The Maine Red Claws held their second annual "Select-A-Seat" day at the Portland Expo, and brought in a special guest for the occasion, NBA Hall-of-Famer, and Celtics great Tommy Heinsohn. Tommy sat down with me for a one-on-one interview on a myriad of subjects, including the D-League, officiating, Lebron, the upcoming Celtics season, broadcasting, and his nickname for Dick Stockton from his NBA on CBS days. Good stuff from the Celtics color analyst.

Tommy Heinsohn interview

I don't know if anyone else noticed this, but Game One reminded me a lot of the 1992 Playoffs v. Cleveland. In 1992 you had the end of the Larry Bird era on the horizon, but Reggie Lewis was the guy who made things work for that team that season. For most of this season, I feel like I can zero in on the Celtics second half woes, and it's kind of painfully obvious. In the second half of games, and especially the 4th quarter, it seems like the role of Rajon Rondo goes from attacker to "hand the ball off to Paul Pierce and get out of the way".  Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't feel like I am.

The Maine Red Claws sent their fans home unhappy after falling to Ft Wayne 113-105 on Saturday night at the Portland Expo. Bill Walker led all scorers with 32 points, but it wasn't enough to hold back Ft Wayne's Ron Howard (not of Happys Days fame) who had 28 points to lad the Mad Ants. The Red Claws, who were playing front of their third straight sellout home crowd, were outscored 30-19 in the fourth quarter, and it proved to be their undoing. You can see photos from the game and hear the exclusive post-game audio from Lester Hudson, Austin Ainge, and more right here.

The Maine Red Claws have won 7 straight games since an opening night loss, and they will try to make it 8 with a win at home against the Ft Wayne Mad Ants. Lester Hudson might be making his final Red Claws appearance, as he will be called back up to the Celtics in time for tomorrow's game with Minnesota. Ft Wayne is 3-5 on the young season and is coming off of a loss against the Dee Brown-led Springfield Armor on Friday. The live blog action from the Portland Expo can be found right here.

The Lester Hudson news has been official for a little bit, but the big question here in Maine was who would be leacing the roster to make room. The answer? Mario West, who has been waived due to injury. West, who had played the last two season with the Atlanta Hawks, was signed by the team on December 1st. There is stil a chance he comes back to the team when Hudson goes back to Boston. In 3 games this season, West had averaged 9.7 ppg and 22 minutes per game.

The Maine Red Claws christen the newly renovated Portland Expo tonight with an 8 pm tilt against Dee Brown and the Springfield Armor in the first ever regular season meeting between the new D-League teams. Bill Walker, Alexis Ajinca and the boys are 1-1 on the young season so far. We will have a live blog, photos, audio interviews and more from this historic night at the CMSB, and invite all of you to drop by and check it out.

The Maine Red Claws, who earlier in the day announced the first player in team history, Billy Thomas from Kansas, took part in the D-League's draft, selecting 8 players from the available pool. Paul Harris, formerly of Syracuse was the first round selection (8th overall) of the team. The Red claws seemed to be looking for athletic shooters, as the tallest player they drafted was 6'8. Their Mr Irrelevant was Maine native Matt Clement (no, not the pitcher), who was most recently playing in Ireland. He played at Maine Maritime Academy, and in 2008 put his basketball career on hold for a bit when when he donated half of his liver to his ailing father. Danny Ainge was also on-site, and the audio from his interview is now posted for your listening pleasure, as he talks about the draft and the Celtics.

Kedrick Brown is returning to the Celtics fold. Yes, that Kedrick Brown. The Maine Red Claws and the Springfield Armor held their expansion by conference call on Wednesday afternoon, and there some familiar names getting picked up. John Lucas, James White and Cedric Bozeman led the notable names in the draft, players that were selected from the Anaheim and Colorado D-League Rosters.  You can check out the full list of players selected by Maine and Springfield right here.

Update: the Maine Red Claws shed some light on the Kedrick Brown issue:

FYI: we've gained the "rights" to players today but there's no guarentee they'll play for us b/c some have euro contracts (kedrick brown)

via web3.twitpic.com

The Maine Red Claws had a big day today. First, head coach Austin Ainge threw out the first pitch. Then they unveiled their new mascot, Crsuher, to the world. It has been confirmed that some children are a tiny bit afraid of it . Hopefully if they see him hanging out with Slugger the Sea Dog, some of the fear will be tempered. You can view the rest of the photo album and video of Crusher dunking right here.