Peter May: Pitino, Walker Question Fan Loyalty

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                                [The Boston Globe Online][Boston.com]
                                [Boston Globe Online / Sports]

                         

                                Pitino, Walker in sync, but question fan
                                loyalty

                                By Peter May, Globe Staff, 04/16/99

                                WALTHAM - Rick Pitino and Antoine
                                        Walker chatted yesterday about the
                                same things they talked about in a similar
                                conversation last week: losing,
                                frustration, booing, staying positive,
                                staying in shape, staying with the
                                program, staying with the Celtics.

                                Pitino said he still finds it incredible
                                that fans would boo Walker for missing a
                                foul line jumper - which happened
                                Wednesday night against the Hawks - that
                                any player would have taken. He said
                                Walker's feelings were hurt. He did
                                acknowledge, however, that he has been a
                                bit surprised by the reaction of the fans,
                                not just those who are booing Walker.

                                ''I've learned something this year,''
                                Pitino said after a practice at
                                Healthpoint. ''I never thought the fans
                                would be this impatient. I'm kind of taken
                                aback by it, because it was a lockout and
                                we said all along that the third and
                                fourth year is when we'll be there.''

                                The coach said he could understand fans
                                booing Walker if Walker were a ''seasoned,
                                veteran All-Star.'' (Walker this past
                                summer called himself a ''veteran
                                All-Star'' in explaining why he didn't
                                come to a voluntary workout.) But, he
                                said, his captain is anything but.

                                ''You're talking about a guy in the league
                                in his third year [who has] not played a
                                game in the playoffs,'' Pitino said. ''He
                                may make a lot of money; that's the
                                system. But he's still a young basketball
                                player with an awful lot to learn.''

                                Walker, meanwhile, said he has no plans to
                                go anywhere else, play anywhere else, or
                                be anyone else.

                                ''It's one thing to lose a tough game,''
                                Walker said, referring to Wednesday's
                                77-70 sobering defeat. ''It's another
                                thing to have the fans react the way they
                                reacted [when] you know, as an individual,
                                you're working hard and trying to do
                                whatever it takes to help this team win
                                and it feels like it's not appreciated to
                                a certain degree.

                                ''That's why I basically said that maybe
                                I'm not the player that they want. Maybe
                                they feel there's someone out there who
                                can do something to please them.''

                                Did he feel that he got a lot off his
                                chest after the Atlanta game, where he
                                talked about being uncomfortable, both in
                                his new role on the floor (Pitino didn't
                                buy that spin) and in his recurring role
                                as a human bull's-eye?

                                ''I said what I had to say about the
                                fans,'' Walker said. ''I want to be a
                                Celtic. I like the guys I play with. I
                                enjoy playing for Coach. This has been a
                                good place for me to be successful. But
                                you have to look at both sides. We're
                                having a rough year. It hasn't been a
                                consistent year for me or for the team ...
                                If I'm not taking the shots they want, I
                                guess it's all about what pleases them
                                instead of what happens with the team.
                                Sometimes, it gets a little bit out of
                                control, when a person takes one shot and
                                I guess if it doesn't go in, or to their
                                satisfaction, you choose to boo.
                                Obviously, you have to play to their
                                standards.''

                                Walker again said that players were still
                                trying to figure out their roles -
                                ''everyone's trying to find their role'' -
                                which Pitino promptly shot down as
                                ''frustration over a loss. That's all it
                                is.'' Walker also zeroed in on the coach
                                in the matter of player procurement.

                                ''We have to get better,'' he said. ''We
                                can't continue to win and be a playoff
                                team year in and year out bringing five,
                                six new guys in every year.''

                                Asked about that, Pitino said he liked the
                                deals that brought in Tony Battie and
                                Vitaly Potapenko, didn't like some others
                                (he didn't elaborate) and said any moves
                                would be determined by the availability of
                                players and the marketplace.

                                ''If you do something, it has to better,''
                                he said. ''It can't be the same.''

                                Walker went 3 for 12 against the Hawks. He
                                has shot 33 percent or worse in nine games
                                this season. Boston is 1-8 in those games,
                                the only win coming over Washington last
                                week, when Walker was 5 of 16 ... Pitino
                                said Kenny Anderson, who is sidelined by a
                                partially torn right hamstring, should be
                                back before the end of the season. He also
                                said he liked what he saw from newcomer
                                Damon Jones in the rookie's first day of
                                practice ... Walter McCarty didn't
                                practice and is iffy with a groin strain.

                                This story ran on page E07 of the Boston
                                Globe on 04/16/99.
                                © Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.