Has there been a better place and time to be a sports fan than Boston right now? The Patriots are not only undefeated, they have blown out every team they have faced. The Red Sox are in the World Series. Boston College is the number two team in the nation, facing its toughest challenge in Virginia Tech Thursday night. The Celtics are on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Even the Bruins have a winning record. When I was a kid, Basketball Jesus regularly posted triple doubles, Marvin Hagler put dudes to sleep, and Roger Clemens dusted off the Gorman Thomases of the world with high heat. Still, even for nostalgiaists, that mythologized past does not compare with the incredibly real present.

yea i know how it feels, steelers, pirates and pitt panthers all champs in 1979!

I'm only 20 years old, and this is definitely the greatest period in Boston sports in my life. I suspect its the greatest period ever. We're going to see the Pats in the Super Bowl, the Sox are in the World Series, BC will go to a good bowl (possibly a National Championship) and the Bruins and C's are both playoff teams. Amazing.

Holy crap, BC won! What a game.

And for those of you who care, the Bruins won and are 6-3! Queue crickets.......

BC was, by far, the most surprising game. They bit until the last four minutes. Good or lucky?

It is a great time to be a Boston fan. At least it is until the Boys and Mavs bring home the championships. Enjoy it while it lasts.

You Texans is funny.

The Sox are almost World Champions, and the Pats are certainly the present favorites to win the Super Bowl, but lets not get ahead of ourselves with the Celtics. In the NBA, the Eastern Conference is the NFL's NFC. The idea that a nearly used up KG and an aging Ray Allen put Boston on a level with the Spurs, Suns, Rockets or Mavs is nonsense.

"The Sox are almost World Champions, and the Pats are certainly the present favorites to win the Super Bowl, but lets not get ahead of ourselves with the Celtics. In the NBA, the Eastern Conference is the NFL's NFC. The idea that a nearly used up KG and an aging Ray Allen put Boston on a level with the Spurs, Suns, Rockets or Mavs is nonsense." - Ralph

Certainly would be stretching it to say that the Celtics are going to win the championship right now. Would be just as big a stretch to suggest that the Mavs will. The Suns and Spurs are both superior teams.

Celtics have a 3-5 year window to win a championship. I am confident that they will be able to get it done at some point in that period.

P.S: The Cowboys are no longer the best team in the NFC, nevermind the league. The Giants have surpassed you.

P.P.S: Just heard a rumor that Antoine Walker wants to return to Boston, and would be willing to take the league minimum salary to do it.

Dallas beat NY in the first game of the season.

Antoine Walker is terrible.

He did nothing but help the Celts. We'll take him back.

"Dallas beat NY in the first game of the season.

Antoine Walker is terrible." - Ralph

Yea, and since then Dallas has declined and NY has improved significantly. They have probably the best defense in the NFL, and an offense that is good enough to keep up. Eli Manning is finally showing a glimmer of the QB he should have been. Barring a significant change in how they are playing, they win the NFC.

If you told an NBA GM that you don't think Antoine Walker is worth the league minimum salary, you would be laughed out of the room.

I won't argue Boys/G-Men with you. We'll find out in a few weeks in New York.

You wrong about Walker. The Celts would take him because they have no bench at all. A team like Dallas, on the other hand, wouldn't take Walker for free. He wouldn't crack the Mavs rotation.

I watched him play in Dallas for a year and a half. He shoots a ton of ill-advised threes, mostly bricks (some so bad they don't even draw iron). He goes through extended stretches in which he can't make a lay-up. And he's one of the worst defenders in the league.

If the majority of teams would not take him for free, then why is he playing, and why is he playing for more than the league minimum?

P.S: Unless you literally meant a team on the level of the Mavs, of which I count three in the league, Mavs, Spurs, Suns. Saying Walker wouldn't play for the three best teams in the league is a pretty useless statement though.

In the nba Dallas has won nothing. The Celtics are better team than Dallas right now. Nowitz cant guard anybody and folds under pressure.

Read that on Stephen A. Smith's blog, did you? How many Mavs' games did you actually watch last season? Two? Come back when you know something about the NBA.

The Celtics right now are not better than Dallas df11, unless they play better than I expect them to.

I watched Nellie expose his old team and laugh at Cuban in the process. I don't think Dallas is a tough team, they are very deep but depth can be overrated. Dirk is a very good player but if and when he is off or just goes into a mental lapse (see last years playoffs ) the team is very ordinary. I like the Celtics team they lack depth,(although James Posey was a key pickup with his defense and versitility)however they cause difficult matchup problems for any team. KG is the hardest guy in the league to cover one on one, Ray Allen is going to have a lot of open looks, Pierce is still top 5 at his position. Don't get me wrong SA and phx are still the top squads, but the celtics will be facing either or in the finals in June.

KG is the hardest guy in the league to cover one-on-one? Are you serious? Ever hear of Kobe Bryant? How about Carmello? And Dirk is arguably the toughest one-on-one cover in the NBA. In case you didn't notice, the Warriors double- and triple-teamed him.

KG is a great player. However, he's not a top-five player. And it's doubtful whether he's a top-ten player. Even among PFs, he's probably not a top-five player. I would rate him below Duncan, Dirk, Amare, and Howard. If asked to choose between him Bosh and Boozer, it would be a tough call.

Just got back from a vacation in Mass. The state is certainly buzzing about the sports teams. The Sox won it all last night and it's not a reach to see the Pats in the super bowl, but I can't see it with the Celtics and Bruins with the current squads.

Just watched the Harler/Hearns clip. Wow! Those were the good old days when the combatants were not in the ring to do the foxtrot.

I remember watching a Hagler and Antuofermo bout and what a war! Hagler kicked the crap out of him but Vito kept upright and coming back.

They don't make em' like they used to.

Hagler/Hearns was the maybe best fight ever, it's not fair to compare many fights to that one. There are some good warriors fighting these days as well, wouldn't you agree?

I don't watch as much boxing as I used to. But the fights I have watched recently have been pretty boring. Like the fighters want to look good when they spend their purse $$$$.

Like this UFC stuff. Two guys rolling around looking like they're trying to hump eachother. I know there's more to it than that but that's not fighting and I find it boring.

"KG is the hardest guy in the league to cover one-on-one? Are you serious? Ever hear of Kobe Bryant? How about Carmello? And Dirk is arguably the toughest one-on-one cover in the NBA. In case you didn't notice, the Warriors double- and triple-teamed him.

KG is a great player. However, he's not a top-five player. And it's doubtful whether he's a top-ten player. Even among PFs, he's probably not a top-five player. I would rate him below Duncan, Dirk, Amare, and Howard. If asked to choose between him Bosh and Boozer, it would be a tough call." - Ralph

Its true that KG is not the hardest guy to cover but you definitely sell him short here. He is probably the best low post/pick and roll defender, and not too shabby on offense either.

KG is not the best player in the NBA anymore. However, I like many coaches and GMs will tell you that due to his length, quickness, athleticism and basetball IQ he poses the toughest match up problem or one on one cover in the league. I would take Kobe, Lebron or Duncan over KG, but because of his height and quickness you need an athletic defensive minded small forward that has Duncans size to cover him one on one. Last I checked nobody on this planet fits the bill. As for Dirk when he is on he is almost unstopable, but he plays to small that is why smaller guys can get away with covering him one on one. He didn't show up in the Golden State series he wasn't triple teamed, he didn't rise to the ocasion against one of the worst defensive teams in the NBA. KG could cover Dirk and do fine. Dirk could NEVER AND WOULD NEVER COVER KG MAN UP. My problem with KG in the past is that he is too unselfish down the stretch, with Pierce and Ray Allen that won't bother me now. I know the Celtics are suspect at the 1 and 5 but they don't need those guys to score and might be a blessing in disguise that those guys don't like to shoot. Guys jump on the bandwagon now! Believe the hype! The celtics will be in the finals in June.

"...because of his height and quickness you need an athletic defensive minded small forward that has Duncan's size to cover him one on one. Last I checked nobody on this planet fits the bill."

Not quite. While KG can hit from 15 feet, he's not going to be a consistent threat that far from the hoop, so he can be defended by opposing C's. For example, Diop does a decent job on him. I've seen Camby shut him down. Chandler does a good job on him. Etc.

"As for Dirk when he is on he is almost unstopable, but he plays to small that is why smaller guys can get away with covering him one on one. He didn't show up in the Golden State series he wasn't triple teamed, he didn't rise to the ocasion against one of the worst defensive teams in the NBA."

Your reading the media guide from two seasons ago. Dirk couldn't be guarded effectively by smaller players all of last season, and for most of the season before. If you'll remember, S.A. tried to defend him with Bowen in the WCF and had to switch up because Dirk destroyed him. And GS constantly double-teamed Dirk. Nellie ran a second defender at him as soon as he put the ball on the floor, and when he spun. Say what you will about GS in general, but they were ideally suited to play the Mavs. Dallas runs an pick-and-switch offense that tries to create mismatches. All of GS's players were roughly the same size, so switching defenders didn't create much of an advantage.