Celtics rule the pop-culture world this weekend

While the basketball world awaits the big announcement that Sam Cassell has officially joined the Green and White - and that should be coming by six o'clock tonight (sports.espn.go.com) - the Celtics brand-name was still being kept in the public eye with a few well-placed mentions within the popular media ...

For starters, I got to see the movie Semi-Pro (semipromovie.com) on Sunday (which turned out to be hi-LARious, as I predicted) and the character of Ed Monix - played with great aplomb by Woody Harrelson, obviously channeling his landmark performance from White Men Can't Jump - was actually supposed to be a member of the 1973-74 Celtics championship squad (basketball-reference.com).

I don't see Monix anywhere, maybe he's hiding behind Finkel

However, the deal is that Monix never got off the bench during the playoffs - Heinsohn must not have liked what he saw in practice - and when the movie begins in 1976, Ed's barely holding onto his spot in the ABA and is considered to be washed up ("I just got traded for a fuckin' washing machine" has officially entered the lexicon).

His new teammates on the Flint Tropics think he's a fake for wearing a championship ring that "he didn't even earn" ... but he eventually earns their respect by taking over the coaching reigns from Jackie Moon and telling them about how the Celtics functioned as a team instead of as individual players; his little motivational speech didn't last more than 30 seconds, but it was able to put Boston's mystique in a more positive light than the full 91-minute running time of Celtics Pride (web.archive.org).

However, that wasn't the only shout-out the Celtics got this weekend, as the Farrelly brothers' new sitcom Unhitched (fox.com) had its series premiere Sunday night ... which I almost missed because friggin' NASCAR (sports.yahoo.com) decided to run long even when FOX had already allocated an entire five-hour block to them; I swear, it's like Futurama getting bumped by Sunday night football all over again.

Anyway, the character of Kate (played by Rashida Jones whom you all should recognize from The Office) goes out on a blind date with someone that works within the Celtics organization ... Little does she know that the guy is in fact Lucky the Leprechaun, although the actor playing our beloved mascot is actually an impostor (imdb.com) and not the real deal (link.brightcove.com).

Images from bengiroux.com (where he misspells "Bostin Celtics")

It was just a small part of the episode, to be sure, but at least we got to see Ryan Gomes in the green uniform once again ... and once he becomes a free agent during the summer, who knows? It might not be the last time.

P.S. Don't blink or you'll miss it, but you can even catch a glimpse of Scott Pollard as a member of the Cavs ... freaky!