What are the biggest storylines heading into the NBA Finals for the Boston Celtics? The Tatum vs Luka/Ant apex predator face-off? Kyrie Irving potentially returning to TD Garden? The Celtics' haven't been truly tested until they face a Western Conference team? There are so many spicy narratives heading into the final stage of the Celtics' title run.
Noa Dalzell of CelticsBlog and CLNS Joins us to rank all the major narratives heading into the NBA Finals.
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Noa Dalzell of CelticsBlog and CLNS Joins us to rank all the major narratives heading into the NBA Finals.
Follow Noa on Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/NoaDalzellNBA
Read Noa's work for CelticsBlog: https://www.celticsblog.com/authors/noa-dalzell
Please LIKE this video and SUBSCRIBE to the channel!
Check out last week's underrated plays vid: https://youtu.be/XW_3RrudGvA
️Subscribe to the podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/first-to-the-floor-a-boston-celtics-podcast/id1351038879
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/firsttothefloor18/
Watch live Celtics games with us: https://playback.tv/celticsblog
Check out Spooney's latest column on CelticsBlog: https://bit.ly/3UCITHv
JOIN OUR DISCORD SERVER: https://discord.gg/H75UWjmtya
Buy our MERCH, Support the show!: https://bit.ly/fttfmerch
#bostonceltics
#celtics
#postgame
#firsttothefloor
#jaysontatum
#jaylenbrown
#nba
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 [Music]
00:25 Welcome back to another episode of First to the Floor. Ben Vallis here. Thank you for
00:28 joining us. Hope you're doing well. The NBA Finals tip off one week from today and tonight
00:33 we're ranking all the storylines heading into the finals. All the spicy little narratives,
00:38 all of the spicy little subplots. It's going to be a lot of fun. Alongside me, two guys
00:41 who are currently weaponizing their time, Wayne Spoonie and Jake Eisenberg. But we're
00:45 very happy to welcome in our guest from Celtics blog and CLNS. It's Noah Delsdale. Noah, how's
00:50 it going? Welcome.
00:51 It's going great. I just got my final credentials like five minutes ago, so it's going even
00:55 better.
00:56 That's sick.
00:57 That's awesome. Congrats.
00:58 Thank you, Noah.
00:59 Oh, good.
01:00 Yeah, that's amazing. Now, look, before we get into it, the name of the show is First
01:05 to the Floor. It's because of our love for hustle plays and like sacrificing one's body
01:10 for the betterment of the team, all that good stuff. And watching the highlights of the
01:14 recent Celtics beat Riders Scrimmage couldn't help but noticing one Noah Delsdale absolutely
01:21 diving for a loose ball.
01:24 Oh, Jack, she just beat you for that board.
01:27 Amazing play. Was that Jake behind the head?
01:41 Yes.
01:42 I do feel bad. I'll just clear the record.
01:46 Don't feel bad. Don't do it.
01:48 That was like the fourth game that we played that day. So I didn't run out of steam, but
01:53 I think if you look at the first game, some people were playing a lot better at the beginning.
01:57 And so I feel a little bad that the highlights came from the end. But it was a lot of fun.
02:02 I was glad everybody was down. I kind of forced everybody to go too, so then I felt bad when
02:05 people were getting slandered. But I really encouraged this game and got the ball and
02:09 got the gym and everything.
02:11 That was all part of the plan. You were just like, I'm going to lure you guys in. We're
02:14 going to play a minimum of four games.
02:17 I know. And the cameraman on the fifth game.
02:20 Yeah, that was amazing.
02:23 I love it.
02:24 Love it. All right. So here's what we're going to do. Noah, we'll kick it off with you and
02:28 we'll just go around the room until we've exhausted all of the big storylines and narratives
02:32 going into the NBA Finals. Folks in the chat watching live or watching later in the comments,
02:37 let us know what you think are the spiciest narratives heading into the NBA Finals. Also,
02:41 yes, we do not know yet who the actual Finals opponent is. Statistically, that was very
02:46 likely to be the Mavs. So if we sound like we're leaning a little Mavs heavy here, there's
02:50 a good reason for that. It's probably going to be the Mavs. Although tonight, go Timberwolves.
02:54 All right, Noah, what do you think is the consensus, like major storyline heading into
02:59 these NBA Finals for the Celtics?
03:02 Just in general or for a particular matchup?
03:04 Whatever you want.
03:05 Whatever you want to go with.
03:07 OK, cool. So I would say if we're looking at Dallas, there are so many storylines that
03:11 it's almost like a reporter's dream. I feel like there's so many narratives to discuss
03:16 that you don't have to make anything up. There's Brzezinka going back to Dallas. There's Kyrie
03:20 Irving back in Boston. But I think more importantly, someone's going to win a championship for
03:24 the first time. And that, to me, is like the most exciting part about the NBA when you
03:28 have when you know that there's going to be a new star that's now going to be in that
03:31 forever category of leading his team to a championship. And so I think, you know, obviously,
03:38 I'm hoping that the Celtics are able to pull it off. If it's not them, it'll be Luca or
03:43 it'll be Anthony Edwards. Like there's going to be somebody that becomes a real superstar
03:47 legend this, you know, in the next three weeks. And that's a pretty cool thing. And then just
03:51 as far as matchups, they both have their advantages and disadvantages. I'm probably in the minority
03:56 that I think that the Timberwolves are a better matchup for the Celtics and have thought so
04:00 from the beginning, just because I think the at the end of a game, I would rather be facing
04:05 Minnesota than facing Dallas, though. I do have more confidence in Boston after what
04:08 we saw in the last round, but they each have that. I'm sure we'll go into it, but they
04:11 each have kind of their own strengths and weaknesses as a matchup for the Celtics.
04:15 Yeah, someone's going to take the belt. Bill Simmons did his historical belt ranking going
04:23 back to the 70s. It is an interesting one because I personally don't think any of the
04:28 remaining best players in these teams are going to have a claim to like the best player
04:33 in the league. I love Jason Tatum. I don't love Luka Doncic as much as Jason Tatum, but
04:40 he, I think, would be someone that I've already seen people kind of pushing him to potentially
04:45 being the best player in the league. But like when you get that title, it just changes the
04:50 narrative around you, even if you maybe, you know, your skill or your impact on the game
04:55 doesn't quite like, you know, as soon as Jonas won that ring, all that stuff about, you know,
05:01 losing to the Raptors after going up 0-2. He still has his own issues in the clutch
05:06 due to the nature of the type of player he is. But like once you get that title and you
05:10 have that performance on the bigger stage, it just changes your legacy forever. And it's
05:15 going to be a big deal for one of those two guys, three guys.
05:19 Yeah, dude. We've talked about it a little bit. Like if Tatum gets this ring, like all
05:25 the slander, all the BS going on about Tatum, it's just over. Like you just, you can just
05:30 post the picture of him holding up the trophy and that kind of ends the conversation. You're
05:35 right. Like, I like nobody judges Jonas for flaming out in the playoffs in the first round
05:41 last year, right? But that's because he's got a title and you know, that's really, you
05:47 just need one and it completely changes the narrative for you for the rest of your career.
05:51 I mean, look at the way people talk about Barkley. So it's super important for all those
05:55 young guys. And I think they're young teams. They're both, they're all well-coached teams.
06:01 Like whichever team wins the title, I think will be poised to be in the mix and maybe
06:06 be the favorite for the next few years too. So one of these teams could kind of go on
06:10 a run as well.
06:11 Yeah, I think it's legacy defining is sort of the top narrative here. Like whoever comes
06:16 out with the win here is going to have their legacy. Like you guys mentioned, like kind
06:21 of cleansed of all of the past wrongdoings, the past failures, if you will, for lack of
06:25 a better term, if you come out with that title, all of the mistakes and failures of the past
06:29 are kind of washed away and it's just looked at as this smooth trajectory to the title,
06:34 I think. So obviously all of us here really hope that happens for the Jays and online.
06:39 It feels like every day we're sort of combating all of the hate and vitriol coming from particularly
06:44 the mainstream media and to see that cleansed by the Celtics winning the title would obviously
06:49 be incredible. So it sounds like we're all in agreement that that's kind of the legacy
06:53 side of things is maybe the top narrative heading in. Jake, what do you think?
06:56 Well, yeah. So I mean like the Tatum piece in particular and RJ had a comment here about
07:01 why is JT anointed? Why is it not JB? Which we can touch on a little bit in a second here.
07:06 But for me, like Tatum's legacy and Tatum's name has just been like, I don't know why
07:12 or how, it's just dragged through the dirt. Greenie on Get Up with them with I think the
07:18 take of the year that Jason Tatum didn't smile big enough after Jalen Brown won Eastern Conference
07:24 Finals MVP and Pat McAfee actually called him out on his show today like, "What are
07:29 you talking about?" And Greenie kind of just admitted that he's like been setting this
07:32 agenda personally. But I have some Tatum historical numbers here that I think really get punctuated
07:38 with the title for Tatum. So first, if you're not following Max on Twitter @ilissmx14,
07:47 like he's the Tatum propagandist on Twitter. So if you're not following him, it's very
07:52 important to be doing that. But he's like kind of tracking Tatum's playoff totals through
07:57 his whole career. But through age 26, Tatum wins. He's fourth all time through age 26
08:04 behind Kobe, Tony Parker, Magic. Points? Second. Second all time in points through age 26.
08:11 If he scores 95 points in the finals, he'll pass Kobe. Third in rebounds behind Bill Russell
08:17 and Magic. Like, absurd. Seventh in assists still, 10th in blocks, 10th in steals, 13th
08:22 in blocks. Every player ahead of him is a big man in the blocks category. First in three
08:27 point makes, Jalen second. Minutes, he's third behind Tony Parker and Kobe. And like all
08:32 that stuff's awesome. Like it's actually, it's astounding. The fact that he's been so
08:37 successful in the playoffs at such a young age in the same conversation with like all
08:41 the all time greats. There's just one very glaring difference between those guys and
08:46 Jason Tatum right now. And it's a title. He's still only 26. Like a lot of these guys, you
08:52 know, aren't winning titles before certain ages. But if he wins a title, all of these
08:57 numbers, all this historical stuff that Tatum has been doing, can't just be like, yeah,
09:01 but he never was able to get it done on the biggest stage as dismissive and ridiculous
09:06 as those narratives are. For him to punctuate how historically great he's been on the biggest
09:11 stage from such a young age would just be so awesome for everybody. But for me personally
09:16 as well, it would make me feel a lot better.
09:18 Yes. Please fucking win the title of Jason Tatum and Jalen Beckham. It would be so good
09:22 for all of us. All right, Spoonie, what about, what do you think is the number two narrative
09:25 and then we'll get Noah's reaction to that.
09:27 All right. Well, I'm going off beat and path here. Maybe not really. I'm the resident hater,
09:33 especially LeBron, but also especially Kyrie Irving. Kyrie coming back to Boston. I think
09:39 he's lost 10 straight to the Celtics. Our guy, I guess the like Celtics unofficial mascot
09:46 Green Runs Deep said he's declaring that we shouldn't boo or chant at Kyrie. I firmly
09:52 disagree with that. That's part of what sports makes fun. What makes sports fun, man. You
09:56 got to have villains. Obviously don't go like out of bounds or do anything crazy, but boo
10:02 them all you want. I think that'll make it more fun. And like, I just want to see this
10:06 dude lose. I know I'm a hater. That's fine.
10:09 Well, where are we? Are we pro con on the FU part of it? Because I think booing is okay,
10:15 but Noah, FU, are we crossing a line?
10:18 Me and Ben can't talk.
10:20 No, we cannot.
10:21 No, I think, so I'm actually, you'll ask people on the beat, like I'm the biggest hater of
10:25 the chants. So we can probably debate that, but it's not, it's not to me that it's, we
10:30 don't want there to be a villain or anything like that. It's just corny. I think when you're,
10:35 it has been so long and it's like the third quarter and we're, Celtics are up by 15 and
10:39 like still that's the primary focus of the chants of the fan base. Like, I don't know.
10:44 It just, and I can't even really articulate it and I've tried to, but it just leaves me
10:49 sitting there like being in the building, feeling like icky, feeling icky that this
10:52 is like, this is the priority right now. And I'm, I'm so actually really bummed. My friends
10:56 all know, I'm really bummed that like, we're going to see this be a major storyline of
11:00 the finals just because I think there's way more exciting and important things that are
11:04 going to be taking place. And probably like a lot of the discourse will be around Kyrie
11:07 and around the booing and around, like maybe someone went too far and said something like
11:11 super offensive or threw something at him. Like I just, the whole thing of it, I wish
11:14 we could just avoid it. Exactly. Yeah. Throwing water bottles. Who knows? Like who knows
11:18 where it's going to go? You know, especially when tensions are high, especially if he's
11:21 not playing well or if it's a close game or something like that. So I don't know. I think
11:25 Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum were both asked about it the last time Dallas was in Boston
11:30 and they both said like, we have no problems with him. Like we get that the fans still
11:34 do. And Jalen was like, all I ask for is like, why don't I boo every superstar that comes
11:38 in our building like that? And I think that's a fair point. Like if we're going to, you
11:41 know, if they're going to do it, then do it. But I'll just say as someone who was at every
11:44 Celtics game in the playoffs, like the crowd has not been very good. So it's a little bit
11:48 annoying that if the crowd like all of a sudden wakes up because Kyrie is there, it's like
11:51 wake up because you have a star in your building. That's my thinking about it. But I get it.
11:54 I get where it comes from. It's just the general feeling that I get when I'm hearing it and
11:59 just like it's so nonstop. And I don't know. I just think it's like, are we ever going
12:03 to stop? Like he's going to be like 60 walking down the street. Yeah, I hope so. I'm OK if
12:09 it comes back when he's 60. But for right now, I'm completely over it. Like I have I
12:15 guess I have forgiven Kyrie for all the shenanigans back in the day, 2019, 2020, and the way that
12:20 he departed ways with the Celtics. But for now, you touched on it now with so many other
12:25 things to focus on. There's so many other tasty focal points as far as like we've got
12:30 the Jays. We've got this amazing team. We've hopefully got a healthy Chris Stapps Porzingis.
12:34 This is an excellent team and we should be funneling our energy into positively cheering
12:38 for these guys. I know people probably are going to be shaking their heads at me as I
12:41 say this, as opposed to booing for Kyrie Irving. And I don't know, Spoody and I, we were at
12:46 game three of the NBA finals and like the sheeple that we are joined in on the fuck
12:51 Draymond chants just because they were happening. There was a child. Do you remember the Spoody
12:56 in front of us that did not stop us from loudly chanting? He was yelling it too. Yeah, he
13:00 was a Warriors fan. He was? He was looking to his dad being like, what are they? What
13:05 are they saying dad? And we kept chanting those bad words right behind him. But I guess
13:11 suffice to say it did not help. It did not contribute to a successful final series for
13:16 the Celtics. So I've been burnt by that experience with Draymond. I would not advocate for booing
13:21 or chanting anything at Kyrie just because I think time has passed and time heals all
13:26 wounds. It's over. We've got more to focus on. Jake, I don't know the way that you're
13:31 shaking your head. I'm torn. I'm torn. So like I went to that same playoff run where
13:37 the Celtics played the Nets in round one. So that was my first ever Celtics game. Game
13:41 two. I've talked about it a million times. 17 point comeback. Payton Pritchett in the
13:44 fourth quarter. One of the greatest moments of my life. And Kyrie though, like people
13:51 just love booing. I think it's not, it's not even about Kyrie. I think it's just a mob
13:55 mentality. Like when I, like people that I was around, there was just, there's just some
13:59 people that like don't care about this. Like they care about the Celtics, but they care
14:03 so much about like just getting to get out some like angst from their own lives and direct
14:09 it towards Kyrie Irving. So like I can't have my cake and eat it too. Cause I think yes,
14:14 we should boo. The problem is I know that it's going to go too far. There's going to,
14:18 it's going to end up being a story. There's going to be someone who throws something.
14:21 There's going to be someone that does the wrong thing. That's the problem is that I
14:24 know in any, you take any sample size of 20,000 people on in anywhere, there's going to be
14:31 X amount of people that are just going to go too far. So that's like going to happen.
14:35 So that's why I don't want it to happen. But on the other hand, I like fans being emotional
14:41 and as you said, Noah, like this has been a kind of underwhelming playoff crowd relative
14:45 for TD Garden. So I liked that there's going to be juice from that perspective. I think
14:48 there'd be juice anyway for the finals. But when it comes to Kyrie, like, and what he
14:54 did to the Celtics, like I, like he, he like, he asked him to come back. He had a freaking
15:01 commercial saying he was going to retire his Jersey in the rafters. Like it was pretty
15:05 bad. He was responsible for like one of the most like miserable seasons relative to expectations
15:10 like ever like that team should have just been so much better. And a lot of it was because
15:14 of Kyrie. So I understand people holding that. I personally didn't do the fuck you Kyrie
15:19 chance when I was in the building, but I kind of enjoyed the energy of it at the same time.
15:23 So that's the biggest cop out answer ever from, from me there. But yeah.
15:29 I will say though, I like your point. I think for me, that's what it is. It's not about
15:32 the people that are just like booing. It's the fact that you know, someone's going to
15:35 cross the line and like people just like they did in 2022. And I just hate that feel. And
15:39 it's not going to be one person. Like there's so many drunk people that are going to be
15:42 so riled up. And so I think it just opens the door to like a bad incident happening
15:46 that then takes over the storyline. It takes over like what we have to talk about as media.
15:49 Like I just don't want that to happen. If they can't, if I could get a guarantee that
15:53 it's just going to be booze the way that it was for Caleb Martin, the whole first round,
15:56 like that was kind of fun. It wasn't personal. I don't think anybody ever, but I was Kyrie.
15:59 I just, I talked to people that the hatred that they feel, it scares me a little bit,
16:03 honestly. So that's where I think it comes from more. So yeah. And to be clear, I'm advocating
16:08 for tasteful booing. I certainly don't want anything crazy to happen. Like I think it
16:13 makes all Celtics fans look absolutely terrible. Like when that asshole through the water bottle
16:18 and you just know like, oh man, here we go again. Like this is going to, and we're just
16:22 going to hear about that nonstop. I don't want that. But I think when he touches the
16:26 ball the first time in the TD garden and like a chorus of booze hits him, I love that stuff,
16:31 man. I do. I think it's fun, but yeah, if anything goes too far, I would rather no booing
16:36 than it go too far. And maybe I'm trying to get my cake and eat it too, which is probably
16:40 the case, but yeah, I, I, I hate when people take it too far. It's the absolute worst,
16:45 but some booing, it's just fun, man. It gets you into it. I'm sorry. Call me corny all
16:49 you want. Now I'm an old man. I am taste. Yeah. Tasteful booing. I think it is fine,
16:55 but it's so easy to just cross that line from tasteful to, to extremely distasteful. All
17:00 right. So ranking the top storylines here, we've covered the, the legacy on both sides.
17:04 We've covered the Kyrie potential return to Boston. If the Mavs are lucky enough to close
17:09 out this series, which I think they, they might be. Jake, we'll go to you now. What
17:14 do you think is sort of the next ranked storyline going into the NBA finals? I think it's Tatum
17:21 versus Luka or Tatum versus whoever comes out. The Dallas Mavericks are currently up
17:26 16 to 10 in the first quarter here. Luka versus Tatum is going to be a storyline and I think
17:33 again, I just wanted to be like, Luka's been again, anointed the chosen one throughout
17:38 this playoff run because of he's had a really good series, but prior to this, he like hasn't
17:43 been that good. And he's been kind of been given the injury excuse a little bit here,
17:48 but in the playoff so far Tatum 26, 10.4, 5.9 assists, 56.5% true shooting. Luka 28.3,
17:57 9.6 boards, 9.1 assists, 55% true shooting. So like statistically they've been kind of
18:03 the same and Tatum has been, he's just obviously like the far superior defender and rebounder.
18:08 I'm not here to say that Tatum's a better offensive player than Luka Doncic, I'm not,
18:12 but I do think that there's going to be a Tatum versus Luka storyline. And I would love
18:19 for Tatum to like to win the series. I don't think Tatum necessarily has to offensively
18:23 outplay Luka, but I would love Tatum to kind of have the best defensive series of his career,
18:28 similar to the defensive series he had against Kevin Durant in the net series in 2022. That's
18:33 I think where he can like flip this narrative in. And also I'd love for him to flip the
18:37 narrative away from like Tatum having to be this apex scoring superstar and for people
18:42 to finally understand the type of player that Tatum is and appreciate like those stats that
18:47 I've listed off before. It's the steals, it's the blocks, it's the rebounds, it's the ability
18:52 to play 44 minutes every single night. So Luka versus Tatum and like the narrative being
18:57 Tatum's like this overwhelming all-around player compared to Luka being like this scoring
19:03 crybaby. The hater came out at the end there.
19:07 I did a little bit there. You did so well to keep it under wraps until the end there.
19:10 Noah, you're obviously like traveling around, following the team, covering these games in
19:14 the arena, obviously looking for narratives to cover and different angles to look at and
19:20 write about on Celtics blog. How are you sort of perceiving either the Tatum Luka matchup
19:25 or the Tatum Ant matchup?
19:28 Yeah, so I think I echo your comments. I think this is going to be one of those defensive
19:34 series for Tatum. Like he's going to have to take a prime offensive player and really
19:40 leave his mark on it. I think that's the kind of series this is going to be, particularly
19:43 because of his length. And I don't think he's had to in this playoffs, like really be a
19:46 stopper the way that we know he can be. But yeah, I'm excited to see that. But just generally
19:52 speaking, I think this is a lot less about Tatum than it is about all five of the starters.
19:58 We saw this last round. We want to make this a Tatum thing. We want to make this, even
20:03 winning a championship, just responding to something one of you guys were saying earlier,
20:07 I forget who, but that this would kind of end all the questions around Tatum. I don't
20:11 think winning a championship would end the questions around Tatum. I think it would just
20:14 make it like, was he the most important player on the team? Or, you know, what, they had
20:18 a super team or that they were way out of match. I think there would still always be
20:21 questions. That's just the nature of it, I guess. But what I'm really excited about is
20:26 seeing how everything else kind of falls into place. I think I have a good feeling about
20:30 what kind of performance Tatum can put up. But, you know, is Derek White going to play
20:33 well? Are we going to see contributions from the bench? Like there's so many other uncertainties
20:37 that we just don't know at this point. And Dallas scares me just because they have two
20:42 guys that even if you play really good defense on them, like sometimes it just doesn't matter.
20:46 And so that's the reality of it. Whereas I think Minnesota, you can scheme a little bit
20:50 better. I don't think Anthony Edwards is as polished or as advanced in his ability to
20:55 read different schemes and kind of adjust the way that Kyrie is, for example. So I don't
21:00 know. I think this is one of those things that's going to come down to a lot of other
21:03 guys, you know, ultimately like seeing, I think Jalen Brown might end up being the most
21:07 important player again, just because he keeps benefiting from the fact that he's, you know,
21:11 he's getting not the best defender on the other team. But looking at Dallas, I don't
21:14 know who guards Jalen Brown. Like that's one of the things that I've been thinking
21:17 about just as this playoff run has been continuing.
21:20 Go ahead, Spenny.
21:22 Okay. I didn't want to jump in on you, Ben. But yeah, I think that's kind of been the
21:28 thing with Jalen Brown, why he's had such a great playoff run so far as lots of teams
21:32 have one good perimeter defender. Very few of them have two. And Jalen Brown's just
21:37 eating. And I think the way Dallas plays defense, I want to see Tatum have like a really
21:43 high level passing series because they overload the strong side. So that skip to the corner
21:48 is going to be wide open and Tatum shown he can make that pass. So just as long as he
21:52 doesn't force anything kind of plays within the scheme. And yeah, let's let's the other
21:56 guys do their thing. You know, we just recorded underrated plays and there was a play deep
22:00 in crunch time and like a four point game where Tatum all he did was space both the
22:04 Jays. They just spaced and they ran a drew Derek White pick and roll. So I want to see
22:10 that type of performance from him. And then defensively, we had him on the center a lot
22:14 against the Mavericks and let kind of KP just sit as the rim protector. I bet we will see
22:21 that. I don't know how much Luke is so smart that once he figures out that's what you're
22:25 going to do, ain't going to do. He will figure out ways to attack it, whether it's bringing
22:29 KP's guy up to set the screen. But I think he could have a massive defensive series and
22:35 I think he knows that and I think he's going to be dialed in. I think that both the Jays
22:39 because Jalen does a really good job on Luca to gets a little foul happy at times, but
22:45 in JB's perfectly suited to guard Kyrie. So I bet we see a ton of switching one through
22:50 four as well. But I just think the way Tatum is impactful is not as loud and obvious as
22:58 Luca Donchic. So he will never get kind of the appropriate respect like people can't
23:02 contextualize why his team's all he's always been on a super team. Well, or maybe it's
23:08 just the super team is partially or large part because of Jason Tatum and the way he
23:12 plays basketball. Yeah, absolutely. I think that sort of partially segues to the next
23:19 subplot, which is like, what about the Jalen Brown side of things? And he's kind of quietly
23:23 fighting his own battle. Like what if Jalen Brown wins finals MVP? Like what does this
23:28 series look like for Jalen? Obviously his performance props up Tatum as well. But before
23:33 we get to that, Jake, I'm going to get to an ad read here from our guys over at PrizePix.
23:38 That's right. As the resident dominator of our First Off Floor PrizePix competition,
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23:52 in as little as 60 seconds. You just need to pick more or less on two to six players
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24:40 Beautiful. Jake, killing it with the live ad reads here. One of us can get around to
24:45 actually recording one to run in the show, but maybe we should just stick with the live
24:48 reads because you're killing it, mate. I'm curious to get your take. Like, for example,
24:54 what if Jalen Brown wins finals MVP? There's two sides to it. There's one like the more
24:59 obvious take, which is like, that's great. Like he's probably deserving of an award like
25:03 that in his own right. He just won Eastern Conference finals MVP. Then the more paranoid
25:07 fan in me thinks, well, hang on a second. Does this create like a negative narrative
25:12 cloud above Jason Tatum? And suddenly, if Jalen's winning this award, are people starting
25:17 to doubt Tatum's dominance and his ability to lead a team, given that the awarding of
25:22 a finals MVP to Jalen Brown would sort of paint him with that leadership brush and move
25:27 the attention away from Tatum? Does that make any sense?
25:30 Yeah, absolutely. I think we're already seeing it with the Eastern Conference finals MVP.
25:33 People scrutinizing his reaction. I'm sure you guys have seen the clip where they zoom
25:38 into his face and like he's literally grinning. It's like the happiest I've ever seen him.
25:42 And the screenshot, I'm like, that was the worst clip you could have picked. Like the
25:45 man is finally smiling. But anyways, yeah, I think absolutely. It's just one of those
25:51 things where you have to, like, you know, as a fan, you have to decide, like, are you
25:55 a fan of a player? Are you a fan of a team? And Iguodala won the finals MVP, right? Steph
26:00 Curry won three championships before he won finals MVP, right? So I don't think it necessarily
26:05 means that you're not a star or a legend or a hall of famer. I think it'd be cool if
26:10 Drew Holiday won finals MVP or Derek White did. Like, you know, I thought Drew Holiday
26:13 had a case in his most recent round that he could have won that award had he put up a
26:17 little bit more, a little bit better numbers. And so I think that's the magic of the Celtics
26:22 team is that it's not one of those things where if they win the championship, you know
26:25 LeBron's finals MVP. Like there's a couple of different people. I would say there's four
26:29 that could potentially win. You know, Derek White, if he has a series like he had in the
26:33 first round, he might be finals MVP. So you have to just kind of put that aside and recognize
26:39 that this is a group that will probably win multiple championships if everything goes
26:43 according to how things should go. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. That's a hot take. But I think
26:49 that, you know, maybe each of them will get one when it's all said and done. So I hope
26:53 that doesn't become like the biggest narrative or at least a big narrative. I hope everyone
26:57 can kind of just appreciate the ride. And I do think the Celtics will win this series
27:01 regardless of who they face. But I can totally see just the way that the media has been over
27:05 the last few days since they swept the Eastern Conference finals. That will probably have
27:09 a summer full of narratives around like who deserved the finals MVP or Tatum didn't, you
27:13 know, I'm sure we'll spin it negatively somehow because that's just the way that that's the
27:17 way that it tends to go. But I just think people shouldn't worry about it. I hope I
27:22 hope JB wins it because it means we've won the series. Right. And that is by far the
27:27 most important thing. JB's like he's been awesome. He's been like the you know, the
27:32 second sometimes first option this entire playoff run and in playoff runs past man like
27:38 they're both awesome. Yeah. And I'm with you know, like Drew Holiday definitely had a
27:43 really good argument for Eastern Conference finals MVP. I hope he has a really good
27:46 argument for finals MVP. I hope Peyton Pritchard wins finals MVP. I don't care who wins
27:52 it as long as it's a Celtic because it probably means we won the series. So I don't I
27:56 feel like people will probably just jump into like the draft and free agency like a week
28:02 after the finals happens. You know, people tend to move on things move fast in the NBA.
28:07 So I'm not really sure this would turn into like a huge narrative if he wins finals MVP.
28:12 I'll be too happy to care anyway. Yeah, that's probably the point. Who really cares? I
28:18 wanted JB to win Eastern Conference finals MVP because I wanted him to finally get
28:22 something and he absolutely ended up echoing my sentiments. He was he I never win shit
28:27 ever win shit. So I was really happy for him. Even though I thought that like these
28:32 awards don't go to the like the analytical person who's supposed to win like the Tatum
28:36 on off numbers like that's a team that rating. Yeah, like that like this team's just not
28:42 good like not the team without Tatum like it is what it is. And like I love Jalen and
28:47 he's having his best playoffs by far so far. And so like if he's able to continue this
28:51 play, he'll probably get it. I think Jalen getting the votes that he got is part of like
28:56 the eight anti Tatum agenda narrative that I think exists in the NBA similar to like
29:01 Steph Curry, honestly back then. No, and I actually looked up the numbers because I wanted
29:04 to like compare Steph to Iguodala in that series. Steph had like 26 on 59% tree shooting.
29:11 Whereas Iguodala, you know, he guarded LeBron, but he was scored 16 points per game. It felt
29:15 like people were looking for a reason to give it to someone not Steph. And I think that's
29:19 probably going to help you what happens in in the finals as well. Like as much as I would
29:24 love for Tatum to shoot 45% from three in the finals. My guess is he probably ends up
29:27 shooting 32% from three and then like for whatever reason that's the only thing that
29:32 matters when it comes to Jason Tatum despite the other stuff. And so I yeah, I think it's
29:37 very possible that Tatum doesn't win it even if the Celtics win the series and the narratives
29:42 probably still continue for Tatum, unfortunately, but again, don't care who wins it. Give it
29:47 to give it to Horford. That'd probably be my number one choice. If I can like guarantee
29:51 the Celtics win the finals, that'd be the guy that I would like to give finals MVP to
29:56 in an Iguodala type way. Yeah, yeah, that'd be awesome. Noah, what else have you got in
30:01 your back pocket narrative wise heading into these finals? I'm trying to think. I think
30:07 there's just a general question about Porzingis. I've heard this whole narrative around like,
30:11 you know, he did play for Dallas. Obviously, that was not a very positive stint. You know,
30:18 I don't know how much animosity the fan base has towards him. I would imagine it's probably
30:22 not as vocal, but I don't think they respect him very much. Whereas I think at least Boston
30:26 fans respect Kyrie's game. Like you don't you don't you don't very often meet people
30:30 that don't think he's like a good basketball player at the very least. And obviously him
30:33 having missed this entire playoff run is kind of adding fuel to maybe their perceptions
30:38 of him. So I hope Porzingis is able to come back and be a part of this run. I absolutely
30:44 think they can win a championship without him. I do a lot of segments with Bob Manning
30:48 from CLNS and I think he disagrees with me on this and we talked about it quite a bit.
30:51 But I think that they this team that they have that has been there together for this
30:55 entire postseason run absolutely can do it without Porzingis. But I don't want them to
31:01 I want him to be a part of it because I think it just sets him up for a weird situation
31:05 moving forward. Having not been a part of a run like how do you come back next year
31:09 and find where you fit in? And I've seen what it's done to like role players like Dante
31:13 DiVincenzo has talked extensively about like missing the Bucs final run and like how that
31:17 you know reduces confidence as a player. So I think if he can just contribute even even
31:21 if it's coming off the bench and giving 20 minutes a night and you know hitting a big
31:25 shot in game three like that would be great. So that's one of the things that I'm kind
31:29 of keeping my eye out for and to be honest with you like I don't think we have any idea
31:32 where he's at. I've heard so many conflicting reports. Joe half the time is like acts like
31:38 he's never met Porzingis when we ask him about it. And then sometimes he realizes he's going
31:42 too far and he'll be like yeah he's doing one on one work. We saw him in Cleveland.
31:46 He looked like he was really progressing and then we never saw him again. So I thought
31:49 he was I was starting to worry that he had a setback. And then today Joe said he never
31:52 had a setback. So I think they've just been keeping him away from us. But the Porzingis
31:55 storyline in general I think everybody's like forgetting a little bit but like how impactful
31:59 he was when he was playing especially defensively like it changes what the team can do as far
32:04 as just like his defense on the perimeter even his room protection like he just adds
32:07 another layer and Al's been doing a great job. But yeah I think that that would be that
32:11 would be awesome if he was able to come back and play a big part of this run.
32:14 Yeah the collective amnesia on what Porzingis did this year like he should have been an
32:18 all star over Scottie Barnes. What an insane thing that happened. But Porzingis was so
32:25 good man. I've talked about how like Jared Allen and Porzingis like a similar tier of
32:29 player as far as like top you know 30 ish player. But the fit on this team makes Porzingis
32:36 like the impact of a top 10 to 15. He is just such a perfect fit and is so impactful on
32:41 this team from both defense and offense. The fact that he can play with Al Horford without
32:48 Al Horford. Yeah I was I hold bated breath every day for your tweets hoping that something
32:55 about Porzingis comes across the timeline. But yeah they clearly know that how he's going
33:02 but they were not going to tell us unfortunately. And yeah I know Bobby Manning's got a doctor
33:08 coming on the show. Yeah yeah pretty much. Yeah like I think it yeah.
33:14 Yeah. That's great. Because we played your video that you had of him doing that kind
33:21 of one on one stuff. He was doing like some fake handoffs little fadeaways and like that
33:27 was two weeks ago. So it's like if you're able to like kind of project from there to
33:30 now you think you've got to think he's like pretty close to being pretty good and he's
33:35 got 20 minutes per game. If he can just play the backup big man minutes at like peak KP
33:41 even it's 15 20 minutes. That's a complete game changer for this team. If you can play
33:46 20 minutes a night at like 90 percent KP as opposed to having to be Luke Cornet who I
33:51 love but he's not Chris has Porzingis. That would be that would be really nice. Yeah it's
33:56 basic feels really important against either of these Western teams as Jack calls out your
34:01 camera quality Noah. Don't make us pull up your offensive rebound again Jack. We'll do
34:06 it. Yeah. Wasted. He's really important against both of these teams I think specifically because
34:14 they are really big on on rent protection teams kind of dare you to shoot threes and
34:18 KP is really good at that. So I do I do think we can beat either one of them without him.
34:24 But man he would make it much easier. So I hope he's back. We got what six more days
34:30 seven more days till the final start. So rest up tall thin man please please get healthy.
34:35 Yeah. Tall thin man. I the vibes as well. We've talked about the on court stuff for
34:41 Chris apps. I did not expect to fall in love with Chris apps from a vibes perspective.
34:45 Remember it was a game one at TD Garden where he blocked a shot and kind of like wandered
34:49 in past the baseline towards the crowd and started like g up everyone in the crowd and
34:54 like you could tell from that moment how excited he was to be in Boston relative to the teams
34:58 he'd played for prior to that. And he's really carried that through the entire regular season
35:04 into the early stages of the playoffs as well as the J laps bros Ingus Cookies and cream
35:09 connection as well. He brings a lot to the table vibes wise and for a final series to
35:13 be without those additional vibes that's sad beyond the obvious on the court stuff. So
35:18 hopefully he's healthy but the lack of of clear reporting here you have to imagine they
35:23 just really don't know. And with these soft tissue injuries they are a little unpredictable
35:28 like that. I think anyone who's kind of lived long enough and endured a similar injury knows
35:32 that like you kind of feel shitty until you just don't. And he might be in the later stages
35:38 of the feeling shitty stage for lack of a more clear medical term there. But yeah definitely
35:43 Ben's also a doctor. If I didn't just demonstrate that perfectly with my vocab. But yeah Chris
35:50 taps huge part of the storylines heading into this one. We're kind of running out of time.
35:54 We're going to get to some other stuff as well. I feel like we should just kind of rapid
35:57 fire around the room on on remaining narratives. Jake is something else sticking out to you.
36:02 Yeah rest versus rust. I think that narrative might just go away that Mavericks are going
36:09 to have pretty similar amount of time off. It looks like he up 16 after the first quarter
36:13 Luka Doncic had 20 points in the first quarter which is just kind of kind of what a bum.
36:19 Yeah Jesus Moses. That's kind of scary. But yeah so the rest versus rust thing like I
36:25 forget who was talking and maybe it's been Draymond. Like the first game back after having
36:30 so much time off. The thing about that is the Celtics have been kind of playing. They've
36:35 got a lot of practice with that now because they barely played through March game one
36:40 against the Heat. They had a bunch of rest off with the playing game incredible game
36:44 game and then they finish in five versus Cleveland taking seven. So they got more rest amazing
36:49 game one against Cleveland again the Pacers series. They didn't have as much rest that
36:55 time but they played pretty well. They were obviously able to steal it. So I think that
36:59 they've actually gotten reps with this rest versus rust thing.
37:03 Spoody Noah any thoughts. I can jump in.
37:09 It's too too scorching of a take. No such thing as rest.
37:13 There is no such thing as rest.
37:15 Any strong opinions.
37:16 I mean not really. I think ultimately for this particular Celtics team especially Al
37:22 Horford rest is more important than knocking off the rest. These dudes have played 100
37:27 plus playoff games like I'm not worried about them being rusty. Maybe the jumpers will take
37:32 a quarter to kind of get back but I would much rather have the rest with this particular
37:37 team especially the KP.
37:39 Yeah not to mention the rest like throughout the series as well the multi day gaps between
37:43 games tough from a viewership perspective we already feel like we're in this major hoops
37:48 drought from a Celtics fan side of things and then the multi day gaps between games
37:52 is tough as well but you got to put yourself in the position of KP's calf of Al's entire
37:58 37 year old body nearly 38 year old body like that's that's where the rest is valuable.
38:02 Do you think it's a factor at all Noah the rest versus rust approach.
38:06 Yeah yeah. So I think for Al in particular like the rest thing is huge. We've looked
38:12 at his splits all year when he has two days off one day off three days off like it's the
38:16 more time off he has the better he plays. And so that part's huge. I think cumulatively
38:21 the fact that every round they've had like a five day break while the other team goes
38:24 to seven is obviously helpful like you can see that they've gotten used to that rhythm.
38:29 This is the fourth time now that they're waiting for an opponent while their opponent
38:33 are duking it out and this will probably wrap up tonight but the other ones were play in
38:36 game seven game seven. So that's obviously a benefit with poor thing is I think is the
38:41 one that I'm more worried about. I think that's going to be a little bit tough from
38:44 like just a rhythm standpoint not just him as a player finding his own rhythm but as
38:48 a team like they have this almost new identity over this past you know couple of weeks over
38:53 a month now that they've played without him. I think everybody kind of knows their role
38:56 they've been playing well and so that's the part that I'm more concerned about is
38:59 like how do you insert a player that has been out for a while. But if anything you know
39:03 this will give them maybe time to do a little bit of practice work you know scrimmaging
39:06 whatever it is. So undoubtedly this is better and I think there's just so much precedent
39:10 now for them to come off this like this is their fourth break. Right. So it's not like
39:14 they don't know what to do with themselves. I think they have a routine out. They have
39:16 a rhythm for how they handle it. Hopefully that'll help navigate it. I'm sure maybe
39:20 the first time around like I know Joe said like I want to just play right away and the
39:24 players are like we actually like breaks like it's good for us. But now it's like
39:27 there's a rhythm for it. So I think they're probably going to capitalize on the fact that
39:31 they have the time. Yeah that's interesting the fact that they've all been off for so
39:35 long like does that actually enhance the reintegration of Chris Das Plazinga. I haven't thought
39:39 of that. A couple of other things very quickly. Can we rely on the bench at all. We have not
39:44 been able to rely on Sam Houser Noah at all seemingly. Do you think this is more of a
39:49 Pritchard series or more of a Houser series or do you think with KP back we go like six
39:54 deep and just cap it at that. Well I will just say off the bat that my biggest bias
39:58 is that I think every series is a Pritchard series personally. I know. You know if he's
40:07 just given the chance to get comfortable and he's you know he played nine minutes in game
40:12 four which is fine. I get it. They're trying to close it out. But I know I do think I should
40:17 be asked that question. I'm seeing exactly you know but Sam Houser I'm concerned about
40:23 just because he's in an untimely shooting slump. And so that on its own is just you
40:29 know he goes through these and he's in one right now. I don't think it's because it's
40:32 the playoffs. I don't think the Pacers were doing anything defensively that he can't handle.
40:36 So that part I've just a question of like is he going to be out of it by the finals
40:40 probably. You know historically he gets out of these and then he gets really hot and I
40:43 don't think he's scared of the moment. Like that's not where this happens cyclically.
40:47 Like this is like every few months he gets into one of these and it's just happening
40:50 right now. Pritchard I you know as long as he gets the opportunity he steps up. I mean
40:54 in Cleveland he was phenomenal. That series he was really good and then he struggled more
40:57 against Indiana. I actually think TJ McConnell was a pretty bad matchup for him because a
41:01 lot of the same like tricks that he has McConnell has. And I think McConnell is a slightly better
41:06 player than him. So I almost feel like he was playing like a version of himself that
41:09 was a little bit more mature and a little bit more polished. So anything else is probably
41:13 better for him. That's what we've seen historically. He wasn't really able to get like offensive
41:17 rebound because McConnell knew the tricks that he was pulling. So I don't know I'm not
41:21 worried about the bench but I do think that Sam Houser snapping out of a shooting slump
41:25 would go a long way towards just like instilling confidence in that unit because he was the
41:29 leading scorer off the bench all year. Yeah. It'd be really nice. Yeah. Somebody's got
41:34 to play right. You can't play Tatum and Brown 48 minutes and drew in Derek like 47. Maybe
41:40 you can but I definitely think Pritchard can play in this matchup 100 percent him on Lucas
41:46 scares me a little bit but there's ways we can protect him from that matchup and I think
41:49 he'll do a really good job on Kyrie and Daniel Gafford and drop like Pritchard eats that
41:54 stuff up man he's like third in playoff efficiency efficiency and as the pick and roll ball handler.
42:00 So he's been awesome this entire playoff run and against Indy he wasn't at his best but
42:05 he didn't hurt us by any means so he's going to play he needs to play I think he'll be
42:10 just fine. How is there I don't know man like I don't think he can like they're going to
42:15 just hunt him every time he's out there. Kyrie is just too quick and shifty for him. He might
42:21 be okay ish on Luca but I definitely think as long as case KP is healthy we're going
42:26 to see a lot of Al obviously and a good amount of Pritchard and then I don't know if Joe
42:31 digs a little deeper sees what preset can give him to steal some wing minutes here and
42:36 there maybe but but if Hauser gets the shot back it's like it's all moot right like he
42:41 can go for a six from three and a half and it's like oh we're winning this game clearly.
42:45 Yeah I will say like Luca and Kyrie don't quite play as many minutes as the Jays do
42:53 like Luca last six games has played 41.7 Kyrie's played 40.8 so like they're not the guys
43:00 that are typically especially Luca capable of going all the way into that 46 minute range
43:05 like the Jays or Derek or Drew so I think you can at least get though like essentially
43:12 you just need a couple of minutes with Tatum on the bench like four minutes he's been playing
43:17 44 minutes now for for basically the entire playoffs since he was like since I think game
43:23 two in Cleveland and he was like Joe that's enough it's a playoffs I I play all of the
43:28 minutes and I don't get tired so you just need to steal a couple of minutes I yeah and
43:33 it's one of those things where you start the series you roll Sam out if he starts hitting
43:37 three so you can continue to play and then he's by time you get through the series you
43:43 maybe you're down to five and a half players I forget that the Stephen Jackson the Van
43:48 Gundy thing you you have eight you play seven but you trust six or whatever it is so yeah
43:56 exactly yeah the Pritchard getting targeted stuff worries me a little bit obviously offensively
44:01 his his offensive dynamicism if there's such a word please Spoonie's nodding there is great
44:07 I'm not a journalist that is obviously going to be very effective in this kind of series
44:12 whereas I think as we know as we've seen in the last series that Sam houses kind of wavers
44:17 from time to time but defensively yeah how's it holds up so if you can hit those threes
44:21 I think he can he can spell the J's as he has been throughout the regular season so
44:24 we just just need that shot to come back semi buckets let's go any other storylines that
44:30 stick out before we get to an ad break here the one other thing I've got is what does
44:34 this mean for Brissy TV we saw the camera there in maybe the most most important storyline
44:40 heading into the finals we saw the camera there in the huddle celebrating the the awarding
44:43 of the the Eastern Conference Finals Larry Bird trophy what what is Brissy capable of
44:50 if given full access in a championship locker room environment we know that there's at least
44:54 one other documentary crew following the team around I think there's something in the works
44:59 for Netflix as well meanwhile we've got Brissy there feet on the ground camera in hand capture
45:03 capturing it all from an inside perspective I know I'm clutching at straws here with this
45:08 narrative this is why we're at the bottom of our list does anything else stand out to
45:11 any of you guys before we move on well I'll just say I'm hyped for the for yeah yeah Roche's
45:16 documentary I saw you had that camera like the entire ceremony and I was bummed because
45:20 it took us we were sitting really high up and it took us a while to get to the court
45:24 so we missed a lot of the we came down right as Jalen Brown was getting the award and I
45:29 think like we're all scrutinizing this one video of Tatum's reaction because there's
45:33 literally one video and I wish that I was there because even with my my fuzzy camera
45:37 on my phone I still would have gotten a bunch more angles but I was thinking like his vlog
45:42 is going to show us so many perspectives from that night that we didn't have and that's
45:46 what's so cool about democratizing I was a little rude to Jack it was just I wanted to
45:50 go a little faster he was probably going too slow like he didn't get to that offensive
45:53 rebound too slow yeah we have first to the floor Jack first to the floor out here come
45:58 on we were I think you're all so we were all turning on each other in a high stress moment
46:03 and then it was all good but um but yes the vlog is going to be awesome and I asked them
46:08 about it this week I'm I'm like really fascinated by O'Shea Bursett as a person Jack stop distracting
46:13 me by O'Shea Bursett as a person uh just because he's so engaged like I've never seen anybody
46:19 that's so like on his feet after everybody makes anybody makes a shot like never literally
46:23 never sits never stops cheering um has like the best outlook on a situation has been talking
46:27 about like how happy is to be in this role and then meanwhile he's like giving us a documentary
46:31 every week so that's pretty cool too yeah huge storyline Ben yeah I can't believe I
46:38 say that to last uh anything else obviously this is a narrative laden NBA finals before
46:44 we get to this ad reads Boonie Jake anything else that's uh on the tip of your tongue there
46:48 let's get to the really important questions we have for Noah after the ad read yeah when
46:52 we come back Noah we're gonna ask you about your first year on the Celtics beat but first
46:56 here's a quick word from our sponsors over at Game Time the NBA finals begin June 6th
47:00 and instead of working like I should be or putting any effort into preparing for the
47:04 next podcast I'm sitting around daydreaming about getting myself to an NBA finals game
47:08 at TD Garden Game Time makes getting NBA finals tickets even faster and easier prices on the
47:13 Game Time app actually go down the closer it gets to tip off with killer last minute
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47:22 the guesswork out of buying NBA tickets our guy Jake Eisenberg's dad recently traveled
47:26 from Australia to Boston to catch a couple of games during round two I think there was
47:30 some sort of black hole time dilation stuff involved in getting there he's thankfully
47:34 home safe now but when he was there he used the Game Time app to sign up with code CLNS
47:39 and get himself an incredible deal on tickets I'm scrolling through the Game Time app right
47:43 now and there's a huge range of tickets available for games one and two of the NBA finals in
47:47 Boston for a wide variety of prices seriously I really wish I knew about the Game Time app
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48:39 All right Noah I've seen your first rookie season on the beat compared by Sam LaFrance
48:46 to Wemba Yama's rookie season and I do like that comparison because it's like I don't
48:53 think you even had a Twitter before and then because you so you were kind of like Wemba
48:57 off in France we didn't really know much about you and then all of a sudden into the Celtics
49:03 blog slack and then just dominating the scene so how was how did you end up on the Celtics
49:09 beat out of out of nowhere and how was the first year on the beat?
49:15 Well I'll answer the second part first this has been like the most amazing experience
49:18 ever super grateful that I got the opportunity and also that it was this year because I think
49:25 this this season like you know I don't want to jinx it but to cover a team for the first
49:30 time and have them go to the finals even it's pretty remarkable and it's just been really
49:34 cool just to be someone who's followed the Celtics my whole life and to be able to see
49:38 kind of behind the scenes how everything works how the pressers work just like all the little
49:42 things you wouldn't think about how people interact with one another it's all been very
49:46 exciting to me and so yeah how I got involved was I saw that Celtics blog was like hiring
49:52 some writers and I was I did a lot of journalism in high school and I did a bunch of I followed
49:57 I had a Celtics website and I wrote I managed our school paper about sports and all that
50:03 and then I was like I don't think this is a realistic career path so I went to college
50:06 and studied political science and became a climate lobbyist and that's what I do during
50:11 my day yeah that's what I also that's the other thing that I do alongside this and then
50:16 yeah when I first got the job I thought it was like just like you get to write an article
50:20 every week or so and then I realized that you actually get credentials to at least a
50:24 few games and then once I went to a few games I was like I want to go to more games and
50:28 then I was like how do I get the email list I can go to practices and how do I go to every
50:31 game and so yeah I think just one thing led to another and eventually became like it was
50:37 Celtics blog is like your access to really be a part of the Celtics beat and then you
50:41 can kind of go with that as much as you as far as you want to and then I started doing
50:44 stuff with Bobby for CLNS and just all sorts of things so I think it was just one of those
50:49 things where everything lined up really perfectly as far as timing like I had decided I wanted
50:53 to cover the Celtics like 24 hours before the thing was posted on Celtics blog and now
50:58 that I'm here I realized that's like a once a year or more than that opportunity and it
51:02 just so happened to be like the day before I was like wouldn't that be cool if I just
51:04 like covered the Celtics because I'm like constantly thinking about it and talking about
51:08 it so I think yeah I think it was a lot of just good fortune good timing and then the
51:13 experience is just like really couldn't have been better like it has been just so rewarding
51:16 in every way and even just like the talking part I never would have thought that I would
51:20 be comfortable or want to be in front of a camera and I still don't like love the camera
51:24 and I don't love the like sometimes when we're standing there at the garden I'm like
51:27 this sucks but I do think I'm more comfortable doing it and you know it's one of those things
51:32 where you just like push yourself out of your comfort zone and then next thing you know
51:35 it's like something that's like becomes a little more enjoyable so yeah would highly
51:39 recommend anybody that's thinking about taking a risk or trying something to do so and I'm
51:44 very grateful for Celtics blog because it is like a really well respected establishment
51:48 within like the Celtics organization so I think like once you once you're there with
51:51 their credentials like they take you seriously even though it's like a week ago I didn't
51:54 know anything about this.
51:57 I think I can sort of read in the tea leaves here it sounds like you were a Celtics fan
52:02 before you started covering the team I know you tweeted out that your dad was like dying
52:07 for a main Celtics t-shirt.
52:08 That was awesome.
52:09 So has he has I'm assuming I'm right that you were a C's fan before has your fandom
52:14 changed at all with covering the team?
52:16 Yeah I would say I'm like less of a fan now and and that's something that like I didn't
52:21 even I heard reporters say that they were like oh I'm not a fan anymore like I'm a
52:25 reporter and I was like okay sure but I kind of get it like at this point I do want them
52:29 to advance because I want to continue to have the experience of covering a finals team but
52:33 like I was very stressed last playoff run like I remember like I was like well also
52:37 they were a stressful team to follow last playoff run because they were like constantly
52:39 about to get eliminated but it was enjoyable and even this season when they had bad games
52:44 I was like fascinated I was like oh how like how do you like think about this or like what
52:48 are people gonna say after like how is this gonna what went wrong or things like that
52:53 so I'm sure I'll increasingly go in that direction of being like more and more just
52:57 more interested in being a fan I would probably say I skew more if there's a fan in the in
53:02 the press room it's probably me but I'm working on it I'm working on like one time
53:06 I said we when a player got traded and like that was definitely a slip up I had to be
53:10 like I mean you guys in a question there's still like a learning curve but overall I
53:16 would say like I'm more like fascinated and like learning about how everything works and
53:19 being like cheering for them though I would say game four we all lost a little bit yeah
53:23 it was Lamar Stevens I said yeah I'm over it yeah that would be that would be me dude
53:30 I'd be like Brad I can't believe you've traded Marcus smart like how like should we get a
53:35 beer after the game I'm so like I'm trying to wrap my head around how to like how people
53:43 like go from exactly as you said like living and dying with like the orange ball going
53:47 in for the team wearing the right colors to not and so yeah I'm always like really interested
53:53 in how that transition works I just I guess just like being around it every day and thinking
53:59 about it from like a writing perspective is obviously going to change it but I guess it's
54:04 a one good thing about being far enough away I don't have the chance to take to take them
54:09 up I'm like I just have no choice but to be a sicko fan yeah I feel very safe here from
54:14 my vantage point in Australia where my rampant fanaticism is nerfed by thousands of miles
54:18 of ocean and it can't get to the people who would be terrified but I'm seeing the receiving
54:22 end of it but uh no I think I speak for all of us here and everyone watching where you
54:26 know you covering the team we've all really enjoyed uh watching and reading your work
54:31 and the younger people on the beat as well like Jack Simone and in San Francisco and
54:36 those people getting that sort of new fresh perspective because yeah you know like there's
54:41 a lot of old heads out there and there's a lot of different perspectives and a lot of
54:45 aging perspectives and to get like a more online fresher perspective I think is very
54:50 refreshing for a lot of people so we're going to wrap it up there but thank you so much
54:54 for coming on we're going to get out of here so we can watch the rest of this Wolves-Mavs
54:58 game thanks for coming on Noah you can follow Noah on Twitter @NoahDowzelNBA as well as
55:04 finding all her awesome written work at CelticsBlog.com Noah have you got I know we're like halfway
55:10 through the game here but um without looking at the score have you got a tip for who comes
55:14 out victorious in this one? I actually haven't looked at all at the score so I don't know
55:18 but I think Dallas is going to win I saw some comments about like Luca hitting like D3s
55:23 in the chat yeah he's gone nuts what's the score though they are up 16 the Mavs are up
55:29 16 with four to go in the second quarter here um we are going to yeah my saves to Dallas
55:35 were not refundable so that actually is good news I've already made this mistake once before
55:41 so yeah Jack was freaking out in the Pacers-Knicks game seven when the Pacers started to pull
55:47 away and he had to figure out all the Pacers-Indiana travel that's right yeah exactly during the
55:53 Indy 500 yeah exactly um yeah we are gonna I'm gonna jump over to CelticsBlog uh play
56:00 playback.tv/CelticsBlog if anyone wants to come watch the game with me I'll be streaming
56:04 it in there um from here so we'll get the rest of the quarter in the second half and
56:09 hopefully Minnesota can push it to six we'll see how we go yeah awesome looking forward
56:13 to that all right that's gonna do it for this one thank you so much for joining us we're
56:15 gonna be back with another pod in the next couple of days live on this YouTube channel
56:19 Spoonie, Jake, Noah love your work guys until next time go Celtics!
56:23 I LOVE THE CELTICS!
56:25 I LOVE THE CELTICS!
56:27 (upbeat music)
56:29 (upbeat music)