JR's Take on the Celtics

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

Finally, the Boston Celtics. As I write this on Monday, they are 8-9 and
are a mystery. Their coach says he’s leaving at the end of the year if
they don’t show a "marked improvement," which has to mean the playoffs.
And that seems to be a tall order considering that tall is their
problem. They do not have a dominant center 17 games into the season.
They have used a plethora of people at point guard due to injuries to
Kenny Anderson and Randy Brown. And Fall River’s Chris Herren is out
indefinitely with bone chips in his shoulder.

Going into last night’s game at Orlando, the Celtics had garnered only
one road win and Antoine Walker had to start as point guard in one game.
Not very good news, is it?

Well, it’s all really not that bad yet. Walker and Paul Pierce are the
third-rated scoring tandem in the NBA. Tony Battie is playing much
better than he did last year, and Brian Stith, who came with Herren in
the Denver trade, has been outstanding. Pitino feels that once they are
completely healthy, he will be able to get them to play the kind of
defense it takes to win in this league. And he vows that if he goes
down, he and his team will go down fighting.

On Saturday evening, Pitino and I spoke on the phone for over an hour
and at the end of the conversation, I told him that I thought they would
definitely make the playoffs. I FIBBED (I really don’t know whether they
will or not.) for his sake and for Chris Herren’s sake. I told Pitino
one other thing, that was even if he did lead this team to the playoffs,
I wanted him to still leave and go back to college. remember, I never
wanted him to take this job in the first place.

Pitino is right when he says that Boston is one of the greatest cities
in the world to live in. However, when it comes to sports, it’s a town
without pity, where every face is a reflection of Ebeneezer Scrooge. Bah
Boston!!!