Edit: Bob Ryan interview with your questions

[drza44]

ETA: We've done the interview, found here: bit.ly/1Hq38K8 . We used some of your questions, and I'll talk more about it in another post below.

Hello all. As some of you may know, I co-host a podcast called Celtics Beat on CLNSradio. This weekend on the podcast we'll be interviewing the legendary Bob Ryan, and I'm looking for ideas on good questions to ask him. I thought I'd open it up to see if any of you rabid Celtics fans have any ideas. Some background:

Ryan's got a book that just came out called Scribe: My Life in Sports. In it he talks a lot about his history covering half-a-century of Boston sports, with some cool anecdotes. Some Celtics-history based tidbits:

*Cowens is his favorite Celtic to cover all-time

*Bird is the best basketball player that he ever covered

*Garnett was the power source behind the 2008 championship team

*If aliens came to earth and wanted to play for humanity (think Space Jam), Ryan would start his team with a healthy Bill Walton before anyone else

There's a lot more in there, too. And I'm thinking of asking him more about the historical players than the current squad. Is there anything that any of you would like me to ask? If you come up with something good and we can work it in, we will and I'll come back here and let you know afterwards that we used your question.

[D.o.s.]

Ask him if he's willing to formally apologize for inflicting Dan Shaughnessy on a regional audience. Also, ask him how he feels about setting the template for good sports writers turning into abhorent television personalities, and whether or not he feels bad about pioneering the Around The Horn style inanity that he's so frequently speaking out against.

Don't really ask him that.

[obnoxiousmime]

Since he's always been not just a journalist but an unabashed fan, you might ask him about the blurring of the line between journalist and fan in today's media landscape. Has it gone too far? Is it just an inevitable, natural progression of the field?

Maybe he already talked about this on the BS Report, but I would also ask him where he thinks he would be if he came up as a journalist today. Would he have still cut his teeth as a beat reporter for some newspaper fewer and fewer people read? Would he go into TV at a younger age?

What specifically about the Globe allowed it to foster such legendary sports writers during the 70s and 80s?

[timpiker]

Ask him what Red would do different....than Danny, in getting us back to the top.

[Hawkeye199]

Ask him what the line is between tanking like philly or just being mediocre and never really going anywhere

[Csfan1984]

Don't know if I'm too late but here goes.

1. Rank the Boston pro team "fans". Revs, Celtics, Patriots, Bruins, Red Sox.

2. Biggest Boston historical team in a year? Probably Pats "We all Patriots" or Red Sox "Boston Strong" but maybe he goes with something else like the Red Sox "end the curse knuckle heads".

3. Most proud of Celtic? ( ex. Hondo style, Russel winning and advocacy,  Parish toughness, Bird fighting through the pain for a few years, Red's dynasty, Pierce's redemption as finals MVP, Rasheed(jk))

4. Biggest Celtic bust?

5. Worse C's trade you knew was bad right away? (Joe Johnson was for me)

[drza44]

Hello, all. Thank you for your questions and comments. We did the interview with Ryan, and it went great. The interview can be found here: bit.ly/1Hq38K8 .

We talked about a whole host of Celtics lore, and used some of your questions.

TimPiker, we asked your question about what Red would have done differently than Danny. His answer was essentially that he thought that Danny was doing as good a job as possible, and that Red's moves were more suited for his time than for today.

ObnoxiousMime, I asked him your question about whether his path to and from journalism could be replicated today. I also asked him if he thought the line between fan and journalist was getting too blurred. Everyone got a chuckle out of your screen name.

We talked about a LOT of stuff. The interview was about 40 minutes, and the show itself was an hour. I hope you guys enjoy it