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The Philadelphia 76ers have turn out to be fairly a preferred staff in recent times. Regardless of going by means of a tough patch often known as “The Course of,” which featured quite a lot of shedding and a scarcity of stars on the roster, the Sixers ultimately improved their model.
Now, Philadelphia has an MVP-caliber middle in Joel Embiid, who has turn out to be one of the vital beloved stars in franchise historical past. And though it didn’t work out with the previous first-overall decide Ben Simmons, the Sixers swapped the three-time All-Star with the long run Corridor of Famer James Harden simply final yr.
Then, there’s Tyrese Maxey, who appears like a budding All-Star after getting chosen within the first spherical of the 2020 NBA Draft by the Sixers. It’s unclear if the 76ers are going to be a greater staff in 2022-2023 or not, however they’re actually gaining a ton of hype behind them.
Over the weekend, it was reported that the Sixers are anticipated to be considered one of 4 Japanese Convention groups featured on the NBA’s well-known Christmas Day slate. The Sixers are anticipated to face the New York Knicks, whereas the Milwaukee Bucks will battle the Boston Celtics.
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Along with gaining a Christmas Day recreation for the primary time in a couple of years, the Sixers are anticipated to assist open up the 2022-2023 NBA season in considered one of two matchups on prime time in mid-October in accordance with Shams Charania of The Athletic.
Earlier than Monday evening, it was already reported that the Los Angeles Lakers and the Golden State Warriors had been set to battle it out on the opening evening slate. Now, it appears just like the Sixers and the Celtics might be the primary two groups to battle it out at first of the 2022-2023 season.
Final yr, the Sixers had reasonable success in opposition to Boston. When the 2 groups met in Boston again in December, the Celtics picked up a good one-point win. Then, the Sixers received revenge within the subsequent two video games earlier than garnering a blowout loss at house to finish the regular-season collection.
As we all know, the Celtics discovered extra success within the 2022 NBA Playoffs as they went so far as the NBA Finals. Whereas their run ended with out a Larry O’Brien trophy to point out for, they’re nonetheless anticipated to be a contender within the East for the upcoming season.
Justin Grasso covers the Philadelphia 76ers for All76ers, a Sports activities Illustrated channel. You possibly can comply with him for reside updates on Twitter: @JGrasso_.
Local News
A Boston man who allegedly assaulted a transgender woman at a Blue Line MBTA station on Halloween is facing charges of assault and violating the victim’s civil rights, officials said.
Gregory Burnett, 53, pleaded not guilty to assault and battery causing serious bodily injury, assault and battery, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (his foot), and a civil rights violation with injury, Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden said.
The woman, 41, told police that another passenger boarded the train at Maverick, immediately approached her, and shouted “derogatory terms” at her, the DA said. Burnett allegedly said statements including “you’re not a woman, you’re a man.”
Burnett then punched and kicked her, including in the crotch area. The woman tried to defend herself, the DA said, but Burnett grabbed her foot and caused her to fall and fracture her wrist.
Other passengers helped the woman defend herself against Burnett and get him off the train, officials said.
The woman reported the incident to police the next day and said “she felt targeted due to her gender identity based on Burnett’s remarks during the assault,” the DA said.
MBTA police used witness descriptions and surveillance video to identify Burnett and apprehend him at Maverick last Tuesday, according to Hayden’s office.
Burnett was initially held in jail after being found dangerous in court, but was released last week on conditions to stay at home outside of work hours, according to court records. With a GPS, he is confined to his home outside of 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday. He is also required to maintain employment, stay away from any witnesses, not commit any further offenses, and not possess any firearms.
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Book Club
Last month, “The Boston Globe Story of the Celtics,” a comprehensive book of nearly every recorded moment in Celtics history, was released. The book’s editor Chad Finn, a sports columnist for The Boston Globe and Boston.com, collected hundreds of Celtics stories written by renowned sports reporters, such as Bob Ryan and Jackie MacMullan, since the team’s inception in 1946.
For Boston.com’s Book Club, Finn joined Boston.com sports writer Hayden Bird to discuss his process and insights in editing his book. Watch the full video, or read highlights of the discussion below.
Below is an abbreviated version of the discussion, which has been edited and condensed for clarity.
With something like this, where it’s a compilation of the Globe‘s coverage of the Celtics throughout their mutual histories, the one thing you’re really wondering about is: Was everything covered?
I think it was a little bit more complicated, a little bit more reason to worry about it, with the Celtics book because of the race element with Bill Russell. Did they cover some of the stuff that players endured back then? Not being able to eat with their teammates when they would go to North Carolina for an exhibition game or something like that. So it was very satisfying, and also a bit of a relief, to find out that the Globe … had covered every single step, every single significant story along the way with the Celtics, from their launch in 1946 until putting out banner No. 18 a couple of weeks ago.
The first thing you have to do is sit down and make a thorough list of every significant thing chronologically that happened in Celtics history. Once you have that list of 450 different things that happened in Celtics lore, then you go into the archives and you say, “Do we have this?”
A lot of it is also our researcher, Jerry Manion, who’s just an absolute expert at finding what you’re looking for. I can’t tell you how many times in putting this book together where I would message Jerry and say, “Can you find that?” and I’d have it five minutes later. To be able to have that kind of support when you’re putting together a project that could be overwhelming is incredible. I’m incredibly grateful for that.
The game stories and the stories from the coverage tended to be play by play, whereas nowadays, it’s a little bit of a look ahead, or a little bit of context on what you just saw, because you know about Jayson Tatum’s dunk and Jaylen Brown’s three-pointer that tied the game. Back then, that was news to you in the morning. You didn’t see it yourself.
One is Bob Ryan’s lead when they drafted Larry Bird. Red Auerbach took him while he still had a year left of college in Indiana State because back then there was a loophole … where you could draft a player if his college class had graduated.
Bob Ryan had seen Larry Bird play in person. He knew what Red had just pulled off, and his lead basically said Red didn’t just look like he swallowed the canary, it looked like he swallowed the whole aviary — perfect lead for Larry Bird. The whole column turned out to be prescient about how Larry’s career would go. I have some favorite stories in the book, but that one would be right up there in the top five just because of how he started it, how he wrote it, and how right he was.
I learned that the quality of writing really elevated in the late ‘60s. People took more chances with their writing.
In 1969, Leigh Montville got hired at the Globe, and I think if you asked every Globe columnist that has worked here the last 50 years, they would tell you Leigh Montville was the best columnist of all in terms of pure writing ability. He was lyrical, and he joined the beat covering the Celtics in Bill Russell’s last year.
There was another writer at the same time named Bob Sales. His style was very easy to read and thoughtful, and did not shy away from opinions that probably were considered pretty progressive at the time. He was very supportive of the Black players on the Celtics. I thought Bob Sales, even more than Leigh Montville because he came before him, was somebody who really changed the style of writing about the Celtics and the approach that people took to it.
Then a whole different topic, but Bob Ryan came around. He started the Globe the same day as [Peter] Gammons in 1968 as interns. When he took over the NBA beat in the early ‘70s, it changed everything.
If there was an incident, or if they were not treated as equals — which happened a lot — to their white teammates, the Globe wrote about it. And I wasn’t sure going into the book if that was going to be the case, and it was.
There are still misconceptions about how the Celtics handled race, and a big part of that is because their team — that a certain generation remembers so well — is Bird, McHale, Danny Ainge. There was a perception: Oh yeah, Celtics, Boston, White. I mean they had the best white players, but it had nothing to do with race why they were here, and Celtics history tells you that.
Look at Celtics history, and Red just wanted to win. He didn’t care about the race or color of his players. He just wanted the best players, and that was well ahead of its time back then.
You get into the eighties, and Magic and Bird change the game in a bunch of different ways — saying they save the league really isn’t an exaggeration. To have grown up watching that, it was really cool to be able to get into that phase of the book where we are doing things that I remember and that I witnessed.
But it was the hardest chapter in the book to edit, and it’s by far the biggest chapter in the book, for two reasons. Obviously they accomplished a lot, and they won the three titles in that era, and there were so many memorable games, the Lakers and the rivalry, the Sixers, and later on the Pistons. And with a book like this, you can’t just put the championships in it. There were so many games that resonated with people along the way.
The other thing was the quality of the writing was mind-blowing. It was Bob Ryan at the peak of his powers; it was Dan Shaughnessy, Montville; Jackie MacMullan came along in the late ‘80s. So the hardest thing I had to do with this book was pick which story to use without being redundant when two or three of them wrote about the same subject. Which one do I use?
I dedicated the book to my daughter who’s the biggest Celtics fan I know. I also dedicated to Bob Ryan, who is my writing hero.
I also think just writing about the family aspect of it — that’s become a really big thing with the Celtics themselves. I’ve never seen a team that was as connected and as willing to allow people around the players, their kids, their wives, to be as big a part of things as the 2024 Celtics were.
I think it bonded them together even more where they’ve developed this culture, where it’s just greater than what they have on the court.
Catch up on the latest Boston.com Book Club pick and join the virtual author discussions.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu spoke to a joint committee on Beacon Hill Wednesday to advance her revised tax proposal.
The mayor urged lawmakers to approve it in time for Gov. Maura Healey’s signature. Wu called the revised plan, with more protections for small businesses, a compromise, balancing the needs of residents and the business community.
Boston’s commissioner of assessing used a paperclip as a visual aid during the presentation to lawmakers to illustrate a new balance: An effort to offset revenue losses caused by vacant business space by shifting and increasing the tax burden onto commercial properties.
“We need residents to have enough money in their pockets at the end of every month to go out and support our businesses,” Wu said.
She warned that homeowners could face steep property tax increases without the plan, which would likely be passed on to renters.
Lawmakers, however, pushed back, questioning the city’s financial needs.
“We all have to think about tightening our belts,” said Massachusetts State Sen. Susan Moran.
Wu countered, citing the need to address long-overdue salary adjustments for municipal workers.
“We had to sort of adjust the salaries after about four years of not having cost-of-living increases for municipal workers — the police contract, for example,” she explained.
Mayor Michelle Wu announced that she’s reached a deal to temporarily raise tax rates for local businesses amid a revenue shortfall.
The revised proposal includes measures to protect small businesses, such as raising the personal property tax exemption threshold from $10,000 to $30,000.
Still, some critics remain unconvinced. Business owner Lou Murray argued the tax hike would ultimately trickle down to consumers.
“You tax somebody, they pass on the cost down the ladder,” Murray said.
Supporters like Boston resident Chaton Green said the tax proposal is critical for those already struggling on fixed incomes.
“I was sitting next to a 90-year-old woman, and she said, ‘I still have to work.’ And that broke me,” Green shared.
Because the proposal would temporarily raise Boston’s commercial property tax rate above the state limit, the mayor needs legislative approval to pass it on to the governor.
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