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Pitino Calls Battie Outstanding Young Man; Anderson Disagrees With Pitino; Bird Likes The Fans And Walker
[The Boston Globe Online][Boston.com]
[Boston Globe Online / Sports]
CELTICS NOTEBOOK
On crutches, Walker can't stand sitting
By Michael Holley, Globe Staff, 04/20/99
<snips>
They'll wait on Battie
According to Pitino, the official
organizational view on Tony Battie is a
simple wait and see. The forward was
arrested and charged with assault early
Saturday morning at a North End
club/lounge. A police officer outside of
Cosmopolitan - a popular Friday night site
for several Celtics - said Battie did not
respond to a request to move his illegally
parked car. The officer reported that
Battie instead tried to drive away when an
arrest was attempted, necessitating the
officer to pull a service revolver on the
Celtics forward.
''I think he's an outstanding young man
and I believe in him,'' Pitino said before
last night's game. ''I'll let his lawyer
handle it and see what shakes down from
there.''
According to sources, Battie was outside
the club in his car, waiting for his
brother. He was approached by the officer,
who told him to move. He did not move,
explaining that he was waiting for his
brother. When asked to move again, he
turned up his music, which apparently
annoyed the officer and prompted him to
pull the gun.
In any case, it was not a good
night/morning for Celtics and their
friends. Also arrested in an unrelated
incident was Paul Pierce's roommate.
They didn't shape up
Someone asked Pitino what he thought of
the team's injuries this year. He said,
''If we came in [to training camp] in
great shape, all of us, and we had Vitaly
[ Potapenko] from the beginning of the
year, we would have made improvement,
percentagewise, on the 36 wins [from last
season]. And we would have come close to
being in the hunt for the playoffs.'' ...
After Pitino made that comment and began
his next one, Anderson walked behind him
and overheard his comment on muscle
strains and pulls. ''They come from not
stretching properly, not lifting properly,
and not being in good shape,'' the coach
said of those injuries. Anderson, out with
a pulled hamstring, took exception and
commented that he lifted weights all
summer ... By the way, Anderson said he
never heard from the fan who felt snubbed
by him just after the lockout ended.
Anderson had offered to fly the fan to
Boston and give him two prime tickets to a
Celtics game... Larry Bird was asked about
the boos that rained on Walker before
Friday night's buzzer-beater. ''If you get
tired of him here, you can always send him
to Indiana; we'll find a place for him.''
But, he said, he would like to have some
of the more ornery Boston fans in
Indianapolis to charge up his team.
''Sometimes guys need to be put in their
place,'' he said.
This story ran on page E06 of the Boston
Globe on 04/20/99.
© Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.