Learning to Fly ...

One of my favorites, by Tom Petty with a little help from Stevie Nicks.

"Well some say life will beat you down
Break your heart, steal your crown
So I've started out, for God knows where
I guess I'll know when I get there..."

By the way, Nicks and her band mates from Fleetwood Mac - including 70-year old Christine McVie (can you believe it?) will be touring the USA and Canada this fall.  The tour will tip-off in Minnesota on the last day of September and make its way to NYC (Oct 6) and Boston (October 10). Note that with the date at MSG, the band was also booked at The Fabulous Forum in LA, as opposed to the STAPLES Center.

Fleetwood dates: 

Sept. 30 — Minneapolis, MN (Target Center)
Oct. 2 — Chicago, IL (United Center)
Oct. 6 — New York City (Madison Square Garden)
Oct. 10 — Boston, MA (TD Garden)
Oct. 11 — Newark, NJ (Prudential Center)
Oct. 14 — Pittsburgh, PA (Consol Energy Center)
Oct. 15 — Philadelphia, PA (Wells Fargo Center)
Oct. 18 — Toronto, ON (Air Canada Centre)
Oct. 19 — Columbus, OH (Nationwide Arena)
Oct. 21 — Indianapolis, IN (Bankers Life Fieldhouse)
Oct. 22 — Detroit, MI (The Palace of Auburn Hills)
Oct. 26 — Ottawa, ON (Canadian Tire Centre)
Oct. 31 — Washington, DC (Verizon Center)
Nov. 1 — Hartford, CT (XL Center)
Nov. 10 — Winnipeg, MB (MTS Centre)
Nov. 12 — Saskatoon, SK (Credit Union Centre)
Nov. 14 — Calgary, AB (Scotiabank Saddledome)
Nov. 15 — Edmonton, AB (Rexall Place)
Nov. 18 — Vancouver, BC (Rogers Arena)
Nov. 20 — Tacoma, WA (Tacoma Dome)
Nov. 22 — Portland, OR (Moda Center)
Nov. 24 — Sacramento, CA (Sleep Train Arena)
Nov. 25 — San Jose, CA (SAP Center at San Jose)
Nov. 28 — Los Angeles, CA (The Forum)
Nov. 29 — Los Angeles, CA (The Forum)
Dec. 2 — San Diego, CA (Viejas Arena at San Diego State University)
Dec. 3 — Oakland, CA (Oracle Arena)
Dec. 10 — Phoenix, AZ (US Airways Center)
Dec. 12 — Denver, CO (Pepsi Center)
Dec. 14 — Dallas, TX (American Airlines Center)
Dec. 15 — Houston, TX (Toyota Center)
Dec. 17 — Atlanta, GA (Philips Arena)
Dec. 19 — Ft. Lauderdale, FL (BB&T Center)

Mr Bettman, Apology Accepted!

BOSTON, January 19, 2013 - To Whom It May Concern Amongst the NHL's Ticket Holders, Vendors, Arena-Staff and Area Workers, Small Business Owners, Players, Coaches, Front Office Executives, Sponsors, Team Owners, and to you The Fan:

And to the distinguished Commissioner Gary Bettman and to NHL Players Association head Donald Fehr:

First and foremost, Commissioner Bettman, sir. Apology accepted!

Now, let's all move on as the season is underway and Bettman, the NHL's proprietor of pucks, declared open the lockout-shortened 2013 season as he munched on some "Humble Pie" when he recently walked up to a microphone and did what any CEO would do after a corporate disaster.

He apologized.

"I know that an explanation or an apology with not erase the hard feelings that have built up over the last few months, but I owe you an apology nonetheless," said the NHL commissioner.

Well, I was at the TD Garden in Boston for the Bruins' home opener and a legion of hockey fans seem to agree with my viewpoint. They were back, and they tweeted #BruinsAreBack or #HockeyisBack as though they were campaigning for office. These are the facts to be reported this 19th day of January in the Year 2013 as the NHL cranked up its engines:

• Every seat was sold.
• Occupying Causeway Street was a loyal, avid - maybe rabid - ice hockey fan, nearly all decked out in varying styles of Boston Bruins replica team jerseys.
• The passion of a loyal fan base was very apparent, smiles on faces signaling incredibly happy fans.
• The team's messages were straight and to the point. A sincere "Welcome Back" with some special promotions, beautiful ice sculptures on the grounds, a tremendous pre-game ceremony to introduce the 2013 Bruins and more.

Yes, the NHL season is underway and the NHL league and team Public Relations people, Broadcasters, Marketing, Ticket Sales, Game Presentation and every employee from ice dancer to Zamboni driver have all done a fine job relaunching pro ice hockey in North America, much to the appreciation of that avid fan base, all seemingly starving for a hockey fix.

Truth be told, lockouts and collective bargaining agreements, work stoppages, business deals and salary caps, the endless bickering and arguing between the Fehrs and the Bettmans of the world are the last things a fan wants to hear about. Sports fans want to watch their team play. Period. For many fans, the shortened 2013 season ends a bad dream, but the awakening brings hope their team can compete for a playoff spot or maybe even a title. While doing so, all the fan want is to enjoy themselves, buy a sweater, quaff a brew and maybe take their kids now and then to see the best brand of ice hockey the world has to offer, outside Moscow.

Whether it is "in-person" (and we know the NHL is the best "in-person" experience of the four major North American-based sports) or, if it's only on TV (where the NHL might be the "worst" of the major sports in terms of the ability to soak in the game on TV), sports fans just want to have two hours and 30 minutes of fun, excitement, while they can show their love and enthusiasm for the local heroes. Hockey fans want to display all of their built up, pent-up, competitive spirit and natural passion as they witness true competition in the most entertaining of any professional sport. Fans ask, only, that the players are prepared and play HARD. They want their teams well coached and to skate as hard as they can.

This year, it's a 99-day sprint to the Cup Playoffs. It's wide open and more than a dozen teams have a legitimate shot at carrying Lord Stanley for a ride.

To the contrary, though, some fans choose to heap some sort of discipline upon the league for orchestrating the terrible 2012 lockout. There are viral videos calling for a 10-game boycott to account for every game lost after the self-imposed December 21 line drawn in the sand. A group of fans created a Facebook page and a video message that went ultra-viral online.

One of the proponents of that cause is a good friend of mine - call him "Billy," who is one of the most avid, well-rounded hockey fans I've ever met. Billy played the game, knows the game and LOVES the game, yet he explained it well: "I'm in my parenting stage of life," said the father of a four-year old. "I know that I have to lay some type of foundation so he know what's right and wrong. And, there has to be some sort of consequence if he doesn't behave, listen or recognize there is right and wrong.

"I feel the same way about the NHL. The lockout was drawn-out and they were operating without any regard for the fans. We just have to do something to let the NHL know, we're just not going to take it. We have to show them some discipline."

A worthy argument, yes, but I tend to believe that lockouts are like hurricanes, stock market corrections, parking tickets and a slew of other things in life that annoy the bejeezes out of us. The lockout was a necessary means to get a 10-year labor deal that worked for the owners of the league.

Commissioner Bettman was under marching orders from hard-line team owners to get "the best possible long-term deal" and he did. Now that the deal is done, I refuse to look in the rear view mirror. I refuse to judge the owners or the players or try to decide if there was a winner or loser in this mess.

Like the 17,565 fans at TD Boston Garden, most of them dressed in Bruins Black & Gold, I stand ready to fully accept and embrace the 2013 NHL season for one and only one reason. It's FUN!

That's what a pro sport is supposed to be about - F.U.N. I wanted to lay a $20 on my favorite bar-keeper, as I know he felt the pain of this lockout far more than goal-keepers, owners or Commissioners.

So, dear National Hockey League, I'm back! You're back, so I'm back. Although, Mr Fehr? I wouldn't mind hearing an apology from you, too.

(This is the first of a series of three Blog Posts by Terry Lyons, editor of Digital Sports Desk as he analyzes the return and jump-start of the 2013 NHL season).

Follow Terry Lyons on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@DigSportsDesk

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DigitalSportsDesk.com on the (Near) Perfect NBA Playoff Game

NBA Refs and Rajon Rondo Redeemed Themselves

BOSTON - MAY 6, 2012 -  A funny thing happened at an NBA Playoff game this weekend and it wasn't even noticed.  No, it wasn't Oklahoma City's impressive sweep over the defending champion Dallas Mavericks or the San Antonio Spurs handling of the formidable Utah Jazz in four straight games. It wasn't accounting firm Ernst & Young screwing up the ballot count for the NBA's Most Improved Player award nor the impressive play of David West for the Indiana Pacers. What happened this weekend went unreported, un-posted, un-blogged, un-tweeted.  One of the greatest feats in NBA Playoff history and the story never even made the ESPN highlight reel.

So what the hell happened?

On Friday night at the TD Boston Garden in front of a sellout crowd of 18,624 which included a heavy dose of NBA brass, the officiating crew of #10 Ron Garretson, #13 Monty McCutchen and #33 Zach Zarba called a (near) perfect game.  

Every referee worth his whistle swears the perfect game in an unattainable goal.  At the highest level of basketball, an official doesn't stand a chance of getting them all right because the players are just too big, too quick, too strong.  They are so talented and athletic, they're just too everything.  They play so far above the rim and they can contort their bodies in midair to avoid contact or collision that the naked eyes can't compute the optical illusion occurring before them.  The NBA game cannot be compared to hoops at any other level.  It's even more impossible to compare officiating.  To the novice fans, comparing NBA ball to college basketball or, even Euroleague Basketball, is worse than trying to compare apples and oranges or The Rolling Stones to The Who to The Beatles.  It just can't be done. 

As the red carpet was rolled out on Friday, plush with NBA Commissioner David Stern seated near his trusty deputy, Adam Silver, they both witnessed the feat alongside a bonafide CNN anchorman, John King, who could've broke into programming to report the news.  However, not a single news bulletin, nor a word of congratulations was spoken to the men ultimately responsible for how their game is called.  In the post-game press conferences, nobody brought up the subject of officiating. There were no kind words. No headlines written.  World Series perfectionist Don Larson's name never came up when the Celtics defeated the Atlanta Hawks, 90-84, in overtime, and the NBA registered the best officiated game of the year.  It might've been the best officiated game of the the century.

An unofficial review of the game brought about four or five "possible" missed calls or miscues, none of them even close to being significant.  The only blip on the screen was a moment when Boston Coach Doc Rivers sauntered way out onto the court but he wasn't arguing a call and the referring crew let it go, as they should. Rivers was trying to get the attention of his point guard Rajon Rondo who was not on the same page as his coach's playbook required when he returned to play in Game 3 after being suspended for a single playoff date for bumping NBA ref Marc Davis in Game 1 of the series.  After that contest, there was quite a bit of focus on the officiating and, after the game, there was a constant banter on the steps the NBA would take to discipline Rondo for his obvious disregard of the sacred personal space around an official.

Rightfully so, the NBA suspended Rondo a single game for his indiscretion but Avery Bradley, Sasha Pavlovic, Keyon Dooling and Marquis Daniels all stepped up quite nicely for the Celtics as they tied the series 1-1 with an 87-80 win over the Hawks at Atlanta. The Celtics' win brought the series to Boston for the "so-called" pivotal Game 3 where the stakes were raised so high, the people of Kentucky would start singing "My Old Kentucky Home." The game was important and the players delivered a hard-fought, entertaining, defensive chess match that saw Boston hold Atlanta to 38-percent shooting from the field and 20-percent from three-point land. Much of that defensive intensity is credited to the amazing play of Kevin Garnett who has played with the youthful exuberance of the high schooler who entered the league in 1995. While Garnett, switched to center after teammate Jermaine O'Neal went down to injury and had season-ending surgery on his left wrist in March.

Out on Daniels the perimeter where real defense happens in game of basketball, Bradley has become the stopper.  Complemented by the speedy Rondo, the consistent Paul Pierce, the hard-working and the deep bench of, Dooling, Mickael Pietrus and important minutes being played by Ray Allen, now as a reserve the past two games, Bradley has become the difference maker for the Boston Celtics as they plot their way through the 2012 NBA Playoffs with the window of opportunity showing a shade pulled three-quarters of the way down.  This might be it for this era of Celtics basketball and the NBA's cut-down season provides an opportunity to hang banner No. 18 in the rafters of TD Boston Garden.

In this year when NCAA officiating was a downright disgrace to the game and when NBA bad boy Metta World Peace earned a seven-game suspension for nearly decapitating Oklahoma's James Harden, the whistle blowers are always the visiting team. It was once said that officiating is the only profession in the world where the ultimate compliment is silence. That is certainly true. No news is good news when the refs are escorted off the court by a security detail that rivals the US Secret Service presence in a Colombian strip joint. The attention brought upon NBA referees in the past five or six years largely revolved around the criminal activities of one Tim Donoghy and the sniping by Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and his "couldn't run a Dairy Queen viewpoint of the dedicated group of professional refs who call the game at the very highest level.  They run, they pivot, they get screened by giants on the court, they peek around bodies, scramble for better position, work their rotations all in an attempt to "just get it right."  Then, they have their judgements reviewed by partisan television commentators who make their references from observing 12 high-definition television cameras situated so far away from the court, they create bad angles and optical illusions which often prompt erroneous reporting or legions of fans scowling when the replays are shown on jumbo in-arena screens.

On Friday night, the crew of Garretson, McCutcheon and Zarba, a young rising superstar official, got it right.  No one noticed, but that's alright.  They reviewed the game themselves and probably second-guessed a judgement call or two.  They showered, dressed, then left the building without so much as a pat on the back or a single cheer from the fans.

Only the funeral directors, morticians and undertakers could relate.

Terry Lyons does The Blog at TerryLyons.com and is editor in chief of DigitalSportsDesk.com (@DigSportsDesk).  His work is also featured in the Huffington Post collection of sports columns.

A little LIVE BLOGGING from TerryLyons.com ... 76ers at Celtics

Here's a little pre-Thanksgiving Day treat, live from courtside at TD Boston Garden where the Boston Celtics are out to a 14-9 start against the Philadelphia 76ers.

Paul Pierce has scored half of the Celtics' 14 points.

The pregame buzz in the press room was all in reaction to the announcement by Allen Iverson that he is planning to retire from the NBA. More on that in the next post.