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Michael Holley On The Surrealistic Summer League
Says Schintzius is AWOL; Minor walking with a cane/career might be
over; Griffin to be signed in August; Larry in loafers; Turner's
cheering section...
[The Boston Globe Online][Boston.com]
[Boston Globe Online / Sports]
Fun? It's summer job for Celtics
By Michael Holley, Globe Staff, 07/27/99
You had to keep reminding yourself
that this was not the real NBA.
Coach Larry Bird was wearing shorts and
had his bare feet slipped into loafers. He
signed autographs at halftime. Red
Auerbach spent most of the afternoon
sitting at the scorer's table. Players
wore uniforms that appeared to be straight
off the discount racks of a local sporting
goods store. Rick Pitino sat in the
bleachers and, during one bizarre moment,
was approached by an extremely tall fan.
''Can you tell me what leagues I should be
playing in?'' the young man asked Pitino.
The coach said he didn't know. ''Well,''
the man followed up, ''can you point out
some agents in the crowd?''
That was just the beginning. There was
also a German Select Team forward named
Boniface Ndong, a 6-foot-11-inch,
180-pounder who can pass for a reed stalk
anytime he wants. Not to be overshadowed,
the Nets brought 5-4 Shawnta Rogers to the
court. If you can believe this, Rogers
actually looks smaller than 5-4 when he's
on the floor. In fact, if I were a coach,
I would put 5-3 Muggsy Bogues on my team -
I say Muggsy towers over Shawnta - and
have him post up Rogers on each
possession.
Yesterday was the opener of the Celtics'
eight-team Pro Summer League at
UMass-Boston. This was the place to come
if you wanted to forget about the limiting
boundaries of reality. Unless, of course,
you happen to draw your paychecks from the
Boston Celtics. People associated with the
Celtics were the only ones who were
constantly reminded of the outside world,
even when everything inside was clearly
artificial.
I have many reasons for saying that.
Here's one: Pervis Ellison - who has
played in 39 games since Bill Clinton was
reelected in 1996 - was expected to play
last night. He didn't. He told Pitino that
he wanted to play, but the Coach thought
it would be best to rest him. There were
several people in the building who clearly
got caught up in the Fantasy NBA
atmosphere at UMass, because many of them
acknowledged aloud that they were here to
see Ellison. They also acknowledged that
they were disappointed when the center did
not appear with Wayne Turner, Tony Battie,
Walter McCarty, and the rest of the
Celtics against the summer-vacation
Wizards. (The Celtics pounded the
makeshift team, 98-77.) Maybe they all
know the truth, which is that if Ellison
doesn't play in any of this week's games,
he probably won't play with the Celtics
again.
Ellison was not the only reminder that
this Summer League world was false. You
want to know the best player of the day?
Austin Croshere. He dropped 30 points and
had 11 rebounds against the German team
which, by the way, isn't loaded with a lot
of Germans. The only Pacer who looked
nearly as impressive was Al Harrington.
Keep in mind that Harrington did not make
the Pacers' playoff roster and that
Croshere played only a few more minutes
than you did throughout the postseason.
But Harrington made some moves yesterday
that were breathtaking. You wanted to lean
back on the wooden bleachers here, gaze at
the quaint overhead banners that read
''Little East,'' and smile about the
artistry of basketball. But if you were
Pitino and tried that, there was always a
question that brought everything back to
real time.
Like the Ron Mercer situation. ''Based on
his comments,'' Pitino said with a laugh,
''we're not close [to signing him].''
Mercer said the Celtics' offer to him was
drastically below what he imagined.
Don't forget about the Greg Minor story.
There are those in the organization who
fear that the guard's career is over. He
suffered a severe hip injury late in the
season in Miami. He is walking with a cane
now. Pitino said you usually don't see
injuries like Minor's unless you are
looking at a car wreck or a pileup on a
football field.
And, before we go back to that quirky,
unrealistic NBA, there is also the Dwayne
Schintzius story. Supposedly, the team
can't find the 7-2 center. The Celtics
wanted him to participate in the Summer
League. His contract is guaranteed until
Dec. 31, so one team official cracked, ''I
hope he gets his money protected from Y2K
before he leaves town.''
The fake NBA seemed to be much more fun
than the real one. There are always
complaints about fans not being into the
game, but anyone who watched Turner
couldn't say that. Turner is from Mission
Hill, so he had several of his friends and
admirers behind the Celtics bench. They
cheered when he dribbled. They cheered
when he passed. He made a nice floater
near the end of the first half and they
high-fived each other. Once, Frank King
threw a low pass to Turner that went off
his leg and out of bounds. Wayne's World
wanted it to be known that their man was
not responsible for the turnover.
There were other refreshing stories. If
you don't like the Knicks, you can be
assured that they did not make a good
decision by drafting French center
Frederic Weis (he can't play). If you like
underdogs, you will enjoy hearing that
Celtic camper Adrian Griffin most likely
will be signed by the team in early
August. If you like to see coaches laugh,
you would have loved to see Bird giggling
at Jason Miskiri when the guard asked out
of the game. Miskiri had been hot when he
raised his hand toward the bench. Bird
looked at him, laughing, and said, ''You
want to come out NOW?''
No way this was the NBA of tough injuries,
base-year compensation, trading deadlines,
and free agent signing periods. It was
light. It was loose. It was fun. But, as
the Celtics know, this camp lasts only a
week.
This story ran on page E01 of the Boston
Globe on 07/27/99.
© Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.