Posts tagged BrianScalabrine at FanHouse

NBA Essentials ranks our six favorite stories of the day.

1. OC Register's Lakers Blog: Bad news for The Machine: Sasha has a fracture in that ankle and will likely be out the entire pre-season.

2. NESW Sports: Video: Kevin Johnson enlists Charles Barkley to help him campaign in Sacramento.

3. Free Darko. FD is previewing all 1,230 games of the NBA regular season ... before the season begins. October/November and December have been posted.

4. NY Post Knicks Blog: Strange, almost personally gleeful piece about the possibility of Allan Houston's comeback not happening.

5. NJ.com: More delays for the Nets' Brooklyn arena.

6. Celtics Blog: Fear not, Celtics fans: Brian Scalabrine isn't getting cut.

Here's video of the Celtics being honored at Fenway Park on Friday night. Highlights include: the entire team running from the centerfield wall to the pitcher's mound; Paul Pierce throwing out the first pitch; the first pitch going high; Jason Veritek not being able to catch the first pitch; and Brian Scalabrine pounding his chest to celebrate said first wild pitch.

And at some point, apparently Pierce slid into second base ... Without the aid of a wheelchair if you're keeping score at home.

Brian Scalabrine is clearly someone who doesn't take himself too seriously. Wait, scratch that -- Brian Scalabrine is clearly an NBA champion who doesn't take himself too seriously. Say what you want, but he's still getting a ring. You think Kobe Bryant wouldn't give anything to be in his shoes right now? Of course he would.

After the jump, check out the rest of Scal's press conference, including his trash talk to the doubting media who predicted the Lakers would win the series.

In the long-form tradition of The Rotation, Tom Ziller considers the action the morning after each game of the NBA Finals.

Tempo is a funky thing in organized basketball. Most associate high-speed offensive attacks with energy and intensity. Meanwhile, slow defensive stalwarts are assumed to be boringly consistent and Spursian. (Yech.)

But Boston -- with an incredibly stolid system, and an attack slower than Eddy Curry in zero-gravity -- has a defense that's exciting. Where San Antonio and Detroit plod and push and prod, Boston bites and gnashes and fights. This defense is bloodthirsty, and that's something the Lakers haven't faced before.

NBA Essentials ranks our six favorite stories of the day.

1. The Basketball Jones: World exclusive: Brian Scalabrine has a rap song, and it's amazing.

2. Pounding the Rock: "Chris Paul is a kerfuffle-toucher."

3. Bob Wolfley, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Ray Allen's mother is in the witness protection program. (via TrueHoop)

4. Need4Sheed: All hail the powers of Arnie Kander.

5. Converse: Design your own kicks: Kyle Korver does.

6. NBA.com: Playoff nickname generator. Just call me Brett "HUNDRED DOLLAR BILLS" Edwards from now on.

Chuck Klosterman has a (predictably) full and intensively interesting New York Times profile of the leftover 2006-07 Celtics currently playing for the league's best team (by record). You should absolutely read the whole thing, but in the interim this slice from Brian Scalabrine is absolutely interesting.

"Do I think about myself differently? Absolutely," he says. "I can't speak for everyone on this team, but that is absolutely the case for me. There's a different sense of self-worth. When you're losing 18 games in a row, you look at yourself and say, 'What am I doing? What else can I do? What could I do differently?' And those things get you into even more trouble on the court. But if you can look at the rest of your team and think, 'All we have to do is do our individual roles and jobs, and we'll get wins' - that takes away so much of the stress. Last year, I would sometimes go out of character, because everybody thought they should be doing more. I'd try to drive the lane and get a foul, which isn't something I should be doing."

The whole piece is a great character study -- these players (Scalabrine, Rajon Rondo, Kendrick Perkins) seem to understand they matter less to winning than anyone'd ever think by virtue of the one-man renovation which has taken place. Some players might think to make excuses for last year's performance instead of accepting they have marginal roles in this year's success. The sheer starkness of the contrast might have helped.

Yesterday, TrueHoop broached the subject of fan favorites. Actually, Henry started with the "player as mascot" phenomenon exemplified by Brian Scalabrine. But then, the conversation shifted to the all-purpose topic of minor players fans love.

To me, there's a big difference there; Scalabrine just kind of sucks, while other fan favorites are semi-valuable role players. Being energetic and/or scrappy will always resonate with fans in a way pure talent just doesn't. Ideally, though, the player's got some contribution to make. Scalabrine is an extreme case, since he's basically the butt of a joke.

Henry wondered if white players weren't more likely to end up fan favorites. This would make sense, given the numerous racial issues involved in today's NBA. But when a list of black fan favorites started to emerge, it seems like most of them are actually useful: Bo Outlaw, early Detroit Ben Wallace, or Rony Turiaf. The better comparison for Scalabrine would be Moochie Norris.

You know what we haven't had enough of yet this pre-season: Position battles. And I'm not talking "this logjam has been here forever" discussion--I want seemingly random, unnecessarily clever coaching tweaks that get us all buzzing.

Like how about this daring duo of moves that, well, almost seem like veiled threats. First, you have Scott Skiles telling the Chicago Tribune that rookie Aaron Gray might start:

"We have to decide, balancing both units, do we want a couple of defensive players in the starting lineup or do we want more offense. Aaron has shown-and I think he will in the regular season-that he can score. Do we want to use that to start a game? It's something we have to think about."

That would mean that Gray--a second-rounder--has leapfrogged lotto guys Joakim Noah and Tyrus Thomas. Which does make a certain amount of sense, since pairing Gray with Ben Wallace at least gives them an outside shot at offense in the post.

Over at The Knicks Fix, word is that Brian Scalabrine might take Kedrick Perkins's starting spot on the Celtics. This is nothing against Perk, just that "Scalabrine's ability to hit the deep ball and pull one big out of the paint opens up room for Garnett to work on the post." Hmmm. Seems like addition by subtraction to me, when Perkins actually adds something to the team.

While I personally can't stand them, the folks at Perk Is A Beast have brought some frightful goodies back from Celtics Media Day. This encounter with Brian Scalabrine--who is a Michael Rappaport role waiting to happen--steals the show. But also check for their reflective interview with their namesake, big man Kendrick Perkins.

Well, it looks like it's official: Kevin Garnett will wear Celtic green next year, teaming up with Paul Pierce and Ray Allen to form one of the most potent (and definitely the most expensive) trio of players in the entire league. From the Boston Herald:

A league source just confirmed that the Celtics and Timberwolves have finalized a deal that will bring Kevin Garnett to Boston in exchange for Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes, Sebastian Telfair, Gerald Green, Theo Ratliff and two first round draft picks.

Garnett is expected to arrive in Boston this afternoon for a physical.

Garnett has agreed to a three-year extension with the Celtics beyond the two remaining on his contract, guaranteeing that he will be a Celtic for the next five years.

That's pretty much the same package everyone was talking about yesterday, except that there are now two first-round picks instead of just one headed to Minnesota. It's far too early to say who actually won this trade (especially considering four of the five players Minnesota received are 24 years or younger) but we do know one thing for sure: Boston's depth took a huge hit.