Tag: 240627

C’s are world champs

The Big Story – Celtics Win Banner 18: It remains our top story, which we’ll wrap up now, since they actually did it after last week’s deadline.

We’ll get to the Red Sox next week as they reach the midpoint in what’s becoming a surprising season with some major bright spots ahead.

Sports 101: Name the top five leaders for most fouls committed in NBA playoff history.

News Item – Who’s Hot: The Sox come into the week on a roll having won 10 of 12. It has them six games over .500 at 42-36 and a half game up on KC for the final wild card spot.

News Item – Unnoticed Moves By Joe Mazzulla: I’ve been a critic of his, but here are three excellent playoff moves that made a difference:

(1) Challenging a goal tend call on Al Horford 35 seconds into Game 1 vs. Indy. It seemed really dumb at the time. But it worked and two points were taken away. Flash forward to seconds left, Jaylen Brown makes a three that sends it to OT where the C’s win. But if Mazzulla doesn’t do it they lose Game 1.

(2) Inserting Payton Pritchard into Game 2 vs. Dallas with 3.5 seconds to go in Period 3 and he banked a 45-footer for a three-ball. Did it again at the end of the half in Game 5 — this time nothing but net. Both gave the team and crowd a huge lift.

(3) His Pete Maravich-like “when you’re hot shoot to stay hot, if you’re cold shoot to get hot” philosophy on three-point shooting. They stuck with that in Game 2 vs. Dallas when they couldn’t hit the pavement with a rock and it eventually paid off then and through the series when they were a +21 on 3-balls.

The Numbers:

5 – Celtics who shot over 60.0 percent, led by Luke Kornet’s 69.8 percent. Only Kevin McHale did that on the vaunted 67-win Celtics of 1985-’86.

13 – Celtics who shot 52.6 percent or better on two-point shots. Only seven guys did that on the ’85-’86 team.

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Up – Jamie Staton: It goes to my friend and one-time broadcast partner upon leaving WMUR, for the great work he did over the years with such passion and desire to cover sports in a way that reached all corners of our state. Congrats on a job well done, young fella!

Dumbest Guy Alive Award – Skip Bayless: For intimating on his TV show the reason Jayson Tatum took (“so many shots” — seven) while scoring 11 points in the fourth quarter of Game 5 was that he was making a last-ditch effort to be named Final’s MVP instead of trying to end the series. Lunacy.

Random Thoughts:

With the Sox in the wild card race and the trade deadline a month away, should they keep free agents-to-be Kenley Jansen and Tyler O’Neill to make a run for it? Or move them if they can get a prospect of real value like the Braves did with Single-A pitcher John Smoltz for Doyle Alexander (who went 9-0 and led Detroit to the AL East title) and hand their jobs to younger guys who’ll be here next year to see how they stand up under pennant race pressure? I vote the latter.

Sports 101 Answer: The top five playoff foulers areKareem Jabbar (797), Shaq (769), Robert Horry (717), Tim Duncan (701) and Scottie Pippen (686).

Final Thought – Finals Topics Settled:

Tatum and Brown Tandem – I’m old enough to remember hearing Felger and Maz blather on about how these two couldn’t play together. One of the local cries was to trade Brown for Tatum’s St. Louis buddy Bradley Beal, who was a dud in Phoenix’s misguided quest to force-feed ill-suited players together to form a Big 3, after Beal never won squat in D.C.

After that calmed down, the not happy unless they have something to be unhappy about duo was consumed with their own fiction that the Jays were in a jealous fight over who’d be playoffs MVP starting back in the Indiana series.

Kyrie Irving is a superstar – Can we please finally stop this nonsense now? He shot 33 percent when it counted in Boston this year, just as he did in his last series (vs. Milwaukee) with the C’s in 2018 and when Kyrie and Brooklyn were swept by Boston in 2022.

Real NBA King – Can we please stop the chatter between the L.A. Lakers and Celtics as being neck and neck in the NBA title race? Golden State has no relationship to the 1955 Philadelphia Warriors, and Indianapolis Colts fans have no connection to Baltimore Colts QB/star Johnny Unitas. Ditto for L.A. with Minneapolis Lakers stars George Mikan, Vern Mikkelsen or Jim Pollard. Since the C’s started dominating the NBA just before they moved to L.A., it’s even. So, sorry, Magic, the real title count is LOS ANGELES Lakers 12, Boston Celtics 18.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

A new show in the sky

Sunapee celebrates with a drone show

The Town of Sunapee will be hosting a patriotic drone show at Sunapee Harbor in lieu of a fireworks display on Saturday, June 29, at Dusk. Town Manager Shannon Martinez talks about the innovative holiday event and the American spirit of trying new things.

Why was the decision made to do a drone show?

The initial suggestion came from the community. The community was asking what are the different kinds of innovative ways we can celebrate the Fourth of July without potential contaminants going into Lake Sunapee…. We continue to make decisions about protecting the lake and the quality of our watershed.

How many drones will be involved?

Just over 300.

What type of show is a drone show?

It will be an innovative way using new technologies to celebrate our nation’s birthday. It will be all the things you will get from a normal fireworks show. It’s really homing in on what makes us proud of our nation, what makes us proud to be Americans. It’s the same spirit of the celebration of our nation’s birthday…. It’s an American company with American-made drones with veterans flying drones. It’s a very patriotic way to celebrate what’s important to us. It’s one of those things that can promote community, promote resilience, and just all give us a moment to reflect and pause on what makes us great.

Does it mimic a fireworks show or is it its own thing?

That is the curiosity…. What exactly is a drone show and what does it look like? Absolutely there will be some ‘fireworks,’ there will be, I guess the right word will be ‘characters,’ and there will be things that celebrate and bring us together as a community, celebrate us specifically, like what makes Sunapee proud, that will also be part of the show as well. It’s a blend of animation, if you will.

Will there be music accompanying the drone show?

We are partnering with the local college radio station [Colby-Sawyer College, WSCS] and they will be broadcasting the music that will accompany the drone show. We will have speakers and audio set up in the harbor itself, but for folks who are maybe farther out in their boat, if they just tune in to that radio station they will be able to hear the music that accompanies the movement of the drones.

Are fireworks allowed in Lake Sunapee?

Fireworks are definitely allowed on the Fourth of July. The town ordinance allows people to shoot off fireworks on the Fourth of July without a permit.

What would you say to someone who is not totally on board with a drone show?

It is the ability to try something new and to celebrate in a new and innovative way. Committing to doing something new, what does that mean? That we’re taking away? It can definitely be an additive thing that can still demonstrate our commitment to our country. If you try it once and the feedback from the community is overwhelmingly positive, isn’t that great that we tried something new. If the community finds out that they didn’t love it and we need to go back to fireworks because that is the consensus of the community then we absolutely can do that but I don’t think we lose by being a community that’s willing to try new things together and be open-minded about how it is that technology is changing the way that we interact with one another … drones are a big part of that, it’s a new technology, it’s almost in some ways [we’re] being an early adopter.

Featured image: Courtesy photo.

News & Notes 24/06/27

Moose lottery winners

According to a press release, 33 people have been offered official permits to hunt moose in New Hampshire this October in the state’s annual moose hunt lottery drawing, which was held at the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department in Concord.

The winning hunters will be officially notified by mail. A complete list of names of the 2024 winners and alternates is posted online at wildlife.nh.gov/hunting-nh.

Winners of the Lottery are offered permits to hunt moose in a specific Wildlife Management Unit (WMU) during the nine-day 2024 New Hampshire moose season from Saturday, Oct. 19, to Sunday, Oct. 27. There are eight WMUs. Winners are allowed to enlist a guide and one friend or relative to help on the hunt as a subpermittee, according to the release.

New Hampshire has held an annual moose hunt since 1988, when 75 permits were issued for a three-day hunt in the North Country. In 2023, 22 moose were harvested, for a statewide success rate of 67 percent, according to the release. Visit nhfishgame.com.

New hospice director

According to a press release, Granite VNA has appointed nurse management professional Otillie Dean-Crotty, R.N., B.S.N., as its director of hospice. Dean-Crotty will oversee the clinical business operations and patient care services of Granite VNA’s community hospice program with responsibilities including planning, organizing, developing and managing the agency’s hospice services as well as agency policies and procedures, according to the release.

Dean-Crotty brings 15 years of experience in advanced nursing and leadership roles, most recently as director of clinical services at Compassus, a hospice, home health and palliative care provider in Bedford, and also served as the director of nursing at The Huntington at Nashua, as a senior nurse care manager at Anthem, Inc., in Manchester, and as a hospice team lead for Home Health & Hospice Care in Merrimack, according to the same release. She is currently pursuing a Master of Business Administration degree from Rivier University, where she received her master’s, bachelor’s and associate of science degrees in nursing.

In a statement, Rachel Tracy, M.S., R.N., Granite VNA’s hospice director of clinical operations, said that with Dean-Crotty’s “diverse experience in health and hospice care roles, we are confident in her ability to guide our teams and ensure that patients and their families receive exceptional care.” Visit granitevna.org.

Body cams

In a press release, the New Hampshire Department of Corrections announced that every sworn law enforcement officer in the department is now issued a body-worn camera, and all emergency vehicles are equipped with in-vehicle camera systems.

The New Hampshire Department of Corrections is now the second state corrections department in the country to deploy body-worn cameras department-wide to all sworn law enforcement officers, according to the same release.

The Department began a pilot of body-worn cameras through a U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance federal grant awarded in 2019, which provided technical assistance to engage a variety of stakeholders, to establish a departmental policy, and to purchase 52 body-worn cameras with a total grant amount of $52,006, but the Covid-19 pandemic delayed the pilot’s implementation, according to the release.

The Department advocated for additional state general funds through the budgeting process to deploy cameras to the Department after Gov. Sununu’s Commission on Law Enforcement Accountability, Community and Transparency encouraged all law enforcement agencies to use body and/or dash cameras, and this is funded through state general funds at a cost of $720,000, according to the release.

The Department initiated the pilot deployment in July 2023 in the Secure Psychiatric Unit and expanded rollout to the rest of the department including all corrections officers at the prisons and transitional housing units and all investigators and probation parole officers.

More than 450 body-worn cameras are now deployed department-wide with all officers and investigators trained on their operation, and all 55 of the department’s emergency vehicles are outfitted with cameras on the dash and/or inside the transport compartment, according to the release.

Visit corrections.nh.gov.

Summer fitness

On Friday, June 21, the Boys & Girls Club of Manchester hosted an event with teens at the Planet Fitness on Huse Road to celebrate the fitness center’s High School Summer Pass program. Through Aug. 31, teens age 14 to 19 can sign up to get a free summer membership to Planet Fitness, according to a press release. Teens under age 18 must register with a parent or guardian; see planetfitness.com/summerpass.

See the end of SEE Science Center’s Kickoff to Summer with Zach’s Contraptions with Zach Umperovitch at SEE, 200 Bedford St., Manchester, until Friday, June 28. Visit see-sciencecenter.org or call 669-0400. Read an interview with Umperovitch on page 6 of our June 13 issue.

Granite State Antique Shows (506-9848, gsashows.com) will host an Outdoor Flea Market at the Granite Town Plaza (185 Elm St., Milford) from 8:30 a.m. to noon Sunday, June 30. Early-bird admission starts at 7 a.m. General admission is $5; early-bird admission is $30.

Author Catherine Newman will discuss and sign her novel Sandwich on Saturday, June 29, at 11 a.m. at Toadstool Bookshop (12 Depot Square in Peterborough; toadbooks.com).

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