Celtics articles

[jmc@ptc.com (Jonathan McIntyre)]

The Globe started regular coverage of the Celtics on Saturday.  They 
have a single column each day, usually focussing on one player, with 
some other Celtics notes at the end.  Someone posted Sunday's article 
already, which was on Dee Brown, and which I consider the best of the 
4 articles, at least in terms of giving us reason for hope. 

Below are Saturday's and Monday's articles from the Globe.

Jon Mc


Pitino opens boot camp
Celtics getting right to work in Newport
By Michael Holley, Globe Staff, 10/04/97


WALTHAM - It is already obvious that Rick Pitino takes certain phrases
literally.

Example 1: training camp. In today's NBA, training camp has become a
basketball/male bonding hybrid. Often the idea of the week-long camp is
more intimidating than the camp itself.

Not with the new Celtics coach and president. Yesterday was the team's
Media Day, signaling the beginning of a new season. Pitino spoke for an
hour, but that's all it took for everyone to see how seriously he takes
training. It's not as if the man dropped subtle hints about his
intentions. He had the chance to take his team to Cape Cod for camp. He
decided that a military facility with ties to World War II would be
better. So the soon-to-be running Celtics are in Newport, R.I., this
morning at the Naval Education and Training Center.

''What better place to hold a training camp?'' head scout Leo Papile
said yesterday.

If any player believes Papile is exaggerating, he should talk with Ron
Mercer and Antoine Walker. Both played for Pitino at the University of
Kentucky. They know that invariably, he will ask for more than a player
thinks he can give.

''You'll be tired, feeling like you can't keep going,'' Walker said,
''and he'll ask you to give him even more.''

Pitino will do that all season. In fact, it's obvious that he's been
doing that all summer. The coach wanted his players in shape, so he
asked strength and conditioning coach Shaun Brown to design personal
plans for everyone. Now Greg Minor looks as if he dieted on free
weights for three months. Dee Brown lost 25 pounds. Walker and Barros
look stronger, too.

All the players look well. All are approachable and cordial. All are,
according to Pitino, ''high-class people who are willing to pay the
price'' of what it takes to be great players. Question is: Can they
play together? Even Pitino says he doesn't know that. His short-term
goal is to get a 15-win team to the playoffs.

''I think that has to be our dream right now,'' he said. Many of his
players said the same thing yesterday, although many of them have never
played together. Pitino said he was not worried about expectations
being too high because that's much better than ''setting the bar too
low.''

Pitino was asked if he will make Brown a captain again. Former coach
M.L. Carr took the title from him at the beginning of last season. ''I
don't know,'' Pitino said, ''because I haven't seen anyone play in
terms of full-court situational leadership capabilities. I think there
are very few players who are old enough to be captain. I don't even
know if half of them drive.'' No Celtic is over 30. Six are under 25
... Stuart Layne promises that the Celtics are not trying to become the
Orlando Magic in terms of public address announcing. The Magic have the
loudest and most annoying PA man in the league. When the Celtics
decided not to begin another year with longtime announcer Andy Jick,
one of the reasons Layne gave was that the team wanted to ''move in a
different direction'' with its game presentation. Layne, the team's
director of marketing and sales, didn't get into specifics, but he
insists that new announcer Greg Dickerson's voice will not grate or
overstate. Dickerson is a graduate of Emerson College.

e worked with WWTM (1440), an all-sports radio station in Worcester ...
Minor was wearing glasses yesterday. He will wear contacts during
games, but his optometrist advised him to wear his small-frame
spectacles off the court ... Lorenzo Coleman, a 7-foot-1-inch center
from Tennessee Tech, will be the 14th player in camp. The 300-pounder
was with the Celtics during rookie camp in Marietta, Ga. He will try to
make a team that has 13 players under contract.  Two of those players
(Travis Knight and Andrew DeClercq) have the same position as he ...
Walker put on 13 pounds simply by working out. But, he said, ''that'll
be gone in a couple days from all the running we're going to do.'' ...
SportsChannel named Paul Lucey as its producer for Celtics games. Lucey
was a producer with Channel 5. He replaces Jim Daddona, who had the job
for 2 1/2 years Also, the station will have Leah Secondo as its pregame
and postgame host. She replaces Kim Walden.


This story ran on page G01 of the Boston Globe on 10/04/97.
&copy Copyright 1997 Globe Newspaper Company.






Walker shooting for stars
By Michael Holley, Globe Staff, 10/06/97


He doesn't make futuristic references when he speaks. Talk to him for a
few moments and you learn that he demands greatness. Now. Want to make
his hunger worse? Tell him someone, especially a forward, is a better
player.

That's what happened to Antoine Walker late last season. He heard
someone say Vancouver's Shareef Abdur-Rahim was a better rookie. He was
incensed. The next time he took the court he dropped 37 angry points on
the Sixers. He walked off the court and asked, rhetorically, ''Can
Shareef do that?'' Well, no, he probably couldn't. The Celtics, though,
lost the game.

All of that will be taken into consideration this year. Rick Pitino is
asking his 6-foot-9-inch forward to do something no other Celtic in
history has done. The coach wants Walker to be a 21-year-old All-Star.
Bill Russell didn't do that. Neither did John Havlicek and Sam Jones.
Never mind that early entry has reshaped the NBA's terrain in the last
decade. Twenty-one is young. Look at it this way: When Havlicek and
Dave Cowens were participating in that thrilling, three-overtime Finals
game at Boston Garden against the Suns in 1976, Walker was a few months
away from birth.

So, uh, Coach. Did we hear you correctly? Please repeat yourself.

''Antoine is the guy we need to make the All-Star team,'' Pitino said.
He did not flinch when he completed the statement. ''When we look down
the road, we're going to need three All-Stars to win a championship.
Antoine is the one player who has the potential to make the All-Star
team, and that's what we've got to develop in him.''

But this year?

''Yes,'' Pitino said, ''without question this year.''

Pitino spent many nights last season watching pro basketball. He saw
Walker's ability to score at will, an amazing accomplishment for a
first-year player. He also saw the 67 losses, an amazing accomplishment
for a non-first-year team. Pitino's point: He can help Walker become an
All-Star, which will lead to the Celtics losing less.

''There are a lot of great players around,'' Pitino said. ''But there
are those who have greatness and can also make other players play
better. Antoine is a terrific passer. He can break you down off the
dribble and create easy shots for other players. That's the way we have
to get him thinking.''

It's safe to say he wasn't thinking that way last year. He averaged
17.5 points and nine rebounds for the worst team in Celtics history. It
was not a case of the familiar NBA short story: Good Numbers On Bad
Teams. Walker can play. He is closer to 6-10 than he is to 6-9 and he
can handle the ball. One thing Pitino won't have to worry about is
boosting his confidence.

''He has the reputation, he has that presence,'' Pitino said. ''That's
often half the battle.''

What does he mean? Well, Walker is one of the few players who can yap
with Gary Payton. He refused to back down from Chris Webber last year.
He taunted Marcus Camby. He wasn't afraid of Kevin Garnett and Tom
Gugliotta.

Walker says he can take occasional assaults on his game, too. ''You've
got to be able to take constructive criticism,'' he said. ''Look, I
ain't got no friends when I step on the court. I'm trying to get
better. If I say something that offends you on the court, you can't
take it off the court. Coach Pitino may say something, criticize your
game when you're on the court. But that doesn't mean he thinks of you
less when you step off the court.''

Which, of course, leads to the next issue. What, exactly, is the status
of the Walker-Pitino ticket? Pitino made a phone call to Walker's
agent, David Falk, in April. He asked if it were true that Walker would
leave if Pitino took the head coaching job. He wanted to know if there
was any truth to the rumor that Walker wanted M.L. Carr to stay and
would be quite pleased if Pitino kept himself rooted in the bluegrass
of Lexington, Ky. The rumors weren't completely false, but Walker said
they were distorted.

''I talked to Coach P frequently last season,'' he said. ''I went down
there for the Final Four. We have a great relationship. But someone
can't ask me what I feel about coaches in March, in a season where
we're losing 60-something games. I couldn't criticize M.L. and talk
about bringing in someone else. Coach Pitino got me to the NBA. M.L.
was a great person for me also. He did a lot of things for me, on and
off the court. I have a great relationship with them both.''

Carr drafted him. Pitino will coach him. If he reaches the historic
All-Star level predicted for him, both of his coaches will be in-house
to share the honor with him.

This story ran on page D04 of the Boston Globe on 10/06/97.
&copy Copyright 1997 Globe Newspaper Company.