ANTOINE

[Dorine Pratt <norine@sover.net>]

I believe Walker wants to stay here, and I sincerely believe the Celts
would mortgage the farm to keep him, they know he's the franchise for
the forseeable future.  For a long time to come the Bulls will be known
is Jordan's team.  I think Antoine will want to stay with the Celtics
because right now it's HIS team and it should remain so as long as he's
committed to it.  One man, however, does not a team make, at least not a
winning one.  How many years was MJ in the Bulls camp before a
championship came to him?  The great Larry Bird led Celtics team beat
him because they had the whole package.  Then for a few years the Bulls
did.  After this year, they won't.  They aren't even the best team in
the league this year.  Seattle is.

I believe McCarty, Bowen, and Mercer are keepers.  Bowen is a great
defender and he can shoot respectfully.  Marcus Camby I'm not impressed
with at all, he seems weak.
As far as I'm concerned, they should keep those three plus Walker and
see what they can do with the rest of the troups.  As I stated before,
one man can't score all the points and you have to drive to the basket,
you can't just throw them up from outside all the time, missing more
than you make.  We haven't had a pure shooter for a long, long time.
We have to sign Walker and we need a good, shot blocking center.  Nobody
in this league is going to make it easy for the Celtics to find what
they need, they still smart after all the years the Celts dominated.
Believe it.  And Rick Pitino has to teach offense.  As I understand it,
he's given these guys permission to launch if the shot is there.
Trouble is, they always think it's there!  I still advise patience.  Red
Aurbach is still there and people, including Mr. Pitino, still listen to
him.  He's the master.  We will get all the pieces, but it won't happen
overnight and we have to be content to wait as long as we can see things
improving in the next 2 or 3 years.  I also believe this defense has big
holes in it.  It does not work against the really good teams, we've seen
that already.  Good point guards can break it, and they always leave a
hole under the basket.  We all knew this wouldn't happen over night, but
they did so much better than we expected, we got our hopes up too high.
As long as we're patient, good things will happen.  We might not like
all that happens initially, I certainly didn't like losing Wesley, for
instance, and it still rankles, but there's little we can do about those
things, we just have to hope it works out for the best.
Dorine