Bill Reynolds: Trade Walker?

[Way Of The Ray <wayray@ix.netcom.com>]

Thanks to BSG for mentioning this... 

4.23.2000 00:02:20 
BILL REYNOLDS
Providence Journal

Too much too soon, but too much talent to give up?  

Want to know eveything that's wrong with the NBA? 

I give you Antoine Walker. 

He is 23, makes more money than some Third World countries have, seems
to have an exaggerated sense of his own importance, and has never won
anything as a pro. 

Welcome to the NBA in the new millennium, right? 

He's also become the symbol of fan discontent with the Celtics, courtesy
of his ill-advised 3-pointers, and the sense that he is supposed to be
the leader of this team, even if it's become obvious that he's not
suited to this role. He's become the guy who teases you one night, then
breaks your heart the next. 

But he's also not the problem with the Celtics. Not in the classic
sense, anyway. 

On a roster that's simply not talented enough, Walker is supremely
talented. Which is not to say he doesn't have deficiencies. He doesn't
guard anyone, he loves to jack up 3-pointers, can be too stats
conscious, and is a funny size, not quite big enough to guard the good
power forwards, not quick enough to guard the good small forwards on the
perimeter. 

But he has talent. 

Not Vince Carter talent. Not Allen Iverson talent. Not Kevin Garnett
talent. Maybe not talent to justify the size of his contract. But talent
nontheless. No small commodity in a talent league. 

His problem is maturity. Or lack of it. 

In a sense he's become the prototype of the young NBA superstar, someone
who makes too much money too early, and whose view of the world and his
place in it is irrevocably altered by that. 

Even so, Walker has done little to help himself in Boston. He's not
particularly likeable, at least not in any public sense. He seems to
show little regard for the game's past, or have any sense of history.
There is an arrogance about him, best exemplifed by his infamous quote
where he referred to himself as a ``veteran superstar,'' even though
he'd only been in the league two years. In short, he's a product of the
system that's created him. 

Not that anyone should be surprised. 

Walker left Kentucky after his sophomore year, against the advice of
many who considered him too young, too immature. He was one of the
forerunners of the new trend in the NBA, young players drafted on
potential more than accomplishment. Even at Kentucky, on a team that won
a national championship his last year, he was just one of many talented
players, not the sole centerpiece. 

He also had to be comforted by his coach, Rick Pitino, in the locker
room shortly after the championship game. Walker had not played
particularly well, and was clearly down, even though his team had just
won. 

This was a kid emotionally ready for the NBA? 

No matter. 

He was a lottery pick in the '96 draft, joining a Celtics team that was
in a free fall, one that eventually won only 15 games. The coach was
M.L. Carr, whose sole strategy seemed to be to let the players do
whatever they wanted, even a rookie who should have been a junior in
college. 

In retrospect, it was the worst possible situation for Walker. Instead
of being on a veteran team with assigned roles, a team on which he would
have had to pay some dues, Walker essentially was given free rein. He
took a lot of shots. He put up numbers. He treated defense as if it were
a bug crawling across his dinner plate. And he got paid a lot of money. 

The NBA was easy, right? 

It's also become apparent that Walker is also a victim of the Celtics'
past. We expect the great Celtics' players to be leaders, to know their
place in Celtics' history, to realize that, in the best of times, the
Celtics are bigger than the individual parts, one big, long green line
that began back there in the '50's. Instead, there was Antoine, with his
foolish wiggle, his lack of perspective, his unwillingness to work on
his body in the off-season, his coming of age as a professional player
the basketball equivalent of an awkward adolescence. There was Antoine,
poster child for the NBA and all its ills. 

I suspect that's been at the brunt of a lot of the fan dissatisfaction
with Walker the past couple of years. Celtics' stars are not supposed to
be like that. At least the stars of Celtics' past that we now tend to
romanticize. 

So here is Walker, at the end of his fourth season, and the question for
Pitino and the Celtics is: what do you do with him? 

Do you trade him? Or do you wait for him to mature, to become the leader
the Celtics so clearly want him to be? Do you wait for him to grow out
of his flaws, or do you recognize that it's never really going to happen
for Walker here, that the landscape already is too poisoned? Is he part
of the solution, or part of the problem? 

This is the Celtics' big decision. 

It's also one that comes in the context of Walker's history with Pitino.
They've been together for five years now, and there must be times when
it seems like a bad marriage, too many years, too much history, too much
emotion that got all tangled up a long time ago. All further complicated
by the fact that Walker no longer is the kid whom Pitino once recruited
to come to Kentucky. He is now someone with a $70-million contract, the
kind of money that brings expectations with it. 

I also suspect the Celtics will try to move him this summer, to trade
him for someone else's problem. One rumor that's been floating out there
for a while now is Walker for Keith Van Horn, the young Nets star who's
supposedly somewhat discontented in New Jersey. The latest is Walker for
Dikembe Mutombo, as the Hawks were a disaster this year. 

Walker also may be better off being out of Boston, going to some new
place with a chance to start over, some place where he's not expected to
be the leader, but rather just another young player who's never won
anything. Some place where the storied past isn't always sitting on his
shoulders. 

But the Celtics should think long and hard about trading Walker, even if
he never consistently becomes the kind of player he's shown flashes of
being. Even if he, at times, seems like a poster child for everything
that's wrong with today's NBA. 

For he is only 23, so very young, with so many years ahead of him. 

And there's no substitute for talent. 

Even if it occasionally breaks your heart.