yeah, Yeah, YEAH!

[Josh Ozersky <josh_ozersky@yahoo.com>]

This is the greatest post ever written.  What a psych
up, and how right on!  Especially the part about
Battie, about whom truer words were never spoken.  I
just hope the prediction comes true.


> My feeling is that Tony Battie will blink first and
> re-sign long-term this
> summer at not far above the wacky Yogi Stewart
> contract (6-years at 24
> million). TB knows what it feels like to have "The
> Fort" throw his weight
> around in practice and pretty much humiliate him, so
> hopefully he may
> decide to cash in before he loses leverage as, inter
> alia, the Celt's only
> legitimate shot blocker. If Battie extends at
> slightly above 5
> million-a-year, this is "Vitaly Potapenko money" so
> it hardly can be
> called a "dis" (especially since the money is
> totally guaranteed
> regardless of injury etc.). It's not as if TB
> dominated anyone decent in
> the summer leagues, so I would assume he's "quietly
> confident" more than
> "cocky" going into impending discussions with Chris
> Wallace.
> 
> IMBO (in my blowhard opinion) this is a critical
> "re-sign" for Pitino,
> given what it costs to find Tony Battie athletes out
> there (Ratliff,
> Camby) and his irreplaceable function in the Pitino
> system.
> 
> As for Fortissimo, I'm not worried about this
> situation particularly. If
> our Danny Boy drops to 8 rpg, he won't be axed as a
> budgetary casualty.
> And if he maintains his furious energy (11.6 rpg),
> he will be re-signed by
> Pitino/Gaston next year at any cost as a "no
> brainer". The Celtics have
> always been a team that recruits and pays fair value
> to guys like Fortson
> who produce the "hustle stats" we value (in this
> case, 11.6 cans of
> whup-ass). I've said it before, and I'll say it
> again! Pitino offered
> Mercer an "insulting" and short-term extension
> because deep down he thinks
> the guy sucked for his team last year. The logic
> behind why Mercer got
> "kicked in the Nuggets" is the same reasoning that
> frankly explains why
> the Celtics won 16 championships in 30 years. We
> don't grade players by
> style, but by substance. This means Celts fans don't
> often get to enjoy
> players who jump really high but rarely pass or
> rebound, like fans of the
> perennial lottery teams. So boo freaking hoo!  "Read
> 'em and weep"  as
> they say (16 banners).
> 
> The Boston Celtics always replace guys like the
> above with "less talented"
> alpha pit bulls, mainly because they have enough
> institutional knowledge
> to not worry about getting laughed at by the rest of
> the league. The moves
> Pitino made this off-season will engender a totally
> different mood in our
> pre-game locker room.
> 
> Last year:
> Paul: Uh, uh, uh, that's a really nice ankle
> accessory your sporting there
> Ron.
> Ron: Mais oui, it's Cartier. I can also suggest for
> you the perfect
> Gaultier silk shirt to match it.
> Paul: Cool, that's nice of you. I'm glad you're my
> friend. Well, uh,  it's
> almost game time...Kenny suggests I need to help him
> feed you enough
> passes so that you can jack up 17.6 thousand shots
> for every one of your
> patented mid-air dump-off passes.
> 
> By contrast, next year's locker room might look and
> sound different.
> You're going to see A LOT more manly jock
> camaraderie activities,
> involving farting contests and whatnot. No,
> seriously. Picture 12 guys who
> look like they just parachuted into the Fleet Center
> locker room "for the
> fun of it" out of a military DC-3. Picture 12 game
> faces. This level of
> intensity cannot but psyche up the talented but
> go-with-the-flow Pierce
> and Battie. We now have guys who view it as their
> "job description" to
> carry Paul the apostle steadily forward on their
> shoulders, slings and
> arrows zinging all around. If any one of us flotsam
> shared a pre-game
> foxhole with committed AND unselfish teammates like
> "The Battleship" and
> "The Fort" (all 550 pounds), we'd be whooping and
> hollering and getting
> unbelievably psyched for the game. We'd be
> unbelievably ready to play.
> Paul Pierce is going to be sprinting out of the
> locker room with Crazy
> Horse Antoine absolutely committed to kicking the
> living crap out of the
> visiting team.
> 
> As Paul Revere once said....well never mind, but I
> love the new look
> Boston Celtics basketball organization.
> 
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