"Stan Van Gundy has heard all of those reports of the Celtics [team stats]' demise. He sneers at all of you.

"You've got Hall of Famers — surefire, first-ballot Hall of Famers," Van Gundy said before the Celtics made the Orlando Magic coach sound prescient last night. "When I hear people say that they're struggling, I just sort of laugh to myself. They're never easy to play against, they're going to be one of the best defensive teams in the league year in and year out. When it's early in the year, people see a record they don't like and they panic. People put too much emphasis on the early part of the season, but you have to have something to talk about, too. If you're going to have all of these sports talk shows then you have to talk about something. So now the Celtics are too old and these guys can't play at all. I'm not buying it. But right now that's the story. You're going to have to revise it when they win nine out of 10 somewhere, they got younger or something as it went on. It's all crap.""