On Boston, race, basketball, and due diligence

Race (and racism) is a fraught topic anywhere in the US, and when it comes to Boston and their NBA team, the Celtics, the relationship is especially complicated.

In recent years, political currents have stirred up that difficult topic, one I generally avoid unless the players themselves are going out of their way to use their platform on the topic. I do not avoid it because I believe racism is not an important or germane topic to Boston sports, but because it requires a degree of nuance I rarely can muster while doing justice to the work and issue both.

So, when I became aware of an article by NBC Sports' Dan Feldman on the Celts and race, my reaction was, shall we say, Not Good. This was,…