OBF: And the 2025 winner of the Lobel Prize is …

Brad Marchand begins his chase for another Stanley Cup tonight with the Florida Panthers Thanks to his late-season surge with the once-dreaded Panthers after being exiled by the Bruins Marchand is this year s winner of the Lobel Prize The Lobel Prize goes to the athlete coach or executive who leaves Boston and finds success or a championship elsewhere sparking bittersweet smiles and or deep angst back home Former WBZ sports anchor Bob Lobel inspired the award with these seven infamous words Why Can t We Get Players Like That He s even tweaked it of late by asking Why Can We Get Players Like That when discussing the Red Sox predicament with Raffy Devers With Bob s blessing and evolving rules the Lobel Prize now includes coaches and executives Particular years boast multiple winners This year s NBA Finals feature two more Lobel finalists OKC head coach Mark Daigneault is a Leominster High grad who started coaching at Holy Cross Indiana head coach Rick Carlisle played at Worcester Academy before joining the Celtics in the s Larry Bird still draws a Pacers paycheck as a consultant Lobel Prize winners from just the past years form a brutal list Mookie Betts Two World Series rings and counting with the Dodgers Tom Brady Rob Gronkowski Brady s still hungover from the Buccaneers boat parade Joe Lacob The Golden State Warriors owner New Bedford native and former Celtics part-owner got the Larry O Brien Trophy handed to him on the TD Garden parquet Nathan Eovaldi - with a ERA and Ks in innings in the postseason for the World Series champion Rangers Bruce Cassidy The Golden Knights should ve sent a ring to Don Sweeney and the Bruins players who got him fired Kyle Schwarber Schwar-Bombs RBIs and an OPS in games with the Phillies Dave Dombrowski Since his Phillies are - in the regular season with three playoff berths an NL East title and an NL pennant The Red Sox not so much Chris Sale Boston paid him M thanks to a restructured deal in to win the NL pitching Triple Crown for the Braves Jon Lester Led the Cubs from their World Series desert in alongside David Ross and Theo Epstein Chris Long Played every Pats event in their Super Bowl LI season then helped the Eagles throttle New England in Super Bowl LII Lobel s famous line first aired while mocking former Sox GM Lou Gorman every time Jeff Bagwell starred for Houston Bagwell as a minor-leaguer was famously traded for Larry Andersen in It was never malicious Lobel explained me Monday The weakest form of humor is sarcasm It was in good fun Lou inquired me to stop but I couldn t do it I was having too much fun with it And it grew exponentially from there I can t believe people still remember it It s going to be on my gravestone The phrase abbreviated as WCWGPLT has shifted from snark to sting Sometimes people need to be reminded that chosen of these guys used to play here Lobel noted It just grew It was just a sarcastic wise-ass comment It s not so innocuous now Lobel says he and countless with whom he speaks are rooting for Marchand to win a Cup partly to stick it to the local operation They love the way he plays and the way this Florida unit plays I m rooting for him Which Lobel Prize winner has hurt Boston fans the the bulk of late I never felt that Brady was in that category because he left on his own Mookie by far he s the linchpin of the whole thing Lobel announced Babe Ruth remains the original Lobel Prize winner but space limits prevent a full recap of Boston s a multitude of painful exits Carlton Fisk Sparky Lyle Jim Plunkett Bobby Orr Phil Esposito Ken Dryden drafted by the Bruins Curtis Martin Mike Haynes Wade Boggs and his horse Roger Clemens Johnny Damon Ray Allen Adam Vinatieri and more still scar our DNA We never forget Lobel mentioned What is wrong with us Boston s major championships this century have oddly made things worse That s when the real curse started Lobel noted That s when the expectations were created And when the winning stopped everybody turned on the teams The Red Sox curse wasn t losing for years it was winning those four World Series titles It s the expectations That can be the killer Lobel s infamous Panic Button rests behind his office chair It got various airtime during the Celtics struggles against the Knicks Lobel doesn t see any panic with the Red Sox You have to care before you panic And I m not sure the care is in place with them But he has gone full Code Red when it comes to the Celtics Bruins and Patriots Because we care we re more likely to panic With the Celtics it s such an unknown commodity with the new ownership and the other changes coming Lobel explained There is specific degree of panic with the Bruins Their fans are passionate They have to be distressed With the Patriots that s also a real issue Certainly the Lobel Prize Irving Grousbeck Lifetime Achievement Award goes to Irving Grousbeck He traded the Celtics for billion after buying the crew for million in Make way Mookie Friends Misery loves company Contact Bill Speros RealOBF and BillSperos on X at bsperos gmail com