Archive for October, 2011

The Houdini, who is apparently one of the few residents of the North Shore area with power, spent his Halloween handing out candy and crouching some numbers on our beloved Boston Celtics. The numbers are scary. First, the Celtics only have seven players under contract for the 2011-2012 season. Sure, they have the starting five in tact, but they have no bench depth and this is a team that needs to rely on bench depth if they have any hope of doing anything in the post season. The Celtics are a team that is going to face more injuries than [...]

So what else is new? The World All-Star Classic is the latest basketball related event to get the axe. The move comes hours before the tour was set to begin in Puerto Rico on Sunday. Organizers had been having issues securing the top NBA talent needed in order to make the event a success. With so many charity games/barnstorming events going on, the World All-Star Classic needed to land the top players in order to stand above the rest. Just last week, LeBron James, Derrick Rose, Dwyanne Wade, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony all backed out of the event wanting [...]

On the heals of the Houdini’s attempt to psych himself up by being optimistic about the potential of NBA basketball, David Stern announced Friday that games have been canceled through November 30th. The move does not come as a surprise, but it is a dose of reality for fans that this thing is not going away and with each passing day, we are getting closer to the potential of the complete schedule being wiped away. Marathon negotiations have been happening over the last few days, but they broke off without much progress being made. The two sides have tabled the [...]

  1. Paul Pierce, Rajon Rondo, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen are still going to walk through that door! Anytime you have four All-Stars suit up for you, you have to feel pretty good about your team’s chances. Now, having the above players is simply not enough and Danny Ainge and Co. will need to work hard to put a complete team on the floor if the C’s have any hope of making a run deep into the post season. Depth was a big factor down the stretch and is something that needs to be viewed as a priority, especially [...]

Ever wonder why and how we ended up in a lockout? We sure do each and every day. Thanks to Daniel Mercer and his amazing talent, we have a stunning timeline that walks us through the process:

As the days fall off the calendar, the writing becomes more clear on the wall. Not only will there be no basketball on Christmas, there will be no basketball played in the 2011-2012 season, period. Sure, it is fun to see All-Star spectacles and traveling road shows featuring today’s current crop of NBA talent, but let’s face it. Barnstorming tours only worked in the early part of the 20th century to promote a league or player. Aside for the instant gratification of seeing the stars, this is in no way going to supplement a fan’s want and need for NBA [...]

The fine folks here at Harwood Houdini would like to extend birthday wishes to Celtics head coach Doc Rivers. Doc turns 50 today and we can all be sure that he is wishing to be back coaching the team before long. Let’s hope that the next game played is closer to his 50th birthday rather than his 51st.

In another day spent avoiding news about the potential to cancel even more NBA games, we stumbled upon a Boston Celtics Shaquille O’Neal highlight reel. Shaq’s stay in Boston may have been a short one, but he did make quite an impact both on and off the court. I must admit, I for one did not realize that Shaq made as many plays as he did. The video is well done and worth a view. Thoughts? You know where to find me. Houdini, out.