CSN Rumor: Kevin Garnett would have played if the Celtics advanced

This story was updated at 12:30 pm Wednesday.

Yeah, Comcast Sports Net New England’s Gary Tanguay isn’t exactly known for being one of the most original or ground-breaking media members in Beantown, but he did drop an interesting note Tuesday night regarding injured Kevin Garnett and his availability if the Boston Celtics had advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals vs. Cleveland.

During the late edition of their Sports Tonight broadcast, Tanguay told co-host Michael Felger that he heard from sources that Garnett would have played against the Cavaliers if the Celtics had defeated the Magic in Sunday’s Game 7.

Obviously, Tanguay’s got some inside connections (CSN is the official broadcast partner of the team and he is the studio host for the broadcasts) and by leading off with this, he puts himself out there in case it’s not true.

But it does raise some questions if it is true:

– Just how bad is this knee anyway? KG is due to have surgery next week, but there sure is a Tom Brady-esque feeling of silence around the situation, eh?

– Assuming the above is true, if he could have played in Game 1, why didn’t he play in Game 7 against Orlando?

– Was GM Danny Ainge simply smoke-screening all this time? I guess the answer to this is obvious, but if Garnett had returned, it would have interesting to hear what he would have to say after he so vehemently denied Garnett would play in the postseason.

– What’s the benefit of breaking this info now? I don’t see much of a benefit to be gained for everyone and actually, I see more negatives that could come out of it.

– How much could we have expected out of him? 5 minutes? 10 minutes? Celtics fans would probably say a 60% Garnett is better than no Garnett, but would he have been able to make any sizable impact?

There isn’t anything buzzing much yet on the interwebs about this, but I suspect we will hear more in the week ahead. It does twist the knife a bit to realize we could have been that close to an emotional Garnett comeback, but in the end, the Celtics got throttled in Game 7 and the Magic moved on.

Damn it.

Update: Tanguay uploaded the video of this announcement on the CSN site. I’m still surprised this isn’t more of a story yet.

Josh Nason – josh [at] smallwhiteball [dot-com] – is the publisher/main writer for New England sports and media blog Small White Ball.

Despite Game 7 struggles, Celtics and Bruins fans have great seasons to remember

It wasn’t supposed to end like this, not in Game 7, not in our house.

But for Boston sports fans, the knife got plunged into our hearts not once, but twice this week as both the Bruins and Celtics were ousted from the 2nd round of their respective playoffs in front of the hometown faithful. But while it’s easy to point fingers or make excuses as to why these clubs are now out of the postseason, let’s take a look here at what we are dealing with.

The Celtics are coming off a championship season in which they played 26 postseason games and then did a ton of media appearances celebrating that hard-fought 17th World title. Fast forward to this year where an injury-depleted Team Green fought through a grueling seven-game set with the Chicago Bulls and then another seven with the Orlando Magic.

Quick math: that’s 204 games in roughly two years time, not taking into account the preseason games, practices and the overall wear and tear of being an NBA player. It’s nice to think an offseason solves all woes but eventually keeping up the breakneck pace was going to become too much.

And c’mon now: even if they survived Sunday, they would have needed a Lebron James injury miracle to make it to the NBA Finals over Cleveland. You know it, I know it, we all know it.

Need one more stat to get yourself to sleep tonight? The last time an NBA Champion repeated? The 2000-01 and 2001-02 Los Angeles Lakers. The last team to make it to the Finals in consecutive years? The 2003-04 and 2004-05 Detroit Pistons. It’s tough to get there and even tougher to repeat.

With no Kevin Garnett, no Leon Powe and a gassed Paul Pierce, we should be happy with what we got: a gutsy, hustling club that came one big game short of the Eastern Conference Finals. Remember the excitement of those Bulls games and the night Eddie House ripped up the Garden but whatever you do, don’t look back at this season and think ‘failure’.

After all, they did just win a title about 12 months ago, went 62-20 and were the No.2 seed in the Eastern Conference this year.

For the Bruins, this season was really a gift. No one expected them to be this good and certainly no one expected them to be a No. 1 seed going into the NHL Playoffs. For a team that was so reviled and undervalued for years upon years, the ’08-’09 campaign was a real reacquainting with the Boston fans who responded by filling the TD Banknorth Garden night after night.

Better yet, this was an extremely likable Bruins team that had something for everyone. Goaltender Tim Thomas had a career year and broke out of the platoon role he shared with Manny Fernandez early on. Milan Lucic became a cult hero overnight and someone that Cam Neely-starved diehards latched onto.

Younger talents like Phil Kessel, Blake Wheeler and David Krejci became known entities in a city that already had plenty of talents to identify with. Veterans like the Marks (Stuart, Savard, Recchi) and Zdeno Chara played pivotal roles throughout the year. This group made people actually care about them which is pretty amazing considering the lack of interest in them prior to this run.

There is a lot to build on for the Bruins, but for those of us still trying to understand what we’re dealing with, next season is now even more important. There is no more flying under the radar and coming off such a successful year, there are the dreaded expectations that come with that. Fans will expect big things next year and rightfully so – we put our faith and eyes on this team for months. Now we want to know if our investment is going to pay off.

The fact that the man who sucker-punched Aaron Ward and shouldn’t have played in Game 7 scored the game-winning goal in overtime hurts. However, the fact the Bruins got down 3-1 in the series and fought back to a Game 7 is a reassuring feeling and while they got close, it just wasn’t good enough…this year.

In all reality, we’ve been pretty spoiled in this city and damn, it’s felt good the entire time. Three of the four major sports here have crowned champions since 2001, two of them multiple times. Our teams win consistently and cause us to expect more out of them as a result. There is lots of money in being on the winning side of the ledger and the Beantown Four get it.

Yep, it’s been a bad few days but cheer up. The Red Sox are still here and about to open up a big series this week against division-leading Toronto and the Patriots are still the Patriots. While the sting of losing hurts, I’d rather feel the pain than never experience the pleasure…and there’s been a lot of pleasure in Boston to go around this decade.

Now about that David Ortiz guy…

Josh Nason is the publisher and main writer for New England-based sports and media blog Small White Ball. He can be reached at josh [at] smallwhiteball [dot-com].

The Run For Green 18: Joakim, Gordon and the incredibly annoying Chicago Bulls

Maybe it’s just because its the first round of the NBA Playoffs and that the Chicago Bulls are giving up more of a fight than I expected, but I am more than annoyed with the bunch from the Windy City, now down 3-2 in their series with the Boston Celtics.

Much like the Atlanta Hawks of a year ago that were in this same spot, the Bulls are brash, arrogant and irritating, but for all the wrong reasons. While it’s fun to watch a young team come together after years of being horrendous, this is not one of those cases thanks to four guys in particular.

Joakim Noah: Quite possibly the most visually enraging player in the NBA today, I’ve run out of tolerance for the fluffy-haired center/forward. Before this series, I was content with Noah being a dorky-looking player that was always attempting to translate his college success to the pros.

But during Game 2 in Boston, he kept putting his finger to his
mouth in the ‘shhh’ motion every time he or
his teammates made a big shot. Really? This is where we’re at in today’s NBA…especially when a game isn’t over yet? It’s not college anymore, Joakim. This is a man’s league with guys that will put you out if you try that in their house.

If I was to compare Noah to a Hawk of ’08, it would be Zaza Pachulia, who decided to keep pushing the buttons of Kevin Garnett for the majority of the series the C’s won in seven games. But after this classic hit in that Game 7, Zaza learned that is never, ever a good idea. Boy, do I wish #5 was in this series to show Noah where he could put that finger.

Ben Gordon: I really, really want to like Ben Gordon but there’s part of me that just can’t because of his act in Game 4. Gordon – a stud in this series who is
battling Rajon Rondo for biggest breakout star of the playoffs so far –
hit a game-tying 3-pointer to send the game into a 2nd OT.

Yes, it was a
great shot but Gordon turned around and decided to grab his crotch
several times in a show of…uhh…manliness? Bravado? A reminder for men to check for testicular cancer? Not surprisingly, ESPN/ABC decided to cut that part
out when showing the replays.

For a guy that had come so far in such a short period of time, it took this one action for him to just evaporate into the abyss of classless jerk rather than a money player in my eyes. I don’t need choir boys, but c’mon man. What’s the point? In all, this was very Mike Bibby-esque of Gordon, who decided to go the media to complain about Celtics fans being ‘bandwagon jumpers’ during last season’s Celtics/Hawks series. How did that work out for you, Mike?

Brad Miller: The newest entry into this playoff feud got his comeuppance Tuesday night in a classic case of cosmic karma. In the fourth quarter of a close Game 5, Miller got tangled up with Ray Allen, helping Allen get a 6th foul, disabling the Celtics even further. But it was Miller’s laughing afterward that raised the ire of C’s color man Tommy Heinsohn, a somewhat unsportsmanlike reaction in what has turned out to be an awesome series.

Miller then amazingly had his chance to tie the game at the end of OT when he got a clear path to the basket with seconds left and was fouled by Rondo. I said to my roommate that karma is a b*tch and Miller then proceeded to miss the first shot, grimacing and acting like he had been smacked in the dome with a steeeeeeeeeeeeel chair. The Celtics won and Miller went from villain to sad sack in minutes.

Aaron Gray: Who is Gray? He is a very tall white bench fixture for the Bulls, a rookie who joined Noah in the afore-mentioned ‘shh’ bit but has yet to field a second of play in this series. Guys like this annoy me, talking smack from the outer ring when the fight doesn’t directly involve them. Clap, cheer and pump up your teammates but it’s a bit ridiculous when a bench guy thinks he has the license to taunt. Play some minutes and then do something, Aaron.

So why does this team suddenly irritate me so much? I think mostly it’s because they seem to think they are entitled to the same treatment and respect as the defending World Champs. This is a team that has been subpar for a long time, yet are acting like they are the favorites – incredibly ballsy considering they are a No. 7 seed that self-imploded a season ago and are only in this series because of a missed free throw by Paul Pierce in Game 1 and the absence of Garnett.

Bravado and confidence is one thing. Unwarranted attitude, gestures and entitlement are another. On Thursday, the Celtics go back into enemy territory for Game in what should be a wild and emotional affair between two clubs who find themselves evenly matched and the focus of NBA fans right now.

Let’s hope the final taunt on the Celtics’ behalf is the final score.

Josh Nason is the publisher and main writer for New England sports and media blog Small White Ball.com. You can reach him at josh [at] smallwhiteball [dot-com].