Re: 80% of NBA could be free agents

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

Josh Ozersky wrote:

> Joe, I can tell by reading this that you realized by the time you got
> to the end how dumb the first part was.  Throw in Mercer or Pierce
> WITH ANTOINE?  For who?  Wilt Chamberlain in his rookie year?
> Everyone knows what Antoine can do, and the fact that he's an asshole
> doesn't detract from his trade value at all (clip)

Josh:

Sure, but the fact that Antoine's perceived as an unsignable "asshole"
does matter, as does the p.r. difficulty of trading an equivalent talent
(Shareef, Vin Baker, Grant Hill) for a guy (Antoine) who's antics are
unpalatable to some members of the ticket-paying white audience.

My point is the same as the one you made yesterday, namely that
(luckily, IMO) we have NO CHOICE but to sign the immature jerk, simply
because we wouldn't be able to get a star player for him straight-up and
so we'd have to (be dumb enough) to throw in Mercer or Pierce. Thus the
present choices are: a) keep AW  b) trade AW for dogmeat  c) trade AW
with Mercer/Pierce for a comparable front-line superstar. I'm with you
in the "keep AW" tribe. My hope is that AW's perceived fall in value
since the end of last season is a positive thing for the Celtics, since
we'll end up having no option but to sign him (over the objections
perhaps of certain fans) and hopefully for a more reasonable amount.

Antoine is not only a winner in my book, but he's also a good kid and
very hardworking IMO (yikes, here I go again). As I argued some months
ago, many of the public relations faux-pas' Antoine ran into this
off-season (picking his friend Walter to start over the rookie Pierce,
his pained reaction to Pitino publically criticizing him, etc.) can as
easily be explained as the result of his naive sincerity and his
(betrayed) sense of loyalty to his teammates and coach. Not to preach
too much, but I wish some list members wouldn't rush to judge Antoine's
book by its shabby-looking cover (his wiggle, his glare etc.). As far as
I understand it, Joseph and Mary were basically two raggedy-ass,
homeless people who - to make matters more difficult - were probably
black folks or, at least, very dark-skinned. They weren't even married
(right?). Yet I guess some fair-minded people let them sleep over and
have a baby in their barnyard and suddenly have uninvited guests named
"Ahmad" etc. show up wearing flashy garb and throwing a joyous,
multi-ethnic party. How does this biblical story relate to Antoine
Walker?  I have no idea. I'm actually Buddhist. I'm going crazy without
basketball.

BTW, you should publish your last post "re: Business it isn't".  It was
perfect.


Joe Hironaka

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