McDonald's All Stars

[j.hironaka@unesco.org]

Yesterday evening I watched a video of a game involving a pair of guards
who just might be available to the Celtics at pick #37 (the Texan
defensive guard Chris Clack and Beaver Country Day School's own Wayne
Turner). It was the 1995 McDonalds High School All American Game that
featured superb individual performances by Kevin Garnett, Shareef Abdur
Raheem, Ron Mercer, Vince Carter, Stephon Marbury and Robert Traylor (an
ideal McDonald's spokesman one would think). Paul Pierce (and his
one-inch long hairdo) came roaring off the bench to net a game high 28
points, just two shy of the all time game record set more than a decade
earlier by Michael Jordan.

Pierce's last shot reminded me of Bird in the closing minutes of his 60
point game. With three seconds left, Pierce raced down a loose ball in
the corner just ahead of two big defenders (I think one was Antawn
Jamison). Sandwiched between these two guys and facing the crowd, he
pivoted around, did a head fake and then bombed in the corner trey all
net. Pierce was decked out in (UCLA forward) Jelani McCoy's uniform,
because his own had been stolen by a souvenir hunter the night before
(The announcers playfully asked "who's the real McCoy?") They also
commented on the fact that Pierce had his (borrowed) game uniform
completely covered in autographs from the basketball luminaries present
at the game (John Wooden etc.). Pierce had soft curly hair back then
pretty much like Kobe Bryant or Dana Barros, and looked way under legal
drinking age with the same sweet/odd facial expressions he has today.

Oh yeah, back to the subject. So anyway, I came away justifiably
impressed with Wayne Turner's renowned fearlessness and calm in big
games (there was a record crowd watching the game in St Louis).
Surprisingly, he was referred to by the announcers as a "scoring guard"
from Massachusetts and showed he had no problem attacking the basket to
knock in that less-than-pretty jumper of his. But the bigger story was
Chris Clack, a guy who has since developed his college reputation as a
shutdown defender, but was in fact arguably the flashiest of all the
scorers in the 1995 McDonald's game. If a hundred basketball fans like
us watched that game, I'd wager that seventy might agree that the three
most awesome athletes in the game were KG (duh!), Shareef, and Chris
Clack. He and Ron Mercer dominated the first ten minutes of the game,
with Clack (wearing the injured Chauncey Billups' uniform #4) flushing
three beautiful dunks and Mercer hitting from outside. Later Clack
pulled up off a drive for a fadeaway jumpshot that looked identical to
Michael Jordan's signature move. I guess he didn't show much of an open
court dribble, but neither did Vince or Ron compared to the remarkable
Kevin Garnett (and Marbury).

It was a great game for Celts fans. Pierce and Mercer were the leading
scorers for their teams (and overall), although KG took the
well-deserved MVP. I've received a lot of game videos from fellow Celts
list-member Ed Ag, but maybe the two I most enjoy are this one and
Bird's 16-19 shooting (37 points and 9 assists) performance in the 1979
Final Four game against Mark Aguirre's DePaul. Larry Bird really was a
much flashier passer in college (judging by this game) than he was as a
Boston Celtic, perhaps emulating the style of Pete Maravich. Some say he
was also a better shooter before he mangled his hand before his rookie
year. As Bird commented after the DePaul game, "I was hitting so good, I
felt sorry for the other team." Well I hope you enjoyed this bit of
nostalgia.

Joe


p.s. I'm still strongly in favor of shopping future picks for a #12
through #15 pick in this year's point guard draft. I can't help feeling
excited about this gold rush of well-built point guard prospects
compared to previous years (SteveFrancis, JasonTerry, BaronDavis,
WillAvery, AndreMiller, Mateen Cleaves). I'm sure there will be
leftovers at #15, and that a team would be willing to trade the pick to
us for our own pick next year (we've been a lottery team for 6 straight
years after all).