BSJ Daily Briefing 01.17.18: RIP Celtics great Jo Jo White

Good morning.

We are terribly saddened by the passing of the great Jo Jo White. He was a champion and a gentleman; supremely talented and brilliant on the court, and endlessly gracious off of it.

Full statement: https://t.co/sYgSvZJu0A pic.twitter.com/1Eu8G2Qr8a

— Boston Celtics (@celtics) January 17, 2018

• A tough news day on Tuesday, starting with the passing of Celtics legend Jo Jo White.


• He was obviously before my time, but my father used to regale me with stories of White, John Havlicek and Dave Cowens and the rest of those 1970s Celtics teams. The thing I remember most about those stories concerning White: he was tireless, relentless defensively and completely unselfish.


• White played in a Celtics-record 488 consecutive games. Incredible.


• I did not know the was also drafted by the Cincinnati Reds and Dallas Cowboys. That's incredible.


• White was, of course, centrally involved in the Greatest Game Ever Played: Game 5 of the 1976 Finals vs. the Suns.

• I didn't realize referee Richie Powers got into a fight with a fan near the end of the second overtime. Wow.

• I played against hoops against White's son, Brian, in the Dual County League when he was a standout three-sport player at Newton South. Brian went on to play football and lacrosse at Dartmouth, and is an actor. He had a cup of coffee with the Patriots in 1995.


• There was also sad news when it became known that Washington State quarterback Tyler Hilinski died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. He had just started in the Holiday Bowl and was set to be the starter next season. Terrible.

• That was an ugly finish by the Celtics last night. As usual, I agree with B-Robb's assessment.


• This needed to be said by Joe McDonald on the return of Claude Julien tonight, and I thought it was very insightful from a guy who knows the game — stuff I didn't know or remember from Claude's time here (Lake Placid?). But I'll be happy that the Claude stories are now done.


• AFC Championship week will kick into gear today with the team's press conference being broadcast live on NFL Network. This is the part of the playoffs when the NFL starts to take everything over.


• From what I'm hearing about what's going on behind the scenes with this Patriots team, no one has to worry about the Patriots not being ready to play on Sunday.


• One thing I wanted to make clear from my stint on Felger & Mazz was that my reference to Bob Socci was not a shot at him. It was meant to be a comment on how the Patriots have been so dominating in the past two months that we as a media group are scraping the bottom of the barrel for interesting questions, especially now that the Steelers choked away their chance against Jacksonville. I didn't even have a question for Bill Belichick — at least Bob did — and I didn't even write about the game in my column off the game itself. That's amazing coming off a divisional playoff game, and a testament to how dominating the Patriots have been in recent weeks. I've been around a lot of team radio announcers and Bob is tremendous at his job; no one works harder and is more respected by the rank-and-file. I think my point came out clunky, and that's another example of why I get paid to write and not speak. I felt I needed to clarify that.

Jayson Tatum on both ends of the floor >>>??‍♀️?
?:https://t.co/idy2OHo9V3 pic.twitter.com/FrA5L4uHgo

— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) January 17, 2018