666: Tatum Look Better than Expected? w/ Sean Grande

Summary

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Celtics Beat Episode 666: "Tatum Look Better than Expected?" w/ Sean Grande

Date: March 7, 2026
Host: Adam Kaufman (with Evan Valenti)
Guest: Sean Grande, longtime voice of the Boston Celtics

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Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into the emotional and basketball ramifications of Jayson Tatum’s much-anticipated return to the Boston Celtics lineup after a 10-month absence due to a torn Achilles. Host Adam Kaufman, co-host Evan Valenti, and guest Sean Grande break down the significance of Tatum’s comeback game, the Celtics exceeding expectations this season, the team’s playoff outlook, and the resilience and storylines that have emerged from this “gap year” for the franchise.

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Main Theme

The Joy & Relief of Tatum’s Return + Celtics Overachieving in a Bridge Year

After nearly 300 days, Jayson Tatum’s dramatic return was not just a statistical success but infused the franchise and its fans with hope, relief, and a renewed sense of possibility. Grande reflects on both the human and competitive elements of the night, while Kaufman and Valenti dissect the game’s significance for the Celtics’ present and future—emphasizing that, despite outside pressure, this season should be enjoyed as a special, expectation-free run.

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Episode Highlights & Key Discussion Points

1. Initial Emotions: “It Felt Like Christmas” ([03:52] – [06:00])

• Grande’s Walk Home after Tatum’s Return: He describes a night full of extraordinary emotions, likening it to Christmas, and most importantly, filled with relief—relief that “it was over, that he played well, he bounced back from the 0-for-6 start, that he fit in.”

  • Quote:

    “At the end...relief. Relief that it was over. Relief that he had played well. Relief that he had bounced back from the 0-for-6 start. Relief that he had fit in... To have it behind us, just to get it over with.” (Sean Grande, 03:52)

• Metaphor for Tatum’s Rehab: The game’s ups and downs mirrored Tatum's recovery. Despite nerves and struggles early, Tatum finished nearly with a triple-double (15 pts, 12 reb, 7 ast, +20 in 27 minutes).

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2. Celtics’ Tight Ship & Modern PR ([06:00] – [10:40])

• The Remarkable Secrecy Around Tatum’s Status: Both Grandy and Kaufman marvel at Brad Stevens’ regime for preventing leaks—news of Tatum’s availability dropped first via the official Celtics channels, not insiders or Tatum himself.

  • Quote:

    “Whether it's his own contract extensions, rumblings about a move, or Tatum’s status, things just don’t leak.” (Adam Kaufman, 06:00)

• Modern NBA PR Complexity: Between docuseries, personal teams around stars, and ever-present cameras, maintaining secrecy is harder than ever.

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3. Shouldering Expectation—But Not This Year ([09:20] – [10:40], [65:45] – [73:06])

• Grande’s Caution: He urges fans to enjoy this “playing with house money” season, not to saddle the team (or Tatum) with premature championship expectations upon his return.

  • Quote:

    “Don't stop talking like the Celtics are now favorites to win the championship because you might have 80% of Jason Tatum. The heavy expectations are coming back next year. Let Knicks, Pistons, Cavs collapse under that weight.” (Sean Grande, 09:20)

• The Celtics are, in Grande’s words, “a live underdog… could really do some damage if things break right.”

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4. When Could Tatum Have Returned? Debate & Internal Dynamics ([10:40] – [16:27])

• Could Tatum Have Returned Sooner? Grande concedes, “Yeah, sure, he could have,” but logistics, emotional readiness, and team performance all played a part. With the Celtics so far above .500, everything they get from Tatum this year should be seen as “a bonus.”

• Media Frenzy: Both stress the pressure, rumors, and fatigue generated as Tatum’s return date continually shifted.

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5. Narrating a Special Night: Grande’s Approach ([17:53] – [22:59])

• Balancing Storylines: Grande describes the challenge of calling a game where basketball is secondary to the emotion of a star’s comeback—narrating Tatum’s “smiles, nerves, relief” for fans, and reminding listeners of the human drama behind the stat sheet.
  • Quote:

    “It was a night to step away from the talking head craziness and realize the human drama of this kid who had to go through this ordeal. Everything he put his life into was taken from him in one minute.” (Sean Grande, 17:53)

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6. Game Analysis: Tatum’s Impact and Celtics’ Depth ([22:59] – [28:52])

• In-Game Development: Tatum starts 0-for-6 but finishes strong (6-of-last-10), including a crucial offensive rebound dunk over Cooper Flagg, which shifted momentum in the second quarter.

  • Quote:

    “The biggest play of the night...an offensive rebound. He boxes out Cooper Flagg and gets that dunk.” (Sean Grande, 25:27)

• Other Standouts: Pritchard’s defensive and offensive persistence, the depth and improbable overachievement of role players (Garza, Keita), and Derrick White’s steady presence.

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7. Tatum's Minutes, Health, and Upcoming Challenge ([31:56] – [35:58])

• Kaufman: Points out the remarkable 27 minutes logged by Tatum on night one, highlighting the trust the staff now places in him and what it means for game planning on the looming “death trip” (Cleveland, San Antonio, OKC).
  • “The most surprising number on Tatum’s stat sheet is the 27 minutes.”
• Grande: Explains the sensible secrecy around minutes restrictions, noting that media scrutiny exaggerates these small details.

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8. Overachieving: Why the "Gap Year" Celtics Have Exceeded All Reasonable Prediction ([36:27] – [41:04])

• All the “ifs” Came True: Grande analogizes spring training optimism—this season, every improbable “if” about the roster has happened: “If Jalen Brown takes a step, if Keita can play, if Shireman can shoot”—and that's how the team is 21 games over .500.

  • Quote:

    “All of the ifs never all come true — until the 2026 Celtics, when all of them did. And that's why you're 21 games over .500.” (Sean Grande, 38:09)

• Missoula for COY? Grande and Valenti see Joe Missoula as deserving—keeping the team together, getting the most from young/depth players, but note COY is often a staff/statistical overachievement award.

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9. The Jaylen–Tatum Co-Existence Narrative ([57:33] – [66:05])

• A Manufactured Problem: The hosts push back on the recurring “how will Jaylen and Tatum coexist?” media narrative, recognizing some real adjustment is needed after months apart but dismissing any existential concerns.

  • Quote:

    “They’ve played together for damn near a decade. They won a championship together. They know how to play together. Like, no kidding it’ll work… But you do need to figure some things out.” (Adam Kaufman, 58:05)

• Grande’s Pippen/Jordan Analogy: If anything, Brown has enjoyed being the lead, knows what it’s like to be “Batman,” and will adjust back to sharing stardom because their partnership is proven (“I have a strong memory of being on a duck boat... I seem to remember that happening”).

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10. Playoff Picture, Expectations, and Another Celtics Narrative Reset ([68:15] – [73:06])

• The East is Deep: Grande reminds listeners not to dismiss the East; Detroit, New York, and Cleveland loom large, and matchups could change everything. Celtics will not be favorites, so enjoy being the “scary underdog” now.
• Let Others Feel the Pressure: All pressure is on the Knicks, Pistons, and Cavs, who have expectations now. Boston can spoil those parties without the psychological burden.

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11. The Duality of the Tatum Return & Vucevic Injury ([77:13] – [79:31])

• Losing Vucevic Matters: His absence for a month is “significant,” particularly missing the chance to mesh with Tatum before playoffs. “There are going to be nights where Vucevic is invaluable.”

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12. Al Horford’s Free Agency — Real Reasons? ([79:35] – [82:19])

• On Horford's Comments: Grande speculates Horford’s decision to leave Boston had to do with personal/professional reasons, like mentoring his son, and not just money or role.
  • Quote:

    “Isn’t it ironic that twice Al has left here for what looked to be greener basketball pastures, and both times it has not been close.” (Sean Grande, 82:19)

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13. The Emotional Side of a Long Road ([82:32] – [88:45])

• Valenti’s Toast: In honor of Tatum’s return, drinks tequila—mirroring how he coped via tequila the night Tatum went down last spring. He reflects on watching Tatum and Brown grow as men and players and the fulfillment of seeing Tatum overcome a devastating injury.

  • Quote:

    “To come back from a torn Achilles in 298 days is insane. To be a top five NBA player...is insane. He's here and I just want to commend him.” (Evan Valenti, 86:07)

• Grande Closes with Perspective:

  “If you don't love every second of this…enjoying Friday night, you’re in the wrong place.” (Sean Grande, 89:43)

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Notable Quotes

• On Tatum’s Return:

  “It was a night full of extraordinary emotions and a crazy roller coaster. It ended with relief.” (Sean Grande, 03:52)

• On Celtics’ PR Excellence:

  “Things just don’t leak... The Celtics had it first, which is exactly how I wanted it to be.” (Adam Kaufman, 06:27)

• On Expectations:

  “Why not let the Knicks collapse under the weight of that. Why not let the Pistons collapse under the weight of their eight game lead?... Be what you are, a live underdog playing with house money.” (Sean Grande, 09:30)

• On the Jaylen/Jayson Relationship:

  “I seem to remember being on a duck boat…Because of the two of them, how they played together for eight years.” (Sean Grande, 61:00)

• On Missoula For COY:

  “Missoula's done an extraordinary job...it's a staff award...who's outperformed expectations more than the Celtics this year?” (Sean Grande, 40:32)

• On This Special Season:

  “All of the ‘ifs’ never all come true until the 2026 Celtics, when all of them did.” (Sean Grande, 38:09)

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Key Timestamps

• [03:52] Grande’s immediate emotions after Tatum’s return (relief, metaphor for rehab)
• [06:27] Kaufman and Grande marvel at Celtics' tight information control
• [17:53] Grande on his storytelling approach to Tatum’s comeback night
• [22:59] Analysis of how Tatum’s play/box score evolved during the game
• [25:27] Grande highlights Tatum’s key moment: putback dunk/turning point
• [36:27] Grande’s “all the ifs” metaphor for overachieving Celtics
• [57:33] Discussion on Tatum/Brown “coexistence” narrative
• [65:45] Grande & Valenti urge to keep expectations in check
• [68:15] Playoff picture and psychological shift in expectations
• [77:13] Vucevic’s injury and impact on playoff run
• [82:19] Grande on the irony of Al Horford’s moves
• [86:07] Valenti’s emotional toast to Tatum’s resilience
• [89:43] Grande: Cherish the ride—this isn’t about “championship or bust”

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Final Thoughts

This episode expertly combines game analysis, behind-the-scenes insight, and genuine emotion—centered on the moving return of Jayson Tatum but always returning to grander themes:

• The joy of unexpected triumph in a season dubbed a “gap year”
• The psychic relief that Tatum’s career is not derailed
• An exhortation to Celtics fans to enjoy every moment, without the burden of immediate expectations
• Recognition of team achievement and the critical roles played by unsung contributors

If you’re a Celtics fan—or even just an NBA observer—this episode offers both tactical and heartfelt reasons to treasure this unusual, inspiring chapter in modern Celtics history.

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Transcript

[Sean Grandy]

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[Sean Grandy]

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[Evan Valenti]

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[Sean Grandy]

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[Adam Kaufman]

Marvel Television's Wonder Man. All eight episodes now streaming only on Disney. Today is Saturday, March 7th. And this is Celtics Beat on CLNS Media, the leading online provider of audio video coverage of the Boston Celtics. I'm Adam Kaufman. Episode 666 features the longtime voice of the Celtics, Sean Grandy.

[Evan Valenti]

And I'm Evan Valenti. And today's show is powered by Prize Fix. Prize Fix is the official daily fantasy partner of CLNS Media. Download the app today, use the promo code CLNS and get $50 in lineups when you play. $5.

[Adam Kaufman]

Well. Dates back to May 12th of 2025. Nearly 300 days of waiting. 42 and a half weeks. Incredible anticipation from talking heads across the globe and beyond. And we, the three of us sat here all the way back in September and screamed at you. March 4th. March 4th, March 4th. That's going to be the day that Jason Tatum returns. As luck would have it, or not have it, depending on how you look at it, we were off by just one game. One game. Jason Tatum is back. And my goodness, was it a refreshing sight. With Sean Grandy. Evan Valenti, I'm Adam Kaufman. Welcome in Celtics Beat. You can always find us, of course, by rate review. Subscribing to the audio portion Wherever you get your podcast or of course on the CLNS media page across YouTube and the all access page, this podcast among other great Celtics podcast, but this one right here is the only one that can offer you the perspective of the man who has for so long narrated Boston Celtics seasons and has been waiting, probably with even more anticipation than the two of us, for this moment to finally arrive. And Sean, I want to go backwards. I want to. I want to memento this thing. I want to go in reverse order. When you had your short walk back home from the Garden after this game on Friday night, what were the emotions after the fact? Seeing Jayson Tatum not only return but. But flirt with a triple double and play almost 30 minutes in his first meaningful basketball action in again, about 10 months.

[Sean Grandy]

I was thinking about seeing him take that last seat on the bench and realizing what I said, you know, in real time, which is usually turns out to be your true feeling, right what you say in the moment. And it was a night full of extraordinary emotions and a crazy roller coaster. It was a metaphor for his rehab in so many ways. The entire night was. But it ended with every emotion that was in the building at the start. The one it ended with was relief. Relief that it was over. Relief that he had played well. Relief that he had bounced back from the 0 for 6 start. Relief that he had fit in. Look at the box score. It looks like every other box score for the Celtics this year. It was just Jason Tatum playing some of those minutes. And I think just to have it behind us, because I think, and I know not a lot of voices of specific teams would bring this up, but, you know, Max and I marched to the beat of our own, you know, ipod shuffle. It was, I think it was becoming a distraction. It was, it was getting bigger and bigger and more and more uncomfortable as we were moving past the dates we thought it was going to be. And I think just, I remember just thinking to myself the other night, let's just get it over with, you know, you're cleared, get out there, play. And I think the biggest hurdle I've said in a lot of these conversations just like this one, that what concerned me the most in the ramp up was Jason Tatum saying, I want to be 100% when I come back. And his people leaking out. Jason wants to be 100% when he comes back, knowing full well then he's never coming back because he was never going to be 100% in the first night. This is the last step of the rehab and it's going to take Some time for him to become Jason Tatum again. You're going to see glimpses just like tonight, and eventually you will get there. But the emotion right now, relief at the start of the day. You know what it was? It was, it occurred to me today, just, you know, on my run today, we didn't get a Christmas game for the first time in a decade. Today felt like Christmas. You know, walk in and just seeing the smiles and knowing what you were going to unwrap when the night was over. So I thought that was a nice little poetic part of tonight.

[Adam Kaufman]

I actually want to go back to the word leak that you used because I will just forever be impressed. And, and I don't even know what the word is. I just, I am in awe of the fact that during the Brad Stevens regime, things just don't leak. Whether it's his own contract extensions, whether it's rumblings surrounding a move about him getting hired.

[Evan Valenti]

Well.

[Sean Grandy]

Or broken by press release.

[Adam Kaufman]

Right. I remember that day, like, even something as simple as, as, you know, it wasn't shams or it wasn't, you know, some other, you know, it wasn't Chris Haynes, it wasn't Ramona Shelburne, it wasn't Gary Washburn or Adam Himmelsbach. Nobody had the. Jason Tatum is playing tonight before the Celtics themselves on Twitter upgraded him from the usual out that we had seen for the first, you know, three quarters of the season to questionable. The Celtics had it first, which is exactly how I wanted it to be. Does it mean anything? No, no, it doesn't. But I just, I, I wanted that. I didn't even want Tatum himself to announce it in some sort of a Twitter post. I wanted it to follow the typical protocols of the Celtics and Jason Tatum questionable. And then it was Jason Tatum available. And all of that was under the Celtics watch. And I just, again, I, I am impressed that they operate so securely with such a tight knit circle in that front office.

[Sean Grandy]

Did J R Smith have it? I didn't check his. I didn't check his Twitter. And I think this was. Listen, from a PR standpoint, when the 30 for 30 is written about this whole episode. PR is an interesting thing in the 2026 NBA because guys have their own. By the way, look at what just happened. The biggest PR disaster you had in the last couple of weeks, sports wise, was the U.S. the men's team. Right. And that crazy FaceTime call. And it was super. And what happened was, I thought you

[Adam Kaufman]

were going to say it was the Jason Tatum weekly documentary.

[Sean Grandy]

Yeah.

[Evan Valenti]

The week of the deal everybody is

[Sean Grandy]

the total thing is like 14 minutes long and people are treating it like.

[Evan Valenti]

So thank you.

[Sean Grandy]

I mean, it's a docu series. They're gonna Jason episode.

[Evan Valenti]

It wasn't a big deal.

[Sean Grandy]

Jason has to come back when the games on NBC. Right. NBC didn't drop the Dallas OKC game because Cooper Flag wasn't playing. It was a bad game and nobody would watch for a much, much sexier Celtic sixer game. That wasn't the reason. Right. They happen to know the magical date. And my new favorite one the last couple of days was the 314 is the St. Louis area code, and 314 is the amount of Jason's last contract. And there was 314 on the clock when he got the ball before he got hurt. Left in the game in new. Like, how much time do people have on their hands? But the PR stuff is interesting now because I referenced the hockey team because all of a sudden you had a PR disaster and then there was no national team anymore. Everybody flew back to their own teams with their own PR directors and their own players, especially at the level of Jason Tatum, Jalen Brown and guys like that. They have their own team of people that produce docu series and are going to leak information and are going to fight Carmelo Anthony on Twitter and. And all of these things that. That go on. So it's complicated to keep it tight and keep stories like that, you know, in close. And I think when Jason was. I think it was in Detroit when they video caught him practicing or doing stuff, when things like that leaked out, it was a, you know, it was a problem and an issue. And, you know, you saw what happened when Joe got asked questions that he wasn't ready to answer. And. But again, that's part of the relief. Right? That's all behind us. And now we can worry about what really matters wasn't tonight for Jason Tatum is what happens in game two and game five and game eight, and where is he going to be going backwards like momento from the start of training camp, next year, the playoffs. I just hope people don't lose track of the fact that this is still an underdog playing with house money. Don't stop talking like the Celtics are now the favorites to win the championship because you might have 80% of Jason Tatum. The expectations. I promise you, I promise everybody those heavy expectations which make things not enjoyable. They're coming back next year. You'll have them at the start of next year. I promise. So why not let. If you're a Celtic fan, why not let the Knicks collapse under the weight of that. Why not let the Pistons collapse under the weight of their eight game lead? Why not let the Cavs and James Harden, when they find out what he's about in the seventh game, let them deal with the weight of it and be what you are, which is a live underdog in your parlance, playing with house money. That could, that could really do some damage here. If things break right.

[Adam Kaufman]

There are about, I don't know, 17 or so things that we need to get to before we worry about game two, game five, game 18, whatever, as you alluded to before. And ev, I apologize, I know I'm hogging this, but I got one more thing that you had mentioned, Sean. You kind of slid in there and I don't want to let it go. You said that this thing internally could have become annoying, could have become a distraction, maybe even was. And they had to get this thing going a little bit. And you said, you know, come on, you know, you're cleared. How long ago do you think, in theory, Jason Tatum. Tatum could have returned, medically speaking, before whatever mental, emotional, psychological thing was delaying him until March 6th.

[Sean Grandy]

I think, by the way, it's in addition to mental and all the other psychological, there's also logistical. How many games left? When is it somebody. The question that never got answered, which I thought was a really good one, at some point, I forget which. Which. So who asked it in one of the gaggles was, is there a drop dead date? At which point it's no longer useful to have him ramp up. Because remember, all of this step backwards, all of this is in the context of the Celtics defying everything we know by being 20 games over.500. That was not supposed to happen. When Jason Tatum returned, when we all talked over the summer, I, I was Max and I fought about this before Game 5 last year, the day, the game after the injury where I thought Tatum should come back this year and he thought that he shouldn't. I didn't want tatum to go 18 months without playing. I thought it was a bad idea and it didn't matter to me. People at that time were saying, well, the Celtics, if they can be good and hang around and Tatum comes back. This was never about what Tatum can do for this team this year. Anything you get is a bonus to me. It's about him being physically, mentally 100% beyond opening day of training camp. All this now is going to be a bonus. Whatever you get. That said, I think he would listen. We're all told different things I'm not the authority to speak on it officially or unofficially. But could he have played before Friday night? Yeah, sure, he could have, but everybody's got to get together and make the best decision on a variety of levels. Maybe I'm just bitter because in August I said it was March 4th, and I was. God would look great, right, if it turned out to be Wednesday.

[Evan Valenti]

We talked about this all week. I'm sure I talked about this. We had the entire team on standby to, like, if he plays that Wednesday night against Charlotte. We had everybody. We had your clip queued up. There's a date, you know, I'm gonna. Just gonna call it because we had.

[Sean Grandy]

You remember when I said it? And listen, it was an educated. I was using timeline, finding a home game that made sense. It looked like it might be a good entry, whatever. And Kaufman over here was like, you know, something. You know, what could anybody have possibly known in August or September? He's like, you know, you. You didn't just guess that that wasn't a random. Like, it was.

[Adam Kaufman]

Well, look, I. I wasn't. Obviously, I wasn't at the Garden for the post game questioning of Jason Tatum, but the question that I would love for someone to ask at some point, that has not been asked of him post playing, where he might divulge a little bit more than he was along the way, way back at the beginning of all this, he said, yeah, I've got a goal. Like, I've. I've got a date in mind. And then as we got closer, he said, I don't have a goal. And he sort of backtracked off of that, which is fine, because whatever it was, logistically, that slowed it down to your point, but obviously, way back when, he had a goal in mind. Now, whether that's the same goal that, you know, you were thinking about and I was thinking about, or it was a totally different date, I have no idea.

[Sean Grandy]

But.

[Adam Kaufman]

But I would love for someone to say, hey, you know, by the way, you mentioned X number of months ago that, like, there was a target date. Now that you're back, what was it? Because I. I would like to hear. I'd be curious.

[Sean Grandy]

I think when you think about. You're saying he didn't divulge stuff, you could make the case he divulged too much, like on the podcast that he did. And, you know, because remember, I think what people didn't realize inside the bubble is the feeding frenzy that was waiting outside the bubble for any morsel of information. And when I. When I walk Home now from the garden. There's all the. All those gulls, all those birds are on the. Are on the water. So I've started, like, stealing some granola bars and things like that from the media room, and I, you know, feed them on the way home. It's just a little thing that I do. But it, you know, now I think words gotten out right in the bird community, and they're all waiting there. You start to throw a granola bar and crunch it up and throw it out there, and all of a sudden it's like there's hundreds of them. That's what it's been like here. Yeah, I. I use the analogy of. And because this is a true story, something that really happened to me with, you know, my son's mother and I don't agree on anything, but one thing we agreed on 14 and a half years ago was let's not tell anybody that, you know about, you know, the birth of the baby and whatever. We'll just tell everybody it's over and we're already home. And we told everyone, well, the baby's due in September. Well, what happened was my son was three weeks late. So it went into October. By the time you got past October 1st, everybody who knew, everybody's watching and waiting and calling and texting and whatever new stealth is out the window. And so stealth is out the window here. When Jason did that podcast, giving very honest answers, as he always does, about his feelings and everything he went through, I mean, I don't think. I think that's why I wanted Friday night to be a celebration of the first half of Jason's career and the launch of. Of the second half of his career and not how does he fit in and what are the minutes going to be and all this other stuff. And it did come in a game, ironically, the Celtics had to win. That was a must win Friday night. When you look at the performance Wednesday and this death trip coming up that starts on Sunday, they had to win that game on Friday night so that they checked if Jason checked all the boxes in his rehab to get back. If you want to say anything about Friday night, it checked all the boxes.

[Evan Valenti]

I want to get in that later because there's so much to talk about. I want to talk about preparing for Friday night's game, knowing that he's gonna play. What's that like? Like, what's it. What's it like trying to be the guy that has to frame all of this within the game happening in right in front of you? Because obviously there's a game happening against a Dallas Mavericks team that's look clearly not having the best year. They have Cooper flag. He's having a great season year, great stuff. The entire state of Maine is basically in the Garden because he's here. His family obviously long life long something's fans for a long time. How do you prepare for a game like this knowing that the game itself probably is not the story at all, that the story is the. The rehabilitation of a top five player in the league. How do you set the stage so that. And then how do you the stage where everybody feels like they got everything they need. They got the game. They got the enough Tatum stuff. They got enough Cooper flag stuff to feel satisfied with the way everything went. Because I. I imagine Friday night was not easy for you trying to figure out everything involved.

[Sean Grandy]

I don't know if it's easy is the right word. I think I'm here to tell stories about human beings and the course of this team. And I think it was a night, it was the perfect night to step away from the talking head craziness and realize the human drama of this kid who had to go through this ordeal. And yes, Jason Tatum makes a lot of money and he's a great player. Whatever he had his entire life, everything he's put his life into was taken from him in one minute. And he had to come to grips with his basketball mortality. I always remember to talk about this during a game on Friday night. Remember what happened in Jason Tatum's first five minutes as an NBA player, Gordon Hayward, that happened in front of him and he said to live with that. I've sat next to a guy for 25 years who always says his recurring nightmare, and every player's nightmare is walking into an arena and not walking out. Spring is here, and there's a whole new way to chai at Starbucks that's made perfect for you. Choose your sweetness. Dial it up or keep things light. Add a touch of pistachio, a hint of strawberry or vanilla, or make it a spring classic with lavender. Because this season there's endless ways to chai at Starbucks. And that he always lived with that, you know, when he was playing. So I think it was reading the emotions on the face of Jason Tatum. And for the people who couldn't see it from, you know, on the TV side. And I'm doing it differently if I'm on the radio side, as I was on Friday, you're just describing what I'm seeing in his body language, in his facials, when is he smiling, when Is he nervous? When does he have relief? And what I talked to Joe about before the game. We covered basketball stuff when we got into it. But my first question to him was, I went back to game five last year when, when Joe picked up, I saw Joe for the first time walking into the building. I said, how's he doing? And I wasn't asking about his Achilles or his surgery or anything. I said, how is he doing? Because that was the concerns I watched this extraordinary young man, I mean, the duality of Jalen and Jason so outrageously beyond their years, they embarrass all of us. The things they have done in their 20s. I've been fascinated by the duality of the two of them, that I think they each could have been the other if their lives had taken on a different turn. That I think Jason looks at all the stuff Jalen has done off the court and looks and realizes that he could. He could be that guy if things had gone differently. And I think Jaylen looks at Jason with the kids and having the young kid at 19 years old and watching Deuce grow up essentially in the locker room. So I've always been just completely engulfed by that. And Jalen was a guy we watched a lot too tonight because that is the other part of the story when we talk about the PR of it. I think when it's all said and done, could the team have. Could we as an organization had done maybe a little better? Probably. Could Jalen and Jason done a little better? Probably. But none of it matters tonight because the story was a guy we've all watched grow up, get an important part of his life back. And that's what I wanted to talk to Joe about before, is how he feels watching someone that he loves get to back to the top of the mountain after he got. Was there for eight years. And in one moment, as I think as. As the guy said who was calling it when it happened in a New York minute, just got shoved off that mountain to the bottom. And all of a sudden the worst part is when you're lying at the bottom of it and you're looking back up, knowing you have to. How hard it is to climb back up on top of it. And. And that's just to play. Forget championships and what you do on floor, just to get back into an NBA game and for him to complete that exhausting climb that I would say we never see any of it, but that's why we have a docu series. We will see a lot of it and the emotional ups and downs and that's what this job has become about, championships and conference finals, because the Celtics have been so good since we've been here. But for those of us that do national things, and I always wanted to be at some level a team broadcaster, because that's the beauty of being a team broadcaster is telling the stories from the start of the season to the end. And then if you're lucky enough to be around for a longer period of time, you get to watch Paul Pierce become the man that he became during his time here. And you get to watch a night like tonight, which isn't about tonight. It's about 10 months that came before it and all the emotions and everything he had to overcome just to get here. So, you know, and people say, is it hard? It's probably harder in real time to react to something like the injury, which you could completely. That was. How do you call an injury that comes like that out of nowhere versus tonight? I remember saying at the time, when he comes back, whenever that day is, it's going to be a special night out the Garden. And it was because fans here, legacy fans, understand everything I was just talking about. And they were there to meet that moment, as was the entire state of Maine, which apparently closed tonight. I don't know if the last person who left just put the clothes sign, but I don't know what was going on.

[Adam Kaufman]

Turn out the lights live for your die. That's New Hampshire. The, the with. With the relief element. And obviously, you know, most of us, unless you were in the building or, you know, obviously doing what you do in describing all of it, most of us are, are watching it, whether it's in the form of clips going out on social media or you're watching the television broadcast, even if you're synced up and listening to you at the same time, you're paying attention to, want to see all of that that you're describing in terms of the emotions on people's faces. And as we make our way through Jalen's, Jason's night, which again was a. A tremendous night, he's plus 20 plays 27 minutes. There were all these questions about is he going to be on a minutes restriction. He is he not. There was the pregame report that he wasn't going to place the first six minutes of every quarter plus a few at the end of the half to get him to that 27. Was able to not play most of that fourth quarter, at least the last half of it, because obviously the game got out of hand on the way to a 20 point win for Boston, covering, by the way, for anyone who invested. But he finishes at 15, 12 and 7. Just an absurd box score, even flirting with the triple double. He was 5, 5 and 5 at the break, but it didn't obviously start that way. He got a couple early assists, got a few early rebounds, but the shot was off, which is not a criticism it was expected. He's short, there's air balls, he gets rejected by the rim on a dunk attempt. And until he gets that put back and he's hanging there on the rim with the one arm, the visual of just his face and just sort of sinking in, I'm on the board. Finally it happened because this wasn't even until the second quarter when this goes. And then obviously 30 seconds later, whatever it was, he comes back with the three pointer. He's got the quick five before the half and it's okay. He's starting to feel himself a little bit. Winds up hitting six out of his last 10 shots and you get a really, you know, not necessarily fill out the box score in the way that he typically does, but in terms of performance, you get a Jason Tatum kind of caliber second half off of what he did at the end of that first half. And that I have to imagine in watching that unfold in real time, as it did for so many fans, as it did for those of us watching, really just kind of. It was a release. Like I can only imagine how it felt for him being the one to go through it after the 10 months prior. But for just fans watching it, it was a. Okay, this actually is going to look better than maybe we even realistically could have expected this.

[Sean Grandy]

Quickly, one of the great ironies is. First of all, that was a huge play in the game because Dallas is up by four late in the first half, it looked like they had some momentum because obviously there are a lot of empty possessions with Tatum and other guys. By the way, look at Jalen and Peyton Pritchard Friday night they also had this. They also struggled at the start, ended up having really good games and like the entire season a metaphor for it. Derrick White was just solid and good the entire time, carried him through it. It was such a typical night. But Jason Tatum helped the Celtics out in so many of the areas they are deficient. But the one area where the Celtics have been elite all year is the one thing that Jason Tatum doesn't do. Offensive rebound. And irony of ironies, the biggest play of the night in many ways on a variety of levels, is an offensive rebound. He gets. He Boxes a Cooper flag and gets that dunk. And I thought that was. How many nights have we seen over the years Jason Tatum, Tatum's got 13 rebounds and they're like all defensive rebounds. So one thing he doesn't really do is crash. And ironically the game turned in many ways on offensive rebound he got which

[Adam Kaufman]

by the way was the only one he had of the dozen rebounds.

[Sean Grandy]

Yep, that's, that's going to be what you're going to get. And it's, it's just so funny at the end of the night it just turned into a typical gap year Celtics game. Vuchovic gets hurt and then Garza who apparently has some sort of vendetta against the Dallas Mavericks. That was the huge game he had down there when he was like 6 and 8 and he like he was 4 for 4 on threes in the game in Dallas. And he comes out of nowhere, not even expecting to play, does what he does. Ugo did it again. He made two plays again tonight that don't show up in box scores that get create turn possessions around. And there were just so many different things that happened. I thought a really important thing that happened tonight was the second half that Peyton Pritchard had because he, he was the one who had to turn the water off on Klay Thompson. When Clay got super hot. Peyton was just chasing him around all over the place and then still found time to get himself going after he had his three games in a row with the guard. Two scoreless games, unfathomable. And then he started two for nine tonight. But he just kept grinding, doing what he does. Every time they throw an obstacle in front of him, he overcomes it. I just thought this became a typical gap year Celtics game in which a lot of guys did a lot of different things and again you were forced to. It wasn't Charlotte, it was Dallas on the second night of a late arrival back to back when they had played a tough game the night before. So obviously it's a game you're supposed to win. It's a game, as I said, the subtext of it was you had to win tonight. I keep saying I don't want anyone to be scared about what's coming, but my goodness, it doesn't get any tougher than this. These next three games for the Celtics. So this became a game they certainly had to win. If you're of the mind that you got to finish second or I, I just, I personally think Boston, Cleveland, New York are going to be separated by a game or two when it comes down to the end. It's going to be a crazy three way dance to the end with those seedings. And I think you're probably better off with a first round matchup that avoids Charlotte. I'd rather have home court, not have home court in the second round and, and pick the team that you want to play, which is probably Toronto at this point. You know, who knows what Philly's going to look like with mb. The problem is the expectations are going to be so high you're going to have home court in the first round of the playoffs. And that, that could be, if you get Charlotte or Philly, it could be a tough matchup in the first round. But again, we'll, we'll get there when I just think that it was very quietly that no one was paying any attention because it was Tatum and Cooper Flagg and bright lights big city. Meanwhile, Celtics had to win on Friday night. They needed that.

[Adam Kaufman]

Detroit first in the conference, four games in front of the now 42 and 21 Celtics. Then you have the Knicks another game and a half back. The Cavaliers three off the seas in that fourth spot right now. And obviously we can continue to talk about that and this gauntlet of a trip that is in front. As Sean mentioned. Want to tell you though, today's show is powered by prize picks. Shoot your shot on prize picks. Get $50 instantly in lineups when you play your first for only $5. That's right, prize picks now giving you $50 in lineups when you sign up and play your first for five bucks. Prize picks makes every dunk, every dime, every board that much more exciting. Absolute. Do not miss this chance to get started on America's number one app for sports picks.

[Evan Valenti]

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[Sean Grandy]

So excited.

[Evan Valenti]

Esports and more. And cuff, you know the flex play Friday just remains undefeated because last week we gave out three stat projections and the one that I was the most confident in was ONU more than 0.5 dunks. And guess what didn't hit on the the play Friday was the over under or the more than less than on dunks. I had more than 0.5. He didn't dunk the ball a single time in that game. I hit the other two. It's just what I just keep winning that same $21 that I have back every single time. So good. Exactly. So I just keep winning. So with our flex play Friday in the Saturday we're going to use and Edwards 28 and a half points versus the magic and that is a respect thing for the Magic. Defensively I'm I it's really nothing other than that. I mean an had a spectacular year. The Magic are just a tough defensive team. They usually hold teams to less than the usual score. So we're going with that. Go Jaylen Johnson second leg more than 22 and a half points versus Sixers so an Edwards less than Jaylen Johnson more than Then we're going to finish up Michael Porter Jr. This is a small number. I'm really I know it's the Pistons so I know why it's low but I'm I'm going to stick with Michael Porter Jr. More than 19 1/2 points versus the Pistons. Pistons been an incredible story this season, no question about it. But I just think MPJ it's gonna put up a lot of shots. Whether he hits a bunch, we'll find out. If I hit all 3 at 3x money 2 out of 3 give my money back. This has been the way I've lived my life this entire NFL now NBA season in little as 50 minutes. You just watch roll into your account super easy as Venmo. You can use your bank account whether it's a debit card, whatever, it's super easy. And if you lineups on fire Price picks offers early payouts. Coffin hasn't happened to me really that much yet, buddy. But there's still hope out there that I might be able to cash in early.

[Adam Kaufman]

So download the prize picks app. Do it today. Use code CLNS. You get $50 in lineups after playing your first for only $5. That is code CLNS. 50 bucks in lineups after playing your first for just 5 bucks. Prize picks it's good to be right here with Sean Grandy. Let's get back to this Tatum performance. I almost said this Celtics game it's really as we've talked about, it's not about the game. Although the win was important. It's about the return and reemergence of Tatum and you know, your expectations. Mine Evans anyone's going into the game, they don't really matter now. I think it's probably pretty safe to say he exceeded most everybody's maybe not in particular categories like I personally I invested in the over on his points at 12 and a half he had 15. I'm not shocked by that. I Thought he'd be looking for a shot and taken a whole bunch of the rebounds, clear area of need. So maybe a dozen was outside of what I expected from. But I figured he'd be impactful there and I figured he'd be facilitating and deferential to his teammates. So I'm not shocked by the seven assists. The number that I think everyone should be at least a little bit surprised by and to me is the most important number across his stat sheet is again, the 27 minutes. The fact that this guy was able to roll out and be impactful and play damn near 30 minutes in his first game, no training camp, no preseason, no ramp up outside of five on five practices with teammates in 10 months is really just fascinating to me. And he was asked, I think maybe by our own Bobby Manning after the game about the plan for this upcoming trip, which again, we danced around it a little bit at Cleveland, at San Antonio, at the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder. Incredibly difficult trip over the course of the next almost a week. And he didn't divulge anything in terms of whether he's playing in every game. One game, two games. He just said, yeah, we've got a plan and, you know, we'll all find out together obviously what that plan looks like. But again, that to me, just the availability and, and the performance tied into all of that, and the fact that you could reliably have him out there on the floor and even bring him back late in that second quarter to play just a little bit more before the half, spoke volumes of what this guy's presence means.

[Sean Grandy]

Well, you know, there is a minute restriction, first of all, and Joe was very cagey and didn't reveal it. And he was smart to do that because if you, if you announce something, it's why they say, well, he's on a 100 pitch limit, his arm going to fall off if he throws 101. You know, I never understood that. And that's the danger. It's like when you say a player is going to be out two to four weeks now, you've put like artificial limits on it. And, you know, there is a minute restriction, the game restriction. We'll see what happens. I'm interested to see how this plays out because it's not like you're going every 48 hours, the Sunday game, which, as you know, my lifelong affection for early morning games, not only is it a one o' clock game, we have the, the, the time gods, you know, weighing in with daylight savings time, which makes it even an hour earlier. So it's really a very early game on Sunday. So we'll see if, if Tatum turns around and plays in one that quickly. We'll see. How does he feel to, you know, on Saturday? How does he feel today? Who knows? Right? And that's going to determine a lot of what happens goes forward. When he plays 26 or 27 minutes. How does he feel the next day? That's the next step in the rehab that you have to get through. Unfortunately or unfortunately for the Celtics, the game that matters on the trip is the first one. Obviously, you know, you have a road game in Cleveland. You guys still have a road game in New York. These are the teams you're jockeying for position with down the stretch. So the biggest game by far is, is the Cleveland game on Sunday. And I was telling you guys off the air, it's so big that ABC is pulling the number one team, the Mike Breen team. They've been doing that Saturday night primetime game. They pulled them off that, and they're now doing the Sunday, the early game Sunday with the Celtics and Cleveland, you know, largely because of Tatum and because it's a big game in the Eastern Conference.

[Evan Valenti]

What's wild is Coffin, you. You had your entire monologue. He was plus 20 in 27 minutes.

[Sean Grandy]

Plus 20.

[Evan Valenti]

It's like he never left. And I. We've talked briefly about Ugo.

[Adam Kaufman]

I was gonna say, what was Ugo?

[Evan Valenti]

Ugo's just a plus two. I, I literally find Hugo. I finally go fascinating. I think I just, I, I find that guy fascinating. And I'm sorry. Overwhelmed by the on offspring.

[Sean Grandy]

Well, you know what? It's ridiculous having the Tatum on off numbers was the baseline. You know, I did a bit a couple of weeks ago, and I did a bunch of different interviews before the season. Sometimes I try to box you into a win prediction, which I thought was really silly with this team, but. And I think, you know, the number I came up with. Flashback to the Philly game last week. We took the final break and I said, when we come back to wrap it up, I'll take my bows too. So stay tuned for that. When we came back, I said, that's when I got boxed in before the season. I said, the Celtics are going to win 40 games and they won 40, so good for me for getting that right. Yeah, granted there were 22 left, but that, I didn't say anything about that. I just said they would win 40 games. But the baseline of that kind of generic grab a number out of thin air pick was the dirty little secret. Of the Tatum years. For eight years here, when Jason Tatum has been on the floor, the Celtics have been the equivalent of a 66 win team. He's been off the floor. They've been essentially a 42 win. 500 team. And that's with Brown, Porzingis, Holiday, Horford, Kyrie Irving, Gordon Hayward, Marcus Moore, everybody he's played with. So the baseline of me looking at the season was, is the group that the Celtics are now with this front court in October, we couldn't have imagined that have Keita and Minot and Garza and Tillman. How can that team possibly outperform the teams that Jayson Tatum has played with before? And that's where I thought they were going to struggle to be much over.500. And when people were saying they're going to win 45, 46 games, I remember saying people were saying, well, opening night you could be Philadelphia. I'm like, so now we're just giving Keita like he's going to outplay Embiid on opening night. And of course he did. And the story of the season, as we, as you know, the three of us love baseball so much and we've all had baseball teams right from a kid. What do we do at this time of year in spring training, you look at your team with the craziest rose colored glasses and you say, well, if Meyer wins a Gold Glove at second base and get 20 home runs out of Durban, and you figure out how to get the four outfielders in there and story stays healthy and the pitching staff is this deep and Chapman repeats that year pretty soon and you talk yourself into the World Series. But what do we know as sports fans? All of the ifs never all come true until the 2026 Celtics, when all of the, if Jalen Brown takes a step forward to become an MVP candidate and if he stays healthy and Derrick White stays healthy and Keita somehow becomes a top 10, top 12 center, and Shireman and Hugo Gonzalez and Jordan Walsh, even though they don't play, they shoot 42% from three and Garza becomes an offensive rebound. All of the things that you seem ridiculous in October, they all happened. And that's why you're in 21 games over.500.

[Evan Valenti]

That's why, that's why we've been talking about this a lot more recently. That's why we, we all really believe that Joe Missoula should win coach of the year.

[Sean Grandy]

Because I don't know. And I feel like just talking to national people and whatever, you just, you're getting that Bickerstaff feeling, right. And maybe it's best that Joe finishes second because it generally does not go well. That's like the death trap, right?

[Adam Kaufman]

In the next couple years.

[Evan Valenti]

Yeah,

[Sean Grandy]

but to me, that's a little bit of a silly award. Not as silly as my personal favorite award in the NBA, as anyone for years knows, is Coach of the Month. Because when Joe or Doc or any Brad is one coach of the month, I, I know I've got a freebie at the end of the show, which is, hey, you won Coach of the Month. Congratulations. Why were you coaching so poorly last month? What were you doing wrong? What did you improve on that made you a better coach this month? Like, to me, that's kind of, that's almost like employee of the month, right? It's a little bit silly. Congratulations on Derek White for winning an award that I had never heard of.

[Adam Kaufman]

Are they in Defensive Player of the Month?

[Sean Grandy]

I'm like, what, what on earth?

[Evan Valenti]

Never seen it?

[Sean Grandy]

Yeah. I mean, yeah, okay, I, I, participation trophies are nice, but it's nice. It's just I literally had never, never heard of that particular, particular award. But it's, Listen, Joe, he's done an extraordinary job. The entire staff has. It's a staff award. It's by definition, it goes to a team that outperforms expectations and who's outperformed expectations more than the Celtics this year. And do I hope for his sake he wins? Does he care? I mean, I think that say no,

[Adam Kaufman]

but I believe he does.

[Sean Grandy]

Well, I think that Joe, if we flashback to the first year, I think Joe has held onto as I would, as you would, as anybody would. Joe's probably held some receipts for some things that were said about him as a coach, you know, the first year. And I, I, I've told this story before, so it's not out of school, but before Game 4 of the conference finals in Miami, talking to Joe, before we went on the air, I told him, listen, I just hope you have someone who cataloged everything that everybody said about you for the last two days, because you're going to want it one day. And you know, go back and, and look at, look at what was coming down on Joe, who again, history just seems to ignore the fact that he was thrown into an unprecedented. With the exception of Jack McKinney flying off his bike and Westhead taken over and in cat. And speaking of which, this is a diversion, I realize, but my God, how did they, how many seasons of great shows did winning time leave on the table by that show getting canceled?

[Evan Valenti]

You had the Lakers win championship, which they must be upset about.

[Sean Grandy]

Which as I said at the time, that's the most. This winning time ending with Magic crying in the shower is the most on brand thing for Red. Controlling things from beyond the grave of anything in history but winning time. You had Kobe and Shaq. You had Lakers winning in the 80s, then you got Kobe and Shaq. And now it's succession. You've got family members not speaking to each other. I mean the whole thing writes itself and they stop it after two. You had eight more good seasons of winning time that they blew up. But anyway, going back to, you know, west had taken over for McKinney with the championship caliber team and high expectations out of nowhere. There's no historical precedent for Joe taking over a team that had to win a championship and he had to win it with a staff that you depend you. Your life depends on your staff. They are your lifeblood. And they did you know that assistant coaching staff did a great job. But remember human nature. All those guys got passed over for Joe.

[Evan Valenti]

Yeah.

[Sean Grandy]

And now that elitist. It was just a brutal environment to try to win and obviously came a game away from. From going back to the finals.

[Adam Kaufman]

Well, and Stoudemire.

[Evan Valenti]

Right.

[Adam Kaufman]

That was the year that he even left partway through.

[Sean Grandy]

I talk about this too. This is super deep dive. But when that thing started to go south in the playoffs, it was after they took the two of lead on Atlanta. And things got really bumpy after that. They got bumpy in the Philly series and obviously go down three on Miami. What happened right after the Celtics took the 20 lead on Atlanta? Ime got the Houston job. Now you got guys in the staff. This isn't about undercutting the guy they work for. This is about where are my kids going to go to school. Am I leaving to go with ime? Am I not? So you have you got another grenade thrown into a team that already had several grenades thrown into them. In that 2223 season they still had, still had a really good year. They were following one of the most unappreciated teams. Yeah. That second half. And I we talked about the 2022 Celtics a lot the other night when Charlotte was here because they're having that same year with their under 500 halfway through and now they look like, you know, the best team ever until they lost on Friday night. But that team was just. People forget. I think they were 28 and 7 with a plus 15 differential to end the end of the year. And if it wasn't for Jalen Jason not being ready and handling the ball much and, you know, great chance to

[Evan Valenti]

win the Steph Curry going nuclear.

[Sean Grandy]

Steph Curry went nuclear. And I, I think was good for a minute. Yeah, they was good. What a minute the Celtics and warriors played at the end of the year was the games G and I did on TV late in March. They played in San Francisco that year. And if you watch the game that night, first of all, you weren't thinking Golden State had a chance to get to the finals at that point. But if you watch that game that night in late March, you're like, there's no way Golden State could beat the Celtics four out of seven. That was the night that Marcus dove and hurt Kurt like he dove for the loose ball and. And Steph got hurt. And I expected that series, that NBA finals went exactly the way I thought it was going to go until the final five minutes of game four.

[Evan Valenti]

I.

[Sean Grandy]

It was dead on. I remember telling Bill Simmons before game one, he said, what do you think? I said, here's what's going to happen. It's going to be 2, 1 Celtics, and then game 4 will be that game that Golden State always wins. Steph always wins. Celtics will find a way, and that's going to be the passing of the torch. And torch did not get past.

[Evan Valenti]

No, no.

[Adam Kaufman]

My whole thing with Joe and I don't want to have the conversation again because have. I think we just did this last week so people have. Have heard it. My whole thing with Joe and coach of the year. And am I going to lose sleep if Joe is not coach of the year? No, of course not.

[Sean Grandy]

But close your eyes, exhale, Feel your body relax and let go of whatever you're carrying today. Well, I'm letting go of the worry that I wouldn't get my new contacts in time for this class. I got them delivered free from 1-800-contacts. Oh, my gosh, they're so fast. And breathe. Oh, sorry. I almost couldn't breathe when I saw the discount they gave me on my first order.

[Adam Kaufman]

Oh, sorry.

[Sean Grandy]

Namaste. Visit 1-800-contacts.com today to save on your first order.

[Evan Valenti]

1-800-contacts.

[Adam Kaufman]

In terms of just being deserving and overachieving and accomplishing all the things they have with the roster turnover they encountered and the young players that, you know, Joe historically has not played and now groomed to where they look like, you know, good, young, inexpensive pieces of the next iteration of. Of championship, Celtics, hopefully, is that if not now, when Joe is never for the rest of his career going to have a more impressive coaching season than what he has been handed this year and what he has done with it. So it's just that's, that's kind of the way I look at it more so than a Bickerstaffer, that kind of thing.

[Sean Grandy]

Detroit didn't obviously, I think the expectation game has been won by Boston, but there weren't super high expectations on Detroit. Certainly nothing like this. People thought they were going to be good, but nobody thought they were going to be a 60 win team. And that's going to be part of it too. And by the way, we're having this conversation with a quarter of the season left. So how Tatum gets integrated here, that could play a factor in it. This Detroit finished. Did The Celtics finish fourth 12 games behind Detroit or do they finish second three games behind Detroit? That could make a difference in the stuff we're. We're talking about now it's like it's Con Cannipal as he moves slightly ahead of Cobra flag probably. But there's 20 games left, so it seems like we're at the end, but we're not. Which is why you needed to get Tatum back.

[Adam Kaufman]

Now I am glad you brought up

[Evan Valenti]

no shot, which is wild to me. Mitch Johnson is like hanging out over here. Seems like 45 and it's.

[Sean Grandy]

There's seven or eight guys every year.

[Evan Valenti]

That right.

[Sean Grandy]

Done a great job. There's a million. There's a lot of great coaches. But again, it just. It to me it's a little bit silly because it's such a staff award and it's such a. It takes a village. Just Jason coming back to that. This is something we talked about. Takes a village. Jason didn't rehab by himself. Jason Tatum got. Had medical staff working with him and Nick Sang obviously was getting a lot of attention and rightly so. And his teammates and he was at every practice. Jason. The most remarkable thing about Jason Tatum season was the fact that he literally wore different outfits every game. I was like, dude, this is really impressive. That's the only reason I didn't want to see him come back. I want to see if he had 82 different. You know.

[Adam Kaufman]

Well, that's his thing. He's been. Hasn't he been doing that for years now?

[Sean Grandy]

Yeah, but it's usually, you know, he's playing, so it's not. You don't see him on the bench with it.

[Adam Kaufman]

I'm like, wow, he's there, he's there. It's even more important when you're not playing.

[Sean Grandy]

Do they send this stuff to, you know, when the team doesn't win the championship and they like, send the, send the hats and the.

[Evan Valenti]

Yeah.

[Sean Grandy]

I wonder, is that where all the outfits go after he does he wears them once? I don't know.

[Adam Kaufman]

I think, I think this is like, like Abby Chin, when she joins us, talks about, you know, people in her position will use, like, rent the Runway. Like, I think that's what, like, Tatum's just getting these clothes to wear for one night.

[Sean Grandy]

I have been with Abby on. We took a cab. We were both flying back red eye after a game in la. So not going to go into the details of Abby changing in the back of the cab to get the outfit off, because that's another topic for my, you know, I'll save that for my book. But when you rent the Runway, which she does, I always wonder, like, how Does Abby have 82 different outfits? Because she does rent the Runway, but she had to return the stuff. You mail it back.

[Adam Kaufman]

Right?

[Sean Grandy]

So the goal was we get in the cab and by the time we got to lax, she had to have the outfit back in the package to mail from the airport. And it was one of the most impressive things, you know, I've ever seen.

[Evan Valenti]

It was, I want to point out the. The late, great Craig Sager for a second, who would change the buttons on his jackets so he never wore the same thing twice. And as a clothing guy, that is the pinnacle of trying to do it right.

[Adam Kaufman]

So.

[Evan Valenti]

Well, not only that, you gotta burn it. Whatever he wore. I forget what he wore to the KG press. The. The press interview we had with KG in the hallway where he told her, he told Craig everything. He wore that. But Craig, Craig always was. Was pretty particular about. The buttons had to be different at least. So every outfit was different. So Craig Sager would approve of what Jason Tate was thrown out there. The past

[Sean Grandy]

league's a little emptier. There's no doubt. It's. It's been a fun year that way. It's funny, I was talking about we haven't seen Mike Breen. I didn't think we were going to see my friend Mike Tirico much this year. And now he's like, you know, every week he's going to be bouncing. Gonna see him Tuesday in San Antonio. And then among the other, we're talking about this brutal road gauntlet. Celtics still have home games to play. And Charlotte comes back. You got another home game against Charlotte, OKC comes in. And then a monster game Sunday night, primetime Sunday night basketball game against Minnesota is coming up too. So there's a lot of. Really. It's tough. It's why I think holding on a

[Adam Kaufman]

second televised games in the remaining 19.

[Sean Grandy]

Oh, it's. It's all of them. This week is in your. On. You're on NBC Tuesday and you're Amazon Thursday. And this is. This is what happens. And this is the beauty of this season. We had no right to expect to have all of these nights. The Sixer game was. There was buzz in the building on Sunday night. It felt like. It felt big. And it felt big because the Sunday night guys were there. If they have a Max. Max got a nice Mike tirico during the 81 stuff. But, you know, obviously NBC. I feel bad for a lot of my guys at tnt because it seems like everyone's. Oh, my God, NBC is the greatest thing ever. And, you know, people are kind of after the fact saying things about Turner, which was, you know, a part of the lifeblood of the NBA for the past. For the past generation. And sure, it's a shame, but NBC has done. They've done an amazing job, no question.

[Adam Kaufman]

Well, it was on, too. Throwback broadcast the other night with all the. All the mid-90s stuff going on, but. Right.

[Sean Grandy]

With Castus.

[Adam Kaufman]

Yeah. Costas Gray, the, you know, Collins was there. The bizarre Mike Fratello, all. Hannah Storm was a part of it. The old graphics. I mean, I. I was eating that stuff up.

[Sean Grandy]

Bob opening. Was that for you? The Crosby Stills in Nash, but not young.

[Evan Valenti]

Oh, reference.

[Sean Grandy]

At the start, I was like, okay, nostalgia. And there's nostalgia. By the way, speaking of Bob, Costas, who was the voice of the St. Louis Spirits in the 70s, is a random shout out for no reason. Sure. You got to check out the ABA documentary on Amazon. It's okay.

[Adam Kaufman]

Awesome.

[Sean Grandy]

Yeah, it's really good. It's a longer Runway when you have those. When you could do it on a. On an Amazon prime or something like that where you can have like four episodes.

[Evan Valenti]

Yeah.

[Sean Grandy]

So such a. You know, the league was so under the radar. The NBA was in the late 70s. And if the NBA was under the radar, the ABA was way under the radar as such an important part of what the game. You know, the game became Jackie Moon

[Adam Kaufman]

in the Flynn Tropics and that way.

[Sean Grandy]

Unfortunately, yeah. A lot of people just know the ABA from. From Jackie Moon. I'm like, it's not.

[Evan Valenti]

You know, was that. There was that clip of Dr. J recently of talking about how Red came up to him and said, you should have been a Celtic.

[Adam Kaufman]

Yeah.

[Evan Valenti]

You should have been a Celtic. Yeah. Yeah. He was playing a UMass. He's playing on the street. It's like he was right there. He was unbelievable at UMass. And like, you go back, you go.

[Sean Grandy]

If you.

[Evan Valenti]

As someone who lives in Western Mass goes back to UMass Amherst for. For things, it's like you. It's so far beyond what Dr. J and then Marcus Camby was later on down the road. Like, there's just. I'm not trying to speak it. Well, Frank Martin, who is a great coach and what they're trying to do, but it's just not the same thing anymore.

[Sean Grandy]

But that's amazing because they won national. Jonathan Quick still playing in the league. It was there.

[Evan Valenti]

It was.

[Sean Grandy]

I watched Jonathan Quick. Look at Evan pop for Jonathan Quick.

[Evan Valenti]

I'll never forget this in my life. My. My friend who is a hockey goalie for our local high school team, brought me to my first hockey game ever. It was Jonathan Quick UMass versus BC. It was like 8 versus 4. It was a white on UMass. And he goes to me, goes, hey, the guy in between the pipes for us, like, he's pretty good. He's been drafted by the Kings. He's gonna be really good. I was like, okay. And Jonathan Quick st on his head for the entire night. He was unbelievable in this game. The only reason why UMass beat BC was because Jonathan Quick was basically the best goal you've ever seen in your life for the entire duration.

[Adam Kaufman]

Stanley cup run. That he was.

[Evan Valenti]

He was ridiculous. The first game I ever saw in my life, John the Quick was the goalie. And I remember leaving the. The mall inside of that night and being like, this guy's gonna be a some the next big thing. And then he gets to la and I'm like, this guy's gonna be great. And then he wins a couple of Stanley Cups. And I'm like, I knew it. The whole time, I knew it. And that's like one of the greatest things in life, right? When you're a sports fan, when you can predict the. The. The next superstar, we're like, oh, I was saying at the ground level, I was there when he was here and now he's here. I was here when he was here.

[Adam Kaufman]

Here's one thing that I know.

[Sean Grandy]

Too bad they don't have that on prize picks.

[Evan Valenti]

I know, right?

[Adam Kaufman]

I. I know that if listeners of this program and the YouTube comment section are going to get mad at me for talking about Drake May, they sure as hell don't give a about UMass hockey and Jonathan Quinn that that much I'm certain of. So I am.

[Sean Grandy]

I have an even better one just like that, which actually ties into an NBA thing we were just talking about. And I'm gonna watch it tied into Bucchevich when it's all said and done. So when I was. I. I don't know if I was in high school or going into college, whatever. A friend of mine was a college roommate of a comedian named Elon Gold who had ended up having a pretty good career. He did some stuff like you can. You can google him and find him. He had. He had a solid career and he was inviting me out in New York to a Saturday Night Live showcase because Elon was one of the comedians. And we wanted to come out there, everybody laugh really hard and clap and, you know, try to get him some attention. So the SNL scouts and the. And the night goes on. There's one comedian after the other and Elon Gold comes out and he's great and he kills. And we're laughing and we're clapping or wherever. I'm like, man, he may have this. And then there was one more comedian to come on afterwards, and his name was Adam Sandler. Yeah, that was. I was there the night of the SNL showcase. I'm like, oh, I'm not sure he's gonna get it. And the rest. Adam Sandler, New Hampshire guy, huge NBA fan. And I was talking about the movie Uncut Gems recently. I was trying to make the point about how people would be getting on Vuchovic a little bit because he had some up and down games. And like, first of all, Buchovic, at 35 years old is not supposed to be playing five games in seven nights back to back at altitude against Jokic and then a brutal travel back to back against Giannis. And I was trying to make the point about how long Vuchovic has been around that. Go back to 2012 in that uncut Gem series, which was the Kevin Garnett series against Philadelphia that went seven games. You know who was a rookie who played in that series? Vuchovic played for Philadelphia in that 2000.

[Adam Kaufman]

I thought you were going to shout out Hustle and the Brad cameo and Hernan Gomez being the star.

[Sean Grandy]

I remember seeing that movie going, I hope. I wonder if Anth Edwards can play, because this kid is a star. If he can play, he's going to be the next big thing. And of course he was. He just like jumped off the screen in that movie.

[Evan Valenti]

Yeah, he did.

[Adam Kaufman]

All right. So going back to the seas for a second here and the there's been a little bit of. You weren't probably paying attention to any of this stuff, but on social media, certainly on like post game commentary after the Celtics game, a lot of mockery of the how the J is gonna coexist. How's this gonna work? Because obviously it has been a conversation, but, Ev, you're shaking your head, but I think for the wrong reasons.

[Sean Grandy]

There are, wow, that's some mind reading right there.

[Adam Kaufman]

There are reasons that you could look at and say, like, yeah, like, of course it was gonna work. These guys have played together for damn near a decade. They won a championship together. They know how to play together. Like, no kidding. But I do think it, you know, where, where it gets lost a little bit. Some of these people scoffing at the notion that there wasn't, isn't and will be an element of trying to navigate this a little bit with a. Not 100% run the offense through him. Jason Tatum, we've talked about that a lot on this show for weeks, months, Ev, I think, and the post game interviews with, you know, Tatum was up there at the podium and, and for him, it was just a lot of relief and gratitude and excitement and happy to be back and all of that. And talking about that more than anything else, as you would expect, Brown was, you know, in his scrum and, you know, they kind of got to the, hey, I'm really excited to have Jason back and he's my friend, I'm rooting for him and I've had a front row seat to all of this. And oh, my God, this is amazing. Like, they got to that. But where Brown started was, yeah, we got to figure this out a little bit. Because tonight for me in my role was a little bit clunky. Not his exact word, but that was, that was the notion. It was, it was a little different than it has been. And that wasn't him complaining. It wasn't him saying, this isn't gonna work or they can't play together or any of that, but it was him acknowledging, okay, we've been doing something a certain way for three quarters of the season, and now we got to do something a different way that should ultimately make us even better, but there's a little path that we need to follow to get ourselves there. And so I just. All of the, like, mocking the how are these guys going to work together? You know, at a very superficial level, I thought was kind of dumb, honestly, because there is an element of this that they need to figure out.

[Sean Grandy]

There usually is an element of truth or something that matters in it. And then we in our society have a tendency to blow up that little morsel of stuff that matters and blow it up into some craziness about how they don't get along and whatever and this isn't going to work and blah blah. And I seem to I feel strongly I have a strong memory of being on a duck boat a couple years ago. I remember my son was there next to me and there were a lot of people I remember watching. I, I, I seem to remember that happening. So I'm not concerned about it. But of course from a clunky state was clunky the first court and by the way, it got less clunky as the game went on, as he became more comfortable. And of course it's going to be clunky because on the one hand it's a player who's been with them all year long and has been in every practice, it has been to every game and in a different outfit every time. But on the other hand, it is an element of a player you're adding to the roster that there is no practice time on. That's what I really the only thing I was scoffing at was Jason Tatum's been secretly practicing with the Celtics. No, he hasn't. You know why? Because they don't practice. There's no time to practice. Once you get in the season, you're playing every other day. The Celtics are in this run right now. They're playing like 20 games in 35 days or 36 days. We just did six games in nine days in all four time zones. The world moves fast. Your work day even faster. Pitching products, drafting reports, analyzing data. Microsoft 365 Copilot is your AI assistant for work built into Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other Microsoft 365 apps you use, helping you quickly write, analyze, create and summarize so you can cut through clutter and clear a path to your best work. Learn [e-mail] N365 copilot like you're not did not suppose that line from City. There's like the man ate bacon in every meal. You're not supposed to do that. You're not supposed to do that. So there's no practices. There's no, there's no time for this kind of stuff. So you're gonna have to do it on the fly. You're gonna have to do it with film study. You're gonna have to do it all the while. This is what I think this is what Jason was concerned about when he didn't want to come back at 70%. And tough, because you're at 70%. All that said, I would say this about Joe. He has deserved all the flowers he's gotten this year. And if it seems like he has been going around telling everybody, this is my favorite year that I've ever had and my teammates have been great. And it's because here's a guy who has been cast in the role of Robin for the last eight years, all the while thinking, all the while knowing, all the while believing that he could be Batman. And you know what he's been this year? Batman. And he's done it great. So I had no problem with it. If there had been. If I was. You want to go back to the PR conversation we had earlier? If I had control over time and space and I was dictating it. I have used The Jordan analogy 30 years ago coming back from baseball a few times, and I hesitate because in our society now, he said Tatum is Jordan. He's comparing Tatum to Jordan. I'm not saying he's Jordan or that he's the Beatles or he's Jesus or better than Jesus or whatever John Lennon said, not saying any of that. I'm using the situation comparing Scotty Pippen to Jalen Brown, where he had that year and a half when he was the guy and the Bulls were playing great and Pippen was playing great. There was one moment in a nationally televised game when the return. Jordan's return was becoming imminent. And they cut to Pippin on the bench and he points down to his sneakers with a the Jumpman logo on it. He says, come back, come back. We need you. One little moment like that from Jaylen might have quelled. I. I don't think my point is that earlier Jaylen, Jason, organization, all of us, we complained about the talking heads talking about Jalen and Jason and how this is all going to work. I don't think. I think we could have done more to quell it, and nobody did. You know, there's a docu series and everybody's got their own issues to worry about. So I think the discussion, what I'm getting at is that it's fair. Of course it's fair. And of course it's going to continue. And what if the Celtics play fairly well but lose these three games, which is very possible on the road trip, and then suddenly they're 1 in 3 since Jason Tatum came back after a 41 and 21 start? So your. The situation is fraught with potential peril. With the difficult schedule the rest of the way, I just think inside the room, I think they both know that to win again, they need each other and that they're both great individually, but together again. I just remember being on Duck Boat. I feel like it happened so therefore it happened because of the two of them, how they had played together for all the. For eight years. So the notion, though,

[Evan Valenti]

I. I keep going back to that clip that there. That I think NBC Sports Boston had, and the two of them are sitting in the chairs together. They're the director's chairs. And Jalen looks at. Jalen looks at Jason and goes, you want to win? And Jason goes, yeah, he wants to win. I want to win. We're good. There has been a. There's been a significant part of these two guys career of pinning them against each other of like, oh, is it, you know, like, they can't coexist to this. You and us have been a part of the. They can. They will. They'll figure it out.

[Adam Kaufman]

They did.

[Evan Valenti]

They want a title. You're on a Duck boat. I. I don't. I don't worry about them because I. This season, to me, is it, like, it's. It's what it is. It's. It's.

[Adam Kaufman]

It's.

[Evan Valenti]

It's Jaylen figuring out that he can do X, Y and Z. It's Jason getting back to himself. It's integrating Jordan Walsh and Baylor Shireman and Derek White and Peyton Pritchard. It's a whole bunch of things, people now, like, Nick Wright is like, they're gonna win the title. I'm like, that's ridiculous.

[Sean Grandy]

Come on.

[Evan Valenti]

Like, come on. Like, come on. Now you're putting ridiculous pressure on this team that just got this guy back, literally 35 seconds.

[Sean Grandy]

I. I love Nick Wright, but that's the same dude who had a very unique idea for the All Star Game.

[Adam Kaufman]

We talked about.

[Sean Grandy]

We talked about it with Max.

[Evan Valenti]

We brought it up. We. We brought it up.

[Sean Grandy]

He wasn't. I did, too. You got to be comfortable with your place in this. In this world we're in now to suggest that. So I. Full marks. Full marks.

[Evan Valenti]

Got to be on a white team. I said, pritchard's got to be in the white team if we're going to do that. But I'm not. I'm not going there. But he brought up the.

[Sean Grandy]

He just did. Dude, why don't you just, like, put the whole roster.

[Evan Valenti]

He's ready to build up the roster. I'm ready, but I just think that guy's ready to go. But it. Nick. Nick was like, oh, they're gonna be out of control. I'm taking the silks to win the championship. And I was like, that's. That's just ridiculous. That's insane. That's insane to do.

[Adam Kaufman]

Like, well, but listen, the betting odds, they are at least the favorites to come out of the East.

[Sean Grandy]

Yeah, I think. I think that's a little. But everything's based. The projections all get based on scoring differential. And the Celtics, to me, even more impressive than the record is this absurd statistical profile that they put together. Where they started the night, the second in different. Second in net rating. Are you serious? That I don't know. We didn't know where to start. Second in net rating, fourth and rebounding after the first week they have. It looks like we're going to get a rebound all here. And they're a top five rebounding team. They were top five defensive team until the Charlotte game the other night. The fact that they lose Tatum, Porzingis, Horford and Cornet and they've maintained the offensive pace from last year. One of the elite offensive teams in NBA history. People like, yeah, but everybody's up there. This is this great offensive era. Well, they're still fit, but they're the best one of that group. They're still second in the league to Denver this year with it's. It's just one absurdity after the other.

[Evan Valenti]

I, I always believe in the title. That's my. You know, that's just like the. I don't. I. I think they're. You're projecting on this team of like, oh, they're going to add Tatum back and now they're going to title. Like, no, like just.

[Sean Grandy]

They're not adding to. You're not adding Tatum back from. I understand the legend will be that Tatum was under the knife having the surgery before the ball came back inbounds. Right. Because you know, they got him across town to New York and he had the surgery. But the one thing he is not going to be is Jason Tatum last night. He's not going to be Jason Tatum tomorrow in Cleveland. It's going to take a while and. But the point is, is 70% of Jayson Tatum better than what you were getting in those minutes and more dangerous than what you were getting in those minutes? And what the Celtics are is a scary as hell live underdog to scare the teams that really are the contenders. And by the way, this notion that the west is this unbelievably deep with the east has got some good teams in it, you still have Philadelphia, Charlotte hanging around the middle. The east is getting overlooked here and dog, because it's easy copy, are the best two teams, Oklahoma City and San Antonio? Absolutely. But Denver is flawed. Jokic is amazing, but he doesn't look like the same joker in the last couple years. The Lakers, needless to say, can't stop anybody from scoring. Phoenix has got significant injuries. That middle of the west is just, is not that good. So this idea that it's going to be this now Minnesota, how Boston has a better record than Minnesota is beyond me. But you're still going to have, you know, in Houston the second half of the year ever since the Kevin Durant burner account where we wander. Yeah, we wander into the building tonight. You knew something was going on with Houston when the Celtics won that ridiculous game on the back to back and they blew out the Rockets and IME got kicked out, Shane Moon got kicked out and Durant was barking at the bench. You knew sometimes in this league you end up in somebody else's soap opera and the Celtics certainly did that night. But suddenly this big, scary, dominant west doesn't look that way. And you look like you have four really good teams at the top of the east and some, some live teams on the bottom there with Charlotte and Philly and Miami beat Charlotte tonight. I just don't, you know, who wants to see Miami again. It was just like it feels like every year we go to Miami for the playoffs. So there's one scenario unfolding. I brought this up the other night where you could have a, a rerun of last year with Orlando in the first round in New York in the second. That's, that's starting to come into play.

[Adam Kaufman]

Taking the Knicks out would be incredibly poetic though, on the way to whatever happens.

[Sean Grandy]

It'll be scary on the show in months past, but think of the weight of the expectations. And this is the thing about enjoying this year.

[Adam Kaufman]

The pressure would be on New York,

[Sean Grandy]

all of the pressure. And they've said they've collapsed under it. They've had a really good year. But I ask you this. They've had a really good year of the next half. You think it's been fun. I think it's been nearly as much fun as the Celtics have had this year. No, because now you fire the coach. Weight of expectations when they lose a game, suddenly it's like the Celtics the last couple years. How dare they lose a game. And it's not as much fun. And so when you get to the end of the championship as that dude who was calling it said the only way to live up to absurd, ridiculous expectations. You only have one choice. You have to meet them. And that's what the Celtics did in 2024. So enjoy. I promise you, October 1st you're going to see the Celtics back up among the favorites and whatever. So enjoy the time that the weight is on Cleveland and James Harden having to win a seventh game. It's on Detroit because they're going to win 60 games and it's on New York because it's New York. And by the way, as someone who grew up there bombarded with the chance of 1940, tortured by my friends who were Islander fans as I grew up a die hard New York Ranger fan in New York when the Rangers had gotten to 40, 45 years, eventually on their way to 54 without winning the Stanley Cup. This is now 53 for the Knicks. So next year is the 54th year, which is what the Rangers were when they finally won the Cup. And you don't think of it, but here we are, it's 1973. So the weight that is on the Knicks here. And by the way, the Celtics will be back next year. The Pacers could get Halberton and the Bansa right next year. We, we don't know how this is going to play out. And by the way, let me make another prediction now. You can play back. Since our March 4th didn't work out, let's say the Celtics had this amazing year with 53 games, losing game seven of the second round, incredible gap year. You're going to have some people come out of the woodwork when the Pacers get the number one pick in the draft and say we should have tanked. See, well, look at the Pacers. They got, they're getting Halliburton back in the, you know that's coming. So let's, let's kill it now. Enjoy all this. Enjoy the fact that you're, if the Celtics can win in the first round, you're going to go scare the limit. Nobody wants to play Pistons don't want to play the Celtics. The Knicks don't want, nobody wants to see the Celtics in a year that they have to win because the Celtics aren't supposed, you guys aren't even supposed to be here and now you're going to come in and try to crash our party and so let the weight be on somebody else because for the last few years it's been on you and next year it will be again.

[Adam Kaufman]

Sean, listen, if I weren't a bigger person, I'D be sitting here and comparing superstars and telling Pacers fans, your guy just doesn't want to even want to be back. Ruled him out before the season even began. He's how motivated is he to come back and play basketball for your team? The open tank but listen there we've been going on for a while. I don't want to keep all of

[Sean Grandy]

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[Evan Valenti]

I want to ask, I want to ask one question.

[Adam Kaufman]

Well, I, I have two more questions too, but go ahead.

[Evan Valenti]

And it's, it's, it's based on what Sean has said on this podcast in the past. And I'm sure it's not the only place he said this, but Sean was very adamant that about the Gordon Hayward injury that they eventually got the best version of Gordon Hayward later right in that bubble series. They were playing the best basketball they have ever played under Brad Stevens when Gordon Hayward finally got back and he got hurt. No, the bubble and never was the same. Sean, you think it's possible they can redo history here and find lightning in a bottle and say, yeah, maybe they they weren't the best that they could be, but they, they put together for a stretch where they were the best team in basketball because they brought Tatum back and Tatum was X amount of what he normally is. Is there a possibility of this because you were adamant like at a certain point the Celtics were playing the best basketball of anybody. That was the the best version of the Gordon Hayward version of the Celtics that you could possibly see. They were playing amazing and then everything went a little haywire. Do you think that's possible?

[Sean Grandy]

I think that the Celtics are an extremely dangerous team. I only hesitate to the people who are calling them favorites and whatever and they have overplayed the one year you're supposed to not have the expectations. They played so outrageously well that they have dragged people who maybe haven't really paid attention to the fact they've done this with Garza and shireman and a 19 year old kid that nobody had heard of before the year and Keda starting, how many of the low expectations were because nobody thought Keda was going to be close to being able to be an NBA center.

[Evan Valenti]

Right?

[Sean Grandy]

And that was a common theme. Like people Celtic fans should be happy to be wrong about that. It was unrealistic to expect Kata to have the season he had. But now you do have a lot of things, you know, falling into place. The beauty of Tatum coming back last night was that there aren't three games left or five games left. And I think we tend to think of it because Tatum's back and the end is nearing the play. It's not. The schedule is really tough, but you got 20 games to sort of see what you have and there still could be another wild card in the Eastern Conference. There could be an injury to the Celtics or to the Pistons or whatever stuff we don't know about. I remember doing this interview before opening night in 2017 about how we always think we know things and then a major injury, something we can't possibly expect happening, and then five minutes later, you know, the Gordon Hayward injury changes. So that's why the prediction market is for people who want to be in the prediction market and, and do price picks. Because I've been around long enough to know crazy, crazy stuff happens. That said, you can say on March the seventh that something you couldn't possibly have realistically said in October, the Celtics have a legitimate chance to be a, you know, a wild card, underdog, long run playoff team. There's no question they've, they've earned that right.

[Adam Kaufman]

So the, the two things I have left, I'll start with this one, which relates to this year's Celtics and we use the word duality before the duality of the Tatum return versus losing Vucevic for what expects to be around a month. So maybe you get him back just in time for the playoffs and that would be great. I think a lot of people would say his very brief Celtics tenure to date has been a little underwhelming. There have been flashes, there have been moments, but generally I don't think he's necessarily brought what a lot of people expected he would from Chicago. I mean, hell, I don't know how much Luke Garza necessarily plays in this Tatum return game if not for the Buccovic injury. And he winds up playing great when he does get in there and impactful and game swinging and all of these things. So over the next few weeks, losing vouch, how impactful do you think that is. Is this a guy that you have to have for a playoff run?

[Sean Grandy]

Well, it's significant. And when it happened, like, the first thing you think of is, listen, James Harden had a, you know, thumb injury where guys have had different injuries. They literally didn't miss a game. So you just don't. You don't know. I hate when it happened and he came out and he didn't come right back out on Friday night. Max and I both, that we said it like, we got a bad feeling about this. This looks bad. I. I really hate the fact that he doesn't get to play with Tatum here next couple weeks. I think that was going to be important. And listen, Vuchevic is going to be a player. I think it's almost set up that it depends on the matchup. There are going to be nights which of it's going to be invaluable. There's going to be nights he's not going to be crazy effective like Shark. When Charlotte is, like, super athletic and they play super fast, they're not necessarily big. Vuchevich is here to play against Jalen Durham. By the way, think about a potential playoff run for the Celtics. It could be Embiid, Towns, Duran, these are all different guys. And you need an experience big, you know, in there. But what Vuchwich was going to be the offensive Al Horford, Right. He was going to make things easier offensively with the ball movement and things like that. So if it really does end up being a month, it was. It's always dangerous in the first hours to say, okay, it's like I said before. You say two weeks and you say four weeks. We. We don't know. We don't know what we know. We don't know if we're just going to be able to do with that finger a week from now or whatever. But I hate the fact that he doesn't. We don't have a feel for what. It messes up the rotations not knowing what he can and cannot do with Tatum.

[Adam Kaufman]

I love that you mentioned Horford, because that takes me to the other place I wanted to go before we wrap up.

[Sean Grandy]

More return videos coming up. We're not. We still leave the league. We're going to win a championship in that. That's.

[Adam Kaufman]

I mean, if. If Xavier Tillman got one, Lord knows Al's getting another one

[Evan Valenti]

to X. I'll tell you that right now. Just look at his face when he was watching.

[Adam Kaufman]

So I don't think he. My whole thing with Horford, that I like the fact that he. Obviously, I would have loved if he came back, but I understand the reasons that he's gone in terms of the financials and all of that. I always scoffed. Going back to the beginning, I thought Boston would have a better season than Golden State. That is documented, that is on record on this show, or at least would have a better chance of winning a championship because there was no universe, even if healthy in my mind anyway, the Golden State was going to get out of the West. So him saying, like, I wanted to go there to try and win a championship, you took the payday and that's fine. Like, you can do that. You. You'd like to roll better, that's fine. I don't begrudge him for doing it. I just kind of always mocked it and laughed at it. When he very recently made the comments, though, that there were other external reasons that he left and wouldn't divulge them, but suggested, you know, something I'll talk about down the line. But there were, you know, certainly implied. It wasn't financial, it wasn't role, it wasn't overall expectations of a team. There was something else. There was something personal that dictated him not coming back to Boston. Do you have any sense of what he was talking about?

[Sean Grandy]

I could do the irresponsible thing and guess, you know, I'd rather. I'll say it for himself and maybe he's going to say it when he comes to Boston in a couple of weeks. Obviously, it's a topic for that night. But I think that Al's. Al's son and he's got, you know, he's got about 28 kids, but he's. He's got a son who's going to be a serious player, who probably is going to be a professional, is projecting right now, you know, years from now to be a pro. And I think there was an element of wanting to teach him what it is like to be a. A professional. I think there's an element to that. Maybe that'll be what he ends up talking about at some point. I. I think of all the great mysteries. I don't think it's. One Celtics fan should be losing a lot of. A lot of sleep over. I don't think there was much circumstance by which Al was going to come back, you know, and play here. And I think at the beginning of the year, I know you. I know what you're saying. Most people didn't think that. And certainly Boston was really left for dead like. Like Indiana for this season. And now how many Seasons does he have left? So I. I thought it was a chance for him, and he said it wasn't about money, and that's fine. It wasn't. But isn't it funny? Isn't it ironic that twice Al has left here for what looked to be greener basketball pastures, and both times it has not been close. Swinging a miss.

[Adam Kaufman]

If. Before we wrap, would you like to divulge why you have been sipping a drink this entire show? Sure.

[Evan Valenti]

There was tequila in this drink

[Adam Kaufman]

way back when. Now it is now going to say

[Evan Valenti]

about Jonathan Quick, so can't control himself back in the day. Barrett, Brian Barrett, off the bike, on the ringer. Spotify. He asked me to be on game three. It was game three. They. That Tatum broke that. He snapped his Achilles fba be on the post game show for. For that show. Is it game four?

[Adam Kaufman]

Four.

[Evan Valenti]

Yeah, four. Okay. And I obliged, per usual, and I was like, yeah, I mean, no problem. And not knowing what I was getting myself into. And Tam goes down, snaps his Achilles, and my whole life is. Is throw up in. Into flames. And you're like, oh, my goodness, how am I gonna deal with this? I told Brian, I said, brian, I'm gonna be drinking to kill this entire show today to just to justify, like, what I'm doing to give. Give you what I could give you. And, you know. You know, you sip it throughout the entire show. And. And by the time I got to the end, I was trying to do the Brian Rosulo spin zone of losing Tatum would be good for the Celtics. I was trying to, like, push that in terms of the. This would be good. Jaylen Brown learned how to be a. An alpha dog, etc. Etc. And I drank tequila the entire show. So in honor of Tatum coming back, I did the same thing. I drank tequila the entire show, duration of the show. And if my answers got a little wonkier throughout the show, that's probably a good reason, But I thought it would be full circle. I talked about this with Adam. I said, hey, I'm gonna drink tequila to this entire show. He said, full, full circle. It seems like it makes a lot of sense, and it was more spiritual than anything else. So, yeah, look, it's weird because I'm 35, right? And I've seen a decent amount of basketball, not a ton of basketball, but Tatum and Brown are like the. I've watched them grow up as. As humans, right? So. And they're both younger than me. You know, Tatum's 28, Jalen's 29, but they're in relatively similar age gaps, but I've watched them grow as, as men, and I'm very proud of both of them, of what they've become over the years. But, like, I have a, like, my basketball history is tied very directly to the both of them, and I thought it would be very fitting to kind of like, full circle it with a little bit tequila throughout the night. And I just, I, I, you know, this entire show is more mostly about Tatum and how he was come back from this devastating thing. And I, I, I'm gonna take my, like, reporter head off or my, my podcast host head off for a minute. And like, man, I can't imagine coming back from that kind of injury. I can't imagine coming back from a point where, like, you listen to him and he's like, I don't. I never thought I would come back from this. I didn't think I would be the same guy. I never thought I would play basketball again. And you're like, man, like, imagine if you're in your life, you did something happened to you where you would, you were questioning whether you would be able to come back the same person. You were. Like, I, I would be a disaster. I'd be a mess. I'd be a, it would take me a, a good amount of time to come back to the person that I was. And, and Tatum is supposed to do that. Like, that, right? Like, he gets the surgery next day, he's rehabbing the next day. That's hard. It's hard. To come back from a torn achilles and in 298 days is insane. To be a top five NBA player that I believe that he was prior to the injury is insane. But he's here, and I just want to commend him for that. Like, I think that's insane. And I'm so, I don't put this. I'm, I'm so thrilled to be a part of the ride. I'm thrilled to be part of the journey of watching it happen in real time. I'm jealous of Sean, who gets to be there in the building and try and project what's happening in real time. At the same time, I'm just, like, overwhelmed with everything that happened on Friday night. Like, holy, holy, we are here. He's back. He's playing. He's playing 27 minutes. He's a plus 20. He had almost a triple double. Like, this is insane. Everything we watched tonight, or I will say Friday night was insane. And tequila helped me get there. That's all I'm gonna Tell you let me get from A to B, and I'm see Sean and you.

[Adam Kaufman]

You thought you're gonna be impressive.

[Sean Grandy]

I just didn't realize this was an option. I'm gonna tell Max. I didn't know you could do that throughout entire show.

[Adam Kaufman]

Oh, yeah, you can.

[Sean Grandy]

We're very dynamic going forward. If he, if he did this, we're good.

[Evan Valenti]

We're good with that. Definitely. Definitely good with that. You could drink Snapple or tequila. Either way, no problem. Yeah, it's.

[Adam Kaufman]

By the end, you might answer some of those questions irresponsibly.

[Sean Grandy]

It's possible.

[Evan Valenti]

It is. It is possible. That's it.

[Adam Kaufman]

Oh, good stuff. Yeah. I mean, listen, I, I won't do the, the whole monologue of it, but I, I, I can remember, obviously I wasn't in the building like Sean, but I can remember, remember sitting on my couch with my kids, watching that Tatum injury and, and just the, just the emotion of boy, like in, in my emotion, I guess more it, it was more of an overarching fan outlook than it was about Tatum specifically and what is his future. It was just the. God, next year is gonna suck. Like next year. I mean, all these years of just, you know, you're in the championship conversation, at the very least, entering the year and through the duration of the year for years now, next year is gonna be really hard to watch. It is gonna blow. And then the gap year Celtics do what they're doing. And, oh, by the way, Jason Tatum came back, and it's early March, so it's. It's a pretty remarkable thing, a ride that we all get to go on here.

[Sean Grandy]

Listen, everyone forgets Celtics were favored. They were still favored to win the championship until about 30, till Mikhail Bridges blocked the Tatum shot. Yeah, it's one game, too. That was the first time anybody even considered the notion. The idea that both the Celtics and Cavs did not make the conference finals last year was inconceivable a day or two before it happened. And everything just happened so fast. And that was why, again, going back to the New York minute thing popping into my mind, because it just felt like the entire world of the Celtics, the entire dynamic had changed. Like, did the. Is this run over? Because you're going to definitely have BE without Tatum, and who knows what happens on the other side of that. You were already dealing with the tax stuff and being over the second apron, and we knew that was looming. But it went from looming to in the blink of an eye. Now it's here. It was like a fast forward all Of a sudden, that brick wall that was in the distance in front of you all of a sudden was 2 inches in front of your face. And the degree to which the Celtics ran through that brick wall and now have been rejoined by their guy on the other side is a, a reason to not. It's not a reason to go now. We have to win the championship or else. It's a reason to realize how fragile this whole freaking thing is. And if you don't love every second of this and you can't be in the human moment of enjoying Friday night, then I think you're in the wrong place.

[Adam Kaufman]

Yeah. If you're a good way to wrap it up. If you. And I would hope nobody out there watching, listening, if anyone's still with us at this point in the program anyway, is in the.

[Sean Grandy]

Evan's still with us.

[Adam Kaufman]

Yeah, Ev is kind of still with us. If anyone is in the championship or bus to the Celtics team, you're nuts. But if you're in the camp that the Celtics are in the conversation to win a title, it's a good place to be.

[Evan Valenti]

It's.

[Adam Kaufman]

It's a lot of fun. So the long time voice of the Celtics, Sean Grandy, kind enough to join us here on the show periodically. We always love having you on, obviously, and as we said, narrating the season. And it's some of the finest, most impressive moments like what we just witnessed on Friday, albeit with some uncertainty as it surrounds Vuchovic's future, but the fact that Jason Tatum, its superstar player, all due respect, Jalen Brown is back on the floor and we get to watch all of this unfold again over the next several weeks leading into the playoffs starting in mid April, is an exciting thing. So for anyone that missed any of this show, other Celtics podcasts available to you, of course, part of CLNS Media and the network, the Celtics all access page on YouTube or you can subscribe to the audio version if you have been watching the video version. One of my highlights of this show was Sean talking about calling the end of last season and Ev trying to point Adam and pointing in the opposite direction. I just. That was. That was for me, I enjoyed that. Yeah. But other than that, that's when we

[Sean Grandy]

should have known by the way that yeah. Tequila had taken the effect. No, that no Marsh is up in that.

[Adam Kaufman]

No, that was EVs. The gummies have hit moments.

[Sean Grandy]

Hey, you. I know you. I know.

[Adam Kaufman]

So forever. I am Adam for Sean. Sean, thank you so much, sir. We will talk to you again before the playoffs for certain and great to know that the playoffs are coming in, whatever the seed, whatever the schedule looks like. Again, Boston back at it. Sean will be there in Cleveland come Sunday. Early game coupled with daylight savings as he mentioned at San Antonio, at Oklahoma City. The good news for those that are already trying to figure out when and how often Jason Tatum will play. If I'm not mistaken, the rest of the way, I think there are only two back to backs. So if you want to assume that he's not going to take part in back to backs a la Al Horford, as he got a little bit older, then you know you still got a whole lot of potential. Tatum games in front of us to look forward to, so that's exciting. But long ran short. We're done. Thanks for being with us here on Celtics feet. We'll catch you next time.

[Sean Grandy]

This episode is brought to you by Athletic Brewing Co. No matter how you do game day, on the couch, in the crowd or manning the snack table, Athletic Brewing fits right in with a full lineup of non alcoholic beer styles you can enjoy bold flavors all game long. No hangovers, no buzz, no subbing out for water in the second half. Stock the fridge for tip off with a variety of non alcoholic craft styles available at your local grocery store or online at athleticbrewing.com near Beer Fit for All times.