[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Two Peter May's: Pervis & The Playoffs
[The Boston Globe Online][Boston.com]
[Boston Globe Online / Sports]
CELTICS NOTEBOOK
Ellison's presence accounted for
By Peter May, Globe Staff, 10/05/99
WALTHAM - He
feels fine.
''Write it twice,''
Pervis Ellison said.
He feels fine.
Who knows how he really
feels or how long it'll
last, but, for now, on
the opening day of
training camp, the
oft-injured,
oft-maligned, oft-ridiculed Ellison is on
board for the 1999-2000 Celtics season.
Ellison missed all of last season after
undergoing ankle surgery. He played in 33
games the year before that, six the year
before that. That's 39 games out of a
possible 214 over the last three years. In
that time, he has pocketed $6.27 million,
and he has $2.75 million coming this
season.
Ellison will participate in the morning
sessions during two-a-days, working as a
''focus coach'' in the evening. ''That's
the best gig in town,'' he said. He's in
the last year of his six-year gift from
M.L. Carr, and coach Rick Pitino noted,
''We're hoping it will be his best year.''
Ellison said he's looking forward to being
a veteran presence in the locker room,
something he enjoys and something the
players also enjoy. He was a very popular
member of the 1997-98 Celtics, a
tricaptain. He was MIA last year. He plans
to be around and about this year.
''You can't put a price on experience,''
he said. ''I'm going to be vocal in the
locker room, that's part of my makeup.
Regardless of my title'' - he doesn't know
whether he's still a captain - ''I'm going
to be a leader.''
Minor difficulties
Greg Minor is on the preseason roster but
was not around yesterday. The Celtics
released a one-page statement saying, in
effect, that Minor is still hurt and
trying to get better. Pitino said Minor is
''month to month'' and could miss the
entire season. Minor suffered a serious
hip injury last April 29 in Miami ... The
Celtics have until the end of the month to
extend the contracts of Danny Fortson and
Tony Battie. ''It's something we're
considering,'' GM Chris Wallace said ...
Dana Barros has gone for the Allen Iverson
cornrows look while Ellison has dreadlocks
in a ponytail ... The Celtics have four
players who were on the 1997-98 Denver
Nuggets, who won 11 games: Eric
Washington, Battie, Eric Williams, and
Fortson. ''Nobody has lost more than we
have the last couple years,'' Fortson
said. ''I definitely want to win.''
Fortson is looking forward to the
exhibition opener against Charlotte and
Anthony Mason. ''He's one of the players I
tried to model my game after,'' Fortson
said. He added, ''I hope [the referees]
let us play.'' ... Antoine Walker said
he's not certain what position he'll play,
or what role he'll play. ''I don't know if
I'm going to be a [small forward] or a
[power forward]. Or if they'll need me to
score 20 points or get 12 rebounds.'' He
didn't seem concerned, and Pitino isn't,
either. ''I couldn't even tell you who'd
start right now,'' the coach said. ''It's
very close at every position.'' Pitino
conceded that Walker and Paul Pierce would
probably start, ''But outside of those
two, I don't have a clue.''
This story ran on page E07 of the Boston
Globe on 10/05/99.
© Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.
[The Boston Globe Online][Boston.com]
[Boston Globe Online / Sports]
Only the playoffs will do
Preseason Celtics crave the credibility of
a postseason
By Peter May, Globe Staff, 10/05/99
WALTHAM - The
Celtics are back
in business. They are
ready for business. You
could see it on their
faces yesterday. You
could hear it in their
voices. They are tired
of losing, tired of
false hopes, tired of
trying to explain why
and how it all went
wrong.
The plan is to have no such talk this
season. Coach Rick Pitino has set the bar
high - the playoffs - and that means
they're going to have to jump high and a
lot of teams are going to have to fall.
They think they can do it.
No one at the annual Media Day yesterday
was talking anything less. From Antoine
Walker to Paul Pierce to Eric ''We Hardly
Knew Ye'' Williams, the mantra was the
same: It's time.
''You gotta walk the walk,'' said point
guard Kenny Anderson. ''You gotta do it.
We just gotta go out and play.
''[The playoffs] are a great motivation.
You have to believe in yourself. We have
the talent here. We can do it. But we have
to have togetherness. One guy on this team
isn't going to do it. Now is this year.
Everyone's back is against the wall.
There's a lot of pressure on us. So now,
it's like, `Yo, put up or shut up.' We got
to turn this around this year. We got to
make some strides.''
Pitino has 14 players in camp. Eight have
never been in the postseason and only one,
Dana Barros, has been on a team that won a
playoff series (the 1993 Seattle
SuperSonics). This is a team with a lot of
youth, a lot of new faces, and a lot of
high hopes, sometimes a tough mix.
The newcomers are Calbert Cheaney, who
struggled in Washington, three members of
the Denver Nuggets ('nuf said), and free
agents Wayne Turner and Adrian Griffin.
Throw them together with the returning
Celtics, who were 19-31 last year, and,
well, you can see why they're eager to get
going.
''A lot of these players are starving for
credibility. They're hungry,'' Pitino
said. ''We have a few players from that
team in Denver which won 11 games. I don't
think any of them are satisfied. They're
hungry. And once they get by compensation
and security - they have that - all that's
left is winning. They want credibility and
that's what winners get.''
Added Anderson, ''I feel something. Its
going to be a good year for us. I feel
that. But you still have to go out and do
it.''
The Celtics will begin two-a-days today,
and they will last until the exhibition
season opens in eight days with a
FleetCenter game against the Hornets. Greg
Minor is already hors de combat with a hip
injury and could miss the season. (Pitino
called him ''month to month.'') Pervis
Ellison is back, but will practice only in
the morning session. Pitino said he plans
to make no roster changes for the duration
of camp; beyond that, who can say?
The coach has players who can play a lot
of different positions, but also a lot of
guys who are 6-6 to 6-8. This may be the
only team in the NBA whose shooting guard
is as tall as its power forward. Ten of
the 14 players have been in the NBA four
years or less. The oldest players are
Barros and Ellison, each 32.
Pitino saw no downside in his challenge to
the players to make the postseason,
something the Celtics have done once since
Kevin McHale retired in 1993.
''I think it can only be positive,'' he
said. ''If you aren't in the playoffs, or
contending for them, your credibility is
lost.''
The opportunity is there. The Eastern
Conference is a muddled mess with two
clubs, Orlando and Chicago, taking the
year off. Pitino knows he has no excuses
this year and he isn't making any. He's
got his team, a full training camp, a new
practice facility, and a favorable early
schedule, with 12 of the first 18 games
and 15 of the first 25 at the FleetCenter.
All he needs now is to have his players
play the way he wants them to play.
''The talent is not in question here,''
Anderson said. ''It's the desire to play
together. Sometimes we went away from that
last year. That's everybody, not just one
person. We have to learn from it. The
pressure to make the playoffs could be
bad, but we gotta do it now. Pressure is
what you make of it. We have to believe in
ourselves.''
This story ran on page E07 of the Boston
Globe on 10/05/99.
© Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.