There isn’t anything major to talk about with the Boston Celtics this summer.  They brought back pretty much the entire team from last season, with the exception of their two rookies, as they look to defend their title and it’s gonna be a while before they sell the team. However, there is a little bit of news to get to so let’s dive into a shamrock update. 

The big thing happening right now with the Celtics is that the NBA’s Summer League is about to begin in Vegas this weekend.  This will be my first chance to get a look at the rookies, Baylor Scheierman and Anton Watson.  I will say right now that Summer League success or failure is no indication of a player’s ability to play in the NBA.  That has been proven time and time again.  That doesn’t mean it isn’t fun to see how the new guys look and try to tell whether or not their skills will translate to the NBA.  Also on the team is last year’s rookie Jordan Walsh.  It will be good to see if his game has improved at all since last we saw him.  Neemias Queta is on the team as well.  He is still a developing player so it will be good for him to get as much run as possible.  Especially with Porzingis out for the beginning of the season which means Queta will be needed to help fill in for the big man.  JD Davison is back with the Celtics on a two-way contract and will be on the team as well.  At this point in his career, I would expect Davison to be pretty dominate out there against this level of competition.  Other end of the bench guys for the Celtics, Drew Peterson and Jaden Springer are on the team as well.  The more run they get in the system and with the coaching staff, the better.  Who knows when an injury could vault them up the depth chart.   

I think it is cool that the Celtics have Eddie House’s son Jaelen on the team.  There really isn’t any room for the non-roster guys to make the Celtics but it will give him a chance to showcase himself for the rest of the league.  It’s cool that the Celtics are giving him this opportunity.  Maybe he ends up signing with Maine and will get to stay in the Celtics system and who knows, maybe they will need to sign a guy later down the line.  The last interesting guy on the roster is Killian Tillie just because I am pretty sure that was the names of Thorin Oakenshield sons in The Hobbit.  The Celtics first game is on Saturday at 6:30. It will be on NBCSB though it is usually just the NBATV feed.  And yes, you lucky bastards, I will be giving you a game-by-game recap after each of the 4 games, or more if they make the Summer League playoffs.   

Other Celtics news would be that Derrick White has joined team USA for their Olympic run.  He is replacing Kawhi Leonard on the rosters as they determined Kawhi was still too injured to play.  Congratulations to White on making the team.  It’s great to see him get more and more recognition from people outside the Celtics organization and fan base who get to watch him play on a daily basis and know how good he is.  Of course, whenever anything happens around this team their has to be controversy.  Everyone immediately questioned why it was White and not Brown who replaced Kawhi.  Grant Hill, who runs Team USA, pointed out what anyone who wasn’t just looking to stir the pot would have noticed.  He said they are building a team and parts of a team need to fit together.  White fits better because he is a glue guy.  Someone who does the little things to help a team win.  Someone who, on a roster full of superstars, doesn’t need the ball in his hands to make an impact.  He is also the type of guy who will not be pissed if he doesn’t play much.  He is a great wing defender, something you cannot have enough of when playing Euro-ball, whom they can call on if need be.  Brown is a superstar that would expect to play a lot of minutes.  This isn’t like ’92 when they could just draw names out of a hat and go out and win by 40 every night.  If the USA wants to win the Gold they are going to have to be a team and play like one.  It is obvious that White is a better fit here. 

As far as the Nike thing goes (Nike sponsors the team and Brown isn’t a Nike guy)?  Well, it wouldn’t surprise me if that was a factor but then I never pay attention to the shoe stuff so I have no idea if any of the other guys are not Nike guys so I can’t really speak to it.  This wouldn’t be the first time there was a shoe company scandal in the Olympics.  In ’92 Jordan had an American flag draped over his shoulder for the medal ceremony not to show the world his patriotism but to cover up the Reebok logos on his Team USA gear.  So again, while I don’t think it was a factor, it wouldn’t surprise me to find out it was. 

It’s a good thing for the Celtics that Brown was snubbed, or at least that he feels snubbed.  This is the kind of motivation guys need to keep from resting on their laurels after winning a championship.  This is the kind of thing that will keep Brown focused all season and help the Celtics in their quest to get back to the promised land of an NBA Title.   Also, I hate international sports and wish none of the players I root for would play on international teams.  Tatum, White, and Holiday are going to have played a whole lot of basketball since the start of last season until the playoffs next season.  The fact that they will have a rested, motivated Brown can only help by the time we get to next June.

The last item of discussion around the Green Team is the ongoing sale of the team.  We still have not heard anything official about potential buyers or anything like that.  However, people have been getting up in arms about something (for no reason as usual) that came out as this process begins.  It turns out Wyc Grousbeck is not the majority owner of the Celtics, his father Irv Grousbeck is.  This is actually why they are selling the team.  It turns out the estate managing stuff they mentioned in their release was true.  It’s funny how often the Celtics tell the truth and no one believes them.  With this revelation people are saying that Wyc is a fraud and they no longer believe it was him who was running the team and making all the big decision.  You see, it must be his father who did everything because he was the real owner.  It was his money and there is no way someone would let anyone else run a team they owned, even if it was his son.  I think it tells a lot about people how they expect others to behave.  Because it tells you how they would behave.  But as usual, this is all much adu about nothing.  Yes, Irv was the guy with the money to buy the team way back in 2002.  But that doesn’t mean he didn’t just let his son run it.  Clearly none of Irv’s other kids cared about basketball or the Celtics because up until now, no one knew they existed. 

I don’t understand why this is a hard concept to grasp.  It is the same way the San Francisco 49ers have been run for years.  When Eddie Debartolo was (wrongfully) forced to sell the team, he sold it to John and Denise York (his sister and brother-in-law).  John ran it for a few years but then he gave the team over to his son Jed York.  Jed has been running the team ever since.  He’s the one who decided to hire Shanahan and Lynch.  He’s the one who decided to keep Balke and move on from Harbough when the two of them were warring with each other.  He runs the team.  The only time anyone ever heard from John York was during the draft he could be seen in the 49ers draft room usually sitting in a corner watching what was going on.  I believe he even stopped showing up for that the past few years.  He was the owner but has nothing to do with the running of the team.  Jed actually came out in March and said that he had purchased enough equity from his mother that he is now the principal owner.  This was done to keep the team in the York family and to stay away from any disputes over the ownership in the future.  Jed has two sister who don’t have anything to do with the franchise.  The Grousbecks are going in a different direction to avoid any future issues by selling their stake in the team.  To each their own.  The point here is no one was wronged by not knowing Irv was the majority owner of the team.  Wyc was still doing his job and running the team and deserves all the credit he gets for the great job he has done.  Why this information irritates people is beyond me.