pitino era begins, and I WAS THERE

[JOzersky@aol.com]

Well, since you all saw the game on sportschannel, I won't be doing my bill
cooper routine.  But here are a few observations from Penn State, where I
drove  3 hours to get to.  I sat front row by the locker room entrtance, and
got to low five all the players.  When Rick came out, I yelled at him,
"number 17, ricky!" and he winked at me.  What a dork I am!  He is really
intense, though.  You would have thought he was going into game seven of the
finals.

Walker looked great.  You don't realize how big and burly he is on tv.  He
has lifted a lot of weights, but if anything he is quicker and more agile
than last year.  He looked like an all-star starter, completely dominating in
the paint and getting steals and stops on D.  His moves, reverse dribbles,
and no look passes are at times almost birdlike, but much faster.  There is
no one in the NBA I would trade him for straight up.  Period.

Mercer is not as strong as he looks on TV.  He has well defined arms, but he
isn't real strong.  He missed all his jump shots, but he had a fantastic
breakaway dunk with a guy on his back.  And on the two or three occasions
when he actually tried to make his own shot, he flummoxed the guy guarding
him.  It's too bad for the celtics that their first game was against such a
good defense team.  Billups in particular looked lost, although he made the
best pass of the game.  But his offensive moves didn't help him.  I think he
was really surprised when he tried his double crossover on Mookie Blaylock,
and found himself without a crack of daylight.  He didn't look that great, to
be honest.  But look where he is in his career.

Travis Knight is really talented.  You could see why they like him so much,
although he got dunked on and didn't really didn't have much impact.  He is a
legit shot blocker and has really nice touch around the basket, much more so
than most big men.  Unfortunately, he was rushed by an aggressive D, and
often threw up little jump hooks that landed on the other side of the basket.
 He could be much better than Luc Longley or the other white centers though,
and possibly pretty damn good, although probably never an all star, while the
shaqs, etc of the world still live and breathe.

Minor looked aggressive, although he cant handle the ball for shit. But he is
strong and fast, and can get his own shot with a couple of dribbles on a
power move.  

Dee didn't look that great.  Missed his shots.

The celts got a lot of success with the press, which they didn't use
extensively in the first half.  I think that will be the key to any early
success they have.  I saw Cedric Maxwell, and said "hi max" to him.  "Hi,
man," he said back to me.  Said hi to tommy h. too, but he was impatient with
all the autograph hounds, etc.  He looks really thin.  Did he have cancer or
something?

Anyway, what a pleasure to see the celts up close.  The front row seat was
really worth it.  I hope they develop some more plays though.  Their offense
was basically all reversals around the perimeter.  yuchh.  Boy, to see walker
go to work down low though.  He might have a better year than shawn kemp.

josh