Boston Celtics Game

I traveled to Boston this week to visit one of my favorite clients, Linedata Services, Inc. They are a great mid-sized financial services software company. Linedata is headquartered in Paris, but the North American operations, and all of my contacts, are in Boston. Linedata has been on me for years to spend some time in Boston. Last month, I got approval from Jones Day to take Linedata's 3 top North American executives out to a Boston Celtics game.

(On a side note, this is a small example of why Jones Day is such great law firm. Even in these tough economic times, Jones Day is willing to invest in client relationships. When other law firms are laying off attorneys, Jones Day is allowing a non-partner-level attorney invest time and money into a mid-sized, current, client. Jones Day is very conservative, but is also very supportive of attorneys continuing to develop deeper client relationships. The firm takes a "long term" view of everything. This is only one aspect of a great Jones Day culture. It is a privilege to work for such a terrific law firm. I hope to be at Jones Day 20 years from now.)

Anyway, I spent the day with a few Linedata executives and we went to the game on Friday night. It was an exciting pre-game show.

The Celtics are the reigning NBA champs. They have won 17 championships - more than any other team in the NBA. The rafters are stocked with championship banners.



The Celtics were playing the Pacers - a team that is not great, but can be fun to watch. Roy Hibbert (ex-Georgetown boy) got the game started with the tipoff. We had great seats just off the floor. They were, by far, the best seats I have ever had for an NBA game. The Linedata guys loved it.




This was the first game for Stephon Marbury in a Boston Celtics uniform. He was released by the Knicks just a couple of days ago. Starbury received a warm reception in Boston and played great. If he continues to play like he did tonight, Boston just got even better.

Ray Allen was on fire. He ended up with 30 points in the game. During one stretch - he could not miss.

Rondo had a great game as well. He had 17 assists by the 3rd quarter. I thought he was going to get 25. He did not play much in the 4th quarter and ended the game with 17.

Paul Pierce is HUGE. I never realized how big that guy is until I saw him in person. I thought of him as a smallish guard. I was very wrong. That guy is tall and built like a football player. No wonder he can shoot over people and power through a foul to make the shot. He is an animal.

The Pacers played a good game but the Celtics just had too much fire power. The Celtics ended up winning the game 104 to 99.