(Old) Notes from training camp

[jmc@ptc.com]

Well, over 2 weeks ago, back on Jan 20, on the last day of 
player-organized scrimmages and workouts before the lockout 
was officially over, I went over to Brandeis on my lunch break 
and watched the players scrimmage.  I've mentioned this before, 
but I've been so busy I haven't really gotten around to typing in 
my observations.  Here's what I saw and heard: 

When I got there, all the Celtics were in the weight room working out,
except for one really tall guy coming up the stairs, who it turned 
out to be Schintzius.  Schintzius practiced 10 foot bank shots and 
turnarounds in the lane and other shots for quite a while, all by himself 
except for a guy to help him retrieve balls.  It seemed he had more desire 
to work on his game than he had in the past.  I counted for a while and he 
seemed to be making about 7 out of each 10 shots.

Meanwhile, the other players filtered out to the main court and started 
a scrimmage.  The teams were: 

     Shirts      Skins (except Walker)
C   P.Jones     McCarty
PF  Pierce      Walker (was wearing shirt from his Celtics uniform)
SF  Mercer      Bowen
SG  unknown#1   unknown#2
PG  Anderson    Barros

The "unknowns" must have been friends of the players.  They were even 
smaller than Anderson and Barros.  

Mercer was looking quite a bit "beefier" than I'd remembered. 

Popeye Jones moving fine, and getting lots of cleanup rebounds. 

The most vocal 2 players were Kenny Anderson and Antoine Walker.  
It was clear that Kenny was the leader on the floor.  He kept things 
moving when fouls were called, and kept people from having a chance 
to get mad at each other. 

Antoine was bothering people with his foul calls, and I think Kenny was 
having fun trying to loosen Antoine up, and needle and tease him in 
various ways. 

At one point Kenny was starting upcourt, and Antoine tried to stop his 
progress in the backcourt.  Kenny put a move on blew by Antoine, then 
turned back with a big smile and laughed.  

Later, Kenny fed the ball to Pierce in the high post against Antoine, 
and Kenny kept yelling at Pierce to "take it, take it".  Finally, Pierce 
consented, made a move and hit a shot over Antoine.  The next time down 
the court, the same thing happened again.  It seemed Anderson wanted to 
either build the rookie's confidence, or get on Antoine's nerves, or both. 

Later, when Antoine clearly walked and several players called it, and 
Antoine said "I didn't", Anderson was the one to repeatedly say "you did" 
and get the ball, and keep the game moving.  

All in all it was encouraging to see Kenny being able to keep things 
running smoothly in what could have been a difficult situation. 

that's all,
Jon Mc