Check out this week’s podcast as I discuss the C’s post-championship off-season with Nick Altschuller . If you have a question for "The Dino Radja Experience", email us at dinoradjaexperience@gmail.com.

Thoughts from a week that brought us the birth of a baseball dynasty—or at least a team that will challenge in the AL East for the next month or so before sputtering out and finishing the season 10 games behind the Red Sox and Yankees…

"One Positive Thing About Baseball" of the Week: DVR Made Easy

So let’s say you’re watching a Celtics game, and you realize you forgot something at the store, or maybe you have to go pick up your dinner, switch your laundry, take the dog for a walk. You pause the TV, leave the house and try and get back as soon as possible, and when you do, you’ve got your work cut out for you. You’ve missed about 20 minutes of time, which in basketball means multiple possessions, a lot of hoops and potentially a huge swing in momentum. You have the conversation with yourself:

OK, should I try and catch up?… No, it’s cool, I’ll just fast-forward through commercials… but what if someone calls or texts you from the TV future and spoils a big play that you’d rather see live?… OK, I just won’t answer my phone… that’s stupid, what if you fast forward through foul shots as well. That’ll make up some time… all right, that sounds good… but wait, I kind of like the stats they show during foul shots…

You know how it goes. It’s a mess and brings far too much stress than you need when you’re already watching a stressful game. Anyway, with baseball—and especially the Red Sox this season—you go to the store, and 20 minutes later you’ve missed like six pitches. There’s so much painful downtime, you hardly need to pause it at all.

Note: And yeah, I’m desperately trying to find ways to be positive about the Celtics not playing another meaningful game for four months.

Thoughts while uncomfortably waiting for Darrell Arthur to be drafted…

Three Random Draft Observations of the Week

*Worst comment of the entire night (paraphrased here):

"Hey, guys, did you hear that Doc Rivers Gatorade shirt went up on EBay this week and someone bought it for $50,000? I mean that’s great, but get a life!" –Stuart Scott

Stu, you are soooo right. I’ve always considered rapists, pick pockets, ambulance chasers and people who donate 50K to benefit children’s charities to be society’s biggest bottom feeders.

*Eric Gordon looks like a combination of Jay Williams and Steve Erkel if said Jay Williams/Steve Erkel combo constantly looked constipated.

*When you hate someone for as long as I’ve hated Stephen A. Smith, you surrender all hope that you’ll ever enjoy his presence on any given broadcast. But as weird and wrong as this feels to say, I enjoyed Stephen A. Smith last night.

He asks real questions, sugar coats nothing, and for some reason, players are comfortable enough with him to actually answer. Those post-pick interviews could have easily been as cookie cutter as a third grade report card, but SAS kept it pretty legit. From asking DJ Augustine about Raymond Felton, Gallinari about getting booed and Russell Westbrook about the knocks on his ability to run the point, I thought he did a surprisingly decent job.

And on that note…

The Three Best (hilarious) SAS interviews of the night:

1. Joe Alexander: Only because his awkward intensity sounded exactly like Joe from Family Guy.

2. Brooke Lopez: Only because his clothes and grace were reminiscent of the giant from Big Fish while his voice was Mr. Larson from Happy Gilmore.

3. Darrell Arthur: Only because at one point SAS said this sentence on national TV: "Darrell, now we goin’ to Doris, who’s down there wit yo mama!"

Note 1: When Brook and Robin Lopez’s were choosing a college, do you think they took into consideration the fact that Stanford had already sent a pair of identical twin seven-footers—Jason and Jarron Collins—to the league? It can’t just be a coincidence that the NBA’s only two sets of freak twins of the last 20 (or more) years went to the same school, right? Maybe Stanford has scientists engineering these dudes the same way the Chinese government created Yao.

Note on a Note: Here’s something weird about Jason and Jarron Collins. Not only are they identical twins, but over the course of their seven year careers they’ve averaged an almost identical 4.4 and 4.3 points per game. Granted, Jason’s played about 100 more games and made two appearances in the Finals but still, for their numbers to be so similar is kind of eerie.

Note to the Third: I usually like quirky athletes—I enjoyed watching Ricky Williams give interviews with his helmet on, love Jesper Parnevik’s pants and used to laugh at Jonathan Silverman’s character in Little Big League—but the Lopez brothers are the exception to the rule. There’s something about them that I absolutely hate and I can’t imagine how awful it must have been for the other Stanford guys to put up with Brook and Robin over the last two years. I think the fact that they won’t be together anymore is the best possible scenario for any team that has to put up with their weird BS, but I still don’t foresee them becoming anything more than gigantic—literally and figuratively—and freaky pains in the ass.

Check out this story for confirmation

I’d love to see Brook plop himself down next to Vince Carter on the team plain and strike up a conversation about the time Peter Pan saved the Lost Boys.

Segue.

"Random List of the Week"

I was relatively indifferent on the Yi for Richard Jefferson trade. First, there’s not a team in the league I care less about than the Bucks, and second, in the last year the Nets have become more irrelevant than the latest hard copy edition of Encyclopedia Britannica.

Anyway, here’s the one thought I had: I’m happy Vince Carter is getting what he deserves again—the leading role on a garbage, going no where team.

It’s funny to say this now, because Vince was one of the most entertaining and likable guys in the league when he first started. He was on everybody’s short list of favorite players. Now he’s a disgrace.

It’s all been said at this point. The Celtics won. We all laughed. We all cried. We are the Champions. And to bridge the gap between the most memorable Celtics season of the last 20 years and the start of the 2008-09 repeat campaign, here’s one question (and answer) to think about for every player who help bring home Banner 17.

What will Kevin Garnett do with his life now?

Is there anyway KG can remain as intense and focused next season when the very thing he was so focused on (for so long) is now neatly wrapped around his finger? I say no. That’s not to say his effort will be compromised in 2009, I just don’t see how he can be as obsessed. It’s human nature. It’s the Zelda Corollary.

Remember when you first got Zelda? Not that we had anything beter to do with our lives back in the late 80s, but the day you got Zelda, Zelda became your life. And you wouldn’t rest until Gannon was hunched over in a bloody heap on your black and white VHF/UHF TV. You spent months living and breathing that effing game; it’s all you thought about. And then—months later–when you finally beat it, it was like, "Um… so what do I do now?" You played again, and you still got excitement for going through and winning it all, but it was never the same. Not without curiosity over what it would be like to scale the mountain; or the taunting from your friends who had already sealed the deal. You kept beating Zelda but you could never recreated the drive and intensity of doing it the first time.

Check out the newest podcast from Rich Levine as Banner 17 is celebrated. Rich is once again joined by Nick Altschuler from the Improper Bostonian, and Celtics Sideline Reporter Greg Dickerson. If you have a question for "The Dino Radja Experience", email us at dinoradjaexperience@gmail.com.

Thoughts from a week that brought us one of the greatest games in Boston sports history—and a game that will be the sole focus of this column

“Defining Moment” of the Week

Ray Allen’s “give me the ball and get out of the way, there is no effing chance a guy named Sasha is stopping me” move on Sasha Vujacic at the end of Game 4 was the definition of what we’ve been looking for from the PGA Tour these entire playoffs.

The game was on the line, and Ray assumed total responsibility. He put the team on his back and said, “this is my game, and I’m finishing it right now.” If the Celtics end up winning the championship, this shot will not only be looked back on as the defining moment of the series, but potentially the defining moment of Ray Allen’s Hall of Fame (maybe) career.

There was nothing getting in the way of his will to score that hoop—not the fatigue, not the refs and certainly not Vujacic. And the way in which he finished it off was vintage Ray. It was everything I’ve grown to love about his game since last November, when I realized that he was far more than just a glorified spot up shooter.

Note: In Pierce’s interview with Michelle Tafoya after the game, he was talking about Ray’s basket and alluded to KG setting a big screen. Maybe Paul forgot which play he was talking about…

Check out the newest podcast from Rich Levine as we all await Game 4 of the NBA Finals. Rich is once again joined by Nick Altschuler from the Improper Bostonian. If you have a question for "The Dino Radja Experience", email us at dinoradjaexperience@gmail.com.

You may not know it, but that Celtics jersey you wore to the game last night, or that you’ll wear to the bar tomorrow night says a lot about who you are. It says a lot about your lifestyle. A lot about what makes you tick.

What follows is a breakdown of Celtics fans by their jersey of choice. It’s important to note that not every fan has every characteristic. It’s just that if you own said jersey, there’s a good chance you fall into one of the categories below it.

As always, players are listed alphabetical by first name:

Brian Scalabrine
*You’re white
*You played JV basketball your junior year of high school
*You miss important plays because you are turned around yelling at the people behind you to up stand and clap.
*You lose your voice on weekends
*You wouldn’t be caught dead with a mixed drink

Eddie House
*You’re under 6-feet-tall
*When you’re playing pick up games you never set foot inside the three-point circle unless you’ve been cherry picking and get an uncontested fast break lay up.
*The Entourage character you best relate to is Turtle
*You have at least one older brother
*At some point in your life, you’ve been prescribed ritalin

Glen “Big Baby” Davis
*You weigh more than 220 pounds are fewer than 150.
*If all your friends voted, you’d win the superlative for “Guy Most Likely to Take His Shirt Off When He’s Drunk”
*You’ve been booed off of a karaoke stage
*You drink a lot of Diet Coke
*You tailgate for every Patriots game, regardless of whether you’re going.

Thoughts from a week that taught us not to never, ever mess with Coco Crisp…

The "Almost Most Heartbreaking Moment of the Year" Moment of the Week: Down goes the Truth

Towards the end of the pre-game intros last night, just before they called Paul Pierce’s name, I felt an overwhelming sense of happiness for the Truth. In the five quick seconds that he was standing at the base of the awkwardly placed, massive golden trophy, I thought about all that he had been through in Boston: how he’d been so close to being traded 10 different times; how he was so close to being stabbed to death in 2000; how even though he didn’t know it, he’d been a pretty huge part of my life for the last 10 years.

Anyway, at that very moment, Paul looked, prouder, happier and more satisfied than I’d ever seen him, and I imagined all that must have been going through his own head, as he prepared to take the floor in the NBA Finals after 10 years relative ups and bottomless downs..

An hour later, and I watched as Pierce was carried into the lockerroom with the a look on his face that you’d expect from a guy who’d just had his leg bitten off by a shark.

I wasn’t even assuming the worse anymore. I’d already convinced myself that he was done for the season. It was a fact.

Series prediction: I type this amidst a puddle of burning, pathetic and uncontrollable tears, but I’m going with Lakers in 6.

But with that being said, if the Celtics can extend this series the distance, there’s no way they lose a Game 7 at the Garden; the crowd won’t let them.

Finals MVP: Kobe Bryant is the easy choice, unless Sam Cassell continues to play at his current level and the victorious Lakers decide to give him the honorary title.

If the C’s win, it’s got to be Pierce. This is his chance to prove to the rest of the world that he’s the kind of top tier NBA star that Celtics fans already believe—and rightfully so—that he is.

Player that Steps Up: For the Celtics, Perkins needs to be the guy. He made enormous strides in earning the confidence of his teammates and Celtic Nation during the conference finals, and a strong series against LA will go a long way towards his maturation into a legit NBA center. The reason Kobe’s been so great in these playoffs is that he trusts his teammates and feels comfortable getting his shots within the offense. If Perk can get into Pao Gasol’s head, screw up his rhythm and in turn make Kobe lose some of that confidence in Kung Pao, the Mamba will start to press and that’s when he’s at his weakest.