Tyler Kolek, shown on defense for George Mason, is off to Marquette (Photo: URI Athletics)
By BUNKY McCOY
• Bad for basketball? If you say that’s the case with the Warriors’ Stephen Curry, you clearly
don’t appreciate the shooting display he put on against the Celtics this past Saturday night.
• Yes, a lot of today’s players try to model their game after Curry’s. Dribbling through the legs.
Shooting off the dribble. Step-back shots. Gifted ballhandling. Heightening to a degree of
difficulty that few can match.
• Imitation is said to be the sincerest form of flattery. Saturday night at the Garden, Curry had a
cool 47 points. On Monday night, he burned the Sixers for 49 points. Over his past two games,
he’s hit 22 threes.
• You can make a case that too many college kids play like Curry, as if they truly believe they
can do what he’s been doing for a long time. Bottom line? There’s only one Steph Curry. Let’s
enjoy him for the basketball treasure he is.
• BTW, Wikipedia lists Curry as being from Akron, OH – same hometown as LeBron James.
• Happy retirement to Julian Edelman, who always seemed to save his best work in a Patriots’
uniform when the playoffs rolled around. Just don’t get any ideas to stage a reunion with TB12
and Gronk down in Tampa Bay, okay little guy.
• Somewhere George Steinbrenner is turning over his grave with the Yankees’ horrific start. The
so-called Bronx Bombers went into Tuesday’s action with a 5-10 record – the worst in the
American League.
• Red Sox slugger J.D. Martinez is continuing to make everyone forget about his abysmal 2020
season.
• Just when you’ve thought you’ve heard and seen it all, Bunky, there’s word that the General
Assembly is considering a bill that would allow veterinarians to prescribe marijuana.
• You mean to tell me a little pot is going to work wonders for the blind cat?
• Good luck to Cumberland’s Tyler Kolek at Marquette. Friar fans should know that Ed Cooley didn’t make a play for the guard at the last minute. In fact the full-court press from Cooley was on the moment Kolek hit the NCAA
transfer portal. That said, close only counts in horseshoes (and hand grenades).
• LINE OF THE WEEK comes from Celtics boss Danny Ainge, who concluded his time on the
Celtics’ TV broadcast on Monday night with “I did not have fun. I did not enjoy it.”
• Ainge wasn’t referring to working with Brian Scalabrine. He was talking about Boston’s 102-96
home loss to Chicago – a loss that snapped the C’s six-game winning streak and reminded us
that all good things must come to an end.
• BTW, it must be nice that Ainge has time to be a TV commentator. Isn’t there another Jabari
Parker-type of player the Celtics can go get?
• RIP to former Vice President Walter “Fritz” Mondale, who died on Monday at age 93.
Mondale worked under the Jimmy Carter administration before waging his own unsuccessful
White House bid in 1984.
• This from this past Sunday’s New York Post: the Patriots rank 25th (out of 32 NFL teams)
when it comes to how they’ve fared when it comes to the NFL Draft over the past five years. No
wonder why Robert Kraft said in so many words a few weeks back that the Pats haven’t done
the greatest job in the draft the last couple years.
• Why I enjoy enlisting to Kevin McNamara’s 401 Podcast: they’re only 30 minutes long. That’s
a far cry from other area podcasts that tend to last over an hour and have that “Lost in
Translation” vibe to them.
• Speaking of KMac, he let slip on the radio the other night that his wife enjoyed Saturday’s Celtics-Warriors
game. It was an 8:30 tip, thus it’s assumed the `Ole Scribe treated for a nice dinner out somewhere before sitting down
and enjoying some NBA action.
• Memo to everyone out there: don’t text and drive.
• These days, churches in R.I. are doing one of two things: closing or merging. The latest example of the latter is taking place in Warwick with St. Catherine and St. Francis of Assisi parishes in Warwick will be merged into Saints Rose and Clement Parish.
• As of Monday, Jackie Bradley was batting .231 while Andrew Benintendi was batting .204. Both have the same on-base percentage (.271). Kudos to the Red Sox for dumping both.
• The uniforms the Red Sox wore this past weekend, they looked like someone spilled a bottle
of French’s Mustard.
• Not a big soccer guy, hence I don’t see a big deal about Red Sox principal owner John Henry
taking his soccer love (Liverpool) and placing it in something called the Super League in Europe.
• This column would have been longer, but I’m throwing my name in the NCAA transfer portal.
After all, everyone in college basketball seems to be doing it.