Michael Holley Tidbits

[peter delevett <pdelevett@amcity.com>]

Mercer suffers another injury 

                       Rolled ankle doesn't appear to be serious

                       By Michael Holley, Globe Staff, 02/25/99 

                       Ron Mercer hopped out of the trainer's room last night,
                       favoring his left ankle. He rolled the ankle in the
first quarter
                       ''after coming down on somebody's foot. I'm not sure what
                       happened.''

                       And, unfortunately for Mercer and the Celtics, no one
was sure
                       of the guard's status last night. He had his ankle X-rayed
                       following the Celtics' 111-79 win over the Magic. He
then retired
                       to a night of ''ice, ice, and more ice'' for the ankle.
The Celtics
                       should know more by this afternoon, when Mercer and the
rest of his teammates are scheduled to
                       practice at Brandeis.

                       ''Here I am trying to get over one injury [right knee]
and I get this on my other leg,'' he said,
                       shaking his head. After injuring himself, Mercer
actually returned to the game and played 30
                       minutes. It didn't appear that the injury affected him.

                       ''But when I sat on the bench in the fourth quarter, I
could feel it tightening up,'' he said. ''It
                       was starting to swell then.'' But, Mercer said, his
ankle has not changed his view of tomorrow's
                       game against the Knicks. ''Oh,'' he said, ''I'm going
to try and play.''

                        ... A few players complained about the temperature of
the FleetCenter. Penny Hardaway (0 points) said, ''The problem was the gym was
really cold. I couldn't get a handle on the ball. It felt like I was playing
on ice.''  [Thanks, Penny, nice one] ... Antoine Walker made 1 of 6 free
throws. ''If I could make some of those, then we'd really be on to
something,'' he said. [YES! He CAN be taught!]

                       Divisive talk dispelled

                       Many have suggested that team captain Walker is jealous
                       of all the attention Pierce is receiving. ''That's
crazy,'' Pierce said. ''You know, Antoine has
                       really been supportive of me. I don't think that at
all. Those are the things you hear when the
                       team is not doing good and you have a decent rookie
coming in. People saying those things are
                       just trying to get something started on this team. We
all know what the truth is. We're losing and
                       people are looking for things to say.'' [You know, the
most refreshing thing of all about Pierce is his humble attitude] ... Pitino
said he wants to see the Celtics get in shape before he decides
                       to make a trade for rebounding help. But most likely,
he said, there will not be any major
                       acquisitions until this summer. If the Celtics did
anything this season, they would probably have
                       to give up their first-round draft pick. Pitino said he
has made calls to many teams to make
                       ''inquiries,'' not to ''shop.'' ... Anderson emerged
from those practices energized. ''I was just dragging up the court before,''
he said. ''I wasn't pushing the ball or nothing.'' [Another sign of hope!]
''They excite me,'' Anderson said of his  passes. ''It's like being, um, it's
like sex, man. Really. When I get a pass to Antoine or Paul Pierce cutting to
the basket? That's like sex to me.'' [OK, Kenny, we're getting into a weird
area here...]