More than half-court, actually. Too bad iit didn’t count.

Why choose failure? Last week’s mention of Rick Pitino made me giggle about this quotation and then I couldn’t help but post it:

Larry Bird is not walking through that door, fans. Kevin McHale is not walking through that door, and Robert Parish is not walking through that door. And if you expect them to walk through that door, they’re going to be gray and old. What we are is young, exciting, hard-working, and we’re going to improve. People don’t realize that, and as soon as they realize those three guys are not coming through that door, the better this town will be for all of us because there are young guys in that (locker) room playing their asses off. I wish we had $90 million under the salary cap. I wish we could buy the world. We can’t; the only thing we can do is work hard, and all the negativity that’s in this town sucks. I’ve been around when Jim Rice was booed. I’ve been around when Yastrzemski was booed. And it stinks. It makes the greatest town, greatest city in the world, lousy. The only thing that will turn this around is being upbeat and positive like we are in that locker room… and if you think I’m going to succumb to negativity, you’re wrong. You’ve got the wrong guy leading this team.

–Rick Pitino

Hoping it helps the Celtics win tonight, here are the four pictures tied for second place in the, “Funniest Big Baby Davis Picture” contest. (The winner is obviousy this hilarious picture.)

Ranking Pro Sports Franchises.

It was a good year on Unlikely Words. In case you missed some or all of it, I went through the year and pulled out a few links to my favorite posts. Favorite is loose here and applies to something either I wrote or really enjoyed on the internets. What did you like this year?

In no real order…

A horse statue was vandalized in Saratoga Springs, Billy Ripken and Ken Griffey reminded me of how I spent the second half of the eighties and one summer after Sophomore year of college and Guns n’ Roses released an album leading to me telling 2 stories of my younger days.

I documented 12 cities that banned plastic bags, as well as the the 2008 Election and was PSYCHED this got linked by Kottke and Wonkette. Bill Simmons listed his favorite sports journalism and I found links to almost all of them as tons and tons of musicians told John McCain “Don’t Play My Song! and I compiled a list. I was hoping this would catch on, but, alas…

A seafood truck crashed in Worcester. Someone rented a refrigerated truck and the lobsters were sold all over town. Until they were discovered, seized and…dumped back into Boston Harbor, which seems like it could only happen in Worcester, the Paris of the Eighties.

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks was my favorite book this year, Mad Men Season 1 my favorite TV show, and Eastern Promises my favorite movie. However, my favorite movie to talk about was the utterly horrible Unknown. It’s not unwatchable, though.

“Dodgers touch Colon for run in fourth” was my favorite headline of the year, while seeing Sir Ben Kingsley as Ian MacKaye was my favorite video. The Barack Brains T Shirt (Bad Brains logo/Barack) tied the Cry Celtic Green T-Shirt for garment of the year. And I got an iPhone.

A hawk attacked a girl at Fenway Park and I introduced the world to cold cut flavored jelly beans, which surprisingly elicited a prompt reaction from the inventor of Jelly Belly (see the comments). I continued hating sharks while Pat Matheny continued to hate Kenny G’s “Lame-ass, jive, pseudo bluesy, out-of-tune, noodling, wimped out, fucked up playing.”

Eliot Spitzer banged a prostitute and I was there to flow chart it. I also created a recipe to make Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food ice cream at home, watched my street flood, enjoyed this article about getting stuck in an elevator, and found out BJ Upton’s BJ stands for Bossman Junior, which is just awesome.

And finally, my favorite picture of the year:

Happy New Year everyone, thanks for reading and see you next year.

Big Baby Davis was in a minor car accident today on the Mass Pike, and I am resisting as hard as I can making a crying joke.

After my post last week about Big Baby Davis crying, the fine fellows at Perk is a Beast jumped into action to make a “Cry Celtic Green” T-Shirt. Apparently the Stern mafia is on their ass so if you want one, get it soon. (This is a play on Bleed Cubbie Blue in case it’s not clear.)

Big Baby Davis isn’t afraid to cry and I, for one, thinks this reinforces the aura surrounding my favorite basketball player. Do you think I could get a green t-shirt that says “Cry Celtic Green” on the front and “Davis 11″ on the back (like the back of a jersey)?

This is kind of weird. Maybe that’s why they call him Rip?

Celtics guard Ray Allen joined Michael Jordan and several other NBA stars, including Rip Hamilton, in Las Vegas before training camp to take part in promotional work for Jordan’s Jumpman brand. Allen said he talked to Hamilton about his fingernails, which prompted Allen to wear an arm sleeve against the Pistons in the playoffs last season. “He was saying how when he saw me come out the next game with an arm sleeve on, they started laughing about it,” said Allen. “And then I said, ‘Look, man, I’m wearing an arm sleeve because . . .’ And then I picked his hand up and looked at his nails. And his nails were way out. He said, ‘Man, I didn’t know I cut people up like that. People tell me all the time that I need to cut my nails, but I don’t know what I’m doing.’ I told him, ‘Come on, dog, you know why you’re using them.’ “

I… I… I just can’t stop looking at this hilarious picture.