Kings buy out Greene’s contract
This week’s news that Morell native Scott Morrison has been promoted to one of the assistant coaches with the NBA’s Boston Celtics for the 2017-18 season is absolutely astounding and one of the great stories in Prince Edward Island sports history.
The Celtics are one of the great franchises in USA sports, a home for legends like Larry Bird, Paul Pierce, Bob Cousy, Bill Russell, Sam Jones, John Havlicek, Kevin McHale and so many others. The Celtics are to basketball what the Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs and Boston Bruins are to hockey, a great, historic pro franchise.
Morrison was voted NBA Development League coach of the year in 2015 after his firstplace Maine Red Claws posted a 35-15 record. It was an honour voted on by fellow coaches in the league not by writers, who, on occasion, play partisan politics.
What makes Morrison’s achievement even more monumental is that basketball is one of the major pro sports in North America with a higher per game attendance than the NHL.
The fact Morrison, from a little hamlet 30 minutes east of Charlottetown, is able to reach this plateau is unbelievable. More Americans play basketball in the USA (26 million) than any other team sport. Hockey, by comparison, has about four million participants.
Scott joins a Celtics club that was 53-29 and first in the Eastern Conference this year. They lost in the Eastern final to LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in five games and they are expected to contend every year — that’s life in Boston in all sports.
A few of our local boys have landed positions among the upper echelon of the NHL. Getting to that level from this little Island far from the decisionmaking centres of the hockey/ business world is an enormous achievement.
Guys like Gerard (Turk) Gallant, Bill MacMillan, Doug MacLean, Al McAdam, Kevin Devine and Mike Kelly have overcome huge odds to make it to the NHL in the coaching/ player development ranks. It is the highest level of hockey in the world and considering the intense competition for those positions, we should all be so proud of their accomplishments.
Hockey is Canada’s game and the success of our guys in recent years has conditioned us to, perhaps, take those jobs for granted to some extent. Basketball, however, is not Canada’s game and for Morrison to make it to the NBA, I tip my hat to him this morning and you should too.
News and notes
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Brunswick this weekend for three senior baseball league games.
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police officer Barry Doyle is home for a few weeks visiting friends, including ex-city baseball and fastball standout Lloyd Blanchard, who in his day was a star in the peewee, bantam and midget hockey circles until he jumped off the Purity Dairy Milk bandwagon.
r &Y NJEHFU CBTFCBMM DBUDIFS George Henry Larter is all smiles these days as his Boston Red Sox are in American League East pennant chase. He’s also been ducking Reggie Affleck lately, especially after Reggie’s horse, Clic K, posted a sharp victory recently in Red Shores at the Charlottetown Driving Park’s (CPD) top class. Affleck co-owns Click K with friends.
Harness racing
The annual baby races go this morning at 11 a.m. and I expect a huge crowd at the CDP, where hotdogs and drinks will be served free of charge.
Tonight’s CDP card gets underway at 6 p.m. and the feature is the $5,000 Cecil Ladner memorial invitational and it has attracted the best horses in the Maritimes. Mr Irresistible has the rail and, with Marc Campbell in the bike, he’s likely the favourite.
Dr. Ian Moore’s Classic Pro went a monster mile last week and was a game and gritty fourth in the $1 million North American Cup final won by Fool the Dragon. Classic Pro has this week off but his next big trip is the Meadowlands Pace on July 15.
James MacDonald posted his best night of the season, winning five races at Mohawk on Tuesday. James handles Mach Code tonight in the $34,000 preferred at The Hawk.
Eclipse Me N, co-owned by Allard Racing and Don MacRae, closed with a rush to be second in her Yonkers debut June 16. The mare drew the outside in the $40,000 preferred last night at the New York track and had a big chance to win.
Mark MacDonald’s Obrigado tangles with arch-rival Resolve in the $55,000 open trot tonight at Yonkers while Western Fame has the outside in the $55,000 open pace. EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – The Los Angeles Kings bought out the final year of defenceman Matt Greene’s contract Friday, cutting ties with another portion of their Stanley Cup championship core. Greene has been with the Kings since 2008.