re:Pierce

[Joe Hironaka <j.hironaka@unesco.org>]

Hi:

A lot of you good folks talk about P-squared as if he's the next John
Havlicek, and I hope you are right!  For the moment, I personally see at
best a silky-smooth Shawn Elliot (a 2-time All Star, after all) and at
worst a Darren Daye or Johnnie Newman. Maybe the most optimistic analogy
is Marques Johnson, the old Milwaukee Buck.

In any case, I think the Celts will win a lot of style points but very
few rebounding wars with two under-sized guys (Pierce and Anderson) in
the starting lineup, not to mention those fluffy q-tips we call our
centers. I'd prefer the luxury of having Antoine Walker get the majority
of his minutes at the three, so we can sail a hulked-up Popeye Jones or
another double-double guy into the mix.

Plus, I'm curious how Inglewood-raised Paul Pierce is going to react the
first time we wail "Beat LA" during a key moment in the 2000 finals? I
can't help regarding this kid as a closet Faker-fan, Girlie-man,
imposter, until he proves himself otherwise to us die-hards. Maybe he's
too young to know better.  (I snobbishly pride myself on my "tolerance"
but I still can't respect any educated basketball fan who rooted for
James Un-Worthy and those other Faker fruit-boys during the 1980's.)  If
only Pierce were drinking age, I'll bet all of us would  love to
sit-him-down-and-set-him-straight-over-a-pint-of-Sam-Adams-beer about
the 16 banners fluttering over our Gahden (uh, Gaston's Fleet Center).

Still, I think that the next week or so should be devoted to positive
thinking about our guys. In that light, I wish to say the following
friendly things in welcoming this new Boston Celtic forward.

1) Among the Celtics' "Big Four" (Anderson, Walker, Mercer, Pierce),
this rook has by far IMO the most mature sense of shot-selection. This
is a guy who thinks it's shameful for a gifted athlete to shoot less
than 48% from the field (tell that to Billups or Larry Hughes!). If this
rubs off on our Kentucky boys, I guess it means 15-18 more wins.
2) The 6-7 Paul Pierce apparently averaged 11+ rebounds during the last
6 games of the Big 12 and NCAA tournament, not to mention carrying his
game in terms of scoring. He also showed hey-baby-no-problem-style
mature leadership the minute LaFrentz got hurt in the regular season.
(In PP, I think -or at least hope- we're seeing the NBA's Nomar
Garciaparra)
3) I have to agree with whomever of you voiced the un-majority-opinion
that Pierce is basically an unspectacular, steady player (was that you,
arch-villain Dan Forant?). Nevertheless, that is exactly what the
Celtics need at the moment. IMO, Pitino has up to now assembled a group
of fast-twitch-muscle nincompoops (Keon Clark would have fit the
pattern). Among our three barely-drinking-age-Celtics'-All-Stars-To-Be
('Toine, Ron and Paul), I would suggest that Paul Pierce easily has the
best head on his shoulders.

I'm just glad Antoine Walker is (still) around to risk taking the
last-second shot  (however ungraceful it is as it goes swish!), while
Pierce and Mercer settle for looking innocent-and-pretty in a
disappointing and unexpected loss, just as do Grant Hill, Shareef,
Penny, Mr Robinson and the other fruit-boys most of you would gladly
trade for Antoine, just because he wiggles too much for all of your
wonder-bread-sandwich-eating tastes (smiley)!


Joe Hironaka
Paris

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