This project began in 2012 and then was tabled for a while. At the beginning of it, the focus was on Doc Rivers and the Celtics as they attempted to make one more championship run. There was access to several meetings and events that the author was present for (such as Carmelo Anthony’s attempt to climb aboard the Celtics’ bus in Madison Square Garden in 2013).
Most of the information in this book is based on the author’s interviewing and reporting. The following are examples of either news reporting from other sources or court reporting:
Prologue: Information used from Jack McCallum, “Thank Heaven for Danny,” Sports Illustrated, April 20, 1981.
Chapter 4, “Attacked”: Information used from Boston Police incident report, victim statement transcription, and witness statement, all from September 25, 2000. Suffolk County Superior Court Records: Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. William Ragland, November 14, 2000; Commonwealth v. William Ragland, Trevor Watson, and Tony Hurston, January 9, 2001; Commonwealth v. William Ragland, March 14, 2002; Commonwealth v. William Ragland, April 17, 2003; Commonwealth v. William Ragland, June 14, 2003; Commonwealth v. William Ragland, Appeals, October 14, 2008. S. L. Price, “The Truth Revealed,” Sports Illustrated, December 8, 2008. Jackie MacMullan, “The Courageous Fight to Fix the NBA’s Mental Health Problem,” ESPN, August 20, 2018, https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/24382693/jackie-macmullan-kevin-love-paul-pierce-state-mental-health-nba.
Chapter 6, “Seeing Red”: Frank Hughes, “Day on Links Gives Allen Insight into New Owner,” Tacoma News Tribune, November 24, 2006. Steve Aschburner, “Speculation by Pundits Riles Garnett,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, January 27, 2007.
Chapter 7, “Boston Connections”: Eric D. Williams, “Cheers Turn to Jeers in Seattle When Team Unloads Allen,” Tacoma News Tribune, June 29, 2007.
Chapter 8, “Ubuntu”: Information used from Shira Springer, “Celtics Build a Bond in Ancient Rome,” Boston Globe, October 7, 2007. “2013 Templeton Prize Laureate Desmond Tutu on Ubuntu,” November 19, 2013, video, 12:00, December 13, 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=yQnm_P0TBzE.
Chapter 9, “Graduation”; Chapter 10, “Anything Is Possible”; and Chapter 12, “The Hard Way to LA”: In-game comments or coaches’ miked-up segments gleaned from ABC/ESPN coverage.
Chapter 13, “Decisions”: Kendrick Perkins’s trade anecdote from his appearance on ESPN’s The Jump, February 7, 2020.
Chapter 14, “Broken Brotherhood”: Information used from Baxter Holmes, “Rajon Rondo: Good at Math, Bad at People,” ESPN the Magazine, April 8, 2015, https://www .espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/12587848/old-questions -surface-new-dallas-mavericks-point-guard-rajon-rondo. Ray Allen with Michael Arkush, From the Outside: My Journey through Life and the Game I Love (New York: Dey Street Books, 2018).