boobirds

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

I went to the Spurs game and it was a bit ugly in terms of the booing
of Walker. It was really early, maybe the first quarter, and Antoine
missed an open jumper, and a smattering of people tried to start 
booing but the majority of the crowd didn't go for it. In the second
half the booing started in earnest, and near the end of the third 
quarter, I believe, Antoine got a pass from Pierce, took an open three
pointer, and got booed lustily. At that point Pitino pulled him from
the game and he didn't return. 

When you don't watch the game, you see Antoine 5-21 and make assumptions
about his stupid and selfish play. In reality, he was the pretty much the
only one who took open shots in this game, because Duncan played off him
and respected his drive. Pierce, for instance, probably didn't take an
easy shot the entire game, and in fact forced up a couple of ill-advised
contested shots. I noticed that there wasn't even a slight murmuring of 
boos for any other player than Antoine no matter how bad the shot was.

I have a feeling that no matter how much Antoine works on his jump shot,
he's going to be booed at the FleetCenter whenever he misses an open
jumper and the Celtics are losing. It's incredibly unfair and ignorant
for the crowd to do this but it's true; for instance he's traditionally
been a good three point shooter but he got booed for shooting a three
pointer with no one near him. Taking wide open threes is probably the
right move in any situation against the Spurs because it's so hard to
get good shots against them, but it's particularly useful when you are
down 30 or so, when it's the only chance for a comeback. 

Alex