Can we figure out this Celtics team? Effort issue? Are they in "Training Camp" mode? Celts insider Mego joins!
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00:00But right now, on a Celtics Wednesday, Meggo is here, another attendee, unlike others,
00:06at the Odyssey holiday party on Friday night. I was there. I did not bowl, but I was there.
00:11Enjoyed hanging out with you. You were sipping on, I believe, a delicious martini,
00:17if I remember correctly. I was having, actually, Kat Jones, Jones's wife, was introducing me to
00:22this tequila-seltzer blend thing with coconut in it, and it was delicious. But I am a big
00:29teeny girl. We've had some teenies in our day. Martini Ottolini, that's me. That's actually my
00:36father. That's your father? Yeah, Martin Ottolini. You like a dirty one too, right?
00:40I like a twist. I don't like olive, so I like a lemon twist. And I'm going to a place tonight
00:46that I think has the second best martinis in all of greater Boston. That's a bold statement.
00:52I know. I think second best is couching it in reality, so you know I'm telling the truth.
00:57I don't want to tell you it has the very best. 1928 Beacon Hill. It is such a good one. Legit
01:03martini. Where do you believe the best is? I know where I think it is. Same. I'm hesitant to say
01:08because I don't want other people taking barstools away from me. Oh. Do you want? I'll disclose.
01:14It's not what ... Are you and I saying the same? I think that we're on the same one. Is the
01:18glass frosted with ice? Yes. I know. That's a key ingredient. Oh,
01:21grill 23. Grill 23, I think that's the best one. Grill 23 is definitely top five. And I bet I know
01:25yours. What? Franklin Cafe. No, but I love the atmosphere. They have a good martini as well.
01:31Also, anchovies in the south end. Okay, that would round out my top five. Number one in the entire
01:36greater Boston area has to be the Abbey in Brookline. I've never been. Really? Incredible,
01:42incredible martini. Do they have different flavors? You know where Ken lives.
01:48You and I- This is Washington Square. There was a place that was in the financial district that
01:52you and I attended quite a bit for their martinis. And it was shut down because the
01:56manager was being inappropriate with people. There was a little drama. There was a scandal
02:00there. But that place had good martinis. That place had legit martinis. He was a creeper.
02:05But are there different flavors to martinis? Yeah, of course.
02:08Okay, all right. Your martini order says a lot about you.
02:11I love the espresso martini. I don't get it in the glass, though.
02:15What do you mean? What do you mean to say you love the espresso martini, but then you asked
02:19if there were flavors of martinis? See, I wasn't sure. For some reason,
02:23I was like, is that a martini? Yeah. I wasn't sure.
02:26In the name of it. Because my favorite is the pistachio.
02:32But you can only get them in the north end. North end, yeah.
02:35And I don't like the- You're probably not a fan of that,
02:37though, because it's not real martini. Oh, it's not?
02:42I like a vodka. I'm a vodka gal. I like vodka straight up, bone dry, with a lemon twist.
02:49And I just ask them to put it in a regular glass, because for whatever reason-
02:53You like it on ice. No, no. I always spill it.
02:56You're right, Wiggy. This is not a martini, what you're ordering.
02:59Yeah, no, it is a martini. It's like a frappuccino.
03:01But it's a pistachio, and I go in the regular. I did have a watermelon one one time that was really-
03:06Is that a daffodil? What's going on?
03:09Might have been a martini. Yeah, watermelon martini.
03:11I did have a hundred martinis, but are those martinis? I know it's in the name.
03:15Well, she said all of this stuff, so. Speaking of Friday night, and again,
03:19I don't know. I cannot figure out how I feel about the Celtics, because I just know. I suspect
03:25they're waiting around till the playoffs get here, and then we see who they really are, whatever.
03:30But Friday night, we were at the holiday party. Lackluster effort from that basketball team.
03:36Yes, against Sacramento. And to be fair, that's a team that is
03:40red hot. I know people hear Sacramento Kings, and they're pretty low in the Western Conference
03:44standings, but they had a seven game win streak, and they had won their sixth with you. And so,
03:50that's a team that is just rolling. They have a weird interim coach situation,
03:54so you think it's like a dead cat bounce for them, but they're doing really well.
03:58And so, I couch that. Should I just give up my expectation
04:01that in the NBA, there's going to be some defense that is actually played? Like,
04:04should I just give up that expectation? So, last time I was here to answer that
04:08question, I was saying, I'm not going to give the Celtics the benefit of saying,
04:13they're all healthy now. And so, they're adjusting to each other. But I did think about the other
04:19night, Joe Mizzoula said, we're kind of in training camp mode, where our starters,
04:25because they're getting off to these slow starts. They went one for 11 from the three point line
04:31on Sunday against the Pelicans, who are a dreadful team in terms of their record.
04:36And so, I think that they are adjusting to some of having Kristaps Porzingis back on defense.
04:42He's a great rim defender, but then you maybe give something up in the three point game on
04:45the other side, and some of these teams are doing that against them. I do think that there is an
04:50adjustment level. Again, it's great that they're all healthy, but at the same time, you have
04:54individuals like Jalen Brown, Drew Holiday, who have been in and out of the lineup, and there is
04:59some of this adjustments going on. I don't think, again, that it's like teams figuring them out,
05:05or other teams surging and being actually more talented or better than the Celtics. I just think
05:11it's a little bit of tweaks here and there of them trying to get back in with each other.
05:15And then you sprinkle the boredom in, because we know in the NBA, the NHL, and major league
05:22baseball, the regular season is, especially when you're a good team. When you're a good team,
05:28what does the regular season really mean for you, right? You're probably thinking like,
05:31all right, maybe we don't get the number one seed, but we can go anywhere and beat anybody
05:37four games. And I think part of it is that, especially in hockey and basketball,
05:43because there's so many games throughout the week where it's just like, all right.
05:47And unless it's like you're playing against the Cavaliers, or you're playing against OKC,
05:52where it's like, all right, we're going to get a little extra juice for this.
05:56You're playing against the Raptors. They go, what, eight, nine wins?
05:58They're playing down to people, which is a bit concerning, I think, for people.
06:01I think it's boredom. You're there at the games, I mean.
06:04Yeah. And I think especially when you look at these two games,
06:07there's a human nature aspect to this, where they came off that road trip where they went
06:12three and one, overall big success, tough second half that they had against Oklahoma City.
06:17But then when they're back, it's kind of like, oh, you're back at home,
06:21a little bit more comfortable. You're seeing teams that don't have great records,
06:25but they still have individual pieces like Sabonis on the Kings who can really get after
06:30you in the fourth quarter if you let up that mental game just a little bit.
06:33And I think it's interesting you mentioned the Cavs. That's a team where, you're right,
06:37Wiggy, the regular season means different things for different teams. And for the Celtics,
06:42the regular season means stay healthy, stay the course, be yourselves.
06:48And then when you get closer to the playoffs, get in your groove, get in your rotation,
06:52get into the playoffs and do your damage there. For a team like the Cavs,
06:56they're establishing their culture. They're finding themselves. And that's
07:00just a different kind of regular season than the defending champs are going to have.
07:04Did you like the way they, and when I say they, I mean, Joe Mazula and Jason Tatum
07:10responded to Jennings calling Jason Tatum the softest player in the NBA?
07:14I kind of think it just doesn't deserve any response. It's such a play for attention from
07:20Jennings. And again, if you look, I get it. Like we're all in the media. You say stuff,
07:26you put it out there. You're like planting your flag. This is my thing. It's just,
07:31I don't know. I think that the Tatum, the Tatum dialogue around him is so ridiculous because the
07:38guy's been a top five player. He finished six for MVP last year, but I think most people would agree
07:43that he's been a top five player for the past three plus seasons. He's on the best team in
07:49the league. He's going to be an MVP. He's probably going to win another championship.
07:53And then you have a podcast this week, putting out a list of top five Celtics. And here's why
07:59Jason Tatum's not on it. It's like, why are you so desperate? You put out your own, didn't you?
08:05Yeah, as a response, but it goes to show you that Tatum has the star power because you're
08:10getting your attention by saying stuff about Tatum and trying to fuel that fire of the dialogue
08:16around him. Are you saying his personality is soft? No, no. Because he's a quiet,
08:20reserved type of guy. No, that's not an alpha. He's just somebody he's not. He's not an ish
08:26talker, right? Because when they did the top five Celtics and Brandon Jennings and them were
08:30arguing, they were putting KG in there. They put Kevin McHale at number three. I love Kevin McHale,
08:35but that's a six man a year guy. But those guys were trash talkers, right? So you don't hear.
08:40And the biggest thing, do you think that's what Jennings meant? Or do you think he meant that
08:44Jason Tatum is always trying to get himself a call? No, no. I think he meant that because Tatum
08:51doesn't have that personality of like, oh, I'm going to bite your head off and I'm going to
08:57tell you about it. Because he loves Kobe, but doesn't have the Kobe personality and he's quiet,
09:05he's reserved. Then people tend to be like, oh, he's soft. He's not a killer because that's not
09:13who he is. They did the same thing with Kawhi Leonard because Kawhi's not a big talker. I just
09:19think when you look at Tatum's playing, he's somebody that is like, I played with Troy Brown.
09:25Troy Brown wasn't a big talker, but he led by the way he played and that was his killer mentality
09:30was I'm going to go out there and play this way. So I think that's why he gets knocked.
09:35I think that it's also just we lose focus of Tatum's been playing for so many seasons. He's
09:41still a young guy. He's still if you look at the averages of NBA players just beginning to enter
09:47his prime years of production, like when you look at overall the stars, his contemporaries
09:54and the generation before, this is where it becomes, okay, your prime stats, which is crazy.
10:00And that's what makes people to me morons because look what he's done as a young guy
10:07just hitting his prime. Look at the numbers as he's put up. And as a young, there's not,
10:12we haven't seen another Celtic do what he's been able to do in the first, what, seven years of his
10:19career. And like you said, Mego, he's now hitting his prime. And if he could continue to win some,
10:24win multiple championships, you're going to make the case that he goes down as the
10:30greatest Celtic to ever play.
10:50I think more people would put bird ahead of Bill Russell because of bird's personality.
10:55See, but that's silly. No, that's okay. As long as we're in agreement,
11:01why do people hate Jason Tatum so much? It seems like it always, it seems like across the league,
11:07people do not like Jason Tatum. Really? Yes. Wait, are you, you're talking about other players?
11:12I'm talking about other people, whether it's media, national media. It seems like there's
11:15always a slight against Jason Tatum. When we saw it immediately after they won the championship,
11:20the way in which the general public, not here in Boston responded to the Celtics winning and
11:25Jason Tatum in particular. Courtney, you know, this jealousy is a disease. I know.
11:32It's just, it's confusing to me where the hate comes from because it's not a personality thing.
11:37He, like you said, if you want to say he has a soft personality because he doesn't lead in that
11:41way, it, I don't get it. I think it's because he had a standout rookie season. As you remember,
11:48we were both covering the team at that time and he exploded so quickly onto the scene as a super,
11:55super young guy that everybody was doing the, he's just 19. Jason Tatum, he's the next thing.
12:03And then it took several years for the team to get to a championship. And I think people
12:09from the outside felt like, oh, it's like anything. Oh, you're hyping this guy up,
12:13but then he hasn't won. And then he does win. And it's at that point,
12:16everybody else was hurt. You're such a big brand that there's a no win situation there. Jealousy.
12:21Wiggy, if you had to win one game, seven, you could only play one of them.
12:25Who would you play? Bird or Tatum? Oh, bird. Okay. Good. Right. But I said, I didn't say now
12:33in the future, if Tatum gets four chips, he's got one. So you only got one, three more.
12:40And it's possible just three, seven more, but if we're comparing them to the golden state and the
12:47run that the golden state worries at Steph Curry has four. So there's a possibility if Tatum's,
12:54we would say, I would argue he's the best player in the NBA, but let's say he's in the top three.
12:59Would you say Steph Curry's a better player than bird?
13:03Wow. Because if you're saying he's going to get to Curry and you don't think Curry's better than
13:07bird, then what are we talking about? I said that when it's all said and done, I couldn't,
13:10you, you probably people could make the argument. I'm a bird fan. So I'm a little bit biased,
13:15right? But if, if Tatum gets the three or four chips and what now it's down to three,
13:20all right, let's, I'm just trying to say, I don't want people to be like, all right,
13:22he's got to get to 11. If he gets the three or four chips and he's going to have the numbers
13:28when it comes to stats and all that other nonsense, it's going to be more of.
13:34It's impossible to compare errors. I really, I get you, but that's what we do. We, we,
13:42we always say who's the greatest of all time bird or LeBron. We, we compare some people say Jordan.
13:53Larry bird and magic saved basketball. So there's that Greg saved the EI, but there's that Greg,
13:59there are a lot of people. Thank you. By the way, you're welcome. Everybody's welcome. Thank you.
14:03I asked nothing but a thank you. There are a lot of people that do top five that don't have bird
14:09in the top five best bass, greatest basketball players of all time. It's ridiculous, but that's
14:14what we do here. We have that conversation. Great to see you. Yes. You guys do have some sort of an
14:18issue with me and something that you wanted to bring up. Yeah. You have an issue with what
14:23you're, how you're describing your snow show. Really? Ski and board. Yeah. That's not it.
14:28It's ski and ride. Oh, from a snowboarder here. You don't say board. Nobody says I'm going
14:35boarded. I'm going to go shred the gnar, bro. You're shred. That works too. Wow. I've never
14:40heard ride. Yeah. Ski or ride or ride. Yes. Not skier board board is what kids do at very
14:46rich schools. You are a rider. Well, no, I'm a snowboarder, but you're a boarder.
14:52Uh, will you join us at the snow show? Oh, I would love to. Oh, okay. Oh, I'll have to check
14:58my Celtic schedule, but I'm a very talented snowboarder. No cap. Maybe bring them. Yeah.
15:04He's a bad skier, but he will be, he'll be my lodge bunny and I will be the athlete on the mountain.
15:12Well, it is a week from Friday, so we would love to have you there with us.
15:16We will, we will set it all up. Sounds great guys. That is mega.
15:19You read her at wei.com and she is our Celtics insider. Thank you. Thanks.