Re: You Don't Know Jack: A Pacers Story
Ch. 58
It was our final game of December and the year 2019 and we got to face the Boston Celtics. The vaunted Celtics … there were people in the NBA who worshiped the ground the Celtics walked on. “Greatest franchise ever” and “blue-collar” and “gritty” were always words thrown around to describe them. Boston bothered me for a lot of reasons — of course, as a competitor, I could respect the long history of that organization. They were integral to establishing the NBA as the super-league it was.
But, *hit, they retire numbers of EVERYONE. “Were you a bench warmer on Bill Russell’s fifth championship? Did you sneeze the one time you got on the court? We’ll retire your number!”
When someone retires as many numbers as the Celtics (and the Lakers) did, they take away the meaning of retiring that number.
Add into that the fact they flaunted the number of title the organization won on the back of every jersey (a feature Gramps refused to embrace for us: “It’s a pride thing, an organizational pride thing — none of those guys wearing those jerseys won 17 titles. We don't need that junk.”) and I was looking to prove a point. Everyone recognized Kyrie Irving for helping Cleveland win a title, he was routinely named to All-Star and All-NBA teams, but he hadn’t done it all himself — he had LeBron.
The game started out with an electric opening introduction by our PA guy and then tipoff. We came out and it was an instant duel between Irving and myself … Kyrie was at the height of his powers and, to this day, he’s the man with the sickest handles I ever played against. He had the ball on a string and could do anything you wanted to it.
But Irving was also far too easy into baiting into taking shots. He LOVED to shoot the ball and didn’t enjoy passing nearly as much as I did … which worked to our advantage. Irving took the first three shots for the Celtics and hit two of them putting them up 4-0. I attacked the rim and got a quick And-1.
Then, I started firing off passes and those passes spawned more passes. We were making the extra pass — we’d run a screen, I’d pass to the screener, and then the screener would pass out — one, fluid motion of beautiful offense.
The Celtics weren’t fast enough on the switches to get back. We rained threes in the first half thanks to the extra pass and I kept the defense honest by getting inside; dunks, layups, and my personal favorite the mid-range pull-up. Irving was an ace scorer, but his defense was lacking … and I made sure to take advantage of that.
At the half, we led by 10 and we were eager to get back out there to increase that lead. Everyone was feeling the thrill of making the pass and guys were enjoying themselves. McHale didn’t even give us a speech or any real instruction, just wrote “PASS” on the whiteboard and grabbed some Gatorade.
In the third, Victor came alive — at least a little — he spent most of his night shutting down Jaylen Brown (who was angling for a big contract that Boston was seriously going to have to weigh against their cap sheet) but he had a spurt in the third where he put together a stretch you just loved to see: a dunk, a steal, and another dunk — he was feeling it.
In the fourth, we subbed in the deep bench guys and rode them pretty much the entire quarter. JULIO came in and did what he does: he was fearless in shooting the ball and though he missed most of his shots, he hit a gorgeous three that confused the *uck out of the Celtics.
Look at Tatum’s face: that man is thinking “Holy *hit, this white kid just nailed me” and he doesn’t know what to do. People constantly underestimated JULIO because of his looks, because of his lack of playing time at Kentucky his one year there … but, given a chance, the guy could play. He was fearless.
The starters just watched as the bench guys held onto to the lead and we got the win. Irving scored more than me, but I had way more assists; I was ridiculously pleased by that.
Ch. 58
It was our final game of December and the year 2019 and we got to face the Boston Celtics. The vaunted Celtics … there were people in the NBA who worshiped the ground the Celtics walked on. “Greatest franchise ever” and “blue-collar” and “gritty” were always words thrown around to describe them. Boston bothered me for a lot of reasons — of course, as a competitor, I could respect the long history of that organization. They were integral to establishing the NBA as the super-league it was.
But, *hit, they retire numbers of EVERYONE. “Were you a bench warmer on Bill Russell’s fifth championship? Did you sneeze the one time you got on the court? We’ll retire your number!”
When someone retires as many numbers as the Celtics (and the Lakers) did, they take away the meaning of retiring that number.
Add into that the fact they flaunted the number of title the organization won on the back of every jersey (a feature Gramps refused to embrace for us: “It’s a pride thing, an organizational pride thing — none of those guys wearing those jerseys won 17 titles. We don't need that junk.”) and I was looking to prove a point. Everyone recognized Kyrie Irving for helping Cleveland win a title, he was routinely named to All-Star and All-NBA teams, but he hadn’t done it all himself — he had LeBron.
The game started out with an electric opening introduction by our PA guy and then tipoff. We came out and it was an instant duel between Irving and myself … Kyrie was at the height of his powers and, to this day, he’s the man with the sickest handles I ever played against. He had the ball on a string and could do anything you wanted to it.
But Irving was also far too easy into baiting into taking shots. He LOVED to shoot the ball and didn’t enjoy passing nearly as much as I did … which worked to our advantage. Irving took the first three shots for the Celtics and hit two of them putting them up 4-0. I attacked the rim and got a quick And-1.
Then, I started firing off passes and those passes spawned more passes. We were making the extra pass — we’d run a screen, I’d pass to the screener, and then the screener would pass out — one, fluid motion of beautiful offense.
The Celtics weren’t fast enough on the switches to get back. We rained threes in the first half thanks to the extra pass and I kept the defense honest by getting inside; dunks, layups, and my personal favorite the mid-range pull-up. Irving was an ace scorer, but his defense was lacking … and I made sure to take advantage of that.
At the half, we led by 10 and we were eager to get back out there to increase that lead. Everyone was feeling the thrill of making the pass and guys were enjoying themselves. McHale didn’t even give us a speech or any real instruction, just wrote “PASS” on the whiteboard and grabbed some Gatorade.
In the third, Victor came alive — at least a little — he spent most of his night shutting down Jaylen Brown (who was angling for a big contract that Boston was seriously going to have to weigh against their cap sheet) but he had a spurt in the third where he put together a stretch you just loved to see: a dunk, a steal, and another dunk — he was feeling it.
In the fourth, we subbed in the deep bench guys and rode them pretty much the entire quarter. JULIO came in and did what he does: he was fearless in shooting the ball and though he missed most of his shots, he hit a gorgeous three that confused the *uck out of the Celtics.
Look at Tatum’s face: that man is thinking “Holy *hit, this white kid just nailed me” and he doesn’t know what to do. People constantly underestimated JULIO because of his looks, because of his lack of playing time at Kentucky his one year there … but, given a chance, the guy could play. He was fearless.
The starters just watched as the bench guys held onto to the lead and we got the win. Irving scored more than me, but I had way more assists; I was ridiculously pleased by that.
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