Re: The Boston Celtics Mailing List Digest V7 #256

[jmc@ptc.com]

Wow, Josh is speaking a voice of reason here, amidst all this knee-jerk 
reaction ranting and raving that people have been doing lately.  

You've hit the nail on the head about what the REAL problem is.  It's 
that only Griffin and Fortson are the real "team first/full-of-heart/
mentally tough/passionate about winning/fire-in-the-belly" types on 
the C's right now, and that the others are really passionate about the 
"glory/fastcars" and only THINK they care most about winning.  I think 
the jury's still out on Pierce in this regard, but the fact that it's 
not obviously there says something.  

Still, may I remind everyone that our team is VERY YOUNG, and some 
guys develop more of a fire as they get older and have accomplished 
things personally but haven't won anything.  I think Dana Barros is 
starting to develop it.  We'll see.  It's tough to tell with so much 
from his personal life affecting his game last year.  

I agree that from what I've read it sounds like Mateen Cleaves would have 
definitely been a good Celtic in terms of having that passionate win-at-
all-costs-and-nothing-else-matters attitude.  I was hoping the C's would 
pick him up in a draft-day deal, but alas, no.  

I don't think any of us can say anything conclusive about Josip Sesar, 
since we haven't seen him, and we don't know if his excellent stats in 
the Croatian league are due to weaker competition, or him just being that 
good.  In general, shooting skill is shooting skill no matter what league 
you're in... the question is whether you have the extra patience it'll 
take in the NBA to get open before shooting and not force shots under 
pressure.  Hopefully Sesar won't follow Walker and Pierce's leads in that 
regard since those 2 force up too many shots under pressure. 

As long as Antoine is the captain, the Celtics are in trouble.  It'd 
be great to see the Celts pick up the guys you've mentioned (AC Green 
or Mark Jackson), make them the co-captains, and help get through to 
the young stars that it's their attitude that's keeping the Celtics 
down, and they can't go around thinking Pitino is the main cause of their 
woes.

Pitino's biggest fault in my mind is that he stresses teaching X's and
O's too much with the players during the games, getting them confused,
taking the fun out of the game, and keeping them from getting into a
flow.  He's got to focus players only on how to achieve and maintain a
proper "game-time" attitude from an hour before the game until the
final buzzer sounds.  Limit the teaching of X's & O's to practices.
During the games, each player should have no more than one specific
thing in mind to try to do differently, and otherwise should just focus
on maintaining a relentless intensity and energy and awareness and
concentration throughout the game.

Because the Celtics' young players don't do that on their own, and 
because Pitino doesn't teach it, the Celtics play is controlled too 
much by whatever emotional state they happen to bring to the game, so 
they are prone to long losing streaks and winning streaks. 

Jon Mc

> Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2000 10:03:39 -0400
> From: OzerskyJA <OzerskyJA@cmog.org>
> Subject: thoughts (was put green in green)
> 
> That is just about the simplest, best analysis of the team
> that I've heard yet.  I can't believe how vile some of the
> crap I read on the usenet list is -- people railing, cursing,
> ranting, and worse.  Bob McChesney, who is a full professor
> and one of the most important media critics in the country,
> says that Pitino "sucks worm dick."  It's really amazing.  Of
> course, the organization deserves infinite abuse for even
> thinking of the John Y. Brown trade of three first round picks
> for Jermaine O'Neal -- proof right there that Red is no longer
> even in the loop.  But the team has its pluses; and can no doubt
> improve over last year's terrible performance.  The one thing
> that does bum me out is that Pitino really doesn't understand
> Celtic tradition.  I mean, he wants his guys to think pass first,
> to have team ego, etc.  But he doesn't understand that the whole
> tradition was built on drafting what Auerbach called "our type
> of guys."  Guys who wanted the ball, who took it, who had
> what Tommy H. calls "fire in the belly."  Quentin Richardson
> or Mateen Cleaves would have been naturals as Celtics.  Danny
> Fortson in the current group is sadly the truest Celtic.  I think a
> big part of this is Kenny's fault, if you want to know the truth.
> He's the leader, and he's just not vocal, not really tough.  Mark
> Jackson is a better player all around, and I really hope we can get
> him.  I should also say here that I think it is obscene that Pitino would
> even have to think for a second about whether he could use his veterans
> exceptions.  Lastly, I want to say that I think Josip Sesar could be the
> steal of the draft; I think that if the other GMs knew as much about him
> as Wallace did, he wouldn't have lasted so long.  If he's a Dell Curry-class
> shooter, it won't matter that he plays lousy defense.
> 
> Josh Ozersky
> Marketing Communications Specialist
> Corning Museum of Glass
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Roy Enrile [SMTP:renrile@qualcomm.com]
> > Sent: Thursday, June 29, 2000 10:25 PM
> > To:   celtics@igtc.com
> > Subject:      Re: Put Green in the Green
> >
> >
> > When Pitino was asked on ESPN the other day what would it take to
> > make the C's be successful next year, and have a team first attitude,
> > he said it would be easier with veteran leaders like AC Green, Mark
> > Jackson, and some others who don't care about glory/fastcars, but are
> > passionate about winning.
> >
> > He mentioned them by name.   (1 and 2 mil exemption ?)
> >
> >
> > On the subject of Moiso,  he's just like all the Celtic starters
> > (excluding Griffin).  Has far better than average NBA offensive talent,
> > but doesn't have the heart or mental toughness to play smart lockdown
> > defense like NY,Phi,Mia players.  If the C's solve that problem, they can
> > run with anyone in the east.
> >
> >
> > On Thu, 29 Jun 2000, Amy Beauregard wrote:
> >
> > > The Lakers waived AC Green.  Let's
> > > give his agent a ring...maybe he can motivate our
> > > players to get their own