RE: "Southie" on the Celtics

[kai_brunnen_g@ix.netcom.com]

Actually the Patriot Ledger is located in Quincy.
It was formerly known as the Quincy Patriot
Ledger. Mike Fine has the longest run of any Celtics beat
writer, though his coverage doesn't extend to road 
games anymore, unless they changed it once again for 
this season. If not, it's an unfortunate byproduct of the
crappy cheap ownership of the Brockton Enterprise 
purchasing the Ledger. 
Ray


> ** Original Subject: RE: "Southie" on the Celtics
> ** Original Sender: Hironaka <j.hironaka@unesco.org>
> ** Original Date: Fri, 17 Nov 2000 12:08:12 -0800

> ** Original Message follows... 

>
> I don't know if you all read Mike Fine regularly, and I thank Josh
> Ozersky for recently posting one of his relatively obscure Patriot
> Ledger (a newspaper located in the "haht of Southie") articles.
> 
>     Anyway, this guy Mike Fine probably ranks ahead of everyone locally
> -- Bulpett, BSG etc.-- in terms of digging up quotes and demonstrating a
> balance of critical insight and true diehard fandom. And he doesn't let
> his own voice intrude too much on the narrative, which is something
> everyone else does out of habit.
> 
>     Here are some news clips, first about the guy who won a starting job
> in training camp (which to me kind of confirms exactly what Paul M. has
> been saying about Boston's lack of depth or quality talent, although I
> refuse to give it full credence). Anyway, if you look at Mike Fine's
> articles you can tell after two lines that the Globe's Springer or May
> could never have come up with that angle or that scoop.
> 
> ---------
> 
>     WALTHAM – Don't tell coach Rick Pitino this, because if he knew,
> he'd probably have a heart attack, given how he feels about offseason
> conditioning.
> 
>     Boston Celtics forward Eric Williams didn't pick up a basketball
> over the summer. Nor did he run 10 feet, let alone step in a gym. "To
> tell the truth, I didn't do anything. I just ate right, that's it," said
> the five-year veteran. "I had a lot of off-the-court things going on."
> 
>     Before you get the idea that Williams was hanging around street
> corners at 4 in the morning, think again. "I've got a mortgage company.
> I've got a record label and things like that," he said. "So I put a lot
> of emphasis on that. No basketball, no running or nothing."
> 
>     Williams got together family and a small group of solid
> acquaintances and began a company that rehabilitates run-down buildings.
> The work involves identifying dilapidated and abandoned properties and
> making them habitable again. Williams said such properties make the
> neighborhood look "sour. I'm building them back up and making them look
> nice and trying to establish a nice-looking community in the
> neighborhood where I grew up."
> 
>     Williams has always been something of a neighborhood hero. "One
> thing about me, I always went home and was able to walk around the
> streets with no problem. They know me for coming back and with the
> little things I used to do before with no publicity – sponsoring summer
> leagues, sending kids over to Minnesota to play out there, donating
> jerseys back to the high schoolers – little small stuff that I don't
> want recognition for from the media. I just want a comfortable level at
> home, where I can walk the streets."
> 
>     With all this going for him in the offseason, Williams barely had
> time to pick up a ball, but he said it's nothing new. "I've pretty much
> been doing this for six years, so I pretty much know what to do at what
> time, and I pretty much stayed away from basketball," he said. "I took a
> break from it all as far as running and conditioning – just everything.
> Not a newspaper – nothing. I didn't even look at the Olympics. I pretty
> much got my mind off of basketball so I could come into it fresh when it
> was time. It's working for me so far. I came in with my weight down, and
> I just started playing ball. I worked on my jump shot, and I'm taking it
> one day at a time."
> 
>     The amazing thing is that Williams looks great and has been playing
> well. Pitino said he has a chance to start when the season opens in two
> weeks, and that he'd like to get the forward to expand his shooting
> range.
> 
>     Pitino shipped Williams out of town in the first place when he was
> hired to replace M.L. Carr, who'd drafted the former Providence College
> star. Concerned that Williams was overweight and not in shape to play
> his defensive style, Pitino sent him to Denver for two second-round
> draft choices. A year later, he appeared in only 38 games for the
> Nuggets before Pitino reacquired him along with Danny Fortson, Eric
> Washington and a future No. 1 draft pick.
> 
>     Pitino was happy, and so was Williams, who'd managed to secure a
> six-year, $26 million deal from the Nuggets. He's scheduled to make
> $3.89 million this year with a player option of $4.45 million next
> season. If he takes that option, he's due another $10.56 million for the
> next two seasons."
> 
> ----------
> 
>     And this on "Danny Boy", arguably a classic, old-school Celtic
> player who became a victim of our headless-chicken, Poultrino
> player-evaluation system that has netted us Ding Battie and Moiso, and
> forced us as fans to become apologists for their games.
> 
> "Danny Fortson debuted with 18 points and 18 rebounds.  "He's a
> presence," Cowens said. "He flat-out knows how to rebound. He's going to
> go get basketballs, and he can make shots, he can make free throws. He's
> got some skill to go along with that brute force."
> 
> Said teammate Antawn Jamison: "You hear stories about how he's a good
> rebounder, but the man really finds a way to get to the boards. He's
> relentless. I thought I had a good knack for rebounds, but this guy, he
> has a homing device on them. That's unteachable."
> 
> Still, Fortson is battling old demons: personal fouls. "I have to play a
> little smarter," said the forward, who has career averages of 15.5
> points and 11.7 rebounds when playing at least 30 minutes. "Sometimes I
> bring some of that on myself with silly fouls, touch fouls, but I've
> still got to be aggressive. I'm a young player – I feel like a rookie
> being out here and playing."
> 
> "I love his attitude about not accepting losing, about not accepting
> anything other than 100 percent," Jamison said. "I didn't know his
> passion was that high. Once you get a guy like that on the court who's
> bulling and fighting and scrapping, it kind of circulates among
> everybody else."
> 
> It's a shame the Celtics couldn't have found a way to accommodate
> Fortson, but, then, they've got Walter McCarty and Vitaly Potapenko
> instead (Together, they account for $7.3 million in cap space this
> season.).
> 
> The Celtics signed Fortson to a $38 million deal before trading him and
> Dana Barros for Robert Pack, Hot Rod Williams and a first-round draft
> pick. They did accomplish one goal: getting him out of the Eastern
> Conference and away from the Knicks. "
> 
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