The Boston Celtics won both games against the Denver Nuggets in Abu Dhabi, getting their preseason off to an incredibly strong start against one of the toughest opponents in the NBA. Despite being outside the USA, Boston and Denver played in front of large and engaged crowds.

In a recent article for the Boston Globe, Adam Himmelsbach reported that Boston fans traveled from around the world to be in attendance in Abu Dhabi. During his time with the team, Himmelsbach spoke with numerous fans that had made the trip to see their favorite team playing in the Middle East.

The NBA is an established and consistently growing international brand. Every team in the league has a rabid fanbase outside of the US, with bigger market franchises having pockets of fans in every country around the world. As such, it makes sense that worldwide fans would make the trip to Abu Dhabi to experience a preseason game in the sunshine.

Boston is currently the biggest-name team in the world; that’s what happens when you dominate the league en route to winning a championship.

However, it’s also because of the storied history of the franchise, with legends spanning across multiple generations, ensuring everyone has a head of the Boston Celtics, at least peripherally. The Celtics’ trip to Abu Dhabi was a success. This was not only because of winning both games and getting started on the right foot, but also because it helped raise the profile of the team and the NBA as a whole.

There’s a reason the NBA runs its global games program, and judging by the turn-out at the Etihad Arena, that reason is working.

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This article originally appeared on Celtics Wire: Celtics’ trip to Abu Dhabi was a complete success

At this point, the 2021 Major League Baseball playoffs feel like ancient history.

The Boston Red Sox haven’t been in the postseason for the last three years, and that isn’t supposed to be the norm for such a storied franchise. They advanced all the way to the American League Championship Series that October, leaving few thinking it would be their last trip to the dance for a while.

So much has changed in Boston since 2021 that the playoffs are now something of an exhibition of former Red Sox players. Gone are stars of that team like Xander Bogaerts, J.D. Martinez, and Kyle Schwarber, and that’s not even to mention former Boston superstar Mookie Betts, who was gone even sooner.

Schwarber had the shortest tenure with the Red Sox of all the names above, yet his loss may be the most painful during postseason baseball. He’s become an October legend through the years, and he’s already flexed his playoff prowess through two games in 2024.

On Sunday, MassLive insider Sean McAdam lambasted the Red Sox for letting Schwarber walk after that 2021 campaign, when he had one of the best stretches of his career in Boston.

“By now, it’s obvious that the Red Sox made a mistake in not retaining Kyle Schwarber after the 2021 season,” McAdam said.

“At the time, Schwarber was somewhat redundant because of fellow DH J.D. Martinez. But the Sox should have eaten the necessary money needed to trade Martinez and kept Schwarber, who has averaged 44 homers over the last three seasons with the Phillies… He’s also established himself as a dynamic postseason performer, with a .987 OPS.”

Schwarber only played 41 regular-season games for the Red Sox, but his .957 OPS in Boston nevertheless ranks the highest of any single-team mark of the superstar’s career. He also hit three massive home runs for the Red Sox in the playoffs, though he did go 3-for25 in the ALCS against the Houston Astros.

With a leadoff missile against the New York Mets on Saturday, Schwarber moved to fourth all-time on the postseason home run leaderboard. He has hit 21 longballs in his playoff career, eight behind Red Sox icon Manny Ramirez for the all-time lead.

Seeing any former player succeed for another organization will always carry mixed emotions, but there’s a little extra sting when it’s a player with a storied track record such as Schwarber. And it never sounded as though Boston even attempted to pursue the slugger, which makes the loss hurt all the more.

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Thousands of people came together on a beautiful Sunday for the 36th annual Boston Marathon Jimmy Fund Walk, hoping to raise $9.5 million for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

The fundraising walk has raised more than $176 million in its 35-year history and supports all forms of adult and pediatric care and cancer research at Dana-Farber, one of the world’s leading centers of cancer research and treatment. Last year’s walk broke fundraising records by raising more than $9.4 million.

An estimated 8,500 walkers, including patients, survivors, family members, caregivers and Dana-Farber faculty and staff, were expected to walk up to 26.2 miles along the historic Boston Marathon course.

The Jimmy Fund Walk is the only organized walk permitted to use the famed course and gives participants a choice between four distance options: 5K (~3.2 miles from Dana-Farber’s Longwood Medical Campus); 10K (~7 miles from Newton); Half Marathon (~13.4 miles from Wellesley) or Marathon (~27 miles from Hopkinton).

Meet Opry, a 1.5-year-old golden retriever who’s the newest staff member at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s Jimmy Fund Clinic in Boston.

Hundreds of volunteers lined the route to provide refreshments throughout the day. There were also posters of inspiring DFCI patients — called Jimmy Fund Walk Heroes — that appeared along the course to provide motivation to walkers.

Additionally, buildings around Boston were set to be lit up to show their support for the walk, including City Hall, TD Garden, the Prudential Tower, 888 Boylston, W Boston, the Hub on Causeway Office Tower, and Boston Harbor Hotel & Rowe’s Wharf.

Due to ongoing construction, all four routes concluded at the Jimmy Fund Walk Finish Line by the corner of Charles and Beacon Street, where there were was a celebration with food, entertainment, and more.