Danny Ainge’s confirmation is based on the fact that Rivers has already discussed strategies and play for next season, so there’s no chance the popular coach will be leaving any time soon. Ainge is currently in Chicago at the 2013 NBA Draft combine and Rivers should have joined him, but he suffered a badly pulled ham string in a game of tennis after the season concluded and wasn’t able to make it. Rivers return is at least one certain aspect of the teams offseason, but it also heralds some big changes for the Celtics on the court.

Between Rivers and Ainge they have to decide what the future holds for Paul Pierce. Pierce has one year left on his $15.3 million contract but he could be bought out by the end of June for $5 million. It’s hard to imagine the Celtics without Pierce as “The Truth” has been part of the squad for nearly 15 years. Some have wondered if its time he retire and sit back and relax, play some golf or enjoy playing casino games at the best iPhone casinos at iPhonecasino.ca , but his legendary status makes it hard to consider a game without him. He may end up staying, be traded or even waived but it’s a tough decision that Rivers and Ainge are surely going to agonize over. He could raise a reasonable return as the option to buy him out is even more attractive than his skills, but seeing him in another team’s colors would be the end of an exceptional era.

It’s good news that Rivers will be returning to Boston, but there are some big changes coming the team’s way and he will have to meet the offseason challenges head on.

In fact it is the LA Angels who are in this position, with most of the betting sites rating them just 4/1 to win the pennant, despite failing even to make it to the post-season for the last two years. Having signed free agent Josh Hamilton, and with plenty of quality throughout their line-up, such failure is unlikely to be tolerated by the Angels’ hierarchy again. However they will not have it all their own way, as both the Detroit Tigers and the Toronto Blue Jays have made the kind of eye catching signings that show they mean business – and they are rated just behind the Angels as second and third favorites respectively.

Furthermore, despite the aging nature of their team, you can never fully rule out the Yankees – given their history of success. This means it is a real challenge to pick a winner of the American League this season, and you may prefer to play Hot Shot at a mobile casino instead. This baseball themed slot has everything a fan of the game and of gambling could want – from baseball graphics of pitchers and hitters set against the backdrop of a field – to sound effects of bat hitting ball (when you get a winning combination) and crowd noise (heard throughout, but going from murmur to roar if you get a reel featuring the scatter symbol). The presence of nine pay lines and a wild symbol (a fiery baseball), means you have a great chance of winning something; even if you don’t get the $2000 maximum cash jackpot.

The announcing team seemed to thrive off of the fact that they and the viewers all knew and the team didn’t. Only coaches were supposedly filled in during the game but the players were left in the dark. Watching Paul Pierce’s on-court interview after the win, he had a legitimately shocked look on his face when he was told of the injury (surely how the team wanted Pierce to find out) was a rare innocent look into an otherwise cocky exterior.

Now, all Rondo can do is sit on the bench for the remainder of the year and hold out to bet on March Madness once the time rolls around. We can really only hope that he will continue to travel with the team and embrace his leadership role off the court as he more-often-than-not did on the court. Hopefully Red Bull makes some sweet suits.

There is now a solid argument to be made about where the Celtics go from here. On one hand, EVERYONE as of Sunday morning was reporting that trades were imminent, no one was safe, etc etc etc. Now, somehow, post Rondo injury, Doc is saying ”You can write the obituary; I’m not,” and everyone wants to rally behind Pierce and Kevin Garnett.

Somehow, the fanbase of the green has started to turn. The arguments have been made that the Celtics will be better as currently constructed without Rondo. The team will focus on defense more with Rondo out is apparently the thought.

There is obviously no right answer to what the Celtics should do. What they shouldn’t have done was trade Kendrick Perkins for Jeff Green but that’s in hindsight!

Should the Celtics approach this reset season similarly to the way the Indianapolis Colts looked at the Peyton Manning season? Do you let what happens happen and take the lottery pick if it is there and hope to rebuild? Trade off key pieces on this years team and rebuild for next year? They say trades for rentals are not what they once were.

Or do the 2012-2013 Celtics need to stay where they are and plan a push? Sure that leaves for an unsteady future but at this point, it’s about not falling off the map, right?

As for Doc Rivers, he seems to be pretty set on continuing with what he has.

“You can write the obituary; I’m not,” Rivers said. “You can go ahead, but I’m not. We won tonight and so, the way I look at it is, we’re going to stay in there. In my opinion, we’re going nowhere.”

Fear not, Patriots fans! 

FOOTBALL SEASON IS HERE!

If that got you all jazzed up like Gronk on a Friday night, go ahead and click here for exercise programs to blow off some steam. Otherwise, NFL football begins Wednesday night with the Giants facing Dallas and the Pats take to the field Sunday at 1pm!

This team looks a lot different than any fans would have expected it to. With cuts last week affecting Deion Branch, Brian Hoyer, Jabar Gaffney, and many more, the Pats are looking thin in places fans thought there was unbelievable wealth.

This Patriots team in 2012 will be the youngest team to have ever played under Bill Belichick’s tutelage. Few veterans will be donning the world-famous blue and silver this season and it’s completely on purpose.

If there is one thing that Patriots fans have tried to put in the back of their mind for years, it is that Belichick and Tom Brady will someday leave this team and leave the game of football. The Patriots seem to be starting that process Belichick’s way. A way that New England has come to trust without question.

Brian Hoyer was released making Ryan Maillett the clear second string QB and heir-apparent to Brady, unless something better comes along in the meantime. Hoyer could be a very serviceable QB eventually, but his timing in conjunction with Brady’s slowly depleting window simply will not allow him to thrive here.

The wide receiver situation will be interesting to watch play out. Of course Brady has his toys at this position along with his tight ends to continue to be one of the highest scoring offenses in the league. The positions are simply going to be thinner than they may have seemed to be just a few weeks ago. In the end, Josh McDaniels has returned to Foxboro and his success with Brady is very well documented.

The offensive line will continue to give Patriots fans heart attacks throughout the season and I have to believe it could very well be a bit of a turnstyle part of the team. Only a few men stand between New England’s Golden Boy and hungry hyenas looking to rip his head off.

The defense in a whole has been a project for a couple years. Young and hungry, this defense should be a massive surprise this year. The linebacker corp is honestly a pack of starving dogs ready to get to work and the rest of that side fo the ball should be right behind them and fueled by their excitement.

No matter what, the Patriots are about to return some pride to sports fans in New England. We can now proudly speak of our team on Facebook and Twitter, don our jerseys in public, and devote game days to sitting on the couch with friends and wobbly-pops. All things the Red Sox have recently stripped from our lives.

Welcome back sports fans and LET’S GO PATS!

Welcome fans to the new era of the NBA, of should we say the FBA, the Fantasy Basketball Association.

After the moves of the last few seasons, NBA betting on Top Bet has become an art form. Gamblers everywhere are now trying to pick how much a team will win by, rather than who will win. In David Stern’s NBA, there are haves and have-nots.

With Dwight Howard now joining Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash in Los Angeles, along with the (“not 1, not 2, not 3, not 4…”) Miami Heat, the NBA Finals are all but set up months before the season even starts.

Boston fans have become used to being told that the Celtics started this trend but I would hardly say that Paul Pierce after 10 seasons in Boston being paired up with a mid-30s Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen was a super power. They are players who brought together their team-first attitude and hard work ethics and made a Championship. The super power teams of today are made up of players fans would h ave only planned to see playing together on NBA 2K12.

The NBA continues to head in the wrong direction. Instead of spreading out the greatness, it is being concentrated and as the league loses fans in those markets that simply cannot keep up, contraction is almost imminent at some point.

David Stern may support the super teams or he may not. No one knows. A betting man would definitely believe he does enjoy it. Takes a lot of heat off his referees if the players are making the winning decisions for him and it is all about the playoffs for Stern.

The regular season, for whatever reason, doesn’t matter to Stern. 82 games multiplied by 30 teams… Nah, we’re focused on the 2 months of postseason play. Bring together my best players and make them battle to the death (not literally, that’d be weird).

Get ready for another action packed NBA season folks, just don’t expect a whole lot of surprises.

Both radio stations, both major print sources, and hundreds of blogs coupled with the anonymous blabber machine of Twitter have allowed for the Sox contingency to hear every gripe and complaint coming from outside of Yawkey Way in 2012.

All the sports betting action you can imagine could not have won you any money this season. No one could have predicted that the Red Sox would have the lackluster year they have had after last September’s collapse.

Most of the media sources spent most of the year focusing on players who were cancers to the clubhouse, bashing injured players, with slight jabs at the Red Sox brass. Strangely, following the trading deadline, the media’s attacks on players have been completely abandoned and the focus is ALL on the ownership, Larry Lucchino, and Bobby Valentine.

Just yesterday, John Henry sent out an email to Boston media denouncing any thoughts that Bobby V. would not be with the team come September:

We all share in the responsibility for the success and failure of the Boston Red Sox….

 We are not making a change in manager.

In baseball, managers often get too much credit and too much blame for what happens on the field. That seems to be constant… There is often the thought in organizations, ‘This isn’t working so the manager needs to go.’ But an organization is much more than a field manager. To blame Bobby Valentine for the Red Sox being .500 at this point in the season is simply wrong. A lot has been written about injuries to key players this year. The impact of that on the Sox this year should not be discounted. There has been no lack of effort from our players and we have had a number of them playing hurt. I watch every game, and the effort our players put in night after night is very clear to see.”

Beautiful.

Following up on his surprise visit to the 98.5 The Sports Hub studios late last fall following the most epic collapse in baseball (maybe sports?) history, John Henry continues to show his frustration regarding the coverage of his team.

Somehow Fenway Park has become a non-stop season of Big Brother. The alliances are all fake and no one ever knows what truth is being divulged. Yet, we see and hear everything and think we know what is going on, but we don’t know if we do. Make sense? No, that’s why the masses are angry.

The biggest complaint when it comes to Red Sox ownership is that this club is a moneymaker for them. It’s always been about money. Even when it was about Championships, it was about money. The popular belief is Championships bring money and that is most true.

The media certainly has done a fantastic job of giving the Red Sox a stigma large enough to cause fans to think twice about throwing on that jersey for a random Saturday or put the game on television with friends over. The team has done a lot of this to themselves as well but the media certainly has manipulated it to the level that we have reached.

The conversation has moved on to trying to force the ownership’s hand to sell the team. As long as purchases are moving and beers are flowing, this group is going no where.

The answer is Larry Lucchino. Described by John Henry himself as the man who “runs the Red Sox operations”, Lucchino should be ready to stand up and accept responsibility. There is no success in business if you cannot accept fault and Larry Lucchino has far too many eyes on his mistakes not to admit when he is wrong.

Things have gotten downright absurd on Yawkey Way. For the first time in over a decade, there is more conversation on the suits than the guys on the field and there are no signs of this getting better.

Lucky for fans, there are still two months of baseball left. Plenty of time for another fire at Fenway, hopefully this time it involves personnel rather than the building itself. Though that is a win-win scenario.

• I am a fan of Bobby Valentine.  A lot of people have ripped on him so far this season, especially for the way he treated Youkilis early this season, but the fact remains he has gotten the absolute most out of the bull pen so far and his hodge podge lineups seem to get runs.  Great decision to put Shoppach out their for the 8^th inning pinch hit.  Tito always seemed a little too hesitant to pinch hit for struggling players.  That said, what was he thinking pinch hitting for Ciriaco in the ninth?  I mean, I like Punto.  He seems like a nice guy and all, and I understand that Ciriaco had gone 0 for 3 on the evening, but it seems like Punto has gone 0 for the season so far.  Mystifying.
• Youkilis is absolutely on fire.  It is still incredibly weird for me to see him in an opposing uniform.  I love Middlebrooks, he is definitely the future, but I miss Youk already.
• Speaking of which, remember all the media talk about Youkilis as the clubhouse snitch?  And remember how Josh Beckett was snitch-hunting more zealously than Harry Potter in a game of Quiddich?  Well, incredibly lame Harry Potter reference aside, I thought it was interesting that when Youk was first introduced to Fenway and the NESN camera crew got a shot of the pitchers, Beckett was the only one clapping.  Maybe there was less clubhouse drama than the media made it out to be.  Go figure.
• Lester needs to step up.  Preferably sooner rather than later. He’s far too talented to be knocked around like he has been.
• Did Valentine break a mirror or walk under a ladder?  Did he boast in the face of the baseball gods?  What is going on with the injuries on this team?  Maybe Ortiz is right, maybe this team is cursed.  These freak injuries are getting really old, really fast.  Losing the best hitter in the American League is a huge blow to the team.  Hopefully he comes back because we need a regular DH.
• Daniel Nava is quickly losing potency.   He has been a big contributor to the team so far this year, but he seems to watch a lot of strike three’s.
• Good to see Crawford and Ellsbury doing what they were designed to do.  Last night, they were a dynamic duo on the basepaths, terrorizing pitchers and catchers alike.  They not only add a whole new dimension to the offense, but also are incredibly fun to watch.
• Adrian Gonzalez all of the sudden displayed the power he was so lacking this season when he blasted an opposite field shot in game one against the White Sox.  If he can keep this up and Crawford can produce like he has in his first two games back, the season may not be over yet.
• There’s still a whole lot of baseball to play.

Given the pessimism, panic, and detest in the Boston media you’d think the Red Sox came together and announced that they were all Yankees fans and had given up on the season in order to root for their favorite team.  Most notably Boston.com’s Eric Wilbur’s call for the team to trade Adrian Gonzalez early in the season.  Wilbur called him apathetic, surly, and the unlikeable face of an unlikable team, as well as a racist, a neo-nazi, a communist, and a Christmas-hater. Not sure about those last few but it was scathing, to say the least.  The problem, Mr. Wilbur, is that it was all conjecture.  He failed to address Gonzalez’s ability to hit when it matters (.372 average with runners in scoring position) and while he may only have 6 homeruns, he leads the league in doubles.  So he’s having a down year so far, but that doesn’t mean you should trade away the team’s best hitter.  That goes for every WEEI caller who insists the Sox do so, too.

And for what it’s worth, in almost every interview I’ve seen with Adrian Gonzalez, he seems fairly likeable when the question isn’t completely asinine.

So, with all this negativity it seems only proper that we start with what worries me going forward in the season.

What worries me

The rotation: First and foremost is probably the biggest reason the Red Sox have had such a hard time this season.  Jon Lester and Josh Beckett have underperformed to say the least.  Clay Buchholz has had a horrific beginning, followed by a good recovery, followed by an injury to end this first half.  Daisuke Matsuzaka took forever to get back, and then just when he was showing promise, was reinjured.  Daniel Bard was a disaster.  Way to go there Red Sox.  Didn’t learn anything from how the Yankees handled Joba?  Aaron Cook’s bright spot was a complete game shut out against the Mariners, which sort of balances out his abominable first start.  Finally, Morales and Doubront were actually pleasant surprises.

Going forward, I’m worried most about Doubront and Morales who have been one of the few positives of this rotation.  Both are starting after being in the bullpen for several years, and so may very well start to break down as their bodies aren’t accustomed to the work load.  Aaron Cook will continue to be mediocre.  He’s out of his prime and his best season was in 2008 when he went 16-9 with a 3.96 ERA.  Other than that he is a lifetime 4.52 ERA with a 1.464 WHIP.  Not exactly Cy Young.  Still don’t really know why everybody was so excited about him.  Hard times for the back of the rotation ahead.

Bullpen:  I’m saying it right now.  Albers, Padilla, and Atchison are over-performing.  They have never been that good, none of them are particularly young, and none of them are going to start being that good now.  I worry that Valentine thinks otherwise and I fear that if he does, it’s going to cost us quite a few games going forward.  They are going to come back down to earth.  Hard.

Lineup:  Here I worry most about the injuries.  Is Crawford ever going to be healthy?  How someone can have so many setbacks is beyond me.  When they do get healthy, I worry that they will be rusty after having been injured so long, especially with Ellsbury and Pedroia, who seemed to be going on a tear when he rehurt his thumb.  Maybe it’s time to find a new trainer.  Also,  Mike Aviles, while he has so far racked up a nice RBI total has a .283 OBP.  He’s not getting better either.  Maybe the Scutaro trade wasn’t such a good idea.

 What I have hopes for

The Rotation:  I actually expect the front three in the rotation of Lester, Beckett, and Buchholz to start improving.  Lester in particular is still young and still extremely talented.  He hasn’t lost any velocity.  He just seems to be getting cutter-happy.  He is going return back to dominance.  Hopefully sooner rather than later.  The same may be said of Buchholz, though he has lacked Lester’s consistency, he has shown flashes of brilliance.  Beckett, meanwhile, may continue to pitch as he has.  Given that this is an even year, for whatever reason he will underperform.  But if he finishes with an ERA in the low 4’s, the Red Sox will take that, I’m sure.  That said, what all three of these pitchers will require is run support which has been denied specifically to Beckett and Lester so far.  Without timely hitting, the Red Sox won’t win too many games.

The Bullpen:  Mark Melancon is going to be the best bullpen pitcher we have by the end of the season.  How’s THAT for a bold prediction?  He’s still young, has a devastating curveball and is anxious to prove himself following his disastrous start to the season.  Andrew Bailey is promising too, if he can ever get healthy.  And who knows?  Maybe Daniel Bard can go back to being the ace setup man he was before the front office decided to fix something that wasn’t broken.  If those three perform with stability provided by Aceves and Miller, the Sox will have an excellent bullpen.

 The Lineup:  Finally we come to the lineup.  The biggest difference I expect here is Adrian Gonzalez.  He is too good not to start heating up.  Going into the all-star break he had begun to get in a groove, hitting .393 over the last 61 at bats.  He just needs the power to come through and he will once again be one of the best first basemen in the game.  I also expect Ellsbury to be a difference maker once he returns.  His speed on the base paths as well as his power and hitting ability completely change the dynamic of the Red Sox offence. When he is missing, they are a completely different, much less exciting, team.

Friday, the Sox are back at it, playing the Rays to begin a stretch of games that is unforgiving.  I don’t know why, but I have a good feeling about the team going forward.  They may yet live up to their potential.

It’s been said a million times, specifically when the whole Tim Donaghy scandal came out and the NBA pretended he was the only “bad egg”. Whether the orders come straight from David Sterns’ office or not, the error in judgement on officials has GOT to be fixed.

I am sure when Dr. James A. Naismith created the game of basketball in Springfield back in the day with a hammered up milk carton, he has no idea what his sport was in for.

Last night, I guarantee he was rolling over in his grave.

It is certainly easy to complain about the refereeing when your team loses. I get that. Last night’s examples came well within the Celtics time leading in the game and easily brought to light the issues that the NBA faces and proves why this league is dying a slow death.

Picture source: http://blogs.bettor.com/Doc-Rivers-furious-at-the-technical-fouls-in-Game-1-against-the-Miami-Heat-NBA-News-a158221

The biggest problem the NBA has is that three stooges in clown costumes are making judgement calls for 48 straight minutes. Every aspect of the game is an opinion laced second-by-second problem not much unlike the comments section of any article or YouTube video online.

Last night, there were fouls EVERYWHERE. I personally saw Kevin Garnett literally shove people about 15 times in the open court where there was no call. GREAT! Personally, I love that my team got away with some contact. But that’s because that’s my team and the NBA has taught me to think that way.

Appreciate what you get away with.

But with the foul situation ending up with the Celtics called for 33 fouls to Miami’s 18, it simply wasn’t very balanced.

Paul Pierce is easily the biggest star in the NBA not to get the benefit of the doubt on defense. Having fouled out of Game 7 against the Sixers, Pierce again fouled out last night a couple minutes before the end of regulation. His sixth foul was a straight-up-and-down, holding his ground defensive player on a driving Dwyane Wade. Offensive players should not be allowed to simply throw their bodies wherever they want and get free points out of it.

Mickael Pietrus and Keyon Dooling were also fouled out of the game.

Meanwhile, Wade and Lebron James only picked up two fouls each and only one Heat player hit four fouls and that was Joel Anthony.

The NBA caters to super stars and quickly dismisses them just as easily (see: Celtics, Boston). If your jersey is making money, you are getting calls and your team will see more games because people want to see YOU!

I can’t say that the foul-discrepancy surprised me though. The Celtics were definitely taking swipes at Lebron throughout the game which amounted to his 24 free throws, of which he made 18.

Picture source: http://sportige.com/boston-celtics-lost-the-game-referees-didnt-give-it-to-miami-heat/

Honestly, how is any NBA player supposed to know what will be called, and when? A shove at one point goes uncalled while a gentle swipe at the ball gets a flagrant call elsewhere.

Say/do/look/smell/smile/gesture anything at an official and you get a technical.

You almost have to commend players today for not simply beating the piss out of referees during games. I know my couch generally gets a little bit less cushiony every time the ref makes a call and my fists meet it for a 12-second clip.

Every aspect of the sport of basketball is open to interpretation which is exactly what has made it so easy for David Stern to turn it his way.

Every. Aspect.

Even worse for the NBA, on top of this disaster of a game last night, the NBA Draft Lottery was won by a team with a 13% chance of getting the top pick, who just so happen… to currently be owned by the NBA and are in the process of being sold.

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!

Sounds like Stern was able to “sweeten the pot” a little bit with that one.

In all honesty, it is no surprise that the NBA is the WWE of professional sports. They have a product that is fast-paced and should be one of the best sports but the league is dying a slow death and praying for players like Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Lebron James to keep them exciting year-in and year-out.

Unfortunately for the NBA, it was painfully obvious to everyone watching that game last night that this is not going to get better and the NBA will continue to dictate everything.

Teams have to work around not only their opponent, but a predetermined final result to the game.

That’s a lot to overcome.