Re: 80% of NBA could be free agents

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

Dan Parker wrote:

> (clip) Also, telling you're new teammates "I'm the big star here so
> give me the
> damn ball if the game is close" goes down a lot easier when you're
> winning
> 60+ games a season, rather than 15/36.
>
> Dan
>
> P.S.  No disrespect to Antoine intended - I hope the C's sign him.


Fair enough, but Antoine arguably played for the least experienced and
talented (on paper) 36-win team in memory, one that began the season
with a starting-five that averaged about 25 ppg combined the year before

(Travis, Walker, Walter, Ron, Chauncy).

During the first half of the season, the second and third most valuable
players on the Celts may have been the mighty 12th man off the Knicks
bench the year before (Walter McCarty) and a 27-year-old "journeyman"
whose NBA highlights totalled one pine-ridden 10-day contract with the
Heat (Bruce Bowen). Luckily the talent-level picked up impressively in
the second half, when we were able to confuse our opponent's defenses by

starting Greg Minor and Andrew DeClerq   :-)

I can't tell you how well Antoine Walker would have played alongside
five very intelligent HOF-types (Cowens, Archibald, Maravich, McHale,
Parish) plus Maxwell, Robey, Ford, ML Carr, Gerry Henderson etc. I don't

think he would have tried as many shots as last year. Like a lot of pros

these days, Antoine would have had to learn to play under control while
"on the job". Larry Bird, on the other hand, had a spectacularly refined

grasp of fundamentals from the minute he pulled on the Celtics uniform.
And then he got better and better until it was scary.


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