The owners don't get enough credit. Luxury tax means nothing to these guys.

Wyc Grousbeck was devastated by the Game That Must Not Be Named, just like we were. He then watched the Miami Heat put together a so-called Super Team, just like we did. He heard Jeff Van Gundy claim the Heat would break every win mark ever set, just like we heard. He saw the Heat’s celebratory WWE Event party, where Lebron predicted eight — yes, eight — championships, just like we saw.

Unlike us, Wyc could actually do something about it.

“We were already going to try and get better, get tougher,” Grousbeck told CSNNE.com. “But then the Miami thing just took it to a new level.”

You know the rest. The Celtics put together a 2000 All-Star team, then sprinkled Von Wafer and Delonte West on top. Chemistry could still be a problem, some analysts say. But Wyc doesn’t agree. He believes the same thing that draws quality free agents to Boston, a complete dedication to winning, should keep the newcomers in check. Read more »

(I hear it’s really fun to play with teammates you once controlled in video games.)

Granted, it’s the honeymoon period right now. Granted, it isn’t like the Celtics are very likely to bash a new teammate. But they seem very excited to welcome Shaq to Boston.

Here’s Rajon Rondo’s take. (Yahoo)

“I’m excited and looking forward to playing with the big fella,” Rondo said. “He’s definitely an enforcer. He gives us a post presence. He’s one of the best to do it. We’re a lot better.”

Next to gush, Danny Ainge, Doc Rivers and Wyc Grousbeck. (Boston Globe)

(h/t Celtics Life for the video)

Because the SI cover jinx wasn’t enough to slow Rajon Rondo down, ESPN has an epic nine-part story titled “9 stories on #9: The legend of Rajon Rondo.”

You should read the whole thing — mostly because it’s epic — but one part interested me the most: Wyc Grousbeck was an absolute savior in getting Rondo to Boston and keeping him there. (Peter May, ESPN)

Ainge was a Rondo fan but, as the draft progressed that night, it certainly looked like he was in a party of one. The Celtics had already used their own pick, No. 7 overall, in a deal with Portland, which brought them point guard Sebastian Telfair and rid them of the final year of Raef LaFrentz’s onerous contract. They already had Delonte West and now, with Telfair, they appeared to be covered at the position.

But there had been something about Rondo. Ainge, himself a headstrong player, downplayed Rondo’s rebellious stint at Kentucky under Tubby Smith. He worried less about Rondo’s lack of outside shooting ability and instead focused on the kid’s speed and athleticism. He looked at Rondo and saw big hands, long arms, a confidence that sometimes bordered on arrogance — and watched in disbelief as team after team passed on him that night.

Finally, Grousbeck told Ainge to do what he needed to do to get Rondo. “You’ve already saved us a lot of money,” he told Ainge, referring to the LaFrentz deal. “I know you’ve always liked him. If you need to spend the money to do it, go do it.” This was not characteristic of the Celtics in those days. They watched their pennies. They stayed away from the mid-level exception and avoided the luxury tax threshold as if it was radioactive. But here was Grousbeck allowing Ainge to buy a first-rounder and take on a guaranteed contract for someone who projected to be a third string point guard.

One by one, teams made picks in the teens and none of them was named Rajon Rondo. Among the players who were picked ahead of Rondo: Cedric Simmons (New Orleans), Rodney Carney (Chicago), Shawne Williams (Indiana), Oleksiy Pecherov (Washington) and Quincy Douby (Sacramento.)

By that point, Ainge wasn’t capable of exhaling. He had arranged for his old team, the Phoenix Suns, to draft Rondo if Rondo was still there when the Suns were to pick at No. 21. He and the Celtics were sure that the Knicks’ boss, Isiah Thomas, would ruin everything and draft Rondo at No. 20. But Thomas, himself a point guard, elected to go with Renaldo Balkman at No. 20.

I always wonder what would have happened had the Knicks picked Rondo and the Celtics picked Renaldo Balkman. The Celtics probably would have had at least three championships by now, don’t you think? Nice pick, Isiah. Renaldo Balkman’s really worked out pretty well. Come to think of it, so did Eddy Curry, Jerome James, Penny Hardaway, Steve Francis and Stephon Marbury.

Once Rondo got to Boston, it was Wyc (with a huge assist to Danny Ainge) who helped keep him there when the Sonics and Timberwolves tried to pry him away.

As Grousbeck explained to Taylor, Rondo was the Celtics’ starting point guard. He would not necessarily be so in Minnesota, which had Marko Jaric, the newly drafted Randy Foye and the veteran Troy Hudson on its roster. Clearly, Grousbeck explained further, Rondo was far more valuable to Boston than he would be to Minnesota.

Taylor didn’t buy it. Why, he wondered, would the Celtics jeopardize a deal for a first-ballot Hall of Famer, a game-changer, for a player who had been in the league for only one season? All the other pieces were in place. But the Timberwolves demanded Rondo. Grousbeck would not budge and told Taylor to get back to him no later than 5 p.m. that day. He had to know either way. Grousbeck also agreed to pay a portion of Sebastian Telfair’s salary. The Celtics were quite willing to include him in the deal instead of Rondo.

Grousbeck was alone on the aforementioned beach when his cellphone rang. It was the end of July. It was Taylor on the line. He had blinked. The Timberwolves would take Telfair and drop their demand that Rondo be included in the deal.

All along, the Celtics have seen Rondo’s value. I’m sure they never foresaw he would become THIS good, but they’ve known all along he had the making of someone special. Read the whole series; as I think I’ve mentioned before, it’s pretty damn epic.

Another must-read on Rondo: Scoop Jackson. I love Scoop and I love Rondo. Put those together and you get either Scondo or Roop… or a pretty damn good story.

Anyone else remember this flop?

The Boston Celtics don’t want warm weather, and they don’t want nice beaches.  They don’t want to be anywhere near the sinful strip of clubs as notorious as any east of Vegas.  Eff all the palm trees, too.

The Celtics don’t want any part of Miami.  If they step foot in that beautiful, warm city again, they’ll be furious.

“There’s a lot of urgency,” Paul Pierce told ESPNBoston regarding tonight’s Game Five. “We don’t want to go back to Miami. The next time I go to Miami, I hope I’m on vacation. Right now, we’re just trying to get it done at home.”

A sweep is no longer possible, but an easy series is still more than manageable.  Nobody in Boston would mind a five-game victory against the Miami Heat to lead the Celtics to the second round.  That would afford the old geezers more than enough rest for the second round, where they would likely meet the King on a Mission, Lebron James.

But enough about what could possibly await Boston in round two.  The here and now is round one.  The Celtics came within a hair of eliminating the Miami Heat in a rare sweep, but Dwyane Wade’s magical shooting hand kept the Heat from the ignominious fate.  The Celtics will again have to deal with Wade in Game Five as they try to close out the Heat once and for all.

“Wade scored 46, but he’s Dwyane Wade,” said Doc Rivers. “Shooting 66 percent, that’s the bigger number for us. The 46 we can live with, if [he shoots] 34 percent. … He’s dominating the series and we have to do a better job on him.”

Rivers told the Boston Herald there is no such thing as a Wade stopper.

“If it was that easy, he wouldn’t be Dwyane Wade,” Rivers said. “If I can find a guy in the league that can just keep Dwyane Wade in front of him whenever he wants to, we’re signing him. Hopefully (owner Wyc Grousbeck) has some more money to give and we’re going to go get him. It’s going to be a team effort. It’s not going to be one guy.”

While Wade has done the most damage, Paul Pierce cautions that it’s the contributions of other players that break the Celtics’ backs.  Wade is going to get his, but the other guy’s can’t.

“We can’t let the other guys have big games,” said Pierce. “We can’t let [Quentin] Richardson go out here and have a big game, 20 points in the playoffs. Other guys like [Carlos] Arroyo and [Michael] Beasley can’t have big games. Wade’s going to have the ball most of the time, we gotta expect him to have big games because of that. But it’s the other guys. And I’m a big part of that as the guy guarding Quentin Richardson.”

In case you forgot, Q was the warmup act for Wade’s fourth-quarter heroics, scoring 13 points in the first quarter on his way to 20 big ones. “I’m done talking to those guys and going back and forth,” said Richardson, who will shake off a bruised left hand to play in Game Five. “I was here to win the game. He wanted to have a conversation -talk to (your) teammates.”

But Pierce, and the Celtics, don’t want talk to be the story anymore either. Actually, scratch that.

They don’t care what the story is, so long as it ends with anything but a return to Miami.

*****
Required Reading:

• NBA.com’s Jon Schuhmann examines the Celtics by the numbers.  My breakdown of his article?  Offensive rebounds, bad –  Defensive rebounds, good.  Games Three and Four, bad –  Games One and Two, good.  And the turnovers, as always, need to be limited.
• Celtics Hub’s Zach Lowe breaks down an x-factor: Dwayne Wade defending Rajon Rondo. Though Wade guarding Rondo ended poorly for the Celtics, they got good shots.
• Red’s Army has video of the lost fourth quarter from Game Two.  If you live outside the New England area, you haven’t seen it yet.
• Red Auerbach as Leonardo Da Vinci.