Don't Beam Me Up Scottie Pippen

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

Greg Odegaard wrote:
>(This) cynicism is hard to take. Getting to (the championship)  level
and staying there is not done >efficiently by grabbing an aging star for
a one or two year run.

I agree with Greg-O and feel he makes an important point regarding
Pippen.

IMO, signing Pippen (nothing against the girlie-man) would be to follow
the ML Carr School of Signing Overpriced Aging All Stars (e.g. Antique
Wilkins & Dana Barros) So We Can Assure a 45 Win Plateau For Years to
Come. As valuable as Pippen truly is (when healthy, not whining, and
with precisely the right team chemistry), for the Celts to go way over
the cap to sign our guys plus an aging prima donna to a five-year-type
guaranteed contract would be precisely the strategy employed year after
year by the Mavs, Sixers and Clippers of the world. Why should it work
this time?  I say "Don't Beam Me Up Scottie Pippen."

Personally, I think we need to be patient enough to let Pitino
methodically build a largely home-grown championship franchise, not buy
a one-shot attempt at glory. It would not be satisfying to me if we won
it that way. We're the freakin' Boston Celtics, damn it!  Right?

Have a good day everyone,


JoeHironaka
Paris

P.S. Having thought about it a lot, I would choose Antoine over Shareef,
even though Shareef seems like a charismatic, fan-friendly version of
Mercer (humble and cool under pressure). As for comparing Mercer to
Antoine, c'mon you guys, puh-lease.

IMO it is analogous to favorably comparing a pop gun singles hitter (say
a healthy, young Tim Naehring) over a 40 homer+.300 hitting guy (Mo
Vaughn) merely because one guy seems "nicer" and more "lunch pail".   I
think we should pause to reflect on how rare it is to find a 20pt-10reb
guy, or how incredibly hard working one would have to be to accomplish
it. AW is one of at most five true forwards in the league who do it
night in and out.  If rebounding only required height and talent, then
McDyse, Shareef and about 20 other 6-10 rim-rocking brothers would do
it.  But they don't.   (Amazingly, AW also leads his team in total
assists and steals.)

While on the subject, let me also humbly propose starting a "Let Antoine
Wiggle" campaign on this list. I honestly don't mean to be critical of
anyone, but some of you hint that Antoine's "gettin' jiggy with it"
dance is possible evidence that he's contemplating robbing a 7-11 and
stopping by a favorite crack house on his way home (okay flame me, I'm
exagerating to make a reasonably important point). I know I'm foolish to
lightheartedly make a very heavy accusation, but I join many of you in
being flabbergasted by the "Mercer-14 Walker-0" poll results of a few
days ago on this list.

What I'm asking is could it be that AW just acts "too black" for some of
our tastes? Would fewer of us magnify the issue of his trash talking if
AW expressed his joy by waving his towel or clumsily high-fiving his
mates, rather than wiggling his hips? IMO, the downside of being a loyal
Celts fan is that the "you're just another a Boston bigot" accusation
still kind of sticks, as much as none of us want it to.

I don't want to sound self-righteous as though I'm some kind of big
shot. The above comments are just a "food for thought" type-of-thing.
What do you all think about it? Obviously, political correctness should
not prevent us from making legit criticisms (but a "14-0" initial poll
result is a wee bit disturbing).  I might grant, for example, that AW
seems to act (unnecessarily) jealous of and threatened by Ron Mercer's
very different talents.

So trade the selfish jerk !? Not.

I think we're nuts not to give AW a break.  He's 21-years-old for
goodness sake. Bird was collecting garbage and Bledsoe was throwing 27
interceptions when they were his age. "Let Antoine Wiggle", I say.

Sorry to be so long-winded. I wouldn't mind a little private feedback on
this.

"Beat LA in 2000"

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