Re: TSN: Fan's View: C's Will Regret Trading Mercer

["Jim Meninno" <jim_meninno@hotmail.com>]

Dear Chad,

Please find below an article from The Sporting News written by someone by 
the name of Chad Bianchi.  The article was posted to a Boston Celtics 
internet discussion group, to which I belong.  If you are the author, I 
invite you to join our group and share some of your thoughts.  I have to say 
that your assertion that Ron Mercer showed more heart, soul and desire than 
any other Celtic last year is far from a concensus within our group.  In any 
case, if you enjoy thoughtful and spirited discussion about the Boston 
Celtics, then this group is for you.

Yours,
Jim Meninno

PS: See http://www.igtc.com/~pmm/sub_celts.html for how to join the group.


>Subject: TSN: Fan's View: C's Will Regret Trading Mercer
>Date: Thu, 12 Aug 1999 08:42:42 -0400
>
>
>
>       The Sporting News - http://www.sportingnews.com
>
>       Celtics' future is now in Denver
>       AUGUST 11, 1999      Print it!
>
>       Fans' View
>
>
>ROBERT SEALE/TSN
>The Celtics will regret trading Ron Mercer.
>
>You want to be heard? Well, now you can! Throughout the week, we let
>readers speak out as guest columnists. Want to get something off your
>chest? Put it in writing and send it to us. Be sure to put "Fans' View" in 
>the subject heading.

>Today, sports fan Chad Bianchi takes a critical look at the Celtics and 
>some of their questionable offseason moves.
>If you want to see a modern sports travesty, just check out the remnants of 
>what could have been the new mighty Celtics. Of course, most of them can 
>now be found in Denver, so you might as well check there first. Ron Mercer 
>and Chauncey Billups were supposed to be the backcourt of the future for 
>Boston. That is before the notably impatient and inexperienced GM known as 
>"Trader Rick" took over.
>Trading Billups halfway through his rookie season was a major catastrophe 
>for Boston. Although the die-hard, win-now fans were pleased to get an 
>experienced point guard in Kenny Anderson, it was apparent he would never 
>make it in the Pitino system.

>Anderson is not only too slow, too small, too fragile and too selfish, he 
>has a gigantic contract considering his meager remaining skills. The only 
>way he resembles the player who starred for the Nets is in the way the ball 
>ceases to move when he is on the court. Boston was actually a much better 
>team when Anderson was hurt because the Celtics learned that the Pitino 
>system doesn't require a true point as long as the ball moves freely.

>But Boston is stuck with Anderson and his contract. This made it
>impossible to pay the money necessary to keep Mercer. So Mercer and
>Billups are in Denver, and Boston is faltering. Mercer was a
>heart-and-soul player who left it all on the court, a perfect complement to 
>the newly added Paul Pierce and a good influence on the notoriously 
>under-dedicated Antoine Walker. Now, the Celtics will again be lacking 
>heart as well as skill.

>Mercer was the one player Boston fans could count on to play hard all the 
>time. Pierce is good -- he played exceptionally for a rookie -- but he also 
>dominated the game in stints rather than from tip to buzzer. Walker will 
>dominate for very short stretches despite his mammoth talent. In fact, a 
>common league opinion is that should Walker get serious about his game and 
>his conditioning, he could dominate games in the vein of Larry Bird and 
>Michael Jordan. Unfortunately, such a desire has yet to appear.

>Mercer, on the other hand, has shown a greater devotion to staying in
>shape and on top of his game. At the end of the lockout, he was the only 
>Celtic to declare he was in incredible shape -- quite a risk given Pitino's 
>rigorous practices and expectations. Even Pitino still believes Mercer will 
>be a star. It just will not be in Boston because there supposedly was no 
>money to sign him.

>If Pitino, who should give up his power to trade players because of his 
>quick temper and gambler's mentality, merely had the patience to grow with 
>his backcourt of the future, the Celtics would be in far better shape. At a 
>time when Eastern Conference powers are redesigning themselves for the 
>future (Atlanta, Orlando, Indiana), the Celtics should be ahead of the game 
>with a strong nucleus of players. Instead, they are again behind the pack, 
>behind the Knicks and even farther behind the 76ers.

>Finally, consider this: Pitino could have fielded a team this year that 
>started Billups, Mercer, Walker, Pierce and whomever he could dig up at 
>center. With the NBA changing its rules back to a more '80s oriented, no 
>contact on the perimeter style, would you want to have to guard this team?


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