have you seen fortson play?

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@BATTELLE.ORG>]

To answer your question, yes, I've seen Danny play plenty. I attended many
games and saw him many times when he played at the University of Cincinnati
and have watched him now with the Celtics. When he was at UC, I was
convinced he was going to be another Corliss Williamson-too small to be a PF
and too slow to be a SF. I was wrong. He's not as good as Corliss
Williamson, who made the adjustment to SF reasonably well.

Fortson gets his rebounds, but he is atrocious defensively (he's not alone
there with the Celts), often out of position offensively, and he fouls far
too much because he is too small and too slow to guard the players he is
required to guard. The remark I made about Sean Marks was made in jest, but
I do believe Danny Fortson will disappear into NBA oblivion in the
not-too-distant future. 

He's had some decent stats in a pair of blowouts, when the officials no
doubt were swallowing their whistles to get the thing over with. Hopefully
those stats will improve his value just a little to increase the return in
the trade that is sure to come by Thursday. And for those of you pleading to
keep Fortson, forget it. Whether it happens now or after the season, Fortson
is gone. Whether or not we can offer him more than anyone else is
irrelevant. We won't offer more. He'll either be traded now, be traded in a
sign-and-trade after the season, or walk and accept someone's $2 million
exception. That's it.

Mark