I have started up another blog off the Fox Sports site that I'll be using a lot in the future.  My other blog will feature my thoughts on areas outside the realm of sports.  I'll also be doing some sports blogging as well, and all sports posts will appear on both this blog and my new blog, starting today.  I had the desire to venture out beyond sports, and I hope some of you check it out.  (The venturing beyond sports thing starts in the near future, the only post on the new blog is the exact same one you'll find below.)  You can find my new blog at manrub.blogspot.com

When it comes to certain aspects of life, I am a bit of a masochist. I love eating incredibly ####y foods, having a nasty hangover, and subjecting myself to painfully bad television. I indulged my masochistic side last night, but it wasn't through food (my dinner was a delicious meatball sandwich), nor was it via a hangover (who has time to drink when you've been stuck at work until 7:00 all week?). My self-inflicted pain came from the television set, specifically Fox Sports New England's broadcast of the Boston Celtics taking on the Los Angeles Lakers. Any New Englander will tell you that enduring a full Celtics game these days is worse than a thousand kicks to the ####.

This year's Celtics team is as awful as I can remember in my (short) lifetime. The C's have lost 13 in a row, tying a franchise record that was last tied in the woeful M.L. Carr era. They suck at home and on the road. The team is 2-19 since Paul Pierce was injured back in December. I don't have any basketball experience, but even I'm questioning some of the coaching moves by Doc Rivers. Sebastian Telfair, supposedly the point guard of the future, is horrendous. Tony Allen, who put together some promising performances during this slide, blew out his knee on an unnecessary dunk and is out of action for the rest of the season. One of the few bright spots has been the play of young forward Al Jefferson, who is averaging a double-double this season.

Outside of Jefferson's play, the Celtics are a team that is nearly devoid of reasons for optimism for the near future. Young players like Kendrick Perkins, Ryan Gomes, Delonte West, and Rajon Rondo have all shown flashes of brilliance this season, but none looks to be more than a solid, but not spectacular, player going forward. Gerald Green has the potential to be great, but his game needs to mature a lot before he can carry the team. Many people (myself included) are already writing off Sebastian Telfair as a total bust. Peering five years into the future, it is conceivable that a team led by Green and Jefferson, and aided by a then-aging Paul Pierce, could make a decent playoff run. Any dreams of success in the next two years, however, are nonsense.

What can the Celtics accomplish from now until the season's conclusion? Some may say that they should cut their losses and tank the season, hoping for one of the first few picks in the draft. Others may say that wins and losses don't matter at this point, so the team should play their younger guys as much as possible. I don't subscribe to either course of action. The Celtics should play to win every game for the rest of the season. More than anything else, the young players need to learn what it takes to win games. If using veterans like Wally Sczcerbiak and Brian Scalabrine is what it takes to achieve maximum victories, then that's the course the Celtics should take. Losing games won't guarantee that the ping pong balls fall in place in the draft. Even if the Celtics make a strong run to close out the season, they'll still likely miss the playoffs and have at least a fighting chance to get Greg Oden (who could be great) or Kevin Durant (who could be greater).

The future may be bright for the Celtics, but the present is pathetic. I'll keep watching, however. After all, I am a masochist.

Isiah Thomas can not be trusted.

This is not an attempt at disparaging the great playing career Isiah Thomas had with the Detroit Pistons.  Over the course of his Hall of Fame career, Thomas averaged 19.2 points and 9.3 assists per game, excellent numbers that exemplify the fact that Thomas was a prototypical NBA point guard.  Nobody can argue that Isiah Thomas was a great player.

On the other hand, there's Isiah's post-playing career.  It's been well-publicized that Thomas has been less-than-adept at assembling a winning roster for the New York Knicks.  Now, apparently Thomas has convinced Knicks owner James Dolan that Larry Brown, and not a roster consisting mainly of shoot-first point guards, is the reason behind the horrific record the team recorded last season.  Now, Thomas reportedly wants to take over as the head coach as well, feeling he is the best candidate to coach a team assembled in his vision.

Isiah Thomas as a head coach, doesn't that sound familiar?  Let's flash back to the years 2000-2003.  Thomas was the coach of the Indiana Pacers.  The Pacers were a talented team, with the veteran leadership of Reggie Miller and youthful energy of Jamaal Tinsley, Ron Artest, Jermaine O'Neal and Brad Miller.  In all three seasons Thomas was on the Indiana bench, the team was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.  When a talented team struggles in the playoffs once, it's an aberration.  When it happens twice, it's alarming.  Three times?  At that point, it becomes a trend of failure.

Speaking of failure, have I mentioned the CBA?  Many people don't even recall that Isiah Thomas once ran the Continental Basketball Association.  In August 1999, Thomas purchased the entire CBA for $10 million, with the vision of eventually expanding the league into a full-fleged farm system.  Almost immediately, there were signs of trouble.  Veteran player salaries were reduced from $1,500 per week to $1,100 per week.  Thomas explained the change as a measure to get more young talent into the league, but many believed it was really motivated by financial struggles.  The NBA offered Thomas $11 million to purchase the league in March 2000, but the offer was rejected, as it was less than Thomas was willing to sell for.  When Isiah Thomas became coach of the Pacers in October 2000, he placed the CBA in a blind trust, with the intention of finding new owners for the league.  On February 8, 2001, 18 months after Isiah Thomas purchased the league, the Continental Basketball Association folded after almost 56 seasons of play.

That is a sampling of the non-playing failures of Isiah Thomas.  Thomas also had brief stints as a television commentator and as a part-owner of the Toronto Raptors, an expansion team that did not see much success while Thomas was in town.  When it comes to finding a person to do non-playing work in a basketball-related field, Isiah Thomas is not a man to trust.  I'm not certain I could trust Thomas to run a local youth league without much trouble.  Although his playing career was indeed excellent, the post-playing career of Isiah Thomas has left very much to be desired.