Boston, MA
Boston Celtics take flight with Kristaps Porzingis at the helm
Kristaps Porzingis goes from hell to heaven recurrently in his sports career. The Latvian came to the NBA with no fans in favor of his signature (whistled on that Draft night), became the mass idol of the New York Knicks and fell into ostracism due to injuries and bad decisions, such as the null understanding he had with Luka Doncic in Dallas. It happened again this season, starting on Latvia‘s World Cup journey… where he was injured. But he’s back in the sky. It’s his style.
LeBron James & Vinicius Jr. unite in post-game Christmas embrace after Lakers-Celtics showdown
Porzingis, developed in the heart of Spanish basketball, closes the mouths of those who pointed out his arrival to the Boston Celtics as a mistake. A formed team, with a disruptive element. But the Baltic is playing well, emerging from the shadows. He scored 32 points (6/12 in three-pointers and 11/20 in TC), 5 rebounds and 5 blocks in the victory of the Boston Celtics in Houston (107-116). Quite a show.
You don’t usually see it. In fact, it’s his second game managing at least 30 points, 5 three-pointers and 5 blocks. There was only one player with one like that, Raef LaFrentz, also with a Boston background. KP’ has two. He is the only one and he did it with his brutal pace. More than 15 points off the bench, dominating the court in all his range and understanding the role he is asked to play on the court.
Porzingis, defendido por Brooks.
Because on a roster with Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown or Jrue Holiday it’s normal that he can’t take over every game. “It’s about leadership, he doesn’t have to put up 30 every night,” Jaylen Brown recounted. He gives something else, it’s his comeback. But this one is for real, as he tunes into a perfect team on both ends of the court, knows how to change the tempo and doesn’t need to take a lot of shots. The secret of the best basketball team in the world.
The Celtics are flying. They lost their unbeaten streak at the Garden to the Denver Nuggets but they reacted fast. They have not lost two consecutive games since November 8, when they lost to the Timberwolves and Sixers. And in that context, Porzingis is like a fish in water. “It’s unbelievable to play here. Wherever it is, we have the support of everyone as if it were our home. It’s a blessing,” he said.
Boston, MA
Photos from the 2026 Beanpot semifinal between Boston University and Northeastern on February 2, 2026 at TD Garden in Boston, Mass.
Boston, MA
Major carsharing service shutting Boston office and laying off dozens of staff
The car-sharing company Zipcar will close its Boston headquarters, ending local operations in the place where it was founded.
Its owner, the car rental company Avis Budget Group, said it is “consolidating Zipcar’s headquarters” into its global home base in Northern New Jersey “as part of a broader effort to enhance Zipcar’s long-term operational effectiveness.”
“As a result, Zipcar will no longer maintain a separate corporate office in Boston,” a spokesperson for Avis Budget Group said Monday.
The company plans to lay off 65 employees in Boston by April, according to a notice it filed with Massachusetts state officials last week.
Zipcar was founded in Cambridge in 1999 and debuted there and in Boston the next year. The company expanded in the years that followed and by 2009 was the world’s largest car-sharing service, according to NBC News. Avis bought Zipcar in 2013.
“Zipcar was founded in Boston and the city has been an important part of its history since then,” the company spokesperson said. “This consolidation reinforces Zipcar’s foundation and positions the business to continue serving members reliably well into the future.”
The move will not affect service for Zipcar’s members, the spokesperson added.
In addition to the 65 Boston-based employees, the company will lay off approximately 61 remote workers elsewhere in the country, the Boston Business Journal reported.
Zipcar’s regional field and fleet operations teams will remain in Boston and other cities after the headquarters closes “to support members and day-to-day service without interruption,” the Avis spokesperson said.
Brian Shortsleeve, a Republican candidate for governor, said Zipcar’s move was the result of Massachusetts’ taxes and regulations on business.
“Massachusetts is becoming a place where even homegrown success stories can’t afford to stay,” he wrote in a post on X.
The announcement came the same week that Panera Bread said it would lay off 92 employees at its bakery in Franklin and that life sciences company Thermo Fisher Scientific said it would lay off 103 employees and close a facility, also in Franklin.
The Campbell’s Company also said Thursday it would close the Hyannis manufacturing plant of the beloved Cape Cod potato chip brand. The company will lay off 49 people, it said.
“These are not isolated decisions. They are rational business responses to a state that has become increasingly expensive, unpredictable, and hostile to employers,” said Paul Diego Craney, executive director of the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, a conservative business organization. “High taxes, crushing energy costs, and rigid Net Zero climate mandates are making it harder every day for companies to justify staying in Massachusetts.”
Boston, MA
Celtics, Bucks celebrate history in inaugural NBA Pioneers Classic
The Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks honored the 75th anniversary of the breaking of the NBA’s color barrier Sunday by squaring off in the inaugural NBA Pioneers Classic.
The game spotlighted Basketball Hall of Famers Chuck Cooper, Nathaniel “Sweetwater” Clifton and Earl Lloyd, who were the first Black players to be drafted, sign an NBA contract and appear in an NBA game, respectively.
Players for both teams wore shooting shirts with Cooper, Clifton and Lloyd’s names emblazoned on the back. Each uniform featured a “Pioneers Classic” patch above the nameplate and a “1950” patch beneath the rear jersey number.
The three legends’ names and jersey numbers also appeared on the TD Garden court and on the stanchion beneath each basket. Relatives of Cooper, Clifton and Lloyd joined Jaylen Brown on the court for a pregame address.
“Today is the NBA’s first Pioneer Classic, and it’s an honor to speak on the behalf of some of our legends — Nat Clifton, Earl Lloyd and (the) Boston Celtics’ Chuck Cooper,” Brown, who went on to tally 30 points and 13 rebounds in a 107-79 Celtics win, told the Garden crowd. “… A pioneer, by definition, if a leader, is an innovator and a forward thinker. Who will be the pioneers of this generation? On the behalf of the NBA, I want to say thank you — thank you, Boston. Let’s have a good game.”
Cooper played four seasons for the Celtics from 1950 to 1954.
“When you coach the Celtics, we’ve had just high-character people and have history and have had a tradition in many different forms,” Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said pregame. “And when you’re helping move that forward, you just have a responsibility to the people who came before you to move it forward. One, to be appreciative of what those before you have done on and off the court, and then the second piece to that is doing your part and moving that forward and kind of leaving it better.
“You don’t have a situation like this if you don’t have the people that have come before you. So that’s important. And I think the league is the same way. We’ve had great people come through this league, influential people, and just taking advantage of the opportunity you have to move forward is an opportunity we’re given.”
Bucks head coach Doc Rivers, who coached the Celtics from 2004 until 2013, saluted Red Auerbach during his pregame news conference. Auerbach drafted Cooper in the second round in 1950 — his first draft as Boston’s head coach — fielded the NBA’s first all-Black starting five in 1955 and hired Bill Russell as the league’s first Black head coach in 1966.
“What I think Pioneers Day represents, to me, is America,” Rivers said. “Red Auerbach is responsible for our achievements as much as anyone else. He didn’t see color. He wanted to make the league a better league, and he kept doing it — hiring Bill Russell as coach. I mean, you think about this city that’s had its ups and downs race-wise, but you have this one guy. And I got it a little bit, but when you come here and you coach here, boy, you really get it with Red. You really get what he was about. And so Pioneers Day, first game being here, for me, obviously, being a coach here for nine years, means a lot.”
The Celtics also honored Auerbach and Russell during the game. Auerbach’s granddaughter, Julie Auerbach Flieger, and Russell’s daughter, Karen Kenyatta Russell, were recognized on the court during a first-quarter timeout.
Rivers said the Pioneers Classic is “good for history.”
“Because we live in a time right now where our history is being, you know, whitewashed, a lot of it,” he said. “And I think you learn a lot through history. You have to. I think that’s our problem. We need to teach history, whether it’s bad or good. Need to teach it more.”
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