Why Is Brian Scalabrine Loved In Boston?

Not many guys in the NBA have the stones to talk junk after a win in which they had nothing to do with, but Scal is not afraid to run his sewer after his teammates did all the heavy lifting.  I don’t know if that makes him more endearing to Celtics fans or not.  Personally, I feel like Brian is the sort of player you root for like the Autistic kid draining threes a few years ago.  You cheer because he is somewhat retarded but still out there hustling among the real players.

It may be sacrilege among the Boston fan base to take such a position but I just don’t like Scal’s skill set or lack thereof.  Sure, he draws a charge call every now and then (he is unathletic and white, after all) and he can hit the occasion three pointer (when he decides to take them) but that alone isn’t really enough to get me on his side.  His defensive style seems like he’s an epileptic elephant and occasionally gives defenders fits because they don’t know what to make of the ginger headed beast with spastic movements in front of them.  Once they can tear their eyes away from his waving human glow stick like arms they usually leave him in the dust.

In Brian’s almost nine (really?) year career he has averaged 3.3 PPG.  In his last appearance against Detroit he played six whole minutes and committed three fouls with one turnover.  That was his complete game line.  If that isn’t rooting for the Special Olympics, I don’t know what is.

Scalabrine went to USC where, believe it or not, he was an impact player.  He started all 58 games he was in and averaged 16.2 PPG, shot 53 percent and recorded 50 blocks, which is good enough for 11^th all time at USC.  So what exactly happened to the Big Red Machine?  Did he get to the NBA and just fall to pieces?  Not trust his shot?  Maybe he just didn’t find the right system.  I think maybe if Scal had landed with the Suns when D’Antoni was running his seven seconds or less offense he would have done better because he would have been forced to shoot early in the clock.

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