Odds and Sods

The Boston Celtics recently announced that they were cutting ties with point guard Sebastian “Bassy” Telfair, just one year after essentially giving up #7 overall pick Randy Foye for him.  The 21 year-old was arrested for second-degree possession of a hand gun and driving with a suspended liscence after being pulled over in New York.

The Celtics had overlooked previous discretions, such as him being suspended for having a loaded hand-gun hidden in a pillowcase on a team plane in 2006.  They also casually ignored his rumored involvement in the shooting of rapper “Fabolous” outside of a nightclub, after he had a $50,000 chain stolen.   Apparently, the third  incident was just truly too much for them to handle.

Telfair is what he is.  He appears, at only 21, to have become the classic casualty of fame and fortune coming at such a young age.  The question is not whether or not the Celtics should let him go (of course they should), but why they even gave up so much to acquire him in the first place?  No one appears to have a valid reason for this, except Danny Ainge.

Ainge took over the Celtics after the 2002-3 season, in which they reached the 2nd round of the playoffs, before succumbing to the New Jersey Nets.  Here is what he has done since then.

After assuring Walker of his place, he shocked fans by trading the popular forward as well as Tony Delk to Dallas to acquire Raef LaFrentz, his bum knees and his bloated long-term contract.  The trade was largely viewed as a greater success for Dallas, despite Walker not panning out.  They got rid of the albatross of LaFrentz’s contract.

Halfway through the 2003-4 season, Ainge traded veteran team leaders Eric Williams and Tony Battie to Cleveland for Ricky Davis, Chris Mihm, and Jiri Welsch.  Davis, the man who once bounced the ball off the backboard to himself to achieve a triple double, provided flashes of excitement but remained the predominately selfish player he had always been.  Welsch displayed flashes of brilliance, but never cut it and was eventually offloaded.  Chris Mihm proved, like many of his 7′0″ white American brethren, to be a gumpy waste of space.

This trade led to the resignation of head coach Jim O’Brien, who was exasperated at the trading away of key components of his defensive system.   The Celtics still made the playoffs, but this time were swept in the first round.

He did have a good draft after the 2004 season, snagging promising young forward Al Jefferson, Tony Allen, and sleeper Delonte West in the first round.

He acquired Gary Payton from the Lakers.  The team was somewhat decent, and then Ainge shifted gears and decided to go for it by reacquiring Antoine Walker.  The team fell apart and collapsed horribly in the first round.

He then traded Antoine Walker in a sign and trade deal for two second round picks, two players who were later released, and a Spanish center.  He then signed Brian Scallabrine to a terrible 3 year $15 million contract.

During the 2005-6 season, he traded garbage with one of the only GMs who could possibly be worse, Kevin McHale and acquired Wally World and the Candy Man for Ricky Davis, Blount, and a couple others.  The team won 33 games.

In the summer of 2006, he traded promising rookie Randy Foye, Raef Lafrentz, and Dan Dickau for Bassy Telfair and Theo Ratliff.  Telfair would end up being a terrible disappointment.  The team completed an elaborate tanking job winning a mere 24 games for the 2nd worst record in the league (including a record 18 straight losses), giving them a quite decent shot at landing the #1 or #2 pick and snagging either Greg Oden or Kevin Durant.

Under Ainge’s tenure, the Celtics have gotten successively worse each year.  He took them from a playoff contender to a playoff team, to a bad team, and to a terrible team.  Only blind luck has two franchise players available in this draft, and even then the Celtics are not guranteed to get either one of them.  He has done nothing good since he has had power (except have the ability to get serviceable players out of late first round picks) and has had no overarching or consistent vision for the team.  He is a fraud and a charlatan relying on blind luck, in the form of the lottery, to save him.  While Sebastian Telfair cleans out his locker, we here at Odds and Sods must ask Danny Ainge the question.  Why are you still here?