Random Thoughts by EB – Congrats Knicks Fans but it will be a short lived celebration; comments from the abyss of my brain and a community mourns.

By Eric Berry

Mourning for the Ross Family

I am going to reverse engineer this writing in opposition to the order of the title. I can’t tell you enough how much I feel for the Ross family. No family should ever have to go through what they are going through. Jonathan is still fighting for his life and everyone in the community has rallied around him and his wife, Chelsea. I do not know Chelsea, but I do know Jon from my days coaching. I was oftentimes, admittedly, loud and questioning some of his calls. Weirdly, as I got along in my coaching years I got better but was never perfect where giving officials crap was concerned. I now respect even more the job they did when I was there and the job they do now. More than anything I realized as I have become friends with so many officials that they are just like all of us. Humans. People who work all day and then come work the games. They work 40 to 60 hours a week, drive all over God’s creation traveling for their job, and then their avocation of officiating, and take an inordinate amount of crap once there. I realized more now that no official has an axe to grind. I have laid in bed over the past few nights wondering why something so terrible had to happen. I pray for the Ross family and beg for peace for them.

Knicks
As a Celtics fan you would think I would be disgusted that the NY Knicks won the title. Honestly, I don’t care. The Celtics didn’t deserve it, the Knicks did. They had the best run in the NBA playoffs we’ve seen in a long time. As a longtime Villanova fan I have always loved Brunson, Hart and Bridges. An incredible run by the Knickerbockers but I think it will be short lived. I don’t see how Brunson can continue to stay healthy given the grind he has been put through over the past few years. A lot has been demanded of him, and he is getting longer on the tooth. I would not be surprised if he and the Knicks fall off big time next year.

Why is it that fans, after their team wins a championship, go out and loot and vandalize their city? Burning buses, shootings, fights. Are those celebrations or an excuse for skulduggery? There is zero reason for this behaviour. In 1990, after Tom Brunansky made a ridiculous catch in right field to propel the Sox to the AL playoffs the fans went nuts in Boston. They flipped over a taxi cab and were involved in other unscrupulous behavior. I was worried for my life in that crowd, however. I couldn’t get away fast enough. I remember that whole night after things calmed down. Back then you used to have to wait in line to get tickets for the playoffs from the box office. The quicker you got in line the better chances of good seats you had. Me, Johnny Allen and Pat Guckin slept on the Boston sidewalk adjacent to Fenway Park. I had no blankets and my pillow was an empty plastic sprite bottle. There was enough partying that went on and sharing of beverages where my headache outweighed the seething pain in my recently operated back. That morning at the crest of daylight, longtime sports host Eddie Andelmann, who passed yesterday ironically, woke me up live on the air with a mic in my face. I may have said some things that Boston fans had heard before but were really not appropriate. Tired, hungover, or still maybe feeling a little tipsy, I didn’t care. It was a memorable night but I digress………..fans need to straighten out.

Other Random Thoughts

I can tell you this, I am sick of the Giannis talk and the Jaylen Brown trade rumors. I have had enough. Either make the trade or don’t. I think Celtics fans have become a bit like Yankees fans in that they are a bit self righteous. Like the world owes them something – which it doesn’t. Mainly it’s the fans who have only been fans the last 10 years and have no idea what it’s like to suffer.

The Red Sox are so bad, and so poorly run, they make the State of Vermont look like it knows what it’s doing. Education and taxes are preposterous, absurd, nervewracking and destructive. In ten(maybe less) years, at this current rate, Vermont will be bankrupt of not only cash, but of moral turpitude and ethical behavior along with native Vermonters. I always like the Southwest, and maybe I’ll take a look at Montana!

I can’t believe the amount of girls varsity basketball coaching positions that are currently open. From my understanding Brattleboro, BBA, SJA, MAU, Rice, and Essex are just a few of the schools that are looking for a new leader. Rumor tells me there are at least three others looking too! The demands of coaching, now year round, versus pay and the grief from parents whose kids are going into the NBA and WNBA is often too much for would-be candidates. Only a matter of time before the stupid NIL stuff starts hitting our local high schools. You wait.

Carolina Hurricanes

On the heels of the Hurricanes winning the Stanley Cup I’m reminded that before last year one of my best friend’s, who has done really well in life, gave up his season tickets before last year. I told him at the time it was a really dumb idea. It’s probably the only advice I’ve ever given him where I was right and he was wrong.

That’s all I have for now.

The opinions expressed by EB are solely his and do not reflect those of NSN. If you’d like to reach out to EB, please contact him at eberry@nsnsports.net. You can read all of Eric’s blogs at www.nsnsports.net.