Re: The Boston Celtics Mailing List Digest V5 #10

[Cecil Wright <nocw1@nsh.library.ns.ca>]

On Thu, 8 Jan 1998, Michael Joseph Byrnes wrote:

> I am just worried that Antione is more "desperate to prove himself as an
> All-Star" than he is to prove himself a team leader.  Players like Larry
> Bird, Michael Jordan, and Magic Johnson surely wanted the recognition that
> goes with making the All-Star team - however, each of them wanted to win
> basketball games more than anything else.  I haven't seen enough of
> Antoine to believe that that is true for him.  
> 
I think he is eager to prove both.

> Even his 49 point game yesterday came in a losing effort.  If he had been
> even adequate from the free throw line the game would have at least gone
> to overtime.  He also took himself out of the game in crunch time on a
> reach in foul.  And, he had *no* assists to go along with his five
> turnovers.  WHile it was still a great game, was it really all that much
> better than Todd Day's 41-point effort in the Fleet Center?

I think it is wrong to berate this player who has just given one of the 
best individual efforts we witnessed in quite some time, because he 
missed some free-throws.  What about the other misses from the stripe and 
why do they not count.  I have been critical of his shot selection before 
too and will continue to do so when I think it's warranted, but if anyone 
has a problem with what Toine did last night, then they are surely 
looking for a player who is superhuman.  

WALKER GAVE A HERCULEAN PERFORMANCE LAST NIGHT!!!

As far as taking himself out of the game in crunch time, please consider 
that there would have been no crunch time if not for his play.

A player concerned with only his individual stats would not have 
committed the foul which ended Toine's game.  They would have waitied for 
another to foul.  What Walker did by fouling was take himself out of the 
game, but still give his team an opportunity to win, which we could have 
if Dana hit the shot.

There's no comparison between Walker and Todd Day so I won't comment on that.

Cecil