...Paul Pierce Is A Free Agent...

During a regular season game in 2009, I don't know which one, I wrote an email to my Celtics yahoogroup that praised Pierce.

paul is such an awesome celtic. i am so proud to be a fan of his.
he cares so much about winning, its so great. someone else say nice things about pierce. please. he deserves it.

Paul opted out of his contract last night, and now I honestly think the best thing possible is to part ways with #34. I love him as a player, a competitor and as a Captain, but if another team is willing to pay him 90 million for 4 years, there is no logical reason to re-sign him.

I look at his age, his performance, and what the landscape looks like out there, and I think that PP is worth 12-14 million for 3 more years, tops. He is going to get more than that from other teams.

With the Rasheed retirement, and the opportunity to clean up our books after KG's departure next year, it seems irresponsible to give Paul a ton of dough.

I love #34, I don't know what the rules are about retiring a players number, especially one who bolts pretty much only for money (unless he locks up with another max contract guy and goes for a ring), but if he leaves I'll miss him.

Good thing we are in no way related and I am allowed to look at this from a business perspective.

...top 10 Most Influental Songs...

Here are the top 10 most influential songs, to me, without explination.

10. I Think I Can Beat Mike Tyson - DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince
9. Sweet Lullaby - Deep Forest
8. Sparks - The Who'
7. Parklife - Blur
6. America - Simon & Garfunkel
5. Airbag - Radiohead
4. Can You Feel The Love Tonight - Elton John
3. Rocket - Smashing Pumpkins
2. Wonderwall - Oasis
1. Eleanor Rigby - The Beatles

...you gotta love...

You gotta love Environmentalists suing Cape Wind for endangering birds. I am not doubting that Cape Wind may have other motives aside from saving the world one bay at a time - and that money may be one of their motives, but you know what? I don't care.

I am not even sure who is filing the suit, but the bottom line is that even if they told me tomorrow that some birds will be killed by these large wind turbines, I'd be sad, but then i'd grab the plaintiffs by the neck, throw them on a plane, and stuff their faces in the oil-laced beaches of New Orleans and ask them if that is a better alternative for them.

...7 Celtics Off-Season Priorities...

I think these are the Green's top priorities:

1. Get Paul Pierce's situation figured out

I know I am in the minority who believe that Pierce may not end up in a C's uniform forever. I believe he wants to be a Celtic forever, and I know he wants his #34 up in those rafters, but there is a business reality to this situation.

As Captain, and as the obvious tentpole in the middle of this 3 ring circus, Pierce's situation is a very interesting one. He has 1 year remaining, as a player option, for 21.5 Million. Now is the time that all sports fans say, "why would he leave 21.5 million on the table?" Well, this is why.

He, and his agent, most likely believe a team is out there who is willing to sign him for 4 years, 60 million right now. That is option 1. Leave the C's, go to the Clippers (for example), finish off your career at home, with 60 million fans and 60 million bucks.

Option 2 is to stay with the C's, get your guaranteed 21.5 this year and then hope you can get 3 more years at 13 million (or so) per year. But really? Will the C's value him higher than Rondo? Will he be easy to retain?

I don't think it will be easy, and I think Pierce will test this free-agent market.

2. How hurt is Kendrick Perkins?

His injury could be a long-term issue for the C's. There are major roster holes on the Celtics - it may not feel that way but it will only get multiplied and microscoped over the next few years. We have to build this team back up, and that includes locking up a true big man, which Perkins is. However, with the snowball effect injuries have on big men, it is a bit scary. They best have the most capable Dr's. in sports working on his leg, because he is a big part of this team's future.

3. Will Ray Allen remain in Green?

He had such a roller coaster playoff - it is really unbelievable. I have no idea to be honest about Ray Allen and if he needs to be a Celtic. Part of me says, "yes, absolutely. He is the only man on offense willing to move, continuously. We have to keep him. But then there is the part of me that says if you rely on a jumpshooter, you don't win titles. What teams have won titles relying on a jump shooter? And we relied on him. As Garnett aged, Perkins got hurt, and Rondo was neutralized a bit by Kobe, it was up to Ray to hit his shots. He did in game 2, and he didn't in Game 7. And thats that.

4. Is Rasheed retiring?

The money left over is huge. We lose him, we gain millions. Will he be cooperative and decide in a timely manner, you can almost guarantee he won't. The reason that it is critical this happens quickly is because the amazing Free Agent class has a tremendous potential, and things will happen very quickly.

5. Who is our Backup PG?

I feel this needs to be addressed in the draft. The Free Agent Class at PG is very thin - and given the needs of a lot of teams, I think even landing a Steve Blake type player is a long shot. I don't like the draft, I don't trust the draft, and I don't believe in the draft, but I have no solution here. I know the answer isn't re-upping Nate Robinson, not on this team.

6. We have 6 players, who are the rest going to be?

If we keep Pierce, we have 6 players on contract. If we don't, and if Rasheed retires, we have 4. Garnett, Rondo, Perkins and Glen Davis. If Perkins is hurt for the first 1/2 of the season, we potentially go into this year with 3 players.

The most likely scenario is that Pierce stays, Wallace goes, Perkins can't start the year, and we have 5 guys on our roster. I think it's likely we keep Tony Allen, we pick up 2 rookies in the draft, and 1 guy at Summer League. That is a very porous roster, and Ainge has his work cut out for him.

But remember, when everything was at it's darkest, Ainge pulled off the Ray Allen trade on draft night in June '07, and we were saved.

7. Do we have a coaching staff?
Doc is no fool. Thibadeau moving to Chicago is a huge deal. Doc wanting to go back to Florida, for good reason, and live at home is a big deal. I think that Doc sees the writing on the wall, in many respects. I believe the coaching turntable will spin very soon. Will Doc take over in Orlando? Will McHale and Ainge reunite in Boston? Who will coach this defense? What are we going to look like next year?

Lastly, I'd like to build my dream team, based on assumption that the C's stay under 90 million cap space, and taking into account all I can. (*'s are the deals I am imagining for the player for '10)

PG - Rondo (9 million)

SG - Allen (6 million)

SF - Pierce (*21.5 million)

PF - Garnett (*18.8 million)

C - Perkins (4.4 million)

-----------------------------

Bench - Shaq (4 million)

Bench - Davis (3.3 million)

Bench - Blake (*3.5 million)

Bench - Matt Bonner (1.5 million)

Bench - JJ Redick (5.5 million)

Rookie - who cares (1 million)

Rookie - who cares (.75 million)

...not mourning...

I am choosing not to mourn this Celtics loss. I am choosing to think it was awesome, instead. I am not a Laker hater, I hold ill-will towards very few things associated with the Lakers, and I am going to continue to love the Boston Celtics until my very last breath on this earth.

I am going to look forward, look ahead, and embrace the NBA Off-season, which is always awesome, and this year is going to be super-awesome, super-incredible and entirely exciting.

The Celtics may be given a huge relief this year in the form of Rasheed retiring. This is news to me, but Doc and KG had interesting words post-game last night.

Rivers heaped praise on Wallace for his efforts and noted it might have been his final NBA game, lending credence to the suggestion that Wallace simply wanted to offer goodbyes to veteran officials Danny Crawford and Joey Crawford.

"He was a warrior," Rivers said. "I don't know if Rasheed will ever play again. You know, he's one of them. I think he took that out on the floor with him. I think he is thinking about retiring, and I thought you could see that in his play. He was dying out there. When he got the cramps and the strains, he was just trying to figure out a way of staying on the floor.

"We had to keep subbing him for one minute and two minutes, and I thought the reason we got up early was because of Rasheed Wallace. We got it low in the post, he started scoring, and I thought what happened was late in the game he got tired and had the injuries and we couldn't go down anymore, and I think that had a huge impact on how we were playing. We had to go away from the post almost because of fatigue. It's the first time all year that you can actually say, at the end of the day, we were old at the end of the game because we didn't have a enough bodies. I thought it hurt us."

Wallace signed a three-year, $19 million contract last offseason. He stands to make $6.3 million if he returns next season and $6.8 million in 2011-12.

Asked about Wallace's future, Kevin Garnett didn't sound optimistic about his return.

"Not a good one ... I see a lot of myself in him and we have a lot of the same ties and a lot of the same characteristics. Both the class of '95 ... so for him to come in and give his thanks and his regards after a loss like this ... it was a difficult night."

The Celtics lose the contract of Scals, and may lose the contract of Sheed, and that opens up a whole heck of a lot of money to go out and build the proper team around Rondo, KG, Perk and Pierce.

I am excited, I am encouraged, I am still feeling really proud, and I'm not mourning.

...the PC is a'comin...

I am not tech-savvy enough to know if the title of my post is true, but I do know this. Apple and the IBM battle back and forth, it has been that way forever. Their ads attack each other, everyone knows that Apple has had the upper hand for a long long time, but everyone also knows that at one point in their life their interaction with computers was primarily PC-based.

I bought my first iPod in '05, I believe it was, and I have been pretty much apple ever since. Many iPods, an iPhone, 2 or 3 Macbooks, iTunes, iPhoto - I am hooked on Mac products and proud of it.

But everything comes to an end. I was saying yesterday to some friends that the 49ers were on top of the NFL world and it's fans seriously could never imagine fully what the collapse would be like, but if you fast forward to some of the rebuilding years just experienced, you see inadequate QB's, Joe Montana as a spokesperson for one of the all-time ugliest shoes ever, and Bill Walsh buried 6 feet under. Times change.

The latest release of the iPhone 4.0 is, I think the beginning of the end for Apple. We all know that MP3 players existed before the iPod, they just executed theirs better. We all know that music filing programs existed before iTunes, they just did theirs better. We all know that smartphones existed before the iPhone, they just launched it better.

Well here we are at a crossroads - while products are still selling, and will continue to sell, the mystique and charm of Apple products is dwindling, and the iPhone 4.0 has been riddled with problems. These types of problems simply did not exist with earlier tech advances. You cannot underestimate the power of a smooth launch, flawless execution, and a compelling, untainted story. Here are the 5 reasons why I think the iPhone 4.0's execution is a sign of bad things to come, given there were missteps at every level of the process.

1. Manufacturing Suicides - Starting with the actual creation of the product, the environment in which these phones are manufactured is clearly a reckless and dangerous one. 10+ workers have killed themselves due to the extreme pressures put on them by their bosses, the manufacturers, and the working conditions in some of these factories. A product is only as good as how it is built, and there are a lot of underlying issues in Chinese factories, in particular, that are making the creation of goods (not just phones) a difficult process.

2. Lost Phone - In terms of prototype development and the protection afforded Apple's launch products, the well-documented case of the lost iPhone at a California bar is amongst the most egregious errors that Apple has seen from a PR and product launch standpoint. Apple is so careful and so calculated, this type of error isn't a huge issue in itself, but as one of the 5 reasons why this launch was/is a bit of a disaster, it does rank pretty high up there on the gaffe scale.

3. Network problems - We all have watched the launch of major products on Apple's main stage, and have wondered, "imagine if the network crashes?!", well, for Steve Jobs last week it did. And that really does speak to the fact that the phone itself, my phone specifically, is not so good at surfing. It isn't. It is supposed to be, and it claims it is, and to a casual user who may not be frustrated by persistent network clogging, it may not be a big deal. But to someone who has dumped thousands of dollars into a device (monthly charges, people forget about those!), I am fairly consistently disappointed in the phone. The creation of more phones, over-saturation in the marketplace, and a refusal for Apple to address AT&T's huge 3G network issues is just a symptom of the overall Network drama us iPhone'rs are forced to endure on a daily basis.

4. Data charges - I was talking to someone yesterday who tried (see next note) to purchase the iPhone, and she wasn't even aware that she was going to be charged new data fees. This isn't an uncommon thing. Users have no idea what they are about to experience in terms of data charges, and I don't mean that in the cliche sense of the phrase - people literally have no idea how much data they use on a daily basis. Good thing the people charging us do know, exactly, how much we use, and with the addition of streaming Netflix, streaming video chat, and other network clogging applications, Apple & AT&T are going to have a cash windfall, at our expense, when this device hits the network. This problem isn't something people realize yet, but it'll hit them hard when the new charges fall in their laps.

5. Purchase problems - Yesterday folks started to try to buy the phone, available for pre-purchase. Here is one of many articles that sums up the disaster that ensued yesterday morning on pre-purchases. I don't think I need to say more on this one.

Once the design phase was done and complete, it seems like error after error has marred this phone - I get the feeling that the google phones of the world, the Droids and Nexus', are slowly starting to seep out there, and continue to gain momentum.

As iPad users start to ask themselves, "why do I have this thing, again?" and iPhone users start to say, "why am I paying so much to use this thing again?". I think we are at the start of a major shift away from Apple, but we are just at the start. In the meantime, you can call or text me on my iPhone, or email me and I'll respond to you from 1 of 3 Macbooks in my house.

...Heartbroken for Perk...

Kendrick Perkins is out for the 7th game of the NBA Finals, and it is the most heartbreaking thing I can remember in my local sports career.

Perkins is a very, very, enigmatic NBA player. He turns off local fans by scowling for all 48 minutes of a game, win or lose. He alienates the fans of opposing teams by being the only player willing to be physical to the point of being inappropriate. He can't jump all that well, he can't shoot well. He never gets to the line, he never hits the big shot or makes the huge play.

What he does do, however, is help the team win.

Kendrick is an absolute monster at Center in Boston. He is the best Center in Boston since Robert Parish, with absolutely no exaggeration, and he is going to be out of Game 7 v. LA on a flukey play - a play in which he battled with 2 Lakers under the hoop for a rebound, something that the Celtics are already bad at, now they have to be worse at it in the biggest game of the season.

All Perk has done is play his role - there was a crucial moment in the '08 Season when Perkins was frustrated with Rondo (I believe) because #9 grabbed a rebound that Perk felt was "his". Garnett, during the play, stepped up to Perk and barked at him - a tremendous show of leadership by KG and a huge learning moment for Perk.

So there is an immediate heartbreak in that Perkins has to sit and watch his team either win or lose Game 7 - neither of which will satisfy him, and rightfully so.

But there is a deeper sadness that comes in the form of Perkins losing a long-term extension, that was absolutely coming his way. Rondo is the only player the C's have locked up long-term, and with the advancements on the court that Perkins has made the last few years, I am 100% convinced Ainge was going to lock up Perkins long term.

Perkins has torn MCL and PCL ligaments in his right knee. I went online during the writing of this post in order to read more about long-term implications, and I came across the quote below.

"I don't want anybody to feel sorry for me. It's an important game, it's not about me. It's about winning the title."

Well I feel sorry for the entire team, and I feel sorry for Perkins. This team has gone on an incredible 2 month run that Perkins was a crucial, critical and altogether impossible-to-give-up player at the center of this run, and I cannot bear the thought of Game 7 without his Small, Sad Face. And his defense.

...BP's Billions...

There is much discussion about what BP should do with its 10.5 Billion Dollar dividend in order to determine what is right, what is fair and what is just. The major complication, as I see it, is that none of the players in this conversation have any kind of real grasp on “right”, “fair”, or “just”.

There is a big time undercurrent (or overcurrent, if that is a word) of sentiment that the money in the world is inherently evil – which always cracks me up because it immediately takes away any personal responsibility for the creation, surplus, lack, or division of money in the world. We all have a stake in this, we are all responsible for the way money is transferred, and ultimately spent.

The perfect example is BP and the many gas stations around the state. I drove by a BP in Maynard and saw people pumping away, and I couldn’t believe it. The lack of personal responsibility in going to a BP station is astounding. As a consumer, our only real course of action against corporations or products we don’t like is to “not”. Not buy, not consume, not share, not talk about, not enjoy…to do “Not” is the only weapon we have against the company.

I don’t know if it was apathy, lack of understanding, lack of caring, or outright ignorance, but when you go to a BP station and fill up your tank you are literally telling BP that you’re behind them, you’re on their side. That’s noble if you believe it, if you are on their side, but if you polled 10 out of 10 people at a BP station they would tell you the spill is horrible, the company is at fault, and something must be done to stop it, immediately.

That’s where personal responsibility comes in – and the lack of it in this country. I have the argument with friends all the time about the Sports. Trust me, this isn’t an NBA post…so don’t worry. But people always say, “Why does so and so have to make 10 million per year!?” Well, the short answer is, they don’t. However, if 10 million is out there to be had, then someone will have it.

How do they get that 10 million? This is how:

1. People buy tickets, the team makes money.

2. People watch TV, advertisers buy advertising on the broadcast b/c of ratings, the team makes money.

3. People buy jerseys, the team makes money.

4. People listen on the radio and read in papers, advertisers buy space, the team makes money.

All 4 of those things, and many others, are 100% controllable by us, the consumers. The only way we can stop Kendrick Perkins from getting a 5 year 50 million dollar extension is to STOP doing the 4 things above. As long as we continue to do those things, we have no backbone in the argument.

Back to BP – as long as we go to the pumps, we have no backbone. Don’t people understand that? And now there is a 10.5 Billion dollar surplus that people all around the globe are going to be mad about. A surplus that rests squarely on our shoulders, and the shoulders of the British where they are a more dominant country. The 10.5 billion came long before the oil started gushing. That 10.5 Billion is there, we created it.

So now what do we do with the surplus, well, we look at our options. And as a side note, at this point, on this spill, Obama’s opinion really doesn’t seem to have any weight, or any kind of real momentum. He has been passive, at best, in this whole thing. Crouch on an oil filled beach all you want with a furrowed brow and a longing for old times look in your eyes Mr. President, until you absolutely demolish BP your actions are that of a corporate magnate, a Titan of Industry, and if that’s your mission, well then cheerio to you, good sir. However, his opinion here is finally saying something…

Option 1 is to divide the dividend up amongst shareholders. They invested in the company, and the company made money, so they get their investment back plus some, based on their agreement. That sounds okay until you realize that part of investing in a giant, negligent Oil Company comes at a cost. Didn’t anyone see “There Will Be Blood”? I mean, wasn’t the whole point of that basically that greed and desperation for power and money comes at a giant cost? There WILL be blood on your hands if that’s your goal?

When you invest in Bigger-Than-Big oil, there will be blood, and the blood is flowing. You cannot expect, as an investor, to just have your money come flowing in while death and destruction flows out. Here are the options as reported by the Times:

A person with direct knowledge of the board’s discussions said Monday that the board was considering three possible options: suspending payment of the dividend for two quarters, paying the dividend in bonus shares or escrowing the amount of the dividend while paying for the cleanup. Under the last option, BP would use cash generated from revenues to pay for the cleanup and would not tap the fund unless it was needed. This option, the person said, could offer some reassurance to both Washington and to shareholders that BP will pay for the cleanup while also trying to accommodate shareholders.

1. Suspend Dividend for 2 Quarters - Oh, good, thats news to us. The ocean will be oil free in 2 quarters. Thank goodness, because I was talking to a turtle the other day whose younger brother has oil in his lungs and eyes and was under the impression that Texas Tea would be clogging up his arteries for 5, or at least 4, quarters.

2. Paying the Dividend in Bonus shares - Sarcasm only works in point 1. Think about this arrogance - they are destroying the earth little by little with no real end in sight and they not only think they are going to pull through it all, but they're going to pull through it all richer than they came into it, and they think shareholders should be excited by that prospect. Who would want bonus shares!?!?!

3. Escrow the Amount of Dividend while paying for the cleanup - I guess this one seems somewhat reasonable, but I don't like the idea that BP is honestly thinking that the cleanup effort won't nudge into their operating dollars and only will effect profit. At what point do they just give up and realize it's all over?

Cuz you know what? Its all over for BP, its all over for oil, and its all over for us. I was off of Long Island swimming this weekend and I was thinking, in the back of my head, that this literally could be the last summer I swim in that water. How quickly will oil fly up the east coast to New York once it rounds Miami? It's gushing. I try to avoid watching the live footage because it is right up there with some of the most horrifying images I have ever seen in my life. No joke.

...iPhone upgrade...

I don't think people are adequately measuring the effects of a "pay-per-byte" data model that AT&T has unveiled.

Some of the biggest features of the new upgraded phone involve using more data, and this comes on the heels of having users pay a heftier price for data usage.

They are selling us all a bill of goods - the AT&T data network is so clogged already, and it looked like they were going to combat that by giving free wifi in Times Sq, which is a place where the iPhone is basically useless due to high traffic. And they also inserted a pay per byte data model that would charge consumers for using too much.

Those solutions, while sad to the consumer, sounded fair. It makes sense. But then they introduce features like streaming Netflix on the new iPhone, and you have to sit and think about that cost to the user who is paying per byte. And they introduce video conferencing, again, another huge huge data usage tool. Price and traffic, both are driven up with this tool.

Listen, AT&T/Apple are welcome to unveil anything they want, but people need to stop with the jaw dropping on these upgrades that aren't jaw dropping at all. The iPhone has amazed users for a few years now, and there really isn't anything left they can do with this phone to make people go crazy anymore, at least not within reason.

I think of this like the M&M. It's a pretty simple candy, but it's pretty amazingly good. But now you can get the Peanut Butter, Peanut, and a few other "flavors", which are pretty good, but they won't match the excitement you find in a regular old M&M.

We don't need to pretend to be amazed by iPhone anymore, by doing that, we are overlooking the fact that innovation, which was something that the consumer fell in love with with Apple, is giving way 100%, rather than the standard 85%, to the bottom line.

...Three Game 2 Thoughts...

3 things:

1. By far the saddest sequence of events in the game was when Shelden threw the ball away and Kobe hit the 3, it totally drained the energy out of the big lead. But watch that replay again and realize that the worst part was that the other 4 celtics, after Kobe's shot went through, basically walked away from Shelden, forcing him to throw a second bad pass that Kobe almost drained, which would have been unthinkable.

I like Shelden, but he may have played himself out of the rotation tonight.

2. When you talk about Rondo, and everyone says things about his jump-shooting ability, and how some day he will get that shot, I have the following statement, which is a 2-parter.

Part a) Rondo's poor jump-shooting ability is greatly exaggerated. I agree he can struggle at times, but in the biggest moment of the season he drained a jumper to go up 5 from 3, and he has done that before this season, and in these playoffs. Rondo may not be deadly, but his jump-shooting is no longer a liability, it simply isn't a strength, which is fine.

Part b) If you have the ability to go back in your brain to last year's playoffs, he started to show signs of offensive brilliance with his off the glass english shots and amazing passing, but he took it to another level this season. I 100% believe that same type of advancement will be made this offseason in the form of a more stellar 12-18 foot jump-shooting ability. All-Star starter next year, no question.

3. I was listening to a national radio broadcast on my ride home after the game, and they have this Celtics team wrong. They were saying that there was no way that Rondo could get a triple double every night, and no way Ray Allen would set a record in 3's every night, therefore the Lakers could win 3 of the next 4 or 5 and take the title.

Sure, there is some logic to that, but the reason Ray was 8 of 11 was because Artest neutralized Pierce, which led to easier Allen baskets. The reason Rondo got a triple double was because Kobe got fouls called on him early, which made him hard to focus on doubling off on Rondo and/or flat out covering him.

The reason the C's are good is because they have talent all over the court, and the burden can rest on different players each night.

Gasol, once again, was friggen awesome tonight. But this has been my point: Gasol can be awesome, stellar and otherwise dominant, but if Kobe is out of sync (tonight, foul trouble) it is hard for the Lakers to win.

There is no solution to the C's aside from reasonably taking away the positives of 4 or 5 players, and that is hard, and that is why they are in the Finals. Sure, take away Ray Allen's 8 3's, and force Rondo into a non-triple double night and you're more likely to win, but I bet Pierce drops in 28 points and Garnett gets 11 rebounds that night too...