Right Now

Sean Grande's From the Booth

You can hear the voice of the Celtics, Sean Grande along with Cedric Maxwell call each and every game on the WEEI Celtics Radio Network. You can send him .

From the Booth Archive

• June 5: Your Time
• May 18: Seven
• May 4: Wet Cement
• April 18: Altitude
• March 31: Trading Places
• March 5: The Snapshot
• February 8: The Homecoming
• January 31: TNT
• January 21: MLK Day
• January 2: While You Were Sleeping
• December 12: Right Now
• November 27: The Big Brothers
• November 17: Sugar Ray
• November 2: The Noble Chase
• August 1: Garnett Brings Energy, Enthusiasm

From the Booth
By Sean Grande
Special to Celtics.com
December 12, 2007

It’s something I’ve heard a lot over my ten years in the NBA. Not a lot, but just enough so that it plays on my mind.

Max, too, he gets it from time to time.

“Why can’t you guys be homers?”

And of course, there are many reasons, not the least of which being it’s a violation of everything I believe about myself, my business and what’s right with the world. But the best one is that that, was Johnny’s gig. And no one does Johnny’s gig better than Johnny. (Although Tommy comes awful close.)

But for everyone who’s ever wanted it, everyone that’s ever wanted us to keep our mouths shut when the Celtics got the benefit of a bad call, everyone that’s ever wanted us to pretend that the officials, and David Stern and the heavens above all conspire against the Green...this one’s for you. Ready?

The Celtics are the best basketball team on the planet.

Go on, read it again. And know it’s true.

And if your first instinct is to downplay it? Or say “well, it only matters in June”? If that’s your first instinct, and your name is not Doc Rivers, or Bill Belichick, or Chicken Little?

You need a vacation or something. Like a long one, with umbrella drinks, and scuba or snorkeling or one of those made up words they use for those relaxing aquatic activities.

There is no shame. There should be no self-consciousness attached to the emotions a Celtics fan felt watching the second half last Saturday night in Chicago. Knowing that not only was the eight game losing streak to the Bulls going to end, not only had another Eastern Conference playoff team been dispatched, but that the best Celtics start in two decades was in full force.

With plenty of room to get even better.

So here’s the question. If the hardest thing for anyone to do in this sports existence of outrageous hype over reality, is to meet expectations, then what do you say when a team actually exceeds them?

You don’t say anything. You enjoy the moment.

You watch the replay of the game the next day, you smile when you look the little Celtics schedule magnet you have in your cubicle and you call friends around the country you haven’t talked to in years, just to say hi...and to tell them that your team is better than their team.

Because it is.

And yes, the Spurs have been very good, with Manu Ginobili taking over the MVP baton while Tim Duncan is out, and yes, Phoenix rolled through their Eastern trip again, with Steve Nash averaging nearly 18 assists a game (until our old friend Big Al dropped 30 and 20 on them last Saturday night in Minneapolis.) Utah has done the impossible it seems, recreating Stockton and Malone for the new millennium with Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer, and New Orleans, on the very impressive coattails of the best young point guard in the league, Chris Paul, has had a phenomenal start as well.

They’re all winning.

But they’re not beating people up.

And they’re not doing it while getting the best the other side has to offer just about every night.

Think about the games against Miami, the nail-biter at Charlotte, the dazzling first-half performance by the Sixers in Philadelphia. These are the best games those teams have played this year.

And they couldn’t beat your team.

There’ve been some close calls, including the two losses which easily could have gone the other way, but the Celtics enter mid-December with a plus-14 scoring differential. That’s not winning, that’s dominating.

They eviscerated the Knicks on national television, they had a 41-point lead on a very good Denver team, and last Friday, I’m not saying the beat the Raptors badly...inhumanly...but the CIA destroyed the tapes. That’s all I’m saying.

There are a million things that could happen between now and June, of course there are. And ESPN’s computer can run as many Celtics-parade simulations of the NBA season as they like. The point is this, three years ago when the Celtics were competing for the Atlantid Division title, just a game or two above .500, I suggested the following; you can only win the division they put you in. Of course the C's haven't hit the iron of the schedule yet. But you know what? You can only win the games on the schedule.

We are too attached to the past, too lustful for the future. The here and now seems to vanish too quickly, like the Ghost of Christmas Present.

Right now, the Celtics are the best team in the NBA. Right now, Kevin Garnett is dominating, not on the stat sheet but in the ways that really matter (is it coincidence that the Timberwolves have been the worst team in the NBA to this point?) Right now, Kendrick Perkins is shooting 63 percent and giving the C’s the defense they need. Right now, Rajon Rondo, the guard they told you couldn’t shoot, is leading all NBA guards in...wait for it...shooting. Right now, the Celtics are the runaway number one defensive team in the league (What wins championships? And with ten sellouts in ten home games, I guess it sells tickets too.)

So have I turned over a new leaf? Have I gone over to the dark side of blatant homerism? Have I washed down my KG burger with a tall, cool glass of green-colored Kool-Aid?

Well, I guess in a way I have.

Or maybe, just maybe, this team is really that good.

17-2 makes a lot of things seem possible.

Right now.

WAITER, THERE’S A 220-POUND MAN IN MY SOUP...

Was this really that big a deal? Or was it just a quiet couple of days in between Patriot wins?

With the exception of the Kevin Garnett trade and piece here on Celtics.com (provided for you by the good folks who run this show, with a little link on your top, right there), I’ve gotten more e-mails and questions about our little brush with sideline mortality November 29th, than pretty much anything in Grande and Max world.

To the point at the subsequent home game, I kid you not, where people had me re-enacting James Posey’s table dive into my lap like a murder mystery. I think they wanted a chalk outline around my chair.

So here’s what happened.

Early in the second quarter, there was a scramble for a loose ball heading out of bounds between the Celtics bench and half court. My first reaction was, well, this ball’s coming at me so I’ll probably catch it and toss it back to the official, nothing I haven’t done a couple of dozen times. My next thought, a split second later, was, OK, this ball’s going a little slower than I thought I was, I wonder if someone’s going to make a play on it. Then a couple of random thoughts flashed through, did I set the VCR for the right channel, my first ATM code from college, Ellen Deutsch, who I had a wicked crush on in 10th grade and then...WHAM!

Next thing I knew I was looking up at the ceiling counting the lights like one of those early Mike Tyson opponents.

I’ve been waiting for my shot on TNT for ten years now. This was not how I pictured it.

James didn’t land on our table as I thought he might, he slid across it like a beer across the bar at Moe’s Tavern, and hit me with a cross-body block that would have made Superfly Snuka proud.

And the TV guys think a little resin shower is annoying?

I suppose after the fact, when I realized I had neither suffered bodily harm, nor a wardrobe malfunction, and Late Game James had landed injury-free himself, safely on my chest like a big baby (not that Big Baby...you get the point), it occurred to me how unique the situation, and our vantage point really is.

Greg Gumbel and Phil Simms aren’t going to get run over by Larence Maroney getting pushed out of bounds. Mike Emrick doesn’t have to fear for his safety when Dion Phaneuf runs someone through the boards. And the most Joe Buck and Tim McCarver ever have to worry about is ducking a ball fouled back at them.

Try ducking James Posey.

Of course, it can be done if you’re of the mind to abandon your post.

I’m simply grateful, given the live mic on the headset that remarkably stayed attached to my head, I didn’t let out some embarrassing, waif-life snivel. Which brings me to my partner, my brother and my BFF.

A lot of people said Max bailed out. One anonymous person, whose identity I will staunchly and dutifully protect (Paul Pierce) said he ran. Others went so far to say as he ran off “like a little girl”.

But it’s just not fair to say that. It’s wrong.

That’s an insult to little girls.

Many of whom I’m sure would have taken the charge in the name of Johnny Most and the higher purpose of broadcasting Boston Celtics basketball.

Cedric Maxwell is a Celtics legend. His #31 hangs from the Garden rafters a tribute to his 11 years of on-court service, two championships, including his historic performance in Game 7 in 1984, not to mention his 13 years of service calling the games on the Celtics Radio Network. His accomplishments are unimpeachable.

But while he’ll always have the night he told his team to “climb on my back”.

Now, he’ll have to deal with the shame of the night James Posey climbed on mine.

Circle of life, I suppose.

FOR THE GEEK SIDE OF YOUR BRAIN...

** When the Celtics took a 20 point lead on Toronto at the Garden on December 7, it was already their eleventh 20-point lead in the first 18 games of the season. Last season, the Celtics had nine leads of 20 or more...all year. The following night in Chicago, the C’s held the Bulls under both 90 points, and 40 percent shooting from the floor, approaching last year’s total in those categories as well.

TWENTY-POINT LEADS
LAST YEAR: 9 in 82 GAMES
THIS YEAR: 11 IN 19 GAMES

TWENTY-POINT WINS
LAST YEAR: 5 IN 82 GAMES
THIS YEAR: 7 IN 19 GAMES

OPPONENTS HELD UNDER 90 POINTS
LAST YEAR: 15 IN 82 GAMES (9-6 RECORD)
THIS YEAR: 10 (10-0)

HELD OPPONENTS UNDER. 400 FG%
LAST YEAR: 12 (9-3 RECORD)
THIS YEAR: 8 (8-0)

** If you were wondering (because I was) whether an NBA team has ever matched its previous season’s win total before New Year’s, which the Celtics might very well do, the answer is yes. In fact, the NBA-record worst 76ers of 1973 (9 wins), actually won their ninth game the following fall on December 1st. (The season started three weeks earlier back then.)

** The Celtics enter the December 12 game against Sacramento 15 games over .500. The end of the 2001-2002 season was the last visit to that neighborhood, a 49-33 finish, 16 games over. Wins over the sub-500 Kings and Bucks at home this week would put the green 17 games over .500. You have to send the DeLorean ten years farther back to match that, the Celtics haven’t breathed that thin air since April of 1992, when a 15-1 finish pushed them to a 51-31 final record.