A Tough Week For Boston Sports

It's not my intention to make my readers depressed. It really isn’t. This was originally going to be my homage to Doc Rivers (and it still is), but so many things have happened in the past couple of days, I feel that I need to vent. Try to stay with me people.

The world of Boston sports has been in a mad whirlwind. Let’s begin with the one story that we can all agree is positive. With just about half of the season in the books, the Red Sox are not only in first place in the American League East, but quietly own one of the best records in all of baseball. The team’s new formula of assembling hard-nosed ballplayers instead of high-priced free agents seems to be working, and their pitching staff is performing up to their potential. Let’s hope they can keep it up with the dog days of summer approaching.

As for the Bruins, I view their overall playoff run as an uplifting experience, even though their Game 6 loss gave me flashbacks to Aaron Boone’s home run, Ron Artest’s three pointer, and David Tyree’s helmet catch. As tough as the loss was, you can’t deny that they exceeded many fans’ expectations. They fought back from the brink of elimination in the Toronto series and carried that toughness and determination through the remainder of the playoffs. They brought hope and excitement to a city that desperately needed it, and we should be thanking them. They gave it all they had and lost to a good Chicago team, whose method of winning has been to rally when their backs were against the wall. Now let’s move on before I put my fist through my computer screen. Unfortunately the news doesn’t get much better.

Aaron Hernandez. What the hell? This story just took off and never stopped, riveting New Englanders for the past week. After his eventual arrest and finding out more about some of the details of the case, things aren’t looking too promising for the former Pats tight end. It’s just a sad waste of talent. On top of that, Tom Brady has one less quality target to throw to. They’re dropping like flies.

Finally, the NBA has approved the trade of coach Doc Rivers to the Los Angeles Clippers in return for a first round draft pick in 2015, and Rivers has officially been released from his contract with the Celtics. During his nine-year tenure in Boston, Rivers lead the team to two appearances in the finals and the NBA title in 2008.

The initial news of the trade came as somewhat of a surprise. Doc signed a five-year contract extension in 2011, knowing that he would oversee the end of the Paul Pierce/Kevin Garnett/Ray Allen era. With Allen bolting for Miami after last season and the Celtics first round exit to the Knicks in this year’s playoffs, it’s not surprising that Rivers was intrigued with the chance to coach a young and upcoming team. Doc’s arrival should also solidify the Clippers in resigning Chris Paul.

The loss of Doc is disappointing, and he did quit on the team, but part of me can understand where he’s coming from. Rivers has already been through the rebuilding process with the Celtics. Let’s not forget the 24-win team from the 2006-2007 season, which included the stellar play of Ryan Gomes, Sebastian Telfair and Michael Olowokandi (no, that’s not a misprint). They dodged a bullet by not landing the top pick in the 2007 draft that would have turned out to be the colossal bust Greg Oden. That allowed Celtics GM Danny Ainge to trade draft picks to Seattle for Ray Allen and a miraculously send half the team to steal Kevin Garnett from Minnesota (thank you Kevin McHale). The rest is NBA history.

The league has its share of top coaches, but having the right blend of talent also helps. Teaming up Allen, Pierce and Garnett hurled Rivers to the NBA coaching elite, highlighted by him defeating the mighty Phil Jackson in the 2008 NBA finals and bringing Boston its seventeenth NBA title. He was the right coach for that championship team, introducing the Ubuntu philosophy that led to continued success in subsequent seasons. It can be argued that Kevin Garnett’s knee injury in 2009 robbed Doc the chance to repeat and that Kendrick Perkins’s knee injury in Game 6 in the 2010 finals cost him another title. In the end Doc helped bring back a winning tradition to the Boston Celtics that had not been seen in over twenty years, and I wish him the best of luck in L.A.

Now that Rivers is gone, there are questions that remain with the team. Who is going to be the next head coach, and what does the future hold for Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce? I’m sure that Rivers wanted Garnett to join him in L.A., but part of the deal is that the two teams can’t trade any players until after the 2013-2014 season. If Garnett and Pierce are traded, that will be a column for another day, and we can add it to this list of somber news. At least for now we have the Red Sox to fall back on.