Re: I Hope You're Right Josh O

[opi@unesco.org]

Way Of The Ray wrote:

> However Josh, you're out to lunch and way out in left field on McCarty.
> I doubt if any other team would have given him more than the $1.1
> million exception, cetainly not the 3 year, $8 million deal that the
> C's are paying him. And as far as his defense goes, sure he's a pretty
> good team/peripheral defender, but his man-to-man D is bad. And then
> there's
> the mistakes he makes and his horrible shooting percentage.
> Ray

Well I'm actually still in my office at this hour (past 10pm) because of our
General Conference and the election of a new Director-General (probably
Japanese). Regarding this post, Wallah is a fascinating athlete in the way
he purposefully snaps the ball between his legs at 6-11 and more
impressively makes crisply "textbook" and often meaningful interior passes
like a truly well-coached "system" athlete. On the other hand, Wallah is too
cat-quick for his own brain to keep up, and he definitely "plays small" as
scout's love to say about Chris Anstey. McCarty is a waste of height at
6-11, since I doubt any of us have ever seen him exploit this advantage in
any tangible way. Fortson must look at him and think :"God you pathetic
guy".

At times, I honestly think Wallah is an promising team player with a
undeniably serious and intelligent work ethic to go with his non-stop motor.
At other times, I think he's the worst spaz on the team outside of the more
fiery and productive Antoine Walker, and in this sense one of several
"Pitino style" imports who might eventually sucker all of us Boston townies
into thinking that a crappy FG% and erratic shot selection are par for the
course and perfectly acceptable. Ex-Pitino players tend to be confusingly
dumb and ingenious at the same time. I certainly think that's true with
Wayne "Ike and Tina" Turner and his ridiculous jump shot. At the same time,
I have no problem arguing with conviction that guys like Walter and Wayne
are admirably b-ball intelligent and tend to contribute to winning
programs....but....

Regarding salary, we may all agree that Walter got slightly overpaid but why
anyone would think it's something worth harping about is less clear. Sure
there are a lot of disputable things we can say on his behalf. But one thing
I think is indisputable among educated basketball fans is that the kid loves
to play basketball as much as the game deserves any player's passion. He is
the Energizer Bunnyman.

****