The Boston Celtics looked old in the playoffs against the Miami Heat. They’re one year older now. Ray Allen is bound to lose a step sometime. Kevin Garnett can’t remain an All-Star forever. Paul Pierce is reaching an age when his downhill slide is inevitable. Rajon Rondo might not be ready to take a (further) expanded role. Jermaine O’Neal’s made of peanut brittle. The bench is one huge question mark. I don’t know whether the Celtics can contend for a championship this season. But we’re going to find out.

The world’s best sport has moved back to where it belongs, a basketball court. The squeaking we hear will no longer be David Stern trying to explain why negotiations broke down; it will be the rubber soles of shoes planting and pushing off on the hardwood. The Boston Celtics will likely begin their 66-game NBA season on Christmas Day against the New York Knicks. We don’t know how the Celtics’ bodies will respond to a condensed, shorter season. We don’t know whether they’ve been passed for certain in the Eastern Conference ranks by Chicago and Miami. We don’t know a lot of things about this NBA season. But we know there will be one.

After 149 days passed during the NBA lockout, we are finally assured that the Big Three era will not end at the negotiating table. It could end this year, next year or the year after. It could end to Lebron James. It could end to Derrick Rose. It could end with Rajon Rondo hoisting the Larry O’Brien trophy over his shoulders. But whenever it ends, however it ends, it will end where it should, on a basketball court, with Kevin Garnett scowling, Ray Allen finessing, Paul Pierce methodically carving defenses and Rajon Rondo creating magic where it wouldn’t ordinarily exist.

Sports are unpredictable. That’s largely why we find them so enjoyable. If the most talented teams always won, if the best players were always the heroes, if Lebron James always scored 20 fourth-quarter points and emerged victorious against less-talented foes, sports would just be about the games themselves. Though that would still be fun, still an outlet to avoid real life, to channel our energy into observing bounce passes and alley-oop dunks rather than filing paperwork and paying taxes, we watch sports in large part because anything can happen.

We watch game after game because there are rare nights when Syracuse-UConn turns into a six-overtime thriller. Nights when some kid from Northern Iowa named Ali Farokhmanesh takes the most ill-advised three pointer of his life, and it falls to put the final touches on an upset of No. 1-seeded Kansas. Nights when Rondo’s eyes open wide, his teammates drill shot after shot, and before you know it, the assist column says 24.

We watch because Derrick Rose might play like an MVP, Blake Griffin might defy all logic, and Kevin Durant might score 50 points and drill a game winner. We also watch because they don’t always do those things. Even the best have off days, miss 50% of their shots and occasionally get outplayed by J.J. Barea or James Harden, at least for stretches. But that’s one of the beauties of sports. On certain nights, Tony Delk scores 53 points, Chaminade fells a dominant Virginia squad led by Ralph Sampson, or the Boston Celtics erase a 21-point fourth quarter deficit to win Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

The Big Three era will end sooner or later. It might end with a roar. It will likely end with a whimper. But it will end on the basketball court, with all of us watching and hoping for something special. The NBA lockout is (finally) over. Let the games begin.

The Boston Celtics will likely open the NBA season on Christmas Day against the New York Knicks. (New York Times)

The three Dec. 25 games are likely to be the ones that were on the schedule: the Boston Celtics at the Knicks, followed by the Miami Heat at the Dallas Mavericks and the Chicago Bulls at the Los Angeles Lakers. The rest of the schedule will be reconstructed and released in the coming days.

Merry Christmas.

The NBA lockout is done, people. The league came to a tentative agreement early Saturday morning. Rejoice.

We’re going to see Paul Pierce’s step back jumper. We’re going to see Rajon Rondo in transition, deciding whether to loft an alley-oop for Kevin Garnett or sling a left-handed scoop pass into Ray Allen’s shooting pocket. We’re going to see Jermaine O’Neal, sliding in at the last second to take a charge.

We’ll get to see what Danny Ainge decides regarding Jeff Green and Glen Davis. We’ll get to see whether Delonte West re-signs in Boston. We’ll get to see whether JaJuan Johnson is strong enough to bang with Zach Randolph.

In all honesty, I didn’t know how I would react to a labor agreement. Part of me felt I was too disappointed by the entire process to become jubilant whenever the lockout lifted. I wasn’t sure the end of the lockout would bring me joy, since I was so disgusted by both sides during the whole 148-day ordeal. Screw the players. Screw the owners. Ya know? But then the lockout ended and I realized I will soon see one of Rajon Rondo’s 20-assist games. I’ll soon see Kevin Garnett slam his head against the basket stanchion. I’ll soon see whether Avery Bradley can improve on his rookie season. I’ll soon see Doc Rivers scream at someone for making a mistake, and everything in my world will seem right.

Even a nightmare second half, when the Celtics don’t grab a single rebound, can’t bother themselves with making one damn defensive rotation, and look like a pack of zombies, seems perfect. The final days of Kevin Garnett’s career are going to be spent on a basketball court, ladies and gentleman. Paul Pierce and Ray Allen will age on the court, while we watch. My smile won’t end for months. The lockout is over.

Basketball’s back.

Christmas hinges on the results of this weekend’s negotiations. Metaphorically speaking, Christmas can be Santa Claus, candy canes, Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, It’s A Wonderful Life, eggnog and an NBA quintuple-header, or Christmas can be coal, dirty snow, presents I want to return to the store immediately, nightmares of David Stern’s smirk and an endless marathon of Home Alone 3. It all depends on whether two entirely irrational parties can make an entirely rational compromise to save the NBA season.

The players reportedly know exactly what they want. (ESPN)

The players want the money in escrow to be capped at 10 percent. They want the maximum salary for superstars to be 30 percent of the salary cap, as opposed to the owners’ proposal of 25 percent. They want four-year contracts for the mid-level exception to be available every year, not in alternating years as the owners have proposed. They also want an increase in the $3 million mini mid-level for teams in the luxury tax.

Additionally, the players want sign-and-trades to be available every year for tax teams, rather than only for the first two years of the deal. They also want qualifying offers for restricted free agents increased.

Sources close to the situation told ESPN.com that Stern has privately surveyed a handful of owners about their willingness to ease the restrictions on the proposed mid-level exception in a new labor agreement.

It is believed the league’s next proposal to the players will contain tweaks to some of the “system” issues that the players have strongly objected to in recent negotiations. The players have long insisted — in exchange for accepting a 50/50 split of annual basketball-related income, after earning a 57 percent share of BRI in the final year of the previous labor deal — that the league’s proposed restrictions against luxury-tax teams must be relaxed.

Two million dollars on the mid-level exception and a couple percentage points on the escrow tax — after 148 days of the NBA lockout, THIS is what they’re arguing about. If the two sides were rational, these negotiators would have a 2-on-1 fast break. All they need to do to save the season is draw the defender, make a nice pass, and dunk the damn ball through the hoop. Unfortunately, nobody involved is rational. So I wouldn’t renew your NBA LeaguePass subscription just yet.

As video of the incident suggested, agent Bill Duffy stated that his client Rajon Rondo was not involved in any altercation at a Lowell nightclub. (Boston Herald)

“Rajon Rondo was not involved in the reported incident that occurred last Friday night at a Boston (area) night club,” said Duffy. “Any reports regarding my client that have surfaced related to this are false. It’s unfortunate that this has overshadowed the positive aspect of the charity basketball game hosted by Rajon and those benefiting from the event. No further comment will be made about this moving forward.”

This was one of the the weakest nightclub arrests ever. I’ve been hit harder by a gust of wind.

But at least it gives me an excuse to post high school highlights from Rondo and Smith: Read more »

J.R. Smith was in trouble. After he injured himself during the season opener, he visited a Beijing doctor without his Chinese team’s permission. For the team, the doctor visit was the last straw. He had already broken rules several times, and on top of that, he required that the team pay $900 per night so he could stay in a 5-star hotel. The juice wasn’t worth the squeeze, the team was beginning to think. It planned to terminate Smith’s contract and add another American player.

With his new job in jeopardy, a desperate Smith turned to the wisest sage in China, a new-age Confucius, the one man with the power and vision to repair Smith’s standing in China. He turned to, um, Stephon Marbury? (Sheridan Hoops)

In the talk with Smith lasting for more than an hour, Marbury told him that what kind of league the CBA is, and what he should do to succeed here:

“You have to adapt yourself to the new environment and culture, at least to your team. You cannot expect to continue the lifestyle of the NBA, because it’s not the NBA.”

“You’d better eat and live with the team. In the CBA, it’s impossible for the whole team to stay in a 5-star hotel. This is the reality. If you want to win, to be friends with your teammates, you must respect them, and get their respect in return, although you speak a different language.”

After seeing the happy end of the story, Marbury said: “I’m happy for him. I hope he cherishes the opportunity, because not everyone can get a second chance. Every price is worth it, wish everything goes well for him.”

… “and, um, eat a lot of Vaseline, tattoo the side of your face, and sell shitty shoes for $10 a pair.”