Category: Sports

The Big Story – Celtics Start Playoffs: Stumbling coming out of the All-Star break, including truly awful non-effort losses like blowing a 28-point lead vs. the non-Durant Nets, had Celtic Nation grumbling at best and filled with trepidation at worst. But they righted the ship to finish 57-25 and grabbed the second end in the East. However, they coughed up home court advantage vs. Milwaukee if both get to the Eastern Conference Finals, something that was vital last year when they had home court in their Game 7 win over Milwaukee.

I looked at it differently, as a product of their infuriating way of playing down to opponents, characterized by a lack of focus and lackadaisical defense. When someone good was on the schedule the focus and effort returned to show they can dominate anyone at their best, like the recent demolition of the Bucks, which came on the road, to show they ain’t afraid to play in Milwaukee.

And while they’re capable of getting through the East, it will be no cakewalk. The Bucks are as deep as they are and Giannis is more consistently great than Jayson Tatum, Philly has the likely MVP in Joel Embiid (see below), they were 1-3 vs. Cleveland and Miami plays them better/tougher than anyone except Golden State.

The key for them will be consistency behind the line and ability to deal with it by scoring inside and getting to the line when the 3-ball isn’t falling, as inevitably will happen some nights. Didn’t mention their D, because that’s an effort thing and the urgency of a playoff series usually puts a charge into everyone in green.

So, even with some concerns, buckle up because it could be a fun and hopefully long ride.

Sports 101: David Pastrnak became the eighth player in Bruins history to score at least 300 career goals when he became the 23rd NHL player to score 60 or more in a season on Sunday.

Name the seven other Bruins with 300 career goals.

The Numbers:

2 – pitch clock violations by Shohei Ohtani in being the first to do it once as a pitcher and once as a batter in the same game (a 4-3 Angels win over Seattle).

26 – years ago that Tiger Woods won the first of his six green jackets with a 12-stroke win in the 1997 Masters.

50 – recent per year increase in Major League homers attributed to climate change by a Dartmouth College study published last week.

News Item – Bruins Break All-Time Record: One down and one to go for your Boston Bruins after setting the all-time record for wins in a single season with No. 63 on Sunday vs. the Flyers. Next up is the 76-77 Canadiens record for most-ever 132 points, which they may get on Tuesday vs. Washington. Or, if not, against Montreal in Montreal on Thursday, which, given the way the Canadiens tormented them for most of their history, would be a more fitting way to do it.

News Item – Women’s Basketball Landmark Moment: Time will tell if this is the kind of watershed moment for women’s basketball that 1979’s legendary most watched Magic Johnson–Larry Bird clash was for the men. Drawing 12.6 million viewers, last Sunday’s Iowa-LSU NCAAchampionship game was the most-viewed women’s game ever in their sport, dwarfing last year’s 3.4 million viewers. An indicator may be the demographic breakdown between the more traditional male audience and the potentially growing female audience.

News Item – Watch Out For That Dude In The Playoffs: The 76ers may not have the greatest bench in the world but they will be a tough out in the playoffs thanks to having the most unstoppable force in Joel Embiid. Embiid showed that last week with a spectacular 52-point, 13-rebound, 6-assist night in Philly’s 103-101 win over the Celtics. And by going 20-25 from the field and 12-13 from the line he got those 52 the old-fashioned way since he didn’t make a 3-ball all night.

I Told You So Award – Me: With people inexplicably still calling Kyrie Irving a “game-changing superstar,” here’s what I said when he joined the then 28-26, 6-seed Mavericks after being traded/dumped by the Nets:“I’m betting they finish below .500 and land in the play-in round by year’s end….” I was wrong — kind of. They went 10-16 after he arrived, including 5-11 playing with Luka Doncic and 8-12 in the 20 games he played. In doing so they fell from the 6 seed to the 11 seed and entirely out of the playoffs. Superstar indeed.

Random Red Sox Thoughts:

Based on Masataka Yoshida’s decent start and stellar play in the WBC (three homers and a tournament-leading 13 RBI) the early indications are he’s not headed to be a Japanese version of Rusney Castillo.

I know he’s an emergency replacement who deserves some slack, but the five errors Kiké Hernandez already has in nine games projects to 90 over a full season.

How in the name of Calvin Schiraldi is Ryan Brasier still in their bullpen? He’s followed his 0-3, 5.36 ERA 2022 season with an early 9.00 ERA in five appearances. And the ERAs in two of the last three years were 3.96 and 4.85.

The 24,477 at Wednesday’s game vs. Pittsburgh was the smallest crowd since John Henry bought the Sox in 2002.

Sports 101 Answer: Johnny Bucyk (545), Phil Esposito (459), Patrice Bergeron (427), Rick Middleton (402), Ray Bourque (395), Brad Marchand (371), Cam Neely (344).

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

The Big Story – Jackson Wants Out of Baltimore: He would unquestionably be an exciting upgrade over Mac Jones and for the Patriots overall. But the tantalizing question for local fans is, along with the two first-round picks Lamar Jackson would command if signed to a restricted free agent contract, are they willing to also surrender the additional players they’d have to give up/cut to fit $30+ million needed to get under the salary cap? That likely would start with Matthew Judon and Trent Brown for the first $20 million.

Then there’s also the question: Can a guy who runs as much as he does survive in the NFL through the entire term of his contract to make $200 million guaranteed worth it? Because if he goes down for a substantial time, as he has by missing the last two Decembers to kill the Ravens both times, or Bo Jackson-like for his career,it’s curtains.Ditto for the concussion-plagued way it ended for Troy Aikman and Steve Young. If it does, that’s a $40 million hole in your cap for whatever remained on the contract. and, oh by the way, you’d still need to find (and pay) a starting-caliber QB.

Finally, the other thing to consider is what Patriot Nation will think about letting Jackson pass by, if the Jets pivot from getting Aaron Rodgers to Jackson instead. Especially since they already have cleared enough cap space to fit Rodgers in without new cuts needed.

Sports 101: Who is the only person in baseball history to pitch a no-hitter on Opening Day?

News Item – NCAA Men’s Basketball Tourney Wraps Up: UConn’s 72-58 rout of Miami was a bit of a clunker. But who didn’t love the Florida Atlantic–San Diego State barn-burner? Especially since it came down to a play that anyone who has shot baskets in the backyard has pretended to take and make a thousand times? But this time it was for real with the nation’s eyes trained on Lamont Butler on his way to joining the debate over the biggest clutch shots in NCAA Tournament history. He did it by draining a right-side 12-foot jumper that saw the buzzer go off just after he let it go but before it hit nothing but net to send San Diego State to the championship game with a 72-71 heartstopping win over Florida Atlantic.

Unfortunately for us that UConn-SDST final went off after we went to press but before we hit the streets.

Thumbs Up: To CBS announcer Jim Nantz upon calling his 32nd and last NCAA Tournament. The SRO crowd gave him a standing O prior to Saturday’s games, which fittingly came in Houston, where he went to college and was a member of the U of Houston golf team with best bud Fred Couples.

News Item – The Greatest Packer Ever: That hilarious claim was made by Rodgers of himself a couple of weeks ago on the Pat McAfee podcast. Which basically is Rodgers’ propaganda outlet in the way Jim Gray does it for Tom Brady on his podcast.

Best ever? Really? He’s not even their best QB ever. With winning the most important thing in pro sports I’ve got him behind Bart and Brett. Bart Starr was a five-time champ who went to six title games overall, was 9-1 in playoff games as his QB rating climbed from 80.5 in the regular season to 104.8 in post season and was the MVP of the first two Super Bowls. For Rodgers, he has stat advantages thanks to a pass-happy era, but the QB rating dropped in January from 103.1 to 100.3 as he was 11-10 in the playoffs that annually never lived up to the usual hype in August of being championship-bound in all but one of his 15 years.

Brett Favre is No. 2 because he beats him in every stat you can think of and his two Super Bowls are one more than Rodgers has. And then there’s Forrest Gregg, Jim Taylor, Ray Nitschke and Willie Davis among others up there as well.

News Item – Choppy Seas for Sale: Giving up seven runs and three homers in just three innings was not the return to action many predicted for Chris Sale. However, his first 2023 start was not surprising to me, because after winning just five times in three years he’s going to have to prove he’s not the meatball artist he’s been in most outings since the second half of 2019.

In Case You Missed It: Let the record show that Raffy Devers was the first person called out for violating the new speed-up-the-game rules. It happened in the eighth inning of the opener when he took too long to get in the box and was hit with an automatic strike, which K’d him because he already had two strikes against him in the count.

The Devers punch-out was mildly reminiscent of opening day at Fenway 50 years earlier when the DH was baseball’s brand new rule as the Yankees’ Ron Blomberg stepped in as the first ever DH on a similarly brisk day in Boston in 1973.

Random Thoughts: Call me crazy, but amid all the MVP chatter for Jayson Tatum, I think Jaylen Brown has been more consistently excellent than Tatum, who’s had some seriously down games against some good teams.

Sports 101 Answer: The only hurler to pitch a no-no on Opening Day was Bob Feller, who struck out eight Chicago White Sox batters on April 16, 1940, and beat them 1-0.

A Little History: That game in 1940 was also the only time in history when no hitter in the lineup saw their average drop. That’s because the batting average for every player is .000 on Opening Day and thus it can’t drop lower even during a no-no.

Prediction: Red Sox go 77-85 to finish last in the AL East again.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

The Big Story: The Red Sox kick off the season Thursday, March 30, at Fenway against the Baltimore Orioles. After three last-place finishes in four years and jettisoning the face of the franchise for the second time in four years it is a season that is met with the lowest sense of anticipation since the Butch Hobson era 30 years ago.

It’s so bad I’ve got the over-under for ticket sales at under two million. For a franchise that sold out every seat for 10 straight years that’s an amazing fall from grace. And if they get off to a bad start look out below.

The expectations are so low that I have not mentioned them once all spring in this space.

They have no one to blame but themselves as the owner decided to go small market in 2019 by firing Dave Dombrowski less than a year after putting the best Red Sox team in the franchise on the field and replaced him with a stat geek GM who can’t judge talent and who plays an awful style of baseball while giving the impression that he is thoroughly over his head. And they only signed Raffy Devers after John Henry got booed off the stage at a ticket caravan event in Springfield, Mass. And then he did what he always does — caved to fan pressure with the same kind of penny wise and pound foolish move that cost $190 million on Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez.

Beyond all that I’m really bullish on the season ahead.

Thumbs Up: Two weeks ago it was Devin McCourty who was hanging them up and now it’s fellow three-time champ teammate Dont’a Hightower. He officially retired last week after sitting out 2023. Three cheers for a career filled with great leadership and clutch play.

News Item – NCAA Hockey Regional Returns: With the Bruins careening toward the possible best regular season in NHL history, Boston got a measure of revenge against the team that shockingly deep-sixed them the last time they did that, as Boston U downed Cornell on Saturday night in front of 7,143 fans in the Northeast Regional at the SNHU Arena. It’s sorta revenge because when the Bobby Orr- and Phil Esposito-led Bs were doing it to the NHL in 1970-71 they were undone by Montreal goalie Ken Dryden, who was all of six games into his career after leaving Cornell at the conclusion of his college career.

And Another Thing – Back to the Sox: Here are questions I have as the season gets started. (1) What is the over-under on wins for alleged ace Chris Sale? Though how you can call anyone who is 11-12 over the last three years “ace” is beyond me. (2) Will the double-play combo of Christian Arroyo and Kiké Hernandez make anyone think of Rick Burleson and Jerry Remy? (3) Will Masataka Yoshida turn out to be Japan’s answer to Rusney Castillo or the real deal he looked to be in the World Baseball Classic? (4) Which will vaunted rookie first baseman Triston Casas turn out to be: the slugger he looked to be hitting five homers in 75 September at-bats, or the one who was .197 then?

Dramatic Moment of the Week: Can’t have a much more dramatic moment than the way the World Baseball Classic Final ended. Two out, full count bottom-of-the-ninth confrontation between huge stars and L.A. Angels teammates Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout with Japan leading 3-2. It gave the WBC the ending it could only dream of with the win going to Japan when Ohtani got his teammate to swing and miss on a final-pitch slider.

The MVP went to Ohtani after a performance many imagined the first true two-way player since the Babe might have someday, hitting .435 with a homer, four doubles, 10 walks and eight RBI to go with a 2-0 record on the mound with 11 Ks in 9.2 innings with a 1.86 ERA.

Thanks for the Memories Award – Willis Reed: May 8, 1970, was the greatest game of my fan experience. And it was all because of Willis Reed, who passed away last week at the age of 80 in Houston.

I can still hear the roar from the Garden crowd as a young Marv Albert told us watching on TV with the sound down and the radio volume up, “Here Comes Willis.”

Never in my lifetime has a player lifted an entire city up the way Willis Reed did by playing through pain of a torn hip muscle in that moment for NY Knicks fans. And believe it or not Game 7 of the NBA Finals between the Knicks and Lakers was won right there. Especially after he scored the first two baskets of the game.

So RIP, big fella.

In My Not So Humble Opinion: There has been a lot of chatter about the Patriots having set their sights on Arizona’s DeAndre Hopkins and Denver’s Jerry Jeudy as their top targets in the quest to land a lead receiver with primo speed, raising the so far unanswered question of why would Denver trade their best receiver who is still on his rookie contract. My two cents are, go for Jeudy.

While Hopkins at his peak has the higher upside, he’s coming off two descending years and is at the same age (30) at which similar elite receivers A.J. Green and Julio Jones started losing it, in part because of age-related nagging leg injuries. Jeudy on the other hand is on the rise and coming off a year when had a tad under 1,000 receiving yards. Plus he’s still on a rookie contract and makes about $15 million less than Hopkins, so bringing him on board won’t lead to any cuts for salary cap reasons. He’ll cost more in draft capital (asking price is a first-rounder), but he’s ready on Day 1 and they can extend him after 2023 if they like what they see. So the better plan is Jeudy.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

The Big Story: It’s that time of year again, when the NCAA Tournament sticks its head out of the gopher hole to say spring is on the way. With brackets busted all over America it’s a very familiar sight. But with Duke, Kentucky and Kansas out already and North Carolina not even invited, it’s not your mother’s tournament.

The biggest story of course was Fairleigh Dickinson becoming the second 16-seed to knock off a 1-seed with a 62-58 upset of Purdue on Friday. But, alas, that Cinderella story (17th at Augusta) was ended on Sunday by Florida Atlantic. The fun starts again on Thursday.

Sports101: Five players have been named Most Outstanding Player multiple times at the Final Four. Name them.

Thumbs Down: To the NCAA for banning former NE-10 member Merrimack from the tournament even though they earned it because they hadn’t been in Division I long enough since moving from D-II.

Thumbs Up: To the NCAA for banning Merrimack from the tournament because that let undeserving FDU in before it knocked off 1-seed Purdue.

News Item – Pats Free Agency Creates Local Buzz: The natives were pretty restless as one desirable name after another came off the board amid news Miami had traded for All-Pro DB Jalen Ramsey and the Jets were close to trading for Aaron Rodgers to fill their gaping hole at quarterback, as the Pats were letting their leading receiver Jakobi Meyers walk away to play for Josh McDaniels in Vegas. But things picked up later in the week with two solid signings of JuJu Smith-Schuster to step in as the new slot receiver and ex-Miami tight end Mike Gesicki. Smith-Schuster is an upgrade over the reliable Meyers because he is a much better runner after the catch, which is something they need improvement on. Gesicki gives a solid receiving second tight end who caught 71 passes in 2021 before taking a back seat after Tyreek Hill joined the offense last year.

Also added was a tackle few have heard of or were enthused about, Riley Reiff, an 11-year vet who came over from the porous Chicago Bears 2022 line. The good news is he’s been pretty durable and an upgrade over the penalty-plagued black hole right tackle was last year. Plus it will let them not have to force feed the tackle they’ll likely take in the draft. I’m not as enthused as most over the signing of running back James Robinson because I think letting Damien Harris leave is a mistake.

The best re-sign was keeping top corner Jonathan Jones at reasonable money. The best addition by subtraction was saying so long to Nelson Agholor and mercifully trading away Jonnu Smith.

News Item – Herrion Out As UNH Hoop Coach: After a hard-to-believe 18 years as head man Bill Herrion is out as basketball coach at the U. He leaves with a 227-303 career mark, which makes him the winningest coach in school history and the coach with the second most losses.

ESPN First Take Argument of the Week – Should the Jets give up the 13th overall pick for Aaron Rodgers? Stephen A. Blowhard says yes because the NYJ haven’t been to the postseason since 2010 or to the SB since 1968 and are on the doorstep, so go for it. Bart Scott says no because first-round picks are to be with a team through two contracts. I’m with Stephen A. because while I’m not a big fan of Rodgers and it doesn’t guarantee anything, they are basically in the same spot Tampa Bay was in three years ago. They had the pieces in place but were killed by their play at QB. Enter Tom Brady. The Jets were even worse at QB last year than TB. Plus a SB win is worth losing a first-round pick. Just ask the Rams, who gave up a lot more to get Matthew Stafford.

The Numbers

9 – hard to believe number of years UConn had not gotten to the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 until it got there with two wins over the weekend.

37 – billboards posted around New England by Devin McCourty to say thanks to fans upon his retirement in an exhibition of his class to the end.

Unsolicited Opinion of the Week: Here’s my suggestion for who UNH could consider for their basketball vacancy: one time-SNHU coach on the floor/star Bino Ranson. He has 10 years experience recruiting in the Big 10 and ACC, with strong ties to mid-Atlantic talent and in the Midwest while an assistant at Maryland and now DePaul. Great kid, solid guy and knows New Hampshire, having lived while playing at SNHU in college.

Do you suppose any of the $33 million Meyers got from Las Vegas was a bonus for the crazy lateral he threw that handed the Raiders the win vs. the Pats in Vegas last year?

How self-involved do you have to be to think your husband got traded because his head coach wasn’t invited to his wedding? That’s what WNBA’er Kelsey Plum claims is why Vegas HC Josh McDaniels sent her new husband Darren Waller to the G-Men for a third-round pick less than a month after the pair got married. Couldn’t be because he’s gone from 107 catches in 2020 to 55 to 28 last year while making $17 million per, could it?

Sport 101 Answer: Bob Kurland, Oklahoma State (185, 46); Alex Groza, Kentucky (48, 49); Jerry Lucas, Ohio State (60, 61); Lew Alcindor, UCLA (67, 68, 69); Bill Walton, UCLA (72, 73).

A Little History; After playing in the NBA for two seasons when he was Rookie of the Year in 1949-50, Groza was banned for life after being implicated in a point-shaving scandal during his senior season at Kentucky.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

The Big Story – NFL Free Agency Begins: The quest to fill the holes the Patriots have for 2023 began yesterday (Wednesday) at 4 p.m. when the NFL’s new year began. It came a few days after Devin McCourty announced his retirement. Which, looking on the bright side, saved them around $9 million in cap space to leave them with around $32 million to $35 million to spend.

The need to score with that became acute following news that All-Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey had been traded to Miami and Aaron Rodgers could be/was traded to the Jets already.

The following are things to consider as free agency unfolds.

Ways To Add Cap Space: The biggest no-brainer way would be to cut wideout Nelson Agholor. Losing him would not hurt in any way and it would save $4 million. A little dicier would be moving out left tackle Trent Brown, who was a disappointment in 2022. If they can find a taker in need of offensive line help, a trade would give them $10.5 million more, which would give them $14.1 million to spend all or part of on a younger upgrade to replace Brown.

Biggest Needs: To reiterate what I wrote two weeks ago: (1) A ready-on-Day 1 dynamic receiver that teams must game plan for. Pay what they must in draft capital and cap space to get one for their young QB, as the Dolphins and Eagles did to catapult their questionable young quarterbacks ahead a year ago. (2) Fix the offensive line. Specifically, two tackles. The best case scenario would be one coming from free agency and the other from the draft.

Players to Re-Sign: Most important would be to pay their top CB, Jonathan Jones, because if they don’t they’ll have to draft one and a bird in hand is worth two in the bush.

A Worthy Experiment: From the first Super Bowl team to the last when Julian Edelman was the MVP, slot receiver was the bread and butter of the offense. And while I’m fine with Jakobi Meyers as the third wideout (at the right free agent price) he does not give them much after the catch and lacks the quickness in space that Troy Brown, Wes Welker, Danny Amendola and Edelman gave Tom Brady.

They need a dynamic player in that role, as it’s a weapon on first down to get ahead of the sticks on down and distance, and as a target to get 7 yards or less on third down to keep drives alive.

So I’m all in on moving Marcus Jones from DB to slot receiver. While it’s not a lock he can do it, he would bring two things to the offense, dynamic speed and an ability to run with the ball when he gets his hands on it. And before you say he can’t do it: He played there some in college and historically it’s a position of misfit players who found success there as Edelman was a wishbone QB in college, Amendola and Welker were undrafted free agents and Brown was overlooked because of his size. Plus all were very good punt returners, which requires the most vital skill needed by a slot receiver, quickness to operate in tight spaces — something Jones demonstrated last year.

And trying him there also means you don’t have to use a draft pick or free agent money to fill that hole as well. Not to mention that since Coach B hasn’t hit on a wide receiver of any note since Deion Branch in 2002 it’s doubtful he’ll hit on one in this draft.

Check those boxes with trades and FA’s; it’s then on to the draft for a tackle and depth.

Thumbs Up – Devin McCourty: Thanks for the memories at the retirement after 13 years for as solid, reliable and durable a player as the Pats have had in the SB years. Bravo.

Sports 101: Detroit Mercy senior Antoine Davis fell just three points short of Pete Maravich’s all-time college record of scoring 3,667 points. Who held the career college scoring mark before Maravich?

Sports 101 Answer: With 2,973 points in 88 games (33.8 per game) Oscar Robertson was the all-time college scoring leader before Maravich.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

The Big Story: I awoke from my annual hockey hibernation last week and was shocked to see that the Bruins were an incredible 40 games over .500. And that at 48-8-6 they broke the all-time mark for reaching 100 points in the regular season faster than any team in history. I don’t totally live in a dark cave, and I’ve heard rumblings all year about them being in first place with the best record in the NHL. But I never bothered to look at the standings because I generally don’t watch or even care about hockey until it’s transformed from a boring (for me) game to the one where you’re constantly on the edge of your seat when the Stanley Cup playoffs arrive.

I also now know why the Boston Globe’s Prince of Darkness Dan Shaughnessy recently wrote about what happened to the supposedly unbeatable 1970-71 Bruins during the days when I did follow the NHL closely. I thought it was his mandatory once-a-year hockey column. Instead, it was a cautionary tale to the current rampaging group, as those earlier rampaging Bs shockingly got run out of the playoffs by the Montreal Canadiens behind a rookie goalie with all of six games of NHL experience. Which came after Ken Dryden joined them directly from Cornell after concluding his senior season. Dryden and company are also relevant for setting the all-time single-season record of 132 points in 1976-77, a record these Bruins are after as well. That got my attention because that Montreal team was in the middle of winning four straight Cups and was great.

So like a bear in the woods after taking care of business following his winter-long snooze I’m all in on the Bs going forward.

Sports 101: Name the six coaches who’ve taken two different franchises to the Super Bowl.

Thumbs Up: To early spring news that exhibition baseball games are being played 36 minutes faster on average than games last spring due to new rules that include a 15-second pitch clock (20 with men on base) to make pitchers come to the plate quicker.

Thumbs Down: To the alarming way the Celtics often play down to the competition, which hit a new low on Friday when they blew a 28-point second-quarter lead before losing 115-105 to the 2-8-since-the-Durant-trade Nets.

Stat Sheet: Love the waxing poetically in a Feb. 27 story on ESPN.com on the “historic surge of 50-point performances.” While there have been some great performances like Damian Lillard’s 71-point game last week it’s no mystery why: the 3-point shot. Those of us who saw Pete Maravich play know that with 13 threes Lillard’s 71 would have been 58 back in the day. Not trying to knock their talent, just to give context to how it historically stacks up with guys from the past.

Homerism vs. Reality Note of the Week: A friend of mine took me to task last week when I said Patrick Mahomes was going to break every one of Tom Brady’s passing records. He then went into yahoo homer mode and said, “He won’t, because he’ll never play as long as Brady did.” I said, if he stays on his current pace he won’t have to.

Injuries are impossible to predict, but after PM’s first six seasons he has 192 TD passes and 24,211 passing yards to Brady’s l23 and 18,028. Which means if the current pace is maintained Mahomes will beat Brady’s 642 TD when he’s 37 and his 89,214 passing yards at 39.

I Disagree: with Shaughnessy applying his gift for seeing the negative side of the story in a recent column urging Jayson Tatum to focus more on basketball. Hee criticized Tatum for missing a game to go to St. Louis for his son’s birthday party. Now I’m as tough on Tatum and the practice of “load management” as anyone. But I’m fine with a young dad using his load management game to fly 1,000 miles to be at his young son’s birthday party.

And Another Thing: Speaking of load management, I wonder if personal perceptions color my opinion. I mean managers give healthy players days off in baseball all the time and no one says a word about that. In fact Cal Ripken Jr. took heat from some quarters for not missing games to rest on the belief it hurt the team when a worn down Cal kept playing. Lou Gehrig got a little of that too while compiling his 2,130-game streak.

The difference is that basketball stars have a more inordinate impact on each game than individual stars do in baseball. But I suspect I hate the concept of load management because it’s another example of the wussification of the pitch-count, five-inning-starters world of sports today.

In other words, get off my lawn.

In Case You Missed It: The Patriots announced last week they’ll cut back-up QB Brian Hoyer.

Random Thoughts: Got to say in my first time hearing him I liked JJ Redick doing color for the Celtics-Nets game on ESPN. Not a lot of extra yacking, and no restating the obvious on replays. Just understated insight.

I ain’t buying Grant Williams getting a DNP vs. Cleveland last Wednesday. I think something is going on beyond Joe Mazzulla’s match-up blather. If it’s a message to stop yacking after every call, bravo. If it is match-ups nonsense, it makes no sense because regardless of size he’s better offensively or defensively than the guys behind him.

Sports 101 Answer: The six coaches to bring two different franchises to the Super Bowl are Don Shula (Baltimore Colts, Dolphins), Bill Parcells (G-Men, Pats), Dan Reeves (Broncos, Falcons), Dick Vermeil (Eagles, Rams), Mike Holmgren (Packers, Seahawks) and Andy Reid (Eagles, Chiefs).

Email Dave Long at [email protected].