After just two posts the Green Bandwagon Summer Book Review series died a tragic death. Ultimately the amount of work that went into those posts did not translate into enough traffic or discussion. Conversely an inferior Stephon Marbury post continues to draw people to the Bandwagon. Odd. Still I understand why readers would be skeptical of other planned gimmicks. However, as you read this, all the posts for "Boston Celtics YouTube Magic Week" are saved and scheduled for publish. Yet another reason SB Nation 2.0 would have been helpful on Celtics Bandwagon, my original site. One or two of you may recall my ill-fated 24 hours of YouTube day. In fact I may revisit that concept later this summer. Regardless let's start this week with a light hearted Ray Allen clip. I had to post it mainly because Allen came off as somewhere between serious and over the top intense in Jackie MacMullan's epic profile of him 3 months ago. So it's nice to see he can be loose. In hindsight I should have realized that was the case. Realistically Allen would have punched Paul Pierce in the face at some point if it were not.

Ray teasing Sam (via Hrvoje1313)

Bonus Point - Watch that again and check out Brian Scalabrine attacking the pre game stretching routine as Allen and Sam Cassell take a far more casual approach. It really is the little things in life.

As I mentioned earlier Eddie House and Tony Allen appear to be back in the fold for two more seasons. With their imminent signings I thought it would be interesting to dive into the archives and look at some posts I wrote about them in the past year. There was a profile of House. Other than that he was mentioned in parts of numerous other posts. He's a role player in that regard. And yet Allen received way more attention. And he was somewhere between the 10th and 12th man. Still that attention was not without reason. At the start of the 2007 season I was incredibly focused on 7 young players - Tony Allen, Ryan Gomes, Gerald Green, Al Jefferson, Kendrick Perkins, Rajon Rondo, and Delonte West. They developed as follows:

Gomes - solid role player, traded
Green - talented enigma who will probably never get it, traded
Jefferson - double-double guy, traded
Perk - defensive beast
Rondo - defensive stalwart, rapidly improving, potential star
West - solid third guard, starting point guard with LeBron, traded

That leaves Allen who unlike the other six did not either get traded or develop significantly. In fact outside of possibly Green, Allen easily regressed the most, due in large part to that epic knee injury.  And yet I continue to pull for him. Check out the following posts:

Player Profile
2007 Season Recap
The Road Back
A Random Post detailing his possessions against the hated Bulls.

If you're too lazy to read those posts, and quite frankly I don't blame you, you can still enjoy two of my favorite exchanges from the 2007 season:

Tommy Heinsohn and Mike Gorman reacting to Allen's season ending knee injury:

"Dire straits. Dire straits. You know where dire straits is?" - Heinsohn

"Africa?" - Gorman when he finally got a word in.

"Just south of frustration." - Heinsohn

I still have no idea what that means.

And...

Allen's response to his mother when she complained about Brian Scalabrine driving them to the hospital. "This this is better than an ambulance. This is Scal!" - Tony Allen

[UPDATE: Check out this link for a solid preview of the tournament and the Euroleague players expected to contribute to their countries. As a side note my Cameroon upset special looks worse and worse. On the bright side Korea is as big a mystery to others as it is to me.]

As I mentioned in a previous post I'm diving into the international basketball scene. And with the 2008 FIBA Men's Qualifying Tournament kicking off later today in Greece, now is as good a time as any. Hat tip to FIBA.com for the world rankings and numerous other contributions to my crash course in international basketball. Of the 12 teams involved only Brazil, Canada, Germany, and Puerto Rico don't play until Tuesday. More on them tomorrow. In the meantime let's check out the first four games.

Game One Preview

Greece (Roster)

World Rank: 6

Player to Watch: Dimitris Diamantidis - DraftExpress describes him as an unselfish 6'5 point guard with terrific court vision. More importantly Diamantidis is highly regarded for his defensive play, which is aided by his excellent lateral quickness and long arms. The latter of which is most likely responsible for his nickname - Octopus Man. Furthermore, his euroleague.net player profile lists his numerous individual awards - 2007 Euroleague Final MVP,  2005, 2006 and 2007 Euroleague Best Defender, 2006-07 All-Euroleague First Team, amongst others. As a side note Octopus Man is one of my favorite nicknames of all time.

Recent News: Theo Papaloukas answered some questions about the Greek squad as it prepared for the qualifying tournament. You can check out the interview here. I should note that Papaloukas is a major player on the Greek basketball scene and would have been my "player to watch" if people called him Octopus Man. Alas.

Lebanon (Roster)

World Rank: 23

Player to Watch: It was more difficult to find information on players from Lebanon as sites like this were not as informative as euroleague.net. So I went with Rony Fahed because I enjoyed his highlights. He appears to be a gunner. 

Recent News: As of last week Lebanon was without one of its best players - Joseph Vogel. On top of that Fadi El Khatib is battling a hand injury.

Prediction: From what I've read the Greek squad is a nice mix of youth and experience. Factor in good health and host country status and I'd be shocked if Greece lost.

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You have to give the folks at Reebok credit. The Rondo'd ad campaign was well done. In fact it inspired me to make verbs out of the rest of the Celtics. Obviously it's forced and given the way the season ended, overwhelmingly positive. Such is life. I'll start with Rondo, provided by Reebok, and go alphabetically from there.

Rondo'd

1. To move smoothly between large objects with dexterity and purpose.
2. To remove an object quickly without being detected.
3. To create a distraction followed by a quick change of direction.

Ray Allen'd

1. To rain 3 pointers down upon a squad with reckless abandon even if said squad has given up.
2. To run a defender off of numerous picks, slowly eroding his desire to defend.
3. To obsessively adhere to rituals, superstitions, and a lifestyle at all costs.

Tony Allen'd

1. To injure one’s self on a dunk after the whistle.*
2. To infuriate opposing fans, players, and broadcasters with off the back board alley oops, self-pass windmill dunks, and reverse alley oop slams, regardless of the situation.
3. To possibly black out briefly following dunks.**
4. To raise the blood pressure of a fan base with numerous ill-advised decisions primarily related to dribbling.

* It killed me to include that. But fair is fair.
** This is one of my favorite Celtics related theories. I'm not sure who came up with it. And though it sounds far fetched, watch this dunk. And this one. You think he has any idea where he is? As always thank you freeTA42.

Brown'd

1. To always let a player know he was fouled when an infraction is whistled.
2. To engage in stare downs, exchange trash talk, and then walk away with a subtle, “I would eat this guy’s lunch” smirk.
3. To play in a physical manner that includes moving screens, hard box outs, and essentially non-stop contact in a way that makes people wish you still had your athleticism.

Cassel'd

1. To talk to fans, teammates, referees, opponents, coaches, really anyone who will listen in such a non-stop fashion that it is simultaneously endearing and maddening.
2. To reveal one’s self to be the ultimate ball stopper who shoots without a conscience or a concerted effort to set up one’s teammates.
3. To provide the opposing team with a tremendous offensive advantage.
4. To establish one’s self as one of the most confident individuals within a 5-mile radius on a basketball court.
5. To create a celebratory dance that is easily more offensive than wearing jeans and a t-shirt to a game and yet never face the wrath of a fine happy, image conscious NBA.

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Earlier Fooch linked to Matt Watson's post on Brian Scalabrine's press conference. Here's how I like to think it went down:

Some Celtics or NBA behind the scenes guy: "Hey Kobe is still getting ready. We need another Celtic. How about Posey?"

The Celtics in Unison: "SCALABRINE!!!"

And before the Celtics or NBA behind the scenes guy could even react things took a turn for the bizarre. For the record Scalabrine earned DNPs throughout the playoffs and has not played a minute since April 16th. But that did not stop him from lecturing the media. Check it out:

Celtics Brian Scalabrine talks trash after NBA Title Win (via ebonygentleman79)

I'll touch on this more tomorrow when I watch his hilarious assault on the media again. For now let's just take a look at what the ESPN guys thought. Good times.

In my last post I talked about the possibility of Brian Scalabrine suiting up on Father's Day. I wanted to close that post with footage of Scal dunking on the Bobcats. But I couldn't find it on YouTube. In the process I stumbled upon NorthMass's videos. They're downright bizarre. You should check some out. Meanwhile, I didn't know which one to post. In the end I went with Antoine Walker making his way back to the Celtics and dunking. Now that's far fetched. Then end hooked me. "Marcus, you got owned!" Enjoy:

Antoine Walker dunks on Marcus Camby from free throw line (via NorthMass)

It is still too early to tell whether or not Kendrick Perkins will play on Sunday. But even if he does how much should the Celtics expect from him? Basketball, particularly the way Perk plays it, is a physical game. The degree of difficulty rises significantly with an ailing shoulder. And since Scot Pollard is out for the year and Gabe Pruitt is a guard, could Brian Scalabrine get the call?

via upload.wikimedia.org

What is Boston's ideal crunch time lineup? That sounds like the type of question that needs categories. Let's do it.

Guys Who Don’t Dress
Gabe Pruitt
Scot Pollard
Brian Scalabrine

Guy Who Won’t Be Out There
P.J. Brown

Guys Who Could be Out There in Certain Situations
Tony Allen – I see the Allen for defense argument but think it is flawed for a number of reasons. He needs a lot of time to be effective, never seemed entirely comfortable with his knee, makes too many mistakes and currently lacks confidence.

Glen Davis – He could easily be in the previous category based upon the last month or so. But he has been effective against Zydrunas Ilgauskas.

Eddie House – In some shooting scenarios.

Leon Powe – Foul Trouble for guys ahead of him on the depth chart.

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