Moving forward

Wow. Two thousand 'f-in' seven. If you had asked me when I was ten years old what the year 2007 would be like, I would have thought for sure we would only travel by jet packs, space ships or monorails. I will resist doing some sort of list but I will tell you a few things.

For starters, No more throwing each other under buses. When did this start? Who had the idea to equate dissing or calling-out your teammate/coach/noun with throwing someone under a bus. Gruesome. No matter how terrible commissioner Dave may be I resolve to never throw him under the bus.

Secondly, Red Auerbach in 17 NBA Seasons won 823 games and lost 426 for a .659 winning percentage. In the playoffs he was 91-60.

From the 1957 through his last season as coach in 1966 Red's Celts averaged 55 wins a year and won 9 out of ten championships. Red was the architect of all 16 Celtic titles. In the not too distant past Red lit-up one of his trade mark stogies in Boston restaurant Legal Seafood only to have a woman at a nearby table reprimand him. "There is no smoking in here," she said. "Read the menu," Red replied. The bottom of the menu indeed read "No smoking, except for Red Auerbach."

I am not sure I buy Orlando as a legit team. The East is awful weak and Dwight Howard is a terror but... Washington is better and more experienced. Also I am stubbornly convinced that Miami will get a lot better after the All-star break. Orlando has another secret problem that is no real secret at all. Brian Hill. Does anybody remember what a terrible game coach this guy was last time he was in Orlando? Never mind his stint with vancouver.

The Atlantic Division is the worst sports division I can remember in my life and I am a big baseball fan which has had some truly dreadful divisions in my time on this planet.

I am sad, for his sake, that Fratello got canned but I always thought he was better on t.v. than on the sideline. Since 1988, The czar is 2-20 in the playoffs.

I am sure that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are the best one-two punch of all time.

Check this tid-bit from Peter May -Boston Globe
Falling stars
Has there ever been a time when more "name" players were hors de combat? How's this for an All-Inactive List Starting Five: C-Shaquille O'Neal. PF-Bosh. SF-Lamar Odom. SG-Paul Pierce. PG-Chris Paul. A second team would be C-Yao Ming, PF-Kenyon Martin, SF-Peja Stojakovic, SG-Rashard Lewis, PG-Sam Cassell. Throw in the ne'er-do-wells from the Knicks-Nuggets contretemps (Carmelo Anthony) and other assorted guys (Troy Murphy, Bobby Simmons, Marcus Camby, Nenad Krstic, Brevin Knight), add guys who've missed time and come back (Tracy McGrady, Pau Gasol, Ray Allen), and you've had a number of marquee names on the sidelines. And if I've missed someone important, my apologies. No, Darius Miles doesn't count.

Happy New Year Suckers.