This time, Clack clicks; Probably no Wahad

["Josh Farber" <nbaj2k@home.com>]

This time, Clack clicks with C's
by Steve Bulpett
Wednesday, July 19, 2000
We know this much: Kris Clack can take an NBA punch. Last summer he was hit
with a harsh 1-2 combination. It began when he was taken in the second round
of the draft, 55th overall. Then he came to summer league with the Celtics
and was told not to bother booking a flight to training camp.
The 6-foot-5 guard had come out of Texas with a little too much on his
frame, and when he got on the court he at times looked like a Longhorn
caught on the Central Artery.
Fortunately for the Celtics and his own basketball future, Clack fought back
the proper way. He went to the San Diego Stingrays of the IBL and began
getting his mind and body right.
``I had to,'' he said before scoring a team-high 11 points in last night's
summer league 71-65 loss to Philadelphia. ``I mean, what choice did I have?
They wanted me to come back in shape with a different mindset, and that's
just what I was going to do.
``Last year, I came in thinking . . . ah, I don't know what I was thinking.
I just didn't know what to expect.''
Knowing the deal this time, Clack has been more than impressive. He is
leaner and smarter - to the point where it looks as if he definitely belongs
in the NBA. Whether he'll be in Boston will be answered the rest of this
week, in training camp and by what the Celts do in the free agent market.
``He's a lot better,'' said coach and president Rick Pitino. ``He's just a
different player than we saw last year.''
Added assistant coach Jim O'Brien, who's leading the summer squad:
``Physically, he had trimmed down from 245 to about 229 right now. Here's a
guy now that's clearly an NBA type of athlete. (Monday) night there was a
ball caught up on the parallel bar almost at the top of the box. He went up
and knocked it out with ease. So he has the physical skills to do a lot of
positive things.
``Then we watched the tape of the first game and, of course, we saw him make
the winning foul shots and the 3-pointer. But he did things defensively -
getting his hands on the ball, things that were necessary for us to win the
game.
``Kids come out of college and all they see is the hype, what's on
television, the Vince Carter commercials. But no matter how you look at it,
it's a business. . . . But some people don't understand - in Kris' case for
a year, and in some people's case never - what this is all about.
``I think the tendency is people come and think that the best way to impress
the 29 teams in the NBA is to score. But there's more ways to impress
people. They want to see the whole package, how they get over screens, how
they pay attention, how they pick up the little things.''
Clack appears to have picked up the larger things, as well - beginning with
the way he dealt with last summer.
``It was kind of a wake-up call,'' he said. ``Then playing in the IBL helped
me get in the right shape, sometimes playing back-to-back-to-back games. I
wanted to come back ready for the chance.
``But with all that went on, I don't think it was really difficult. When all
that was going on, I just thought about guys like Mario Elie who went
through all the (minor) leagues and went on to have a really good career.
I'm not the type of guy who's going to lay down just because I don't make it
one time.''
Celtics notes
While there are certainly a number of teams interested in Celtics free agent
Danny Fortson, the banger appears to be banking on decent money being out
there. According to a league source, he turned down a deal along the lines
of Tony Battie's six-year, $25.2 million pact from the Celts. . . .
Pitino may get to avoid his planned visit to free agent Tariq Abdul-Wahad,
whose agent said he might be close to re-signing with the Nuggets.