket holder I’d be on the phone to cancel them as soon as they hired this goof. I suspect that I would have to wait on hold for a while.
