FW: Celtics Center

["Ozersky, Joshua A" <OzerskyJA@corning.com>]

This is my new column.  Can somebody post it to the newsgroup?   Thanks.
Forward it to Peter May and Bob Ryan, too.  Somebody should teach those
^#W$%#s to write about the Celtics.
Joshua Ozersky
Marketing Communications
Environmental Products Division
Corning Incorporated.
HP-CB-02-C6A
Corning, New York 14831
Phone:  (607) 974-8124
Fax:      (607) 974-2233



> ----------
> From: 	Ozersky, Joshua A
> Sent: 	Friday, February 12, 1999 2:42 PM
> To: 	'bskball@bskball.com'
> Subject: 	Celtics Center
> 
> Early Morning Fog
> 
> 
> With the team on a much needed sabbatical down south, this seems to be an
> opportune time to talk about the Celtics' baffling ways in the first four
> games.  Fans were wildly encouraged by the team's play in two preseason
> games against Toronto, in which they seemed to have picked up where they
> left off from the high-scoring, highlight-filled jaunts of Kenny
> Anderson's 110+ point first games.  Imagine the team's shock, then, when
> Toronto came out on Opening Night and beat the Celtics in the Fleet
> Center, and beat them convincingly, as the tiny hands of Raptor muscleman
> Kevin Willis stuffed home shot after shot, and dreadlocked Charles Oakley
> rampaged like a berzerk robot.  The next night the Cs were able to beat
> back the sloppy efforts of the Clevleand Cavaliers, whose fat superstar,
> Sean Kemp, was the costar of the early season's highlight.  Baptized by
> Tommy Heinsohn as the next John Havlicek, Paul Pierce lived up to that rep
> by flying in out of nowhere, and grabbing a key rebound out of Kemp's
> hands for a decisive putback late in the 4th quarter to help seal Boston's
> victory.
> 
> What Pierce's heroics underlined, however, was the dire plight the team's
> offense, of all things, found itself in.  With Antoine Walker operating at
> peak efficiency, Kenny Walker healthy, and Paul Pierce contributing far
> beyond the wildest expectations, the team still had to depend on a freak
> play to help win the game.  A hideous drubbing by the Orlando Magic, in
> which Celtics fans got to watch Bo Outlaw block 19 of Antoine Walker's
> shots and Penny Hardaway score like a man practicing alone in his yard,
> was even more vexing.  The defense was terrible; rebounding was
> nonexistant; Antoine couldn't seem to get the ball anywhere but forty feet
> from the basket; and most mystifying of all, Kenny Anderson seemed to have
> lost the ability to pass and dribble the basketball.   Kenny Anderson!
> But when, the next night, the team managed to execute mechanically enough
> to beat an exhausted Heat team, alarmed fans rested a little easier.  As
> the celtics looked ahead to a week of hard practices, a few things became
> obvious.
> 
> 1.  Everybody was rusty.  Not just on the Celtics; everybody in the
> league.  Coaches must have been kidding themselves when they supposed that
> the short training camps and abbreviated exhibition schedule would even
> begin to get their teams going.  For the Celtics, whose system is much
> more complex and demanding than practically any team in the league's, this
> was even more obvious.  Add to that the bullshit marketing hoopla the
> celtics interrupted their training schedule with -- the Fan Roadshow and I
> Love White People nights in suburban New England -- and the team must
> really have been believing their own publicity when they thought they
> would be able to go out and romp over other teams.  Even such elementary
> matters as spacing, reversing the ball, making yourself available for
> passes, and so on had been ignored.  Injuries, too, were a factor.
> 
> 2.  Omigod, they killed Kenny!  This was what most of us were saying as we
> watched, and will continue to watch, Kenny Anderson play like Kelvin
> Upshaw for the next few games.  The Point Guard position is the most
> complex in basketball, and having players around him who didn't know what
> they were supposed to be doing made Kenny look worse than he is.  As did
> the fact that he was clearly out of shape, sucking wind and shooting line
> drive jumpers into the front rim.  The 28 yr old Anderson, who has been
> lifting and is much stronger than he has ever been, has never yet been in
> Pitino Shape, and you don't get into that by doing step-aerobics to a Cher
> video.  Bad decisions, overpenetrations, and sloppy ballhandling can, I
> think, be safely chalked up to rust and conditioning and frustration.  It
> better stop soon, though.
> 
> 3.  The celtics are incredibly lucky to have a free week to concentrate on
> practice before an upcoming road swing.  Basically, they have been playing
> exhibition games.  The season will really be starting against the kings,
> and the Celts are lucky to be .500, given their ill preparation.  The hard
> practices should establish offensive sets, but more importantly, man to
> man assignments and help patterns should be layed down, along with long
> practices to improve the players wind.  Also, two injured players should
> be returning who will be of immense benefit.  Walter McCarty is the soul
> of the press, and the most disruptive of all bench players to the opposing
> offense.  Ron Mercer is of course Ron Mercer, and his return will bode
> well.  It would have been awful to watch him try to freelance anyway,
> since his game is so profoundly contextualized into a set offense and
> defense.  Those monster dunks should help morale as well.
> 
> 4.  Finally, the unease everybody felt about the team's poor play obscured
> a piece of much more significant good news.  Going into the season,
> everybody talked about how horrible we were at center.  Some of us had
> high hopes for Dwayne Schintzius, who has been injured and foul prone, and
> Tony Battie, who has been pretty ineffective at center (although it's
> still early.)  But who expected the third string center, last-minute
> throw-in Eric Riley, to have such an impact?  Riley is a legitimate shot
> blocker and rebounder, and he has played better than the average NBA
> center in several games without having ever really gotten in shape!  All
> the celtics need from a center is ten rebounds a game, some strong D, a
> couple of blocked shots, and a fifth option on offense.  Riley appears to
> give them that.  If he continues his solid play, with the other guys
> behind him, we might be in a position to do some real damage.
> 
> 5.  Paul Pierce is a magnificent player, who looks like he will be a
> smaller, more polished version of Antoine, but with better defense and a
> more dependable shot.  I've seen the nine guys picked ahead of him play,
> and not one of them belongs on the same court with him as a basketball
> player.   If the obese nerds who draft for fantasy league games had been
> in place of the lottery GMs, they would have made better and more informed
> choices.  THANK GOD Rick didn't trade Pierce before he saw what he had.
> Pierce is already better than Keith Van Horn.  And he's signed for five
> more years.  
> 
> This team has to learn how to play together, and learn how to win.  They
> should make the playoffs this year, but that's besides the point.  As
> celtics fans, we all need to take the long view.  In weeks like the past
> one, it might be the best thing for our mental health.
> 
> 
> Joshua Ozersky
> Marketing Communications
> Environmental Products Division
> Corning Incorporated.
> HP-CB-02-C6A
> Corning, New York 14831
> Phone:  (607) 974-8124
> Fax:      (607) 974-2233
> 
> 
>