The Celtics bringing Tom Brady to their Kevin Durant recruiting meeting is legendary stuff

I've had goose bumps ever since I saw this photo:

And it's really happening:

OK, a source who is present for the Celtics' meeting with Kevin Durant verifies that Tom Brady is indeed there in NY and part of the pitch.

— Adam Himmelsbach (@AdamHimmelsbach) July 2, 2016

But wait, it gets even better:

Yes, Tom Brady's in New York to help Celtics lure Kevin Durant to Boston. "Durant's favorite athlete," source says. https://t.co/agkbNq1rxG

— Adam Himmelsbach (@AdamHimmelsbach) July 2, 2016

Check out this from Durant in 2011 (as well as many others from KD about Brady):

Man Tom Brady is like a perfect QB...seems like he never makes any mistakes

— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) September 12, 2011

This tweet makes me laugh:

One NBA executive on Tom Brady joining the Celtics contingent in Hamptons today: "Why bring an UnderArmour guy to a Durant/Nike meeting?"

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojVerticalNBA) July 2, 2016

Who cares, it's Tom freakin' Brady!  This is exactly how I feel:

Tom Brady joining the Celtics to get Kevin Durant is what dreams are made of.

— Scott Maxwell (@SilvahHammah) July 2, 2016

And this:

@Mike_Dyer13 dude, I can't stop tearing up

— Mark Van Deusen (@LucidSportsFan) July 2, 2016

Sounds like a plan:

If this works, either a) Durant wears No. 12 for Celtics or b) Brady becomes first Boston athlete to have his number retired by two teams.

— Rich Levine (@rich_levine) July 2, 2016

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Jeremy Lin is back in New York, and it's funny (especially to Jarrett Jack)

The Celtics still have the Nets first-round picks in each of the next two seasons, so Boston fans will continue to enjoy watching Brooklyn struggle.  When the Nets let point guard Jarrett Jack go yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised:

Jack was legitimately the Nets best player until he got hurt last year. https://t.co/ik3gVQClxs

— CelticsLife.com (@CelticsLife) June 30, 2016

This morning Brooklyn signed Jeremy Lin to a three-year, $36 million deal, which seems even stranger (not the money part though, every contract this summer is going to be nuts).  Granted, I'm a bit biased and I've never been a fan of Lin, but take a look at these numbers:

Jeremy Lin last year: 26.3 min, .412 FG%, 11.7 pts, 3.0 ast, 3.2 reb
Jarrett Jack last year: 32.1 min .391 FG%, 12.8 pts, 7.4 reb, 4.3 ast

— CelticsLife.com (@CelticsLife) July 1, 2016

(That's supposed to be 7.4 assists and 4.3 rebounds for Jack)

Apparently I'm not the only person amused by this:

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It's impressive that Celtics No. 16 pick Guerschon Yabusele does interviews in English

I posted a video on CelticsLife last week of a draft night interview with Frenchman Guerschon Yabusele, Boston's first-round pick at No. 16.  His English isn't perfect, but it's plenty good enough.  After speaking with Yabusele, Celtics.com reporter Marc D'Amico sent out this tweet:

Guerschon Yabusele told me he just started learning English within the last year, and his English is already good. Says a lot about his mind

— Marc D'Amico (@Marc_DAmico) June 28, 2016

I couldn't agree more.  By comparison, Bartolo Colon has been playing Major League Baseball in the U.S. for 648 years, and he still hasn't bothered to learn enough English to speak it in interviews.


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NBA free agency tampering: Where do you draw the line between crab legs and $100 million?

This is a follow up to my post from two days ago, What's to stop super-rich fans or corporations from buying star free agents for their favorite teams? (Go read that first if you haven't already, or else this won't make any sense.)

It sparked a Twitter conversation yesterday that answers the question... sort of:

@Mike_Dyer13 agree, just pointing out the lines of fishy are blurred. Say KD gets an $80 mil nike deal in NYC, but a $50 mil one in OKC...

— Mark Van Deusen (@LucidSportsFan) June 28, 2016

In theory, something like that could happen:

@JonesOnTheNBA Can shoe companies pay NBA players to move location or just incentivize them by saying it'd lead to more sales?

— Matt Dot Rich (@MattDotRich) June 28, 2016

Can incentivize through deal structure that says more money if you play in certain cities. https://t.co/fIVPP2eoFL

— Nate Jones (@JonesOnTheNBA) June 28, 2016

But here's the real deciding factor:

@LucidSportsFan I think it's simply a situation where if Adam Silver feels like something is fishy, he has the right to stomp it out

— Michael Dyer (@Mike_Dyer13) June 28, 2016

That's definitely true--the NBA is not the American legal system, there's no law that has to be proven one way or the other.  If the commissioner thinks something untoward is going on, he'll just step in and void the deal, or impose other penalties on the team guilty of trying to circumvent the salary cap (there actually is a rule about this).

But the question is, where does the league (Silver) draw the line?  Obviously Legal Sea Foods offering Kevin Durant unlimited crab legs is not an issue.  I doubt an overly-generous million-dollar endorsement would be either.  But $100 mil, on the other hand, clearly would raise red flags:

@LucidSportsFan There's definitely a line there, one that the NBA decides, & much closer to the crab legs haha. But I totally see your point

— Michael Dyer (@Mike_Dyer13) June 28, 2016

It's a very blurry line, and one that will only become harder and harder to define in the years ahead.



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I don't need breakfast, really

I love breakfast food.  The thing is though, I'm just not hungry when I get up.  I look forward to eating giant meals of breakfast food, just not at breakfast time.  I need to be awake for a few hours before I feel like eating, which puts my breakfast around most people's traditional lunch (sidebar--check out this humorous but also serious study that pinpoints the ideal time for brunch at 11:56 am).

Ever since I was a kid, I've always heard that a good day starts with a solid breakfast.  I used to believe that, but somewhere along the way I stopped, and I can now say with a high degree of certainty that it's not true for me at this point.  Why should I force-feed myself if I'm not hungry?

And too all my doubters, check out this New York Times article from last month, Sorry, There's Nothing Magical About Breakfast.  It's nice to finally have some support from a well respected source.


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What's to stop super-rich fans or corporations from buying star free agents for their favorite teams?

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog entitled The 'Kevin Durant will lose a ton of money if he leaves the Thunder' fallacy.  The basic premise was that even though Oklahoma City can pay him more than any other team in free agency, it shouldn't be a reason for him to stay put because his NBA salary is just a small part of his overall income--36 percent, according to Forbes, with endorsements accounting for the rest.

On that same day, the Boston-based restaurant chain Legal Sea Foods offered Durant unlimited free crab legs (his favorite meal) if he signs with the Celtics.  That got me thinking...

If a crab legs entree costs $30 and KD stopped by Legal's twice a week for 10 years, he'd be looking at roughly $30,000 worth of free seafood.  That's not going to convince him to come here, but what if it were $30 million?

Hypothetically, imagine Mark Zuckerberg (from White Plains, New York) is a huge NBA fan.  What's to stop him from calling up Durant and saying "Hey Kevin, I'm worth $40 billion.  How much will it take for you to join the Knicks?"  Next thing we know, KD is shooting a 30-second Facebook Live spot for which he makes $200 million.  If Bill Gates was a hoops guy, he probably would've paid Durant billions a long time ago to come back to Seattle and play in his back yard (literally).

At some point in the near future, something like this will happen, if it hasn't already.

Staples (headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts) is a Fortune 500 company, but I doubt they have an extra $100 mil in office-supply money to throw at KD.  Maybe we need to get the CEO of Fidelity on the phone?  I'm guessing the chances are pretty slim that Warren Buffett is a closest C's fan.


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What's with Kelly Olynyk and this wacky tank top?

Since the Celtics season ended, I haven't really heard a thing about Kelly Olynyk.  He's not a free agent and he hasn't been a part of any trade rumors.  However, he has come across my Twitter feed on two occasions for his generally silly and playful demeanor.

The weird thing is, in both instances he was wearing the same bizarre tank top:

Just bumped into my doggy @kellyolynyk and he played me @yvvhe_yayo new track. Make sure y'all wish my homie well in his recovery from his shoulder surgery!

A video posted by evan turner (@evanturner) on May 24, 2016 at 8:40am PDT

Stay thirsty my friends

A video posted by Kelly Olynyk (@kellyolynyk) on Jun 22, 2016 at 12:32pm PDT

What's the deal, Kelly?

On another note, it looks like he's recovering well from shoulder surgery.


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