The One Where Jae Crowder Sounds Off

"I come from the school of the sly, wicked, and the slick."

Hey hey hey! What is the haps everyone? Thank you very much for coming back to check out the site. It's the middle of July, so the sports scene for me is pretty much revolving around the Sox and Celtic trade rumors, but there are a few things I wanted to sound off about.

To get the serious stuff out of the way, I just wanted to throw my two cents in on the early allegations of Ezekiel Elliot and the domestic abuse case that is about to be started against him. Call me crazy, but I am at a complete loss when it comes to matters like this. Like what would every motivate a man to raises his hands/fists against a woman? I guess maybe some guys are wired differently and that is a concept that they just can't grasp.

Obviously the pure physicality and violence of the game of football could be looked at as a driving force behind this, and most likely, it is, but there are also plenty of men doing this without being involved in football. It is outrageous to me that this type of behavior is obviously just an accepted thing amongst certain groups/circles. I was such a huge fan of Zeke and was all over his stock for fantasy football, but that's forever tainted. If found guilty, and let's face it, it is looking bad for him, you can't allow him to play this game unless he is put through a rigorous rehabilitation program. While these crimes are heinous, I believe that he can be helped and be a positive member of society, but until it is deemed he can live in society and not pose any kind of threat to women or anyone else around him. This is truly a horrible thing that has happened, and one can only hope the NFL will do its due diligence after botching literally every disciplinary matter as it pertained to domestic violence in the past few years.

So yeah, really just a horrible incident and a black cloud over those positive vibes we all want to be sending, but as a man, it's difficult for me to fathom doing anything that despicable, and it just makes me sick.


Okay, let's get back to the good times. So Jae Crowder was obviously part of the official "bring KD to Boston" party that went to the Hamptons to try and lure Durant to Boston, and in the aftermath of Durant choosing Golden State over the Celts and OKC, Jae wasn't too thrilled with how that went down. He was at the Hall of Fame yesterday (in glorious Springfield, Massachusetts!) and was asked about what they did to recruit KD. Here's a few excerpts from that interview:

"We were the only team in the NBA to beat both (Cleveland and Golden State) on their home court — the only team in the NBA, the Boston Celtics. We told him that. We played him clips from both games and told him basically the scouting report of how we guarded Steph (Curry) and Klay (Thompson) — our entire game plan, basically. That’s what made me mad. We (expletive) told him everything we do to beat these guys, and we beat them, and he went and joined them. I mean, that’s part of the process, but I did not think he would go to those two teams…I felt like afterward, I was talking to Isaiah, like maybe after you sit back, you shouldn’t have told him everything, but who the (expletive) thought he was going to Golden State, realistically? It was like a slap in the face for us, basically.”

“That team is for sure the villain of the league,” Crowder said. “Every other NBA guy, friends of mine, are really disgusted from how the league is turning on that standpoint. Everybody is joining together, everybody wants to go to Golden State or Cleveland.”

So...there's that haha. Needless to say, Jae's pissed. I guess you have to be considering Durant actually at one point was ready to jump ship to play for the C's. The report came out earlier this week that once Tom Brady was involved in the recruitment pitch, KD actually wanted to come...

“I was ready to just say, 'Alright let's go. I'm ready to go,' seeing Tom Brady there," ~KD on Monday

Ultimately, the more "title ready" team won out, but still, it does seem like they had him on the hook, and the way they went into the specifics on how they guard the team he ended up choosing would definitely leave a sour taste in my mouth as well.

Unfortunately, Crowder was not done. He then kind of went out of his way to talk a little smack about another team:

“My guys were telling me that Bleacher Report says we’ll win 59 games,” Crowder said. “That’s a lot of wins, but I want to get past the first round of the playoffs. Two seasons in a row getting swept” (Note: The Celtics lost in six games this past year) “that’s my goal to be honest with you. I think our ceiling is the Eastern Conference Finals. Toronto is not a team we’re worried about. I think Cleveland is the top team. That’s what it comes down to.”

Ehhhhhhhh, we didn't need that. The Raptors are actually quite a sound team. The Lowry/DeRozan combo is still in full effect, and at last check, they finished #2 in the East, we were tied for 3rd, and also, they beat us three out of four times last year, so to jab them like that...I dunno. Like why go after them? Of course everyone's gunning for Cleveland, but to talk that kind of shizz about another team, I would prefer to A.) actually beat them in a season series, and B.) make it out of the first round of the playoffs. I dig Jae's passion, but I don't think we have to be that team to talk smack, especially since we still haven't accomplished anything. Let's win some games and some playoff series before we start saying we're not "worried" about a team.

On a semi-related note, I just stumbled upon this section of fivethirtyeight.com that is really fun to look at. It's called the CARMELO future projection system. It basically uses historical data and player comparisons to draw an NBA player's projected career arc. It even includes what kind of market value a player will be worth. Very cool stuff. I found out about this after Marcus Smart's projections were linked up all over Twitter (he's expected to have a massive jump this season to the point where his market value will be 5 years, $165.5 million and a "future All Star"...not bad for a guy who is still going to be under his rookie contract for the next three years, paying him about $5 million on average annually).


The Sox are red hot at the moment. After last night's 13-2 drubbing of Minnesota, the good guys have found themselves first place in the division, and a half game up on Baltimore. This is a big series for us against the Twins. They have been fairly awful all year (worst record in the majors), and if yesterday's performance was any indication, they should have no problem reeling off another three wins and furthering the distance between us and the O's and Toronto.

Again, the offense continues to be brilliant, but Steven Wright had a really, REALLY good start yesterday, going eight innings, striking out nine while only giving up two runs (one earned). He was excellent, and is such a critical piece to the overall puzzle. With Kimbrel out until at least mid-August and Koji landing on the DL himself, starting innings are becoming more and more valuable by the day, and the starters' effectiveness will help control how many innings the 'pen will be taxed (Junichi did just get recalled from the DL, so that's big...it will clearly be him and Ziegler in the 8th and 9th). So starts like that are huge. Drew Pomeranz, who we just traded one of our top prospects (Anderson Espinoza), got roughed up in his first start (3 innings, 8 hits, 5 earned with two homers allowed)...he HAS to get it together. Clearly we traded for him way before the deadline because the closer the deadline will get, the more demanding clubs will be about their return knowing that the window will shut if the other team cannot pull a deal off, and starting pitching will be in high demand. The third starter is what we are lacking, and as we inch closer to the postseason, it will be that much more critical in a seven game series to have an effective 1-2-3.

Well that about does it for now. Hope everyone has a lovely rest of your day. Stay positive and don't sweat the small things...it's hot enough already down here :) haha. Keep it going y'all!! Peace.

~Mell-o

“My guys were telling me that Bleacher Report says we’ll win 59 games,” Crowder told MassLive.com’s Tom Westerholm. “That’s a lot of wins, but I want to get past the first round of the playoffs. Two seasons in a row getting swept” (Note: The Celtics lost in six games this past year) “that’s my goal to be honest with you. I think our ceiling is the Eastern Conference Finals. Toronto is not a team we’re worried about. I think Cleveland is the top team. That’s what it comes down to.”

Read more at: http://nesn.com/2016/07/jae-crowder-rips-raptors-toronto-is-not-a-team-were-worried-about/

“My guys were telling me that Bleacher Report says we’ll win 59 games,” Crowder told MassLive.com’s Tom Westerholm. “That’s a lot of wins, but I want to get past the first round of the playoffs. Two seasons in a row getting swept” (Note: The Celtics lost in six games this past year) “that’s my goal to be honest with you. I think our ceiling is the Eastern Conference Finals. Toronto is not a team we’re worried about. I think Cleveland is the top team. That’s what it comes down to.”

Read more at: http://nesn.com/2016/07/jae-crowder-rips-raptors-toronto-is-not-a-team-were-worried-about/

“My guys were telling me that Bleacher Report says we’ll win 59 games,” Crowder told MassLive.com’s Tom Westerholm. “That’s a lot of wins, but I want to get past the first round of the playoffs. Two seasons in a row getting swept” (Note: The Celtics lost in six games this past year) “that’s my goal to be honest with you. I think our ceiling is the Eastern Conference Finals. Toronto is not a team we’re worried about. I think Cleveland is the top team. That’s what it comes down to.”

Read more at: http://nesn.com/2016/07/jae-crowder-rips-raptors-toronto-is-not-a-team-were-worried-about/