With a critical free throw last night, Paul Pierce went over the 20,000 points scored mark in his career, joining Larry Bird and John Havlicek as the only players to score over 20,000 points all with the Boston Celtics.
The Celtics needed overtime, but outlasted the Milwaukee Bucks last night at TD Garden, 105-102. Pierce led all scorers with 28 points on the night, while Rajon Rondo handed out 15 more assists.
Of course, what most dim-witted, unoriginal, talking-head sports radio and TV types want to talk about is Kevin Garnett’s alleged “cancer patient” trash talk to Charlie Villanueva. The current records of the local sports teams sit at 4-1, 6-1 and 7-2, yet all these people want to talk about is KG’s trash talk or Randy Moss.
Wait, am I in agreement with opinion held by Deadspin?
Pierce gets his point across – Gary Washburn looks at Paul Pierce’s accomplishment, and how far he has come. Check out related stories from Peter May | A. Sherrod Blakely | Jim Fenton |Steve Bulpett | Paul Flannery
The two sides of Kevin Garnett – If you insist on reading a KG story, read this one from Paul Flannery. Chris Forsberg isn’t bad, either.
Shaquille O’Neal’s status on hold – Mark Murphy’s notebook has Shaq needing some time to rest a sore knee.
The Bruins picked up another road win last night, beating the Sabres in Buffalo, 5-2.
Bruins drop slumping Sabres, 5-2 – Joe Haggerty has the gamer from last night. Douglas Flynn has more.
Michael Ryder is still very valuable to Bruins – DJ Bean says that for a guy many think is headed out of town, Ryder has done a lot to make his case to stay here.
Wheeler giving new line a spin – Fluto Shinzawa’s notebook says that a line change paid off for Blake Wheeler. Stephen Harris and Joe Haggerty also have good notebooks.
Mankins’ power play was an epic failure – Tom E Curran outlines why Logan Mankins’ move to sit out the start of the season did not pay off.
Finally back in fold, All-Pro Logan Mankins ‘ready to go’ – Ian Rapoport has more on the guard’s return.
Bill Belichick works his magic – Steve Buckley has the Patriots coach returning to genius status.
Mangini’s hand has been a bit shaky at helm – Greg A Bedard has Browns coach Eric Mangini uncertain of his future.
Browns QB real McCoy? – Shalise Manza Young’s notebook is much more informative than this Tweet.
Red Sox need to play moneyball – John Tomase figures out how much the Red Sox can spend this offseason.
Decision is due on Ortiz option – Peter Abraham has the Sox needing to decide by tonight if they want to pick up Ortiz’s option.
Boston Sports Media Watch 
The hilarious thing to me is that what KG claims he said to Villaneuva is actually MUCH MUCH meaner than the comment about him looking like a cancer patient. As much as everyone loves Wonjarowski, he's that same guy who wasted an entire column on how Red Auerbach was being a jerk for not bowing down to the Zen Master's awesomeness. that's 10 minutes of my life I'm not getting back.
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"The current records of the local sports teams sit at 4-1, 6-1 and 7-2, yet all these people want to talk about is KG’s trash talk or Randy Moss"
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I hear that, but it's no shocker. The sports media these days is ALL ABOUT THE DRAMA. I don't know why. I guess it must draw people in. Then again, if that's all they feed us?… It's one of the great mysteries.
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If Epstein is smart , he'll tell Ortiz' agent to go out and test the free agent market and come back with an offer that they could match or beat. There is no way that any team is going to pay the kind of money Ortiz wants. He had a decent year, but he's a liability against lefties and can't play the field at all, so he has no value to a National League team. The old saying is that it's better to get rid of a player a year too early than a year too late.
It's incredible that everyone thinks (and I'm sure they're right) that he'll be angry if they pick the option and pay him "only" $12.5 million. Ortiz has been a great player, nut he's also been a frequent whiner. Considering the way he skated on that juicer problem I think he should be quiet.
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Nope
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yah seriously… why all the talk about KG's trash talk. I can't think of anything less interesting. the only thing less interesting that people were talking about at the time was manny's return to boston.
barely a word about pierce's milestone and the football team.
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Jon Dennis getting lit up on Twitter for a post at 10:39 this morning. Maybe it was his third Gin & Tonic talking..
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I think it's because most sports commentators don't like talking about sports, meaning the actual games. not sure if it's because they're not interested, or just don't have anything to say about them, but they are much more likely to write about the drama around the games rather than the games themselves. so they talk about what a player or coach said at a press conference, or trash-talking, or whether the fans will boo a certain player, or whether coaches will shake hands at midfield, etc. I turned out sports radio the other day and a caller wanted to talk about the browns game – the hosts just laughed at him. who wants to talk about the game?
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ESPN's undying hatred of the Celtics has reached new lows. After Spygate and this nonsense, I'm as done with ESPN as I am with the Globe and Herald.
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Bruce,
I think it's perfect obvious why there's more interest in KG's trash talk than in PP's 20,000 points or the current winning records of Boston teams. It's all about the money. In the media business as we all know, to get money, you need hits and eyeballs. Since negative stories get way more attention than positive ones, every media outlet will always accentuate the negative story in order to get higher ratings. And we're to blame for it.
For proof, just look here at BSMW. Write a posting that slams the usual suspects: Borges, CHB, Big O, D&C, etc., and you'll get dozens of people here posting replies. Write another posting that talks only about the wins and positive achievements of the local sports media or teams, and you'll only get crickets chirping. Why is that? Why are we far more interested in slamming people than in praising them? I don't know, but it's the truth.
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I'm surprised smart people aren't carving up Villanueva for violating the unwritten rule that what happens on the court and locker room, stays on the court and locker room. Guys like Villanueva who are in closed professions (athletics, police, fire, teachers, any union, federal government) get excommunicated pretty quickly when they have loose lips.
I believe KG said what he said, but I believe Villanueva needs to grow a set. He plays a man's game.
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