This 'n that

I'm not blocking out the dates of the 2008 NBA Finals, but I now think there's a better chance the Celtics might actually make the playoffs.

You OK with that?

I'll never take back what I said the day Danny Ainge pulled off the Kevin Garnett deal. I thought, well, yeah, that was all well and good, but it was only a start. Last time I looked, the NBA was a 5-on-5 league, not a 3-on-3 league, and there was the not insignificant matter of the rest of Danny's roster, which I maintained no other GM would trade for his. I said that 4 through 12 they were the least accomplished bunch in the league. And they were.

Now I haven't taken a close look at the rest to see where the Celtics now rank, but I'd say that with the addition of Eddie House, Scot (Man of a Thousand Hair-Dos) Pollard and James Posey, they're now a lot better.

House can shoot. Teams won't be designing defenses to stop him or anything, but he can legitimately put down as his occupation on his tax return "Professional Jump Shooter." Pollard is an experienced back-up big man whose greatest skill, as one Celtics insider puts it, is "getting in the way."

And then there's Posey.

That has me fired up a bit. Teams need guys like James Posey. He's not great, but he gets it, and he's versatile. Best of all, he can guard, and if there was one thing in scant supply on Danny's roster it was guys who could guard. He can guard your basic 3, he can guard your basic 2 and he can even guard an occasional 1. Posey is also a 34 percent lifetime three-point shooter.

Best of all, he's got a ring. He knows what it takes.

So now we're getting somewhere. Getting James Posey makes me feel better about giving up Ryan Gomes in the Minny deal.

And while I know there are those who really like Gabe Pruitt's potential, I still don't feel great about the point guard situation. Rajon Rondo will have a lot of pressure on him, and it would be nice if Danny can come up with a veteran to help the lad out. If he does that, I will relax.

None of this necessarily puts the Celtics on a level with Cleveland, Detroit, Miami and a few others, but it distances them somewhat from the Sixers, Knicks, Bobcats, Hawks and others who all think they're better than they were last year, and thus playoff possibilities.

So I move from Gimme A Break to Cautiously Optimistic. But that's all for now.

Memories of Butch

William (Butch) van Breda Kolff passed away recently at age 84. Basketball, and Sport in general, has lost one of its great characters.

This one is personal. I not only knew Butch, I played both with and against him.

In the summers of 1964 and 1965 Butch and I were part of a regular group that played pick-up basketball all summer at the home of my prep school teammate Jack McCarthy on elm Road in Princeton, N.J. We played serious 3-on-3 and/or 4-on-4 before jumping into the McCarthy pool. It was a great deal.

Butch was then the head coach at Princeton. That mattered. This was the Bill Bradley Era in full flower. Butch had played four years of BAA/NBA basketball for the Knicks in the late ‘40s, and, at age 42/43, was still lean and totally mean. Never much of an offensive threat, even in his prime, he was a hacking defensive monster in these games. You definitely wanted him on your team.

McCarthy informed me in a recent e-mail that his memories of those nights included the time that a) Butch walked off the court because I wouldn't pass him the ball and b) the time we had a heated exchange over the block/charge issue. Truthfully, I don't recall either, but I'll take Jack's word for it. Especially the not passing the ball part.

I caught up with Butch when he was coaching the Pistons and I was a young beat man for the Globe, covering the early ‘70s Celtics. His nightly MO following a home Pistons game was to head for the renowned Lindell AC, where he would hold court until closing time. Nowadays coaches go back to watch tape. I much prefer the old days.

So Butch is the guy who coached Bill Bradley and Company to the 1965 Final Four. He is also the guy who coached a little modestly talented point guard named Pete Carril. He is also the guy who had no problem earning a living by coaching high school ball and teaching history. He simply stayed a few pages ahead of the class (he claimed) in Picayune, Miss.

This was after he had coached the Lakers (he's the guy who refused to put Wilt Chamberlain back in Game 7 of the NBA Finals against the Celtics), Pistons, Suns and Jazz. If ever a city and coach were made for each other, it was Butch and New Orleans.

Butch eventually went back to Hofstra, where he coached his alma mater for a second time. I feel good that I was able to do one more story on a truly unforgettable basketball figure.

Give the man some credit

Some of you may not be in the mood for a Johnny Damon item, but I'm asking you to be magnanimous.

The guy is on the verge of doing something very few baseball players have done. Should he score 25 runs in the 30 remaining Yankee games (as of Aug. 29) he would have scored 100 runs 10 seasons in succession. That's a very big deal.

Among the players who never did it: Ted Williams, Babe Ruth, Pete Rose, Ty Cobb, Wade Boggs, Jimmie Foxx, Lou Brock, and Charlie Gehringer, Hall of Famers all.

It would be easier to list the ones who did:

Hank Aaron (13)
Lou Gehrig (13)
Willie Mays (12)
Stan Musial (11)

What about Rickey Henderson, you say? Rickey scored 100 runs 12 times, but never more than five times in a row. I looked up famous leadoff men from Earle Combs to Richie Ashburn to Tim Raines to Brock to Rose and Damon is the only one with nine straight 100-run years. It's a real tribute to a player whose offense real is of a very high caliber.

Of course, when you're talking about contemporary players and runs, you need to start with the guy in San Francisco. Barry Bonds' biggest 100-run streak has been five, but he has scored 100 12 times, to go with a 91, a 95, a 96, a 97 and a 99. With 71 right now, it's unlikely he'll score 100 for a bad Giants team in '07.

But look at those names. There's no getting around it: Johnny Damon is really good.