Re: oh no

[opi@unesco.org]

Hi Mark, I actually totally agree with you. I was honestly just making a
knee-jerk "Lakers suck" commentary to help me feel a little better about Boston
having Calbert Cheaney as our "6th man" and our leading minutes per game guy off
the bench.


"Berry, Mark S" wrote:

> Joe,
>
> Joe,
>
> You're right about the importance of chemistry, but you can never have too
> much talent in this league. Will it all make for a good mix in L.A.? Maybe
> not, but guys like Taylor and Anderson are assets even if they don't fit in.
> You don't think one or both of those guys couldn't be dealt or packaged for
> a role player who delivers whatever it is West thinks the Lakers still need?
>
> The Celtics desperately need assets. They are capped out and helpless in the
> free agent market. They're just good enough to miss the playoffs and draft
> at the bottom of the lottery. The one way they can improve their personnel
> is through trades, but our collection of stiffs on the bench are
> untradeable. Barros, Overton, Cheaney, McCarty, Pervis, Battie and, the most
> untradeable player in the NBA-Eric Williams-have virtually no value.
> Fortson's is dropping. Maybe we'll be able to turn Fortson into a
> serviceable player-an asset-but I'm not counting on it.
>
> That leaves our only tradeable commodities-our five starters. But trading a
> starter only creates a hole someone else has to fill. Who?
>
> No, I'll take a valuable problem like Mo Taylor or Derek Anderson over a
> no-talent problem like Eric Williams any day.
>
> Mark
>
>         -----Original Message-----
>         From:   opi@unesco.org [SMTP:opi@unesco.org]
>         Sent:   Monday, February 7, 2000 4:21 PM
>         To:     Berry, Mark S; Celtics@igtc.com
>         Subject:        Re: oh no
>
>         "Berry, Mark S" wrote:
>
>         > Sounding like the Lakers-Clips deal is close to happening. Let's
> see, that
>         > lineup looks something like this: Harper, D. Anderson, Kobe, Mo
> Taylor and
>         > Shaq.
>         >
>         > My one hope: The Lakers feel DA and Kobe play the same position
> (they do),
>         > so they deal DA to the Celts for Fortson (although with Mo Taylor,
> the
>         > likelihood of that happening probably drops). More likely: They
> deal DA to
>         > Chicago for Kukoc.
>         >
>         > I can't stand it. Good bye, cruel world.
>         >
>         > Mark
>
>         Some of the greatest NBA teams in terms of on-court talent imploded
>         beautifully through selfishness and imagined sense of entitlement.
> Think of
>         the Sixers with Doug Collins, Julius Erving, George McGinnis and
> World B.
>         Free. Think of the Laker of the late 70s with the heavyweight talent
> that
>         surrounded Kareem before Magic arrived. Or think of the Lakers with
> Wilt,
>         West, Baylor cockily leading the league in every possible individual
> statistic
>         imaginable.
>
>         You could even put the late 70s Boston Celtics in that category,
> with their
>         coup to acquire two selfish All Stars in Sidney Wicks and Curtis
> Rowe to make
>         up for the loss of Paul Silas. How could a team that also had Bob
> McAdoo, Tiny
>         Archibald, Dave Cowens and the sensational rookie Cedric Maxwell
> have the
>         worst season in Celts history prior to the ML Carr era?
>
>         Should Celtics fans worry about Derek Anderson as the starting point
> guard of
>         the Lakers? Puh-lease!! The guy is in the contract year of his next
> 7-year
>         extension and regards himself as a what-me-worry scorer in the Kobe
> Bryant
>         mold.
>
>         You want Maurice "Liz" Taylor as your starting power forward? This
> guy is
>         rugged enough to finally deliver 6.6 rebounds in over 36 minutes per
> game this
>         season, raising his girlie-man average to a sweet 5.1 for his
> career.
>
>         Hey, now that sounds like exactly the type of "power fairy" the
> Boston Celtics
>         really need right now to upgrade Fortson (if the they want to
> emulate the La
>         La Land Flakers in terms of overall fairy-ishness).
>
>         Jerry West is the type of soul who was born to tinker with what
> works. So he
>         just might commit the Lakers' future on a couple of free-agent-to-be
> fruits
>         who believe that slick scoring numbers are a perfect substitute for
> not doing
>         the dirty work that even a "me first" and "out of shape" jerk like
> Antoine
>         Walker assumes to be an obvious part of his job description (he's in
> his
>         fourth season leading our Celts in rebounding if you're  keeping
> track).
>
>         You'd think Jerry West would have learned his lesson from all the
> consecutive
>         cans of whup-ass the Boston Celtics organization has given him. It
> sounds like
>         he's bending over for a few more.
>
>         ****
>