Holley on Duncan

[opi@unesco.org]

This is from Michael Holley:

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''I thought I was going to Boston,'' Duncan said yesterday. ''I had
articles pinned up in my dorm room. Everyone said the Celtics were going
to be the worst team and that they would pick me first. I had people in
Boston trying to find a place for me to live.''

The Celtics were the worst team in the East. They won 15 games, only one
in their division, and finished a staggering 46 games out of first
place. Duncan probably had his bags packed before watching the 1997
draft lottery on  television. His life changed when he sat in front of
his TV and ''I saw that the  Celtics got [draft picks] 3 and 6. I was
thinking, `Oh [expletive].'''

He wasn't the only one thinking that. M.L. Carr was the Celtics'
representative that afternoon in Secaucus, N.J. I watched Carr's
reaction when the picks were announced, and to this day I have never
seen a man of color lose his color as fast as Carr did. He didn't even
look real as he sat there. He appeared to be a life-sized portrait with
an anguished half-smile painted on his face. (That day, ''M.L.'' could
have stood for ''Mona Lisa.'')

 Duncan and the Spurs played the Celtics last night at the FleetCenter.
Or maybe it's more accurate to say the Celtics were played, 121-98. When
Rick Pitino said that the Spurs ''kicked our ass in every facet of the
game,'' no one disagreed with him. Duncan had 14 points, 6 rebounds, and
3 assists - in the third quarter. He finished with 31/15/4 numbers. If
he were here, everything about the Celtics would change. Pitino would be
a different man, Antoine Walker would be a different player, the Celtics
would have a revamped  roster, and the Celtics would be champions. Not
might be. Would be.

The 7-foot Duncan is averaging 21 points, 14 rebounds, and 3.3 assists.
He is 23 years old. He doesn't think he has played his best basketball
yet. He dunks  and he hits bank shots. He escaped a triple-team last
night with a spin move  and layup. He responds to trash talking by
furiously releasing his entire  repertoire.

You ask him where he developed that spin move.

 ''Oh that?'' he said with a dismissive wave. ''I've always had that.''

There was a bizarre third-quarter sequence when Walker, his team
seemingly trailing by 50 points, went at Duncan. A foul was called,
Walker cursed and told a joke to injured Spur Jerome Kersey on the
bench.

Walker didn't know it, but Duncan was glaring at him the entire time. He
clearly didn't want Walker to say anything to anybody.

At times, the Pitino-Walker marriage appears to be headed toward the
''irreconcilable differences'' phase. Duncan here, wearing a number
other than 21 (it's retired in honor of Bill Sharman), could have erased
all pop  psychology from the Celtics' family. Instead we would be
talking about the play, ''Tim, 'Toine, and Rick: A Love Story.''

 With Duncan at center and Walker at either small or power forward,
Pitino would have two pillars for his first Celtics team. It would
change his view of a roster loaded with 10 free agents, most of them
marginal pros. etc.