Bob Lobel: Why Can’t We Get Players Like Boston’s Big Three?

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Bob Lobel, GoLocalWorcester Sports Contributor

Bob Lobel, Sports Legend.

My Big Three is better than your Big Three.

I’m not talking about Miami’s Big Three, or even Boston’s current Big Three. I’m talking about the Big Three that won’t be walking through that door, according to Rick Pitino. Now hear me out on this, it’s dangerous to compare players across generations. It makes it sound like one is good and one is bad. It’s like when you say “who’s better, Larry or Magic.”

When you pick one, automatically the other falls into some much lower category. That’s not the way it’s supposed to work. Me saying my Big Three is better than your Big Three isn’t saying that Ray, Kevin and Paul are not good. We know better. After all, they were good enough to win a championship. But nobody is saying “ they are not walking through that door.” They just haven't left that kind of a legacy.

Before I leave your Big Three, and I’m afraid for good, let’s put them in their proper place in Celtic lore. They made some history, but in a week, they will be history. Look around the league now, everyone good has a Big Three, and they are not even close to being like mine. I took my son to see Larry Bird play, he can, and will, thank me later. That was a gift that I realize today was much more special then when it actually happened. Bird, along with Kevin McHale and Robert Parish are the real Big Three of Boston Celtics history.

Boston's current "Big Three" of Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce.

One more thing about this final curtain we are watching. While there is a large amount of official blaming spreading across the country, let me point out the obvious. Basketball, at this level, is IMPOSSIBLE, to officiate with any degree of accuracy that will satisfy. Too big, too fast, too good. The players have outgrown the dimensions of the court and the dimensions of the tools (ball and basket).

Baseball is not yet at the point of no return. Baseball has ways of fixing their problems of umpire judgment, leading to the question of do the Red Sox have ways of fixing their judgment problems?. Do we know yet if Bobby Valentine was the right guy?

I don’t know if he is or not, and I don’t know about this team. If Ellsbury and Crawford ever play together what do they look like? I think Aceves is their closer, and I think Aviles is their shortstop, but you know the two guys that worry me? Ortiz and Adrian Gonzalez.

I love it when I see Ryan Sweeney and Will Middlebrooks back-to-back. That’s the hope for the future of this team right there. Ortiz and his body language make me edgy, ego might be the thing that gets in his way. Adrien is a real problem. They are paying him a fortune but, as I have said before, he looks soft and lost. He looks like he would rather be anywhere else but here.

Am I the only one that’s sees that? Such a natural hitter lost in the fear that can come with playing in Fenway. Salty? What a find. Scouts knew 4-5 years ago the potential was there, and now we are watching it blossom in front of our very eyes. Is he better than Varitek? Absolutely, when he gets to working with the whole staff. Potentially, he is Carlton Fisk lite.

Not a bad guy to have back there. Now, the real questions are: will the Celtics be playing when we write during the first week in June and will the Red Sox be over five hundred? My answers: No and maybe.