My love of the Celtics extends back 26 years and 10000 miles away

For those of you that don't know I currently live in Boston.  This is Celtics country of course and the history here is amazing.  Need some reminding?  Take a look at these banners.

What you may not know is that I haven't always lived in Boston.  I was born in Sydney Australia and grew up in Brisbane Australia.  In the 1980s I was in high school in Brisbane which is about as far away from the NBA as you can get.  Basketball was not popular then and most boys played rugby league (including myself).  The kids that played basketball were considered weak and weirdos and if you didn't play rugby you were considered an outcast.   When I was in grade eight we had to do basketball for PE which involved various skill tests which counted towards grades for the semester.  I took it seriously and I ended up with one of the highest scores for the skill test (I was quite a good shooter when I was 13!).  My PE teacher was trying to start a basketball team and wanted to know if I would join.  He also wanted me to try out for a regional club (keep in mind not much competition in Brisbane at that time).  I said no way, I couldn't stop playing rugby or cricket for basketball I would have been ridiculed forever! 

But I still had an interest in basketball and every Saturday one game from the NBA was shown on Saturday mornings.  In the early 1980s the Celtics were a very successful team and therefore they were shown as the game of the week often.  This is when my 'secret' love of the Celtics began.  Then for my 13th birthday (Dec 21, 1984) when the Celtics were on their way to another NBA my father asked what I wanted for my birthday.
'I want a Larry Bird shirt'
'Who the hell is Larry Bird?', my father replied.
After I explained who Larry Bird was to my father he started the search for where we could buy one.  Eventually he found a sports store in the city.  One day we caught the train to the city center of Brisbane and the Wintergarden Mall and bought that shirt.  I wore it every Saturday when I watched the Celtics.  I wore it through the series that they lost in 84-85 to the Lakers and then when they won in 85-86 against the Rockets.  Of course in those days there was no Internet and I was so far away in Australia that the games weren't heavily publicized in the newspapers (unlike today).  After I finished high school and went to university my interest in the Celtics waned as I didn't have the opportunity to watch the Celtics as they weren't as competitive and I was focusing on other things like chasing girls and smoking pot.  But as most basketball fans know the Celtics were not a good team after Bird left in 1992 until recently.  These were very low years for a historically successful team.  I followed them when I could through the paper and the very rare times that they were on TV and I always had that Bird shirt which was held in safe keeping at my mother's house.

In 1998 I moved to Boston to take up a research job at Boston University.  I didn't pick this city I was offered a job there and I had applied to many through the USA.  Now I could see every Celtics game live!  I also got to go and see then live at the Garden!  In 1998 they drafted Paul Pierce but they were still a bad team by this city's standards.  During this time they were a bit of a joke and to get tickets was very easy.  People basically gave them away.  They had some success between 2001-02 to 2004-05 where they made the Eastern Conference finals but never really seriously threatened.  The years 2005-06 and 2006-07 were very grim but these were the first 2 seasons of Doc Rivers' coaching career here.  Then in 2007 they signed Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, two certain hall of famers, to join Paul Pierce who had suffered here for many years.  This really set the city on fire and they won that year for the first time since 1986. Next year they lost in the Eastern Conference.

The year 2010 was a real special year for me, I got married.  I was married in June and the Celtics were in the Eastern Conference finals again.  We were married on Cape Cod and the week before our wedding we stayed in a house there with our friends on family.  The Thursday night that we were there was the 7th game of the NBA finals - Celtics v Lakers.  I cold think of no better time to bring my treasured Larry Bird shirt back to the area where it belonged, during the week of my wedding with all my friends here and during a historic Celtics - Lakers game 7 of the NBA finals.  I arranged for my mother to bring the shirt with her from Australia, she was reluctant because the shirt reminded her of my father who passed away 12 year ago.  But I wore the shirt that night (it still fits me believe it or not).  The Celtics lost that night and we were very disappointed.  But wearing that shirt made me feel like that little kid who grew up in Brisbane Australia.  Now that little kid lives in the city of his favourite basketball team and got to see them win their first championship in 2008 since he was a kid in 1986.  Coincidence?

Antigua, SAP FC and Richie Richardson



I recently came back from a vacation in Antigua with my wife which was sort of a postponed honeymoon (plus I was recently laid off so I have lots of free time now).  For those of you that don't know where Antigua is it is a small (108 sq miles) island in the Caribbean next to Guadeloupe and St Kitts and Nevis (wiki link here).  By far the most popular sport on the island is cricket of which I am also a big fan and some famous players have come from the island (more on that later).

We were staying at the Jolly Beach Resort which is on the west side and one day we were browsing around the shops and saw a flyer for a band that featured two famous cricket players Curtley Ambrose and Richie Richardson.  For those of you that don't know cricket I can assure you that these guys terrorised opponents in the 90s.  Curtley Ambrose (wiki link here) was a big mean mother of a fast bowler and Richie (wiki link here) was the captain of the West Indies cricket team in the 90s.  We decided to go and check out the band.  A couple of nights previous my wife and I met a young guy who worked at on the restaurants at the resort.  He gave us a couple of drinks before the bar opened and we chatted with him for a while.   I was at the bar and this guy came up to me yelling my name - it was Alvin the guy from the bar.  I bought him a couple of drinks and I asked if he knew Richie Richardson who was playing in the band.  He said just go up to him 'he's cool as shit'.  Long story short I got my photo with him and had a bit of a chat with him.  Here's a couple of funny comments he made:
'You guys really ripped us (Australia) up back in the day'
'Hey man sorry I was just doing my job' - RR
'Where's Curtley?' - I said this as he wasn't playing in the band that night
'He dissapeared' - RR



The night went on and we had more drink and my friend Alvin bought my wife and I a couple of drinks.  Now if you have been to Antigua (or many other Caribbean islands) and spent any time away from your resort you can see that there is quite a lot of poverty on the island.  I felt bad that he bought us drinks so I was wondering how to give him the money back without offending him.  I saw he was wearing a soccer shirt that I didn't recognize so I asked him where he got the shirt.  He said that it was the shirt of his local team.
'Do you want this shirt?'
'I tell you what I'll buy it off you' - I thought this would be a good way to give him some money
I slipped him $40.
'Do not let anyone where this shirt not even your future son, I was wearing this shirt the day we won the title in 2008!'

I didn't think much of the shirt until I got back (except when I got it back to the room and it stunk so bad of sweat and body odor that my wife made me wash it in the sink with shampoo).  I decided to do some research to see if Alvin was telling the truth and to find out if (a) it was a real team; and (b) did they really win the title in 2008.  A quick google search did come up with an SAP football team in Antigua and they did win the title in 2008-09 (wiki link here).  So now I have another team to support and I will be following them and the Antigua team in the future.  Look for more blog posts on SAP and the Antigua and Barbuda FA in the future.

WTF has happened to Chelsea?

OK I have been away on vacation and kind of out of the loop this month but it's not hard to notice what has been going on in the EPL lately.  WTF has happened to Chelsea?  Everything seemed to being going along just fine coming into November, top of the table.  The a loss to Liverpool on November 7.  No panic get back to it.  A win at Fulham is followed by a bad loss to Sunderland at home none the less. Hang on what's going on here. Then another loss to Birmingham and panic stations.  Just when you wouldn't have thought it could get worse along comes December.  I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the late equaliser against Everton, that win was in the bag.  The draw against Tottenham was painful. I was on vacation in Antigua and when we went to lunch I noticed that the game was on in a common room and some Chelsea supporters were watching.  I stopped for 10 mins to watch when the game was 1-0 to Tottenham.  Then I went to lunch and when I came back I saw the equaliser by Drogba.  The penalty miss by Drogba was super painful though, I wonder how many penalties he missed last year?

Then I'm back from vacation and all excited that the Chelsea-Arsenal game is on ESPN here in the States.  Arsenal scores the first three goals within 60 mins and the game is over.  Chelsea now has no wins in the last 6 games.  They have slipped to 5th and are 7pts behind Manchester United (thanks to their draw with Birmingham City today).  Meanwhile Manchester United continues on their merry way and still has not lost a game (but has 7 draws).  It's probably lucky for Chelsea that their game against Man U was cancelled. Tottenham, Manchester City, Arsenal and surprisingly Blackpool have all shown good form in the last 6 games with at least 10pts each (Chelsea has 3!!!!).

Let me explain my EPL allegiences first

I am a big fan of the EPL.  I have to admit I haven't been a life time fan of soccer though.  I grew up in Brisbane Australia at a time when kids thought that soccer was for girls and most boys played rugby.  So I played rugby and ignored soccer.  I played rugby league until I was about 19 and suffered some bad injuries. Then I gave up playing and focused on my university studies. At university I met a bunch of guys that were fans of soccer and I played in an indoor league with them and we had a couple of German exchange students with us who were really good and they helped us win the D grade title!  Then I started watching international soccer, mostly the EPL and the Serie A which were shown in Australia at the time every Saturday.  My room mate and I thought it was the perfect Saturday afternoon activity while we worked off our hang overs!

In 1995 I moved to Sheffield in England to work at the University. At the time local team Sheffield Wednesday was in the premier league so I followed them closely while I was there from 1995-1997.  When I left I followed them as well even through their tough years of relegation to Division 2.  While I was in England I often went to London on the weekends to visit friends and I was very fond of the Chelsea area.  So I began to follow Chelsea as well in 1996 and even closer when I left England for the States and Wednesday was demoted so I never got to see them.  Around that time Chelsea started to become quite successful so I got to see them more on TV in the States.  Then of course when they were sold in 2003 to Abramovich they became the very sucessful team they are today.

Just thought I would explain myself as I will refer to these teams more than others in this blog.

What should Lebron James have done?

In Lebron James latest Nike ad he ask repeatedly questions regarding what should he do in reference to aspects of his life? What do you think he should have done? Has he spoiled his legacy? Should he have stayed in Cleveland? Is going to Miami a good move?

Kitna just as good as Romo?

News all over the NFL world is that Tony Romo suffered a broken collarbone during the game and was replaced by veteran Jon Kitna.  I actually thought Kitna did OK considering the situation but he was being booed by Cowboy's fans at one stage which was pretty harsh.

The Dallas newspapers this morning are full of doom and gloom this morning (check the link for some comments).

But apparently not everyone is so pessimistic.  Roy Williams made the following quote:
“Tony is our starter, but Jon is just as good. We are going to work this week in practice so we can get the timing down with the receivers. But I have complete faith in him"

OK this is a little extreme I think but got to applaud the effort.  Also during the telecast of the game last Jaws said he was excited for Jon Kitna.  Not so sure that too many Cowboys fans would agree.  A tough season just got a whole lot tougher for them.

http://fifthdown.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/26/kitna-just-as-good-as-romo-roy-williams-says/?partner=rss&emc=rss

Should people be offended by Derek Dooley's comments?

Read this story today about Derek Dooley, Tennessee Footbal Coach who was comparing his team to the Germans in WW2.

Check out these quotes:
"Right now we're like the Germans in World War II .Here comes the boats, they're coming. You have the binoculars, and it's like, 'Oh, my God, the invasion is coming"

"I don't want the German people to get upset at me,I'm not attacking them, but that's what happened. You had one group, they weren't worried about what the plan was and orders and all that."

"You had the other group, and they go 'Wait a minute, they told us the invasion was way further north,' where we had the empty tanks and we were hiding Patton out. 'We weren't ready for this now what do we do?' 'We better wait until Rommel tells us what to do"

Quite a history lesson druing a press conference.  These quotes are just stupid but I'm not sure to me they are that offensive.  But many people in this country are very senstive when it comes to comparing sports to the military.  Obviously there are no similarities.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/26/derek-dooley-tennessee-fo_n_773951.html