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Bulpett: Battie mystery

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Battie mystery remains: Celtics big man coming up short
by Steve Bulpett
Thursday, February 24, 2000

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Tony Battie is a 6-foot-11 marvel, and
more's the pity for the Celtics. It is painfully amazing that a player
of his size and physical dexterity could avoid numbers so well.

Battie has scored just two points in each of his last five outings and
he's taken in a total of just 13 rebounds. He can get up high in the
air, but Danny Fortson has managed to leapfrog him in the rotation.

``We're just hopeful for the future,'' said Rick Pitino, putting it
delicately. ``We're not spending too much emphasis on it right now. But
we expect him to make some strides.''

Strides have been difficult to find with Battie this season. He had one
stretch of three games when he grabbed 12, 15 and 12 rebounds, but he
has slowly faded away since.

``He did make strides over the summer, and then he's taken two steps
backwards,'' Pitino said. ``I don't know. He works on things, and when
it comes game-time, he doesn't do them. He'll work on his triple-threat
position in the post, then he won't do it. What he works  on in
practice, he doesn't do in the game. In practice, he makes the  moves.
In the summertime, he makes the moves. Then when he gets in a game, he
wants to take a fadeaway jump shot. He becomes very insecure about it in
games.

``He has a very high opinion of his skills, and I'm hoping he will rise
to that level.''

Pitino himself had a fairly high opinion of Battie when he signed him to
a six-year extension starting at $3.2 million and topping out at $5.2
million. But the return on the investment has not yet been realized.

Battie sees the problem as simply circumstantial. He talks about
minutes and breaks and things of that nature, yet he acknowledges that a
player of his physical abilities should be able to make his own  breaks.

``It's just how the ball bounces sometimes,'' Battie said. ``Sometimes
you get easy breaks. Sometimes you've got to go out  there and force the
issue and make the breaks for yourself. You want to try to implement
that into coach's game plan and the style of the team without breaking
the rhythm or doing something your teammates don't expect you to do.

 ``Some games it's not going to be there. It's not by me dragging or
anything like that. Sometimes I just won't play as much. The Seattle
game, minutes fluctuated a little bit (he played seven). Then I might
have an off game or an off night where I get into foul trouble. All
those things kind of play a part into maybe me playing a little more
tentatively.''

Outside of the Seattle tilt, Battie has played 17, 17, 18 and 14 minutes
in this latest run. In each case, he was given a shot to get some things
done.

``Of course I'm going to play limited minutes,'' he said. ``I understand
that. I'm playing backup four for 'Toine (Antoine Walker) and backup
five for `V' (Vitaly Potapenko), so I just want to go out there and do
what I can to help the team win.

``I put the team first and then my individual goals secondly. I think
everything will fall into place from there. As we grow as a team, I'll
get better as a player and we'll win more games. Everything will start
clicking.

``I work hard. Scoring, for me, that's not new for me. I was a big
scorer in college. But just in this system I'm not called on to do all
those things. This is Paul's and Antoine's team. I have to get mine the
hard way sometimes. Some games it's easier to go get it. Some games it's
a little bit harder.''

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