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Holley: Cheaney Unusual; C's Not Done Dealing; Frontcourt Slow
Pitino mad at Indiana for talking about a Walker trade....
[The Boston Globe Online][Boston.com]
[Boston Globe Online / Sports]
Celtics keep moving
Cheaney added to crowded gang
By Michael Holley, Globe Staff, 08/06/99
There are a few things that make
Calbert Cheaney an unusual NBA
player. He used to sing in a choir. He was
a track star at his Indiana high school.
He once donated money to an Evansville
church so it could build a new gymnasium,
except he didn't want anyone to know how
much he contributed. And then there was
what he did yesterday.
Cheaney signed a three-year contract with
the Celtics, his first-year salary being
what the NBA calls its middle-class ($2
million) exception. What's so unusual
about that? Well, Cheaney took less money
when he easily could have had more.
Six other teams were interested in signing
the 6-foot-7-inch guard/ forward. The
Miami Heat were prepared to offer him much
more cash in a sign-and-trade agreement
with his former team, the Washington
Wizards. Cheaney rejected the trade
because, he said, ''It was just a gut
instinct I had.'' The 28-year-old Cheaney
became one of the rare players to tell Pat
Riley, ''You're a great coach and I
appreciate your interest, but ...''
Riley, a notorious Celtic-hater, will now
have to see Cheaney playing against him
rather than for him. The only question is
if Cheaney will be the replacement for the
departed Ron Mercer at shooting guard. If
not, the team now has the option of
playing Cheaney at small forward, where he
played last season, and staying with Paul
Pierce at shooting guard.
According to Pitino, that's part of the
plan.
''We have several players who can play two
positions,'' he said before the team
announced the signing of Cheaney. ''Danny
Fortson can play power forward and center;
Antoine [Walker] can play two positions.
So can Tony Battie and Paul [Pierce].''
Now they have Cheaney, who went into last
season as a career 13-point scorer
(including 47 percent from the field). He
had the worst season of his career last
season for the Wizards, averaging only 7.7
points and coming off the bench. When the
Wizards drafted University of Connecticut
swingman Richard Hamilton in June, Cheaney
began to believe he needed to leave
Washington.
''It was time for a change,'' he said.
''The six years were nice in Washington,
but it was time to move on. It was time
for a fresh start.''
Cheaney never complained about coming off
the bench last season, but one of the
obvious things that attracted him to the
Celtics was the team's absence of an
experienced shooting guard. Pitino said he
thought the signing of Cheaney would
''rejuvenate'' the player's career.
At the end of last season, Pitino said he
wanted the Celtics to get a veteran in the
25- to 28-year-old range as well as a
solid defender and scorer. He has all of
those traits in Cheaney, who is a good
shooter and athletic defender. At Harrison
High in Evansville - where he was a
teammate of Walter McCarty's - Cheaney ran
the 110- and 300-meter hurdles. The
Wizards took him with the sixth pick in
the 1993 draft and immediately put him at
shooting guard, even though forward was
his college position.
''He is a multidimensional talent who can
score from the perimeter or low post,''
Pitino said. ''He's an outstanding
defender and throw all that into the
equation with the fact he is an
outstanding young man.''
Pitino said he has been a fan of Cheaney's
since the early 1990s, when the swingman
played for Indiana University. In '93,
Cheaney earned the Wooden and Naismith
Awards, which recognize the top college
player in the country.
One thing is clear: Cheaney won't have to
worry about being the new teammate who
stands out. There are lots of new men in
green. With Cheaney's signing, the team
now has 15 players under contract and room
for only 12 on the roster. And the Celtics
still are not done dealing. It was pointed
out to Pitino that a starting frontcourt
of Walker, Fortson, and Vitaly Potapenko
would seem to be slower than he would
like.
''Who says that's going to be our starting
frontcourt?'' he said.
Pitino and general manager Chris Wallace
prefer to emphasize their depth rather
than their starters. In the past week,
they have added Cheaney, Fortson, Eric
Williams, Adrian Griffin, Wayne Turner,
and Eric Washington. They are also excited
about the summer play of Battie and
McCarty. The team's problem is not having
enough basketballs; the true dilemma is
where do they get enough uniforms?
There still is a chance that Walker could
be moved, although Pitino was not pleased
yesterday when he learned that the Pacers
went public with their private trade talks
with the Celtics. ''They won't be getting
a call from us anymore,'' the coach said.
But the team will continue making phone
calls, looking to deal and add players.
The Celtics have tried to trade Dana
Barros since Pitino arrived in 1997. Greg
Minor's hip injury may not allow him to
play. And Pervis Ellison still is
recovering from an ankle injury. It is
unlikely, but if the Celtics were to move
all those players and Walker, there would
be no members remaining from Pitino's
Opening Night Celtics of '97.
This story ran on page E01 of the Boston
Globe on 08/06/99.
© Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.