Re: Celtics Past: 1994

[Bruce Allen <ballen007@yahoo.com>]

Thanks Joe.  I really appreciated and enjoyed this
defense of Antoine, I see the same qualities in him,
and often wonder why others don't. One thing you
didn't mention as well was the cut-down on the number
of times he actually did the wiggle last season. I too
like the way Antoine talks to the reporters, he tries
to actually express what he wants to say without using
the old, tired cliches that all athletes seem to use. 

I saw a quote by Donnie Walsh the other day when
questioned about the Pacers interest in Antoine,
mentioning that players that produce 20 and 10 are an
absolute premium. Why can't we appreciate what we have
here. He's gotten such a bad rap, but hasn't had a
single problem off the court, no brushes with the law.
Nothing even like Tony Battie's brush with the law
this spring. He was originally mentioned in the
Mercer/Billips/Irvin lawsuit, but was quickly cleared.

I guess the fans who don't like Antoine would break it
down to a)the wiggle b)his bad shooting nights c)the
veteran all-star remark, and d)Last year's "out of
shape" situation after the lockout. (I'm not sure how
Shaunessey got the privelidge of "outing" Antoine's
condition 2 months into the season--I hadn't heard
anything about it before then)

We need Antoine. We need his skills, we need his fire.
I watch the Patriots, and see a team with no fire at
all at times. The "stars" of that team, (Bledsoe, Law,
Slade, Johnson, McGinest, Glenn) are ALL  low key guys
who seem at times to lack passion and desire. The one
guy on that team I could compare to Antoine on-field
is Lawyer Milloy--But Milloy will spout off to
reporters as well, something Antoine doesn't do.
Milloy can't fire up the Offense, the most fire on
that offense belongs to the Third-string QB. Antoine,
because of the Nature of basketball, can fire up the
team on both sides of the ball. Fire is a good thing,
channeled in the right direction, and he's getting
better with the refs. 

I also love his desire and penchant to take (and make)
last-second shots. 

Well, this started as a couple lines to Joe, and just
took off. 

--- j.hironaka@unesco.org wrote:
> Wonderful post, IMO, Dan and a pleasure to
> read....really.  Everytime I
> reevaluate my Celts-junkie lifestyle (it can come at
> the expense of family,
> career and other more respectable pursuits), I
> discover there are other people
> out there who seemingly share my conclusion that our
> Celtics stand for some
> things worth rooting for (tradition, history,
> teamwork, color blindness,
> innovation etc.) and that fellow Boston fans are the
> best company to keep. But
> ONLY on this list will you find people who readily
> admit to reading entire
> archives from (of all things) the 1994 Celtics
> season. That's something I
> thought only warped people like me were capable of.
> :-)
> 
> Actually, I have to admit I've also reread a few
> dozen posts from the 15-win
> season. That's how I discovered I was hardly the
> first and certainly not the
> most effective Antoine Walker supporter to join this
> list (people like Patrick
> Goggin and others were doing it since Walker's
> rookie year). There are some
> quality posts from back then, coming from people who
> for whatever reason have
> since gone almost entirely into lurk mode (probably
> for the sake of family,
> career and respectable pursuits). But maybe that's
> also partly the fault of
> relative newbies like me who try to bully people
> (for example, by employing my
> patented "race card") to control the agenda.
> 
> Of course, people are welcome to continue debating
> whether our expectations of
> how acceptable black athletes are superficially
> supposed to behave in Boston
> (ideally "modest" and "humble" like Ron Mercer)
> don't ultimately affect fan
> impressions about their actual value to a team (Ron
> Mercer naturally "didn't
> need to be in the spotlight" even while leading the
> team in shot attempts and
> missed shots after the winning February without
> him). How many times have we
> held up Mercer as an "Anti-Toine" figure for coming
> into camp in GREAT shape
> and even calling on his teammates to practice for
> two straight days during the
> lockout? If Antoine (not coincidentally called the
> "best-conditioned athlete"
> in training camp the year before) had done a similar
> thing prior to his own
> contract extension season, many would have described
> it as a cheap,
> self-serving and meaningless publicity stunt (which
> may explain why basically
> no-one showed up for Mercer's last second
> entreaties). And if Antoine were
> accused of participating in any kind of gang rape
> incident, he would not get
> off as easily as Ron Mercer has in the eyes of his
> fans. You'd hear some "I
> told you so's" and "I knew there was something
> (criminal) about him" and "They
> need to set an example by following through and
> prosecuting him to the full
> extent of the law".
> 
> I know why I keep making a big deal out of this. I
> find it deeply disengenous
> for people to suggest that "ethnic" mannerisms
> Walker just happened to grow up
> with hasn't caused certain fans and writers to read
> bad things into his
> overall game and character. This is unfair.  Listen
> to the kid talk. Listen to
> what he actually says and the sound of his voice
> (soft, serious, answers
> questions with specifics, rarely throws out sports
> clichés). Then maybe ask
> yourself how patently "selfish" it is to cut your
> shot selection to 15.6 per
> game after February, rebuild your freethrow
> technique from scratch even if it
> leads to disastrous results at first (for Potapenko
> and half the roster as
> well), make turnovers off the dribble a rare
> occurance, stop getting technical
> fouls even if you feel the white refs continue to
> let you get clobbered, rush
> back from injury just to play in a few more
> meaningless games, or lead your
> team by far in rebounding every season. I don't know
> how to verify it, but I
> wouldn't be surprised if "selfish" Antoine still
> holds the highest assist
> total (13) in a single game of any Celtic in the
> past three seasons, not to
> mention his triple-doubles and so far amazing
> success rate on last-second,
> game-winning shots.
> 
> Next season, if Rick Pitino persistently "reminds"
> Antoine before every single
> game that he'll need to produce at least 6 assists
> or 10 rebounds to avoid
> getting benched, not only will Antoine make the All
> Star team (even averaging
> say 16ppg) but the Celtics will win 55+ games and
> blow away Miami, Indiana,
> and the Knicks in the playoffs through sheer talent
> and our certifiable mean
> streak (Fort and Battleship). My point is that
> Antoine is a freak. He can
> actually eventually average 6 assists and 10+
> rebounds over 82 games,
> something only one NBA forward, guard or center per
> every decade or so (a
> championship player, in other words) has the innate
> talent to do. We need to
> quit pretending AW's just another designated
> scorer...just another member of
> our "big three" or "big two" or whatever we call it.
> Although he may never be
> as controlled a player as Paul Pierce (the "ice"
> alongside Antoine's "fire"),
> there is no comparing the two in terms of talent
> either potential and actual.
> So just quit it.  The kid more or less fell by the
> grace of God into our laps,
> and we're dumb enough and hateful enough to drive
> him out of town before he
> reach's Larry Bird's rookie age. Basically, it's
> hard not to conclude that
> Boston fans tend to feel uncomfortable around (or
> rooting for) "those kinds of
> black people". We should get whatever we deserve.
> 
> Go Celts!
> 
> Joe
> 
> -----------
> D Parker wrote:
> 
> > Hi Everyone,
> >
> > The original plan was to go back into the archives
> and determine if Greg
> > was truly insane or whether Josh had mumbled
> something so grossly
> > offensive the entire list should be chasing him
> with torches and
> > pitchforks and I just somehow missed it.  It was
> the first time I visited
> > the list archives and I quickly got completely
> side-tracked from my goal.
> >
> > The list starts in early 1994.  The Celtics were
> finishing up a pretty
> > rotten year where they would miss the playoffs for
> the first time since
> > the 78-79 season.  It was the season after Reggie
> died.  Robert Parish's
> > last season.  No Larry Bird.  No Kevin McHale.
> >
> > Fascinated, I downloaded the digests for the
> entire year and read every
> > one.
> >
> > I think the Celtics were at a crossroads that
> year, and unfortunately they
> > took a wrong turn.  Dee Brown and Rick Fox were at
> the end of their
> > contracts, it was generally accepted the Chief
> would not be resigned and
> > as a result they would be able to sign a decent
> free agent with Parish's
> > salary slot.  Dino was looking like a bona fide
> All-Star and he was
> > relatively young (26 or 27).  Oh yes, they also
> had their lowest
> > (highest?) draft pick since 1986 -- number 9.
> >
> > The Lakers were also in a rebuilding mode, and
> oddly enough would draft at
> > number 10 -- one spot behind the Celtics.
> >
> > Well, you all know what happened, little of it
> good:
> >
> > * Dee Brown was resigned to a huge contract.  His
> play continued to be
> > streaky, making him virtually untradeable.
> >
> > * Rick Fox was resigned to much more reasonable
> money. 
=== message truncated ===

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