Less than three weeks ago, we figured Jaylen Brown and the Celtics were on their way to Banner No. 19.
Less than three weeks ago, we figured Jaylen Brown and the Celtics were on their way to Banner No. 19.Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff
Picked-up pieces while wondering if we’re witnessing The Curse of Steve Pagliuca . . .
⋅ Life happens fast when you invest energy and emotion in the fortunes of local sports teams. You go to bed one night in Titletown, USA, then wake up in Loserville.
Remember those dark days of no championships from 1987-2000? It got so bad we actually hosted a Stanley Cup celebration for Ray Bourque at City Hall Plaza in June 2001 because Bourque finally won the Cup after the Bruins traded him to Colorado!
Hello darkness, my old friend. I’ve come to talk with you again.
It looks like we can send out the duck boats for servicing. Replace all parts. It doesn’t matter if materials get held up in the supply chain. There’ll be no parade down the Champs de Boylston next month. It looks like Copley’s Canyon of Heroes will be quiet for many years to come.
For so many years, we were the envy of our friends. Thirteen championships (MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL) in this century.
It’s been all about us. Six for the Patriots. Four for the Red Sox. One for the Bruins. Two for the Celtics. And the delicious prospect of another one or two from the Jayson Tatum-Jaylen Brown Green Team.
That’s all gone now.
The Bruins this spring missed the playoffs for the first time in nine years and at this hour inspire less optimism than any Boston team. Drafting badly and firing coaches almost annually, the Bruins now appear to be trolling their own fans by rewarding general manager Don Sweeney with a two-year contract extension.
The Red Sox have been “clowns to the left of us, jokers to the right” for five seasons and go into this weekend with a sub-.500 record (25-26) after finally spending money this past offseason. Featuring bad defense, bad starting pitching, too many strikeouts, bad contracts (hello, Trevor Story, Masataka Yoshida), and a black hole at first base, the 2025 Sox are a tough watch. They should be so much better. Instead, it too often feels like we’re watching the Pinky Higgins 1960s Sox.
We’re prepared to wait for the Patriots to get back into contention. They were so good for so long, but haven’t won a playoff game since 2019 and are coming off back-to-back, four-win seasons. Fans are emboldened by second-year franchise quarterback Drake Maye and new coach Mike Vrabel, but nobody’s expecting the Patriots to go deep in the playoffs for a while. Once national TV darlings, the 2025 Patriots are champions of the 1 p.m. Sunday slot.
Loserville.
Which brings us to the suddenly spiraling downhill Celtics — the team that was supposed to keep us swimming in confetti and champagne.
Has any local franchise gone from so high to so low so quickly? Less than three weeks ago, we figured the Celtics were on their way to Banner No. 19. Then they blew two 20-point leads at home to the Knicks, fell behind, three games to one, and watched in horror when Tatum ruptured his Achilles’ after Game 4 was already lost.
Wow.
In a New York minute, the Celtics quit and were eliminated in a ghastly Game 6 at MSG and suddenly Boston’s roster is bloated with broken-down veterans who must be moved because they are making too much money. Since the Celtics can’t possibly win a championship without Tatum next season, it no longer makes sense to pay millions in salary-cap penalties to keep the band together. The Globe’s Gary Washburn is writing that the Celtics next spring might be candidates for the play-in tournament.
Ugh.
The only thing I know for sure is that 90-year-old H. Irving Grousbeck is the greatest businessman in the history of business. Without ever uttering a word to the media, Grousbeck bought the Celtics, won two championships in 23 seasons, turned $360 million into $6.1 billion, and struck a deal to get out minutes before the you-know-what hit the fan. No wonder this guy teaches at Stanford.
Good luck to Bill Chisholm and friends. Best wishes to Brad Stevens.
Our championship run is officially over.
And if Brad Marchand wins the Stanley Cup with the Panthers next month, do we have a celebration at City Hall Plaza?
Would Brad Marchand bring the Stanley Cup back to Boston if he and the Panthers win it all next month?
Would Brad Marchand bring the Stanley Cup back to Boston if he and the Panthers win it all next month?Chris O'Meara/Associated Press
⋅ Quiz: 1: Name five franchises to make it to the NBA Finals five or more times this century; 2. Name the last Red Sox Gold Glover at each infield position, including catcher, but not pitcher since no Sox pitcher has won the award (Sox second baseman Ian Kinsler, 2018, does not count because he played 91 games for the Angels that season). Answers below.
⋅ White Sox fan Nick Schmit tells The Athletic that the (future) Pope Leo sat in Section 140, Row 19, Seat 2 (White Sox dugout side) for Game 1 of the 2005 World Series at new Comiskey Park.
The White Sox commemorated Pope Leo XIV attending one of the 2005 World Series games with a graphic installation in the section where he sat. https://t.co/8FZ40l1b3Z
— CBS Chicago (@cbschicago) May 20, 2025
⋅ Celtics fans of a certain age no doubt thought of Don Nelson’s back-rim bucket at the LA Forum in 1969 when they saw Tyrese Haliburton’s game-tying shot from out top in the Pacers’ overtime win at Madison Square Garden Wednesday night.
⋅ Not a lot of blue-chip franchises in the NBA’s final four. If the Timberwolves and Pacers win their conference final series, the Finals will feature teams with zero NBA championships. The Knicks, an original NBA team, have won two championships (1970 and ’73), none in the last half-century. The Thunder have zero banners in Oklahoma City, but won the NBA title when they were the Seattle SuperSonics (Dennis Johnson, Finals MVP) in 1979.
Tyrese Haliburton (center) sent Wednesday night's game to overtime, where his Pacers beat the Knicks.
Tyrese Haliburton (center) sent Wednesday night's game to overtime, where his Pacers beat the Knicks.Adam Hunger/Associated Press
⋅ Color me astounded by the number of Celtics fans who waste time concocting ridiculous deals that result in the Mavericks trading Cooper Flagg to Boston. Stop! This is not Red Auerbach swindling clueless NBA front offices in 1956 or 1980. The Mavericks ignited a fan riot by trading Luka Doncic in February. Think those same folks are now going to deal a player they think can be their new franchise superstar?
⋅ According to USA Today, six (Dodgers, Mets, Phillies, Padres, Giants, Cubs) of MLB’s top seven teams are in the National League. Only the Tigers (second) are in the top seven of the newspaper’s power rankings. The Red Sox are an embarrassing 19th.
⋅ Remember when a pitcher’s win total meant something? Red Sox lefthander Garrett Crochet, who’ll be 26 next month, has a six-year, $170 million contract and is an early candidate for 2025 American League Cy Young even though his won-loss record is 4-3. The Sox are a pedestrian 6-5 in games started by Crochet. The big lefty is 13-22 lifetime. That’s 13 big league wins. Total. No threat to Cy Young’s 511.
⋅ It’s a bad look for the Red Sox when their manager and head of baseball ops both deliver “no comments” to the estimable Ken Rosenthal (The Athletic, Fox Sports) for a column about Rafael Devers’s refusal to play first base.
⋅ The 2025 Preakness goes down as one of the best ever. We had a tremendous come-from-behind victory by Journalism (”Don’t call me Fake News!“) and it was great to see Gosger finish second. Homebred colt Gosger is named after Jim Gosger, an eager young center fielder for the Red Sox in the woeful early 1960s. Jim Gosger was born and still lives in Port Huron, Mich. He’s famous for being the last big league batter to face Satchel Paige and also played 10 games for the 1969 Miracle Mets. Closer to home, Jim Gosger made an impression on young New England ballplayers in the 1960s because he raced from the Fenway dugout to his position like a hungry college track competitor at the Penn Relays.
Gosger (right) was edged out by Journalism in the Preakness.
Gosger (right) was edged out by Journalism in the Preakness.Stephanie Scarbrough/Associated Press
⋅ Thursday’s New York Times featured a full-page article on UMass football, headlined, “The Nation’s Worst Program is Awfully Optimistic.” In 13 seasons since moving up to the NCAA’s top division in 2012, the Minutemen are 26-122. Their scoring differential is a nation-worst (by more than 400 points) minus-2,467. This is not the fault of the players. This is administrative.
⋅ Golden Bachelor Bill Belichick’s relationship with 24-year-old Jordon Hudson was explored in an exhaustive front-page article in that same edition of the Times. If Bill wants out at North Carolina, his buyout number drops from $10 million to $1 million June 1. If UNC wants out, they owe him $30 million! Three years of salary fully guaranteed.
⋅ The last episode of ESPN’s “Around the Horn” airs Friday afternoon. ESPN’s popular panel show lasted 23 years and almost 5,000 episodes, bringing Globies Bob Ryan, Jackie MacMullan, Michael Holley, Michael Smith, and Charlie Pierce into your homes for decades.
⋅ Harvard grad and former “Around the Horn” panelist Pablo Torre is the Woodward and Bernstein of Jordon Hudson-gate.
⋅ Rock and roll legend Stephen Stills sent this message upon learning of the death of his friend, Colts owner Jim Irsay: “He was a fine, fine man and a loving friend. The most generous guy I ever knew. I could go on and on.” Irsay won his only Super Bowl with the Colts in Miami against the Bears in February 2007.
⋅ Steve Kiner, who started every game at linebacker for two Patriots seasons in the early 1970s, died of Alzheimer’s disease in April in Florida. A two-time All-American at Tennessee, Kiner began his NFL career with the Cowboys but was traded to New England and had four interceptions for the Patriots in 1971.
“I was doing acid every day,” Kiner later told the New York Times. “Three hundred sixty-five days a year, or coke or mescaline, anything I could get my hands on.“
Steve Kiner (57) played for the Patriots in the early 1970s.
Steve Kiner (57) played for the Patriots in the early 1970s.Anonymous/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Former Patriots GM Upton Bell, who traded for Kiner, recalled, “I saw Steve Kiner in college. He was one of the most intelligent players I’ve seen. I traded him to [Don] Shula in Miami because I saw in training camp he was a different person and I believed he was acting differently. I told Shula maybe he could straighten him out. Shula saw his great ability but in the end made the same decision and cut him. Kiner came back to the Patriots in ’73 when Chuck Fairbanks signed him. He was then traded to Houston, where he stayed and restored his career. He turned his life completely around. It’s an amazing story of vindication.”
⋅ Leslie Epstein, best known on these pages as the dad of Theo, died last weekend at the age of 87. A Rhodes Scholar from Yale, renowned author, and longtime professor of creative writing at Boston University, Epstein sculpted the souls of his three children, insisting that every hour of television be balanced by an hour of reading. This meant his twin sons, Theo and Paul, had to hit the books for as many as four hours after epic Red Sox-Yankees battles in the 1980s and ’90s. Leslie emailed just two weeks ago to say, “I was a classmate and friend with fellow pundit Bart Giamatti . . . I don’t think Rose should get in.”
▪ Congrats to Nick and Colin Barnicle, who won an Emmy for Outstanding Documentary Series for “The Comeback: 2004 Boston Red Sox.”
⋅ Quiz answers: 1. Lakers (8), Heat (7), Warriors (6), Cavaliers (5), Spurs (5); 2. 1B: Adrian Gonzalez (2011), 2B: Dustin Pedroia (2014), SS: Rick Burleson (1979), 3B: Frank Malzone (1959), C: Jason Varitek (2005).
Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at daniel.shaughnessy@globe.com. Follow him @dan_shaughnessy.