Author: Dave Long

There is an old saying that goes, that which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. I’m not sure who said it first or why, but I do know the most recent team in sports it applies to is your Boston Celtics, a team that justifiably had everyone from Jamestown, R.I., to Presque Isle on their back through the first 10 weeks of the NBA season. All thanks to blowing one big lead after another in one lax effort after the next.

However, that was then and this is now. They’ve gone from 18-21 after blowing a 25-point lead in an excruciating loss to the Knicks on Jan. 6 to 49-30 following Sunday’s 42-point beatdown of Washington.

The 32-9 surge sends them into next week’s playoffs as the hottest team in the East and maybe the top seed in the conference.

The question is how did that happen, especially since it seemingly came from nowhere.

Before I get to that, first the mea culpa. Boy did I get it wrong saying in a blowtorch column right after the loss at MSG that they would be battling for the 10th playoff spot as this week arrived.

Though while I was wrong about that, I was right about what they needed most to solve their problems — a real point guard and better, more determined leadership from Jayson Tatum. Qualities that I’d given up he’d ever develop. Never saw anyone on the roster ever being a real point guard either. Finally I said Ime Udoka looked over his head.

So back to how it happened.

In order:

Point guard: Rarely does the light bulb go on for someone in their eighth season, but it has for Marcus Smart since mid-January. Now the first move is going below the three-point line to draw defenders to him, giving Tatum and Jaylen Brown better openings to shoot or drive. It also gives him 10-foot pull-up opportunities or lanes for shots at the rim or lobs to Rob. It’s been the key to the improvement.

Tatum’s maturity: Through the surge he’s been mostly sensational. Though after seeing him sulk his way through the second half of last week’s Miami loss after letting horrid officiating get his head, it’s not all there just yet. But he now looks so much more determined and physical in regularly taking it to the basket. The last piece needed is to better fight through the adversity like vs. Miami, because that’s what he’s going to see in the playoffs.

Shot selection: Mostly gone now are Tatum, Brown and especially Smart infuriatingly chucking up the first three that shows. Ditto for Tatum’s loved by him and absolutely despised by me Kobe-like isolation step back shot that takes everyone besides him out of the offense

Passing on all the ill-advised threes and destructive isolations has led to a greater overall patience to search out better shots through the shot clock. That’s improved field goal percentages on both twos and threes. But more importantly it’s led Tatum and Brown to attack the rim as the first option for the higher percentage attempts and more free throws that come at the rim. Both are now a threat to score 30 every night and this is why they’re so much harder to guard. Not to mention more fun to watch.

Passing: There are two kinds of passing. The first is programmed ball movement where guys automatically have places to send it to get ahead of defensive rotations and into open areas like weak side corner for a three. The quicker and more decisively it’s done the better because it’s where most open half-court shots come from. Everyone seems to be better at that now. But chief among them is Rob Williams in particular who’s become very adept at this. It’s the least talked about part of his improvement, and has a positive impact on the half-court offense.

The other kind is passing off the dribble during penetration, for drop-offs when double teamed, in transition, to cutters coming from the weak side or off picks and on lobs to Rob, which has become a major element in the half court offense and on the break. While there have always been flashes of this and Al Horford has always been solid here, Tatum and Smart have had a Cousy-esque transformation in their ability to get people wide open shots or lay-ups while on the move.

The Coach: One of the biggest mistakes I’ve made during my time writing this column was saying Udoka looks over his head as an NBA coach. Dead wrong. Turns out it was just part of the learning curve.

It’s obvious this team listens to him. Both the improved shot selection and especially the transformation of Smart’s offensive approach are coaching things. Ditto for their league-best team defense, which has been solid since Day 1. Something that makes them built more sturdily for the slower, more physical play in the playoffs.

Bottom line, he’s the biggest reason for the turnaround.

And while all this was going on, we also got the answer to the biggest question looming over the future of the franchise.

Can Tatum and Brown play together? This question was endlessly asked through the first 10 weeks. And I said in January it needed an answer. Though I added we’ll never really know until they play with a real point guard who gives them the ball where each can do something with it. With Smart now doing that, the answer is yes. Which is good, because at 24 and 25 they could be on their way to becoming the best 1-2 scoring punch in Celtics history. And yes I have heard the names Jones, Havlicek, Bird, McHale, Pierce, Walker and the rest.

Along with drastically improved play from the bench, that takes care of what happened. Next week we’ll preview the playoffs and talk about what Brad Stevens has done to change their immediate fortunes.

Idle thoughts today from an idle mind.

Given the Tom Brady-to-Miami rumor that surfaced last week, maybe we have a clue why TB’s retirement announcement seemed so botched. Maybe he quickly wanted the Bucs to contemplate life without him, to get leverage for forcing a trade to Miami. Where, oh by the way, he and Yoko are building their dream retirement home on billionaires row just off Miami Beach.

Loved Jimmy Kimmel’s assessment for the Rams’ woefully sparse Super Bowl victory parade turnout: “honestly, I think there were more football fans on the street cheering for OJ during the slow-motion chase.”

Speaking of L.A., so much for it being the center of the basketball universe. Just two summers ago when the Clippers signed Kawhi Leonard and traded for Paul George after the Lakers slimily, albeit legally, tampered to pair Anthony Davis with LeBron James it looked like that city was going to dominate the NBA for several years. But with the Clips 36-39 and the Lakers 31-43, both are fighting to barely make the play-in round.

And while the Lakers did win the title in the abbreviated bubble year, they’re just 162-137 in LeBron’s time in L.A., with that lowly play-in-round finish ahead, after being bounced in Round 1 last year and missing them all together in Year 1. And with the Clips even worse, it’s turned out to be a colossal failure considering the expectations. Especially when they collectively still owe the Pelicans and Thunder an astonishing seven more first-round picks through 2026. And none are protected as both trend down!

The Lakers predicament is good news for the Celtics. They’re tied with a most-ever 17 league titles, and with the C’s suddenly surging as Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum enter their prime, they look a lot more likely to get No. 18 first than I would have thought possible as late as New Year’s Day.

Anyone else notice that the Hornets have gone 8-2 since signing Isaiah Thomas when he scored 9.2 points per in 13 minutes a game off the bench? That includes their 119-110 win over the Nets in Sunday’s battle for the top seed in the play-in round that starts the playoffs.

Incidentally, with the mask mandate lifted, that game was the first one in Brooklyn for the guy Danny Ainge stupidly traded Isaiah (and the draft pick that turned out to be Collin Sexton) for — Kyrie Irving. The loss made the Nets 9-13 in the 22 games played by their so-called difference maker.

Hearing Deion Sanders say it was “disrespectful” when media people called him by his first name at a recent press conference instead of “coach” was comical. Pretty rich for a guy who showboated everyone anytime he did something big. As for not calling him by his title, you’re a football coach, Deion, not the president. Get a grip.

Speaking of pretty rich, how about ex-Patriot LeGarrette Blount recently lambasting college coach at Oregon Chip Kelly for “not supporting” him after he delivered an unprovoked sucker punch to an unsuspecting Boise State player after the first game of his senior season? So much for maturity helping him take responsibility.

Got to love ex-Trinity hooper Wenyen Gabriel getting another NBA chance in L.A. He’s started in four of his 11 games with the Lakers, while averaging 6 points and 4 rebounds a game.

I don’t get HBO, so I haven’t seen any of its 1980s Showtime Lakers series. But I saw a clip of the first meeting between Jerry Buss and a made to be the villain Red Auerbach as an over-the-top (even for him) arrogant adversary. John C. Reilly as Buss looked more like a porn king than an NBA owner. Not sure I’m interested in seeing Jerry West as a bitter drunk either.

I crossed paths with Dr. Buss one time, just outside the Kingdome during the 1989 Final Four in Seattle. True to form, he came walking toward me before the Saturday afternoon games with a gorgeous 20-something blonde on each arm.

Loved the recent line from Will Clark, whose swing was often compared to Ted Williams during his 80s/90s heyday, while talking about today’s three-outcome — walk, strike out, homer — launch angle approach to hitting: it must have “Rogers Hornsby and Ty Cobb rolling over in their graves.”

When you hear Jermaine Wiggins say on WEEI the Patriots should trade Mac Jones for (before they were) Russell Wilson or Deshaun Watson, don’t listen. Remember his suggestion to fix the 2017 dumpster fire Celtics was signing ball hog Carmelo Anthony. Wiggy’s a likable fellow, but a dope.

For what it’s worth, no matter how good he is I wouldn’t want Watson with 22 sexual misconduct complaints against him. (He has denied all the allegations, according to the New York Times.) However, since I don’t have much faith in mankind when sports is involved, I think the hoo-ha around him will disappear with a win or two as football-crazed Cleveland is win-hungry since it hasn’t won a playoff game since Bill Belichick bested Bill Parcells and the Patriots in 1994!

I give ESPN’s Tom Brady–Charles Woodson 30 for 30 on the Tuck Rule play a C- at best. It was 15 minutes (maybe) of new content stretched (endlessly) into 60. How many of the 900 replays shown did we really need to see? Six? How many times did we need to hear Woodson, Jon Gruden and Lincoln Kennedy say it was a fumble and they got screwed? Or Brady and Bob Kraft saying good call? All it did was remind me how close that call was, and that the play on the field would have stood because the replay was inconclusive. Bad rule. Right call.

Also, the notion Brady would have gone back to backing up Drew Bledsoe for fumbling was ridiculous. The season turned when TB replaced Drew.

For the second straight year Red Sox Nation was on the cusp of entering the final week of March wondering what in the name of Haywood Sullivan was going on up there in the executive suite. It seemed Chaim Bloom was again in the increasingly hated (for me) bargain basement mode while Rome burned.

But news broke Saturday that John Henry has finally opened his wallet to outbid the Yanks and others for free agent Trevor Story. A major get that let some of the Nation’s building frustration escape. Though Chaim’s not out of the woods just yet.

But enjoy it for the day before getting back to the important business of grousing about the other issues that need addressing before the season starts.

Trevor Story implications: Signing him was a two-fer, as the former shortstop (for now) gives them a solid fielding second baseman with major offensive pop. It also sends Kike Hernandez out to right field to fill both the offensive and defensive holes left by the departure of Hunter Renfroe that everyone has been wondering about all winter. It also provides insurance at short if Xander Bogaerts opts out and leaves at the end of the year.

So, since Bloom “only” had to go six years and $25 million per to get all that, job well done. Especially since Texas gave their arguably not as good and definitely more injury-prone new shortstop Corey Seager a whopping $330 million over 10 years to get him.

Losing Kyle Schwarber: Letting him walk was a missed opportunity. Keeping him would have given them three more years of contractual control at DH and let them trade J.D. Martinez when every team in the NL suddenly needs one. It would have been revenue-neutral too, as Schwarber will get less per year than the $20 million the Sox pay J.D., while also making the line-up less right-handed dominant than it is now.

With the line-up and defense settled, we turn to pitching, which looks like a hodge-podge mess.

Starting pitching: The good news is the stat geeks tell us number of wins by a starter is totally circumstantial and unimportant. Phew! Because the six guys likely to get the bulk of the starts — Chris Sale, Nate Eovaldi, Nick Pivetta, Tanner Houck and newcomers Rich Hill and Michael Wacha — won a combined 34 games against 35 losses in 2021. Which means if 90 is the target, they need 56 wins from the pen. And while I like the promise Houck and Pivetta showed in 2021, am hopeful Sale and Eovaldi can avoid the injuries that have plagued their careers, wonder when it’ll end for the ageless Hill and have no faith in Wacha, the group as a whole doesn’t provide a lot of confidence.

So there are many questions looking for answers here, with the biggest coming from Chris Sale. The 5-1, 3.16 numbers after he returned from his 18-month Tommy John surgery absence look good. But it was a different story in the final 10 days of the regular season and in the playoffs when he struggled mightily. Was it natural fatigue or something more alarming?

Now comes the latest, a stress fracture in the ribcage. He’s calling it “a freak thing,” but it’s another reminder making you wonder if he has the body to face the rigors of pitching the 200-plus innings a year needed from your ace. Especially considering his last healthy season was way back in 2017. I don’t see him making a full 200-inning season anymore, which suggests a role change could be needed. Which brings us to the bullpen.

The bullpen: I know Tampa Bay won 100 games with a bullpen filled with guys making under a million dollars. But we also saw them knocked around in the playoffs, so I’d prefer a hybrid approach so you’re not bringing in seven new bargain basement guys every year as Chaim did in 2021 and basically is doing now, beyond Matt Barnes, who they’re stuck with after giving him an extension during his tremendous first half last year, and 2021 scrap heap find Garrett Whitlock. But beyond Whitlock, I had zero confidence in the pen after Barnes’ astonishing second-half collapse, because it has control issues and was used far too much by the suddenly micro-managing Alex Cora in games it was needed in. And 2022 starts out the same way.

Closer: To solidify the back end I’d make Sale the closer when he comes back for three reasons: (1) Pitching one inning every other day and 70 over the entire year would likely keep the arm fresher for the whole year instead of dealing with the dramatic second-half drop-offs that have plagued him since his days in Chicago; (2) Pitching just one inning gives him a better chance to regain the life to his fast ball and snap to his slider that have been missing since July 2018. (3) There’s no guarantee it’ll work, but almost every great closer was originally a failed starter. Including Mariano Rivera, who had durability issues starting. Not to mention the one-season record for saves is held by John Smoltz, set when arm issues prevented him from starting for three seasons.

Bottom line on the pitching: I know $30 million is usually too much to sink into a closer, but the money is already spent and the issue now is how to get the best bang for their $30 million.

So the Sox should not waste any more time. When Sale comes back, leave Houck in the rotation, give the seventh to Barnes, the eighth to Whitlock, and bite the bullet to make Sale the ninth-inning closer.

OK, so while I think it’s how you spend it, not how much, with payroll pruning done and David Price finally coming off the books after 2022 it’s time to spend to find more quality for the rotation and pen to give them a real chance in 2022.

News Item: Baseball Lockout Ends

I said last week that baseball’s work stoppage would amount to a big nothing, and it did when a deal was struck on Thursday. Big whoop.

Although echoing the media hysteria mentioned last week was Boston Globe Sports Business Reporter Michael Silverman describing it as something that “infuriated fans.” It did? Where’s the evidence of that, pal?

There was some reporting on the financials, but they didn’t seem to have much significance so you have to wonder what it was all about.

The dumbest part is that if the All-Star game is tied after nine innings the league that wins the Home Run Derby will now be declared the winner. How stupid is that? Just leave it a tie, Rob.

What was bargaining in mutually agreed upon changes like a universal DH throughout baseball, and the mechanism to address more changes for 2023. They include pace of play issues, possibly banning the infield shift and making the bases larger. Not sure if I’m for the ban, as major leaguers should learn to hit the other way to beat it, and I don’t get what larger bases will do, but both sides working together to improve the game is progress.

News Item: Round 1 To Brooklyn

Brooklyn took the early lead in the debate over who won the James Harden–Ben Simmons trade.

Thanks to a complete 3-17, 11-point no show by Harden, Philly got smoked by 29 at home in the first match-up since the trade went down and Simmons didn’t even play. But, to his credit, he did show up on the bench to get roasted and he gets a bonus point for that.

News Item: Stat Geekdom Finally Comes Up With Good One

Here’s a stat from the new-age stat geekdom I can get behind. It’s Celtics center Robert Williams holding everyone he defends to 6 percentage points below their normal field goal percentage. That means if the combined FG percentage of the guys he covers is 50, they only shoot 44 percent against him. That tells you what kind of man-on-man defender he is.

News Item: Ridley Suspended For Doing Something NFL Promotes

When I was in the PR business in the ’90s and the NH Lottery was my client, a bill was advancing in the legislature to make football betting cards legal. I went one day with Lottery Director Jim Wimsatt to hear a young NFL PR flack, who my memory says was a young Roger Goodell, though a search couldn’t verify that, testify before the committee considering it, to voice the NFL’s opposition to the bill. After it was over Wimsatt, who loved talking to the press, did an impromptu press conference and predicted the NFL would be against betting on football until it could figure out how to get a piece of the action.

He was correct; that day has now arrived and their ongoing hypocrisy is worse than ever, exemplified specifically by suspending wide receiver Calvin Ridley last week for at least a year for betting on a few games while he was sidelined with mental health issues. A suspension handed out by an organization that is the official sports betting partner of Draft Kings, in whom Patriots owner Bob Kraft was one of the early investors, and whose game broadcasts every Sunday are chock full of ads promoting legal betting on its games.

And while I have nothing against sports betting, it seems ludicrous to suspend an inactive player for doing what ads on their games are inviting viewers to do. So, Roger, is gambling good or bad?, ’cause your actions send a very mixed message.

News Item: NFL Free Agency Opens

To paraphrase the famed sideline rant by legendary Green Bay Coach Vince Lombardi during a breakdown for his five-time champion Packers, here’s a question for Coach B as the new NFL year gets started: What The Heck Is Going On Down There?!

A year ago the Pats had the best secondary in football. But that was before he failed to get a long-term deal done with JC Jackson in advance of his free agency year even as he was throwing $175 million around at lesser free agents. And that was before he screwed up the Stephon Gilmore stalemate. Now both are gone with no obvious successors.

No SB was won in the Brady era without a top-flight cornerback. Ty Law was there for the first three. Then you put up a doughnut for 10 years until Darrelle Revis arrived in 2014, followed by Malcolm Butler in 2016 and Gilmore in 2018.

News Item: Flores Lawsuit Gets Stronger

The lawsuit ex-Dolphins coach Brian Flores filed against the NFL for discriminatory hiring practices picked up a little ammo last week thanks to moves related to two big-name quarterbacks. Quarterback-needy (OK, QB-desperate) Denver’s choice of Nathaniel Hackett and rejection of Flores was based on the notion the ex-Green Bay OC could bring disgruntled and wanting out of GB Aaron Rodgers with him to Denver to solve their QB ills. And since Flores couldn’t make that happen, his interview was a sham, the latest bogus Rooney Rule forced interview. But Rodgers magically became un-disgruntled when the Pack made the reigning MVP the highest-paid player in history. Which I always suspected his phony disgruntled act was designed to produce all along. That forced Denver, ah, to punt, sending three players and a boatload of draft picks to Seattle for QB Russell Wilson. Since they could have done that no matter who the HC was, that weakened the rationale for taking Hackett in the first place, and should give his legal team an extra arrow in the quiver.

News Item: Brady Un-Retires

I don’t care if you play or don’t play. So our only question is, Hey, Tom, when did you become such an attention-seeker?

Well, with the announcement last week that the first two series of the 2022 baseball season have been canceled due to the lockout, get ready for an onslaught of sky-is-falling claims from the baseball media.

You’ll hear familiar phrases like “tone deaf,” “greedy,” “exploitation,” baseball’s becoming a “niche” sport and it could go the way of horse racing and boxing, which at the midpoint of 20th century were two of the nation’s three most popular sports. Oh, and of course there’s also the “how could they do this?” unseemly money grab when people are suffering in a brutal war in Ukraine.

The latter is valid, but was also used during the dust-up over who’d get what during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.

In fact, the onslaught has already started with no fewer than four columns in the Boston Globe last week alone. The last was by usual voice of reason Tara Sullivan and carried the title “Indifference has replaced interest in baseball and it is unfathomable the sport let itself get here.”

Two came from Dan Shaughnessy. I call him the prince of darkness because of his knack for making any misstep seem like a triple homicide. I’ve been reading the guy since the 1980s and during that time there have been numerous sports work stoppages and last week’s columns were dusted off “Armageddon is here” iterations of those written during the other disputes.

Then there was young Chris Gasper’s Norma Rae-inspired screed that (seemingly) took longer to read than War and Peace. It took the owners to task for exploiting the poor players. Problem is that amid all the overwriting he never got around to why we should care that players are being exploited.

And while I know full well the owners are lying and have been crying poor since before miserly Charles Comiskey’s pernicious ways made it seem like a good idea to eight of his White Sox players to throw the 1919 World Series, let me infuse all this with a little perspective. Or is it reality? Or sanity maybe?

The Players Association just rejected a proposal to make the minimum annual salary $700k as too low; the annual average salary is north of $4 million while an unlikable stiff like Bryce Harper makes $40 million a year for each of the next eight years. A guy who was so indispensable the Nationals won the World Series right after he left as a free agent.

So if that’s what exploitation is, someone, please, please, PLEASE exploit me like that!

Since the players are the actual product they certainly have a right to fight for what they help the owners take in. But with what they already get, why should anyone care one what they get, win or lose? Especially when they individually are just as greedy as the owners.

They claim to all be in it together. But that‘s only because a united front gives them needed leverage in their fight with the owners. But once that’s out of the way, it’s every man for himself.

Consider Max Scherzer, who took the Yankees to task last week for manipulating the competitive balance tax to hold their spending at the luxury tax threshold at “just” $188 million. Which he said considering their profitability they shouldn’t do.

That’s the same Scherzer who just signed a deal with the Mets to make a whopping $42 million for each of the next three years, while the guys at the bottom are making $600k. If Max were really interested in all his brothers in the labor battle he could kick, say $12 million of his $42 million into a fund for the guys at the bottom to split at the end of the year like a World Series share. It would still leave him with $30 million per, which I’m guessing he can get by on. And if others in his tax bracket like Harper and Mookie Betts did the same they could probably get the minimum guys over a million a year.

But we don’t hear that from Max, because he wants to get every last dime he can get out of the free market for himself. Especially since that’s what the Players Association preaches in fighting to avoid a salary cap like the one in the NBA that’s such a drag on salaries poor Russell Westbrook only makes $47 million a year.

Besides, that would be socialism. Except isn’t that, for better or worse, what a union actually is?

Fine. But if Max and his exploited compadres can do that, why can’t the Yankees? Then it’s may the better man/group win.

As for this adding to the woes of baseball’s declining national interest, I would point out that since there has not been a work stoppage in baseball, none of the decline (between 2007 and 2019) has anything to do with bickering over money.

Not to mention that while some may grumble during it, it’s all soon forgotten and fans come back every time. True even when a strike canceled the 1994 World Series and an entire NHL season was wiped out by the lockout of 2004-05. So don’t listen to the doomsday prediction because history shows they’re wrong every time.

As for the fan indifference mentioned by Ms. Sullivan, while it’s real at the moment, I’d argue it’s not specifically for the sport itself. It’s more of the “been there done that, so wake me when it’s over” variety.

So instead of looking at the glass being half full, this could actually be an opportunity to fix what really is causing the decline in attendance. Make one of the bargaining concessions be putting a structure in place for players and owners to jointly address everything from the cost of tickets to the pace of play to altering the way stat geek baseball is sucking the excitement out of the game.

That would make this stoppage constructive and if it takes until even July, it’s time well spent.

Last weekend ESPN released its ranking of the 75 players on the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team, and as you might expect I have some thoughts.

Given the evolution of the skills it’s hard to compare the pioneers with the players in the uber-athletic, crazy shooting 21st-century game. So these thoughts are based on how players dominated their era. Bonus points are given to their impact on winning in the playoffs and after joining a team. Like for Larry Bird, Kareem Abdul–Jabbar and Shaq, when the C’s, Bucks and Magic went from 29 to 61, 27 to 56 and 21 to 41 wins respectively the year they arrived in town.

Doesn’t belong

Carmelo Anthony (69): He scored a lot of points, 28,042 and counting. But so did Dan Issel (27,482), Vince Carter (26,728), Alex English (25,613) and Artis Gilmore (24,941), who also was a great rebounder, while Melo is a ball hog non-defender with zero playoff success.

Anthony Davis (71): His high is pretty high, but it’s too early to be here. Especially since he made the playoffs just twice in his first seven seasons, has no MVP and his title came as the second dog to LeBron.

Let me think about this

Russell Westbrook (68): Super stats, but hard to play with because he never gave it up until he couldn’t get his shot and that’s why he’s won bupkis.

James Harden (50): The most effortless scorer I’ve ever seen. But he doesn’t even try on defense and rewarding that goes against my grain Plus, while it’s irrational, I really hate the beard.

Who’s missing

The candidates are the four mentioned above, along with Bernard King, Pau Gasol, Bob Lanier, Chris Mullen, Joe Dumars, Dennis Johnson, Jo Jo White, David Thompson, Dwight Howard and Klay Thompson. All were/are better than Melo. On highest peak I’ll add King.

Surprising, but they deserve to be here

Dennis Rodman (67): Say what you will about him, but he personified the fact that greatness doesn’t have to be about scoring. He was vital to five championship teams when he was a smothering defender who gave Bird fits with Detroit and later was arguably the best post-Chamberlain/Russell rebounder the NBA has seen.

Bob McAdoo (45): All the injuries fog how dynamic he was with Buffalo when the under-sized centers battle between Dave Cowens (61) and him was so cool to watch. Then as the showtime Lakers’ sixth man he juiced the fast break to be even crazier when he replaced Kareem.

Too high

Giannis Antetokounmpo (18): But only because he’s just at mid-career with one title and two MVPs. So can’t see him yet ahead of the early dominance of George Mikan (28), who won seven titles in 10 (NBA/BAA) seasons, or later Lakers Jerry West (19) and Elgin Baylor (20).

Pete Maravich (54): Truly unbelievable in college, but not so in the NBA. Belongs in high 70s, maybe.

Kevin McHale (39): We all love Kevey, whose defensive versatility was vastly underrated and who for a few years was downright unstoppable. But Cedric Maxwell was more important to two of his three title teams and I’ve got him just eighth on my all-time Celtics list behind Cowens, Paul Pierce (62), Sam Jones (60) and Robert Parish (63). Sorry, Bob Ryan, Elvin Hayes (58) was better for much longer too.

Chris Paul (29): With him still looking for his first title, with no MVP or even being over .500 in the playoffs, he’s certainly not better than Steve Nash (37 — two MVPs), Bob Cousy (34 — six titles, one MVP, who invented what everyone does today in real time on the fly) or Allen Iverson (31).

Are you kidding me?

Willis Reed (57): Earl Monroe (55) is my favorite Knick ever and I loved watching Walt Frazier (41) grow from the pilfering, defense-first player he came to the NBA as to the unstoppable scorer he became. But even with Clyde actually being the real star of the Willis Reed game (36 points, 18 assists, 10 steals), sorry, those guys weren’t better than the Captain. Are they daft? Reed was the heart and soul of the golden era ’70s Knicks and the Finals MVP on both championship teams. No blanking way.

Reed was also better than his somehow ranked 48 rival Wes Unseld (teammate The Big E was better than big Wes too) and especially stat boy but no titles and no MVP Patrick Ewing (40). Reed is the greatest Knick ever and it ain’t close.

The Top 10: You can quibble with a place or two, like I’d flip Kobe (10) and Shaq (11) because it’s not a coincidence the big fella was the Finals MVP for all three of their shared championships. But aside from one glaring mistake they mostly got it right with, from 1 to 11: Jordan, LeBron, Kareem, Magic, Wilt, Russell, Bird, Duncan, Big O, Kobe and Shaq.

The Big Mistake: Superior talent, great stats and major awards are nice. But the only stat that actually matters is winning and a guy’s impact on that. Jordan won six MVPs and six titles (which might have been eight straight if he hadn’t retired the first time). Kareem matched both and is the all-time scorer. But Bill Russell matched the MVPs while winning 11 titles in 13 years and never lost a deciding Game 7. And no, he didn’t always play with the most talent. His final title came when he was at the end (averaged under 10 points a game) and, beyond a prime-of-life John Havlicek, was playing with aging starters and a bench full of scrubs against L.A. with three from the Top 75. But thanks to the incomparable will to win he still won. The winning started when he arrived and ended when he left. They now call him the greatest winner ever. But in my book, if you’re the “greatest winner” that also means you’re the greatest player.