Bob Ryan Pre-Season Kevin Garnett Trade Column

[CoachCowens]

CoachCowen: When the C's weren't on top he was nowhere to be found. He was on the Sox bandwagon. He doesn't bleed green. He has too much of an ego to root for anyone but himself.

"Nowhere to be found"? "Nowhere" means nowhere, I can hold you to that, right?

Good.

http://www.boston.com/sports/articles/2003/11/18/what_might_have_been/

http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/articles/2005/12/21/celtics_need_straight_talk/

Here are two columns Ryan wrote from 2003 - 2005 that I found after twenty seconds of googling. I'm sure more work could produce more results, but I don't care enough.

Maybe he wasn't writing about them constantly, but if I'm a general sports columnist I'm not writing about a 20-win team every chance I get either. The fact is that the team didn't *deserve* much coverage during the Gaston era or for long thereafter. We're one of the biggest sports markets in the country. If a team isn't winning, their coverage rightly should go to teams that are. There's only so much space in any newspaper, if you think the Celtics deserved more than 400 words a day when Alaa Abdelnaby was our starting center, you're entitled to your opinion.

Look, I'm not here to defend him. I think he's kind of a yutz, myself. All I'm saying is, he said something stupid and owned up to it. The guy's been writing about the team longer than I've been alive, I'm not going to jump up his ass on the basis of one column. He's also produced some wonderful work that has entertained me, and he's one of the few people left on the Globe (besides Kevin Cullen) I'll always read.

Bottom line is, you're worried about something the guy wrote last freakin' August, and I'm not. I'm happy enough with my position.

I was of course exaggerating about nowhere to be found.  Kind of like saying Alaa Abdelnaby was the C's starting Center.

[ruben_wolkowyski]

RoyHobbs: That seemed a little too vitriolic to me.

Vitriol? From Bob "Boy, I'd like to smack her" Ryan? Never.

FWIW: A friend of mine slings beer at Fenway. Says Ryan (who is one of his regulars) is the most miserable SOB you'd never want to meet.

[cdif911]

That seemed a little too vitriolic to me. 

wait, let me get my dictionary...TP for the 15 dollar word Hackman...


on this topic, I can't wait til the celtics win the title to go back to some of the chicken little people, I can especially remember one person saying Doc will never get out of the 1st round of the playoffs...that one'll be fun...lotsa people said he'd never make it to the finals or win - how about all the I'd rather have Al than KG people at the beginning of the year...or the most recent, I wish we had Szerbs and D. West instead of Ray Ray...ah this will be a fun time to dig up things people said in the past and watch them eat crow, or perhaps as Bob Carlin did, backpeddle, frontpeddle, doggypaddle his way around the issue

[Toine43]

Look, I'm not here to defend him. I think he's kind of a yutz, myself. All I'm saying is, he said something stupid and owned up to it. The guy's been writing about the team longer than I've been alive, I'm not going to jump up his ass on the basis of one column. He's also produced some wonderful work that has entertained me, and he's one of the few people left on the Globe (besides Kevin Cullen) I'll always read.

Bottom line is, you're worried about something the guy wrote last freakin' August, and I'm not. I'm happy enough with my position.

I missed it. When did he own up to it?

Here was his response in a recent chat:

Nostradamus__Guest_: If the Celtics win it all, will you finally admit you were totally wrong last summer, or will you continue to be stubborn?

Bob_Ryan: I'm glad you asked that question.

Bob_Ryan: Of course, I was wrong, and I've never said otherwise. I said I'd be happy to see them win 45 and the division. Of course, that was pre-Posey, pre-House, pre-Brown, pre-Sam and pre both Rondo and Perkins making phenomenal individual improvements. And no one, not even Doc himself, thought his team would get this good defensively. Why don't you ask Doc how many games he thought they'd win? You might be surprised.

Bob_Ryan: Here's my question to you: Did you put money on it? If you did, congratulations. If not, it doesn't matter. I've said a zillion times: the only predictions that are worth anything are those backed up by your wallet. And the difference between you and me is that I have to go public.

Bob_Ryan: What's the opposite of Murphy's Law? Whatever it is, that's what we have.

Bob_Ryan: I am immensely pleased to see the Celtics back in the discussion. This team has been a pleasure to watch.

Bob_Ryan: Anything else you want to know?

That seemed a little too vitriolic to me.  I mean, it's a legit question, especially after the condescending tone Ryan addressed his audience with in his original article.

Also, for the record, it wasn't pre-House, but it was pre-Posey, et. al.   

Yeah- that was quite a half-assed apology. He couldn't just man up and say he was wrong without babbling all sorts of excuses...

[ruben_wolkowyski]

Kind of like saying Alaa Abdelnaby was the C's starting Center.

Oh yyyeah... I forgot Parish was still in the mix at that point. Well, he was no Acie Earl. 

The point stands, though. That he was writing about the Celtics at all should count for something. All I'm saying is, geez, toss the guy a bone.