Re: work ethic and offseason

[Hironaka <j.hironaka@unesco.org>]

I'm stating the obvious, but there really is no evidence that McCarty or
anyone else in basketball doesn't fit a two-hour daily workout into their
offseason schedule. We are inferring things big time, based on reading about
Waltah's passion for his music hobby. In the end that guy always looks fit
to me and his greatest strength is his spectacular stamina.

Antoine also got all defensive and petulant on WEEI because at least from
his own perspective the facts demonstrate he was following a prescribed
conditioning/skills workout (as reported in both the past several
offseasons) and playing good ball this summer, all the while hearing second
hand that Pitino was holding him up as an example to young players of an
aimless slug who happens to only have natural talent, while also openly
trying to unload him in rumors for players that Toine eats alive for
breakfast. Sure we know by now that Antoine is extremely touchy and
defensive to a fault, but it is often the media that drives the wedge
between coach and player. Everything tends to work out the minute Pitino and
Walker talk directly, and this is why the WEEI story was total non-news and
blown out of proportion.

Walker got a bit too self-justifying  ("no really, I'm in good enough
shape") and stupidly defiant ("if coach is actively trading me and all the
while telling young people not to be like me, why do I bother anonymously
following this regimen?"), yet we fans make it out like he delivered an
ultimatum to ignore the coaching staff and to never again work out in the
summer. Gimmeabreak. Pitino and Walker are like father and son partners in
the same small business during an economic slump. They'll hate each other,
they'll communicate, they'll move on.

As I've said before, the Celtics best record in both the last two years
"ironically" has come in the opening months of the season. Go to NBA.COM and
you'll see we had huge wins against top league opponents in both opening
months. It's all downhill from there, even as the players supposedly work
themselves into shape. Obviously I have a theory for all this which has
nothing to do with Walker's subpar conditioning, or Kenny's subpar
conditioning.

If Pitino were the coach of the 80s Celtics, we'd complain about how fat
Bird looked and how sure we were that this prevented him from jumping
explosively to the hoop, how irresponsibly lazy McHale was about off-season
conditioning, how Walton was as bad a fit as Pervis is now, and so on. Hey
we'd have to blame somebody. Those players would eventually need to find a
way to win consistently at a high level despite the gaping defensive
failings of the system, just as our young players ought to try to do.

Joe

-------

Kestutis.Kveraga@dartmouth.edu wrote:

> --- You wrote:
> When most everyone in the world is on vacation, they do whatever they
> can to
> take their minds off of their job.  Athletes are not supposed to do
> that.
> 365 days of the year, 24 hours a day, they are supposed to be the best
> employee they can be.  And during the offseason, they should continue to
>
> work like Karl Malone does.  Isn't that just a little bit of a double
> standard?
> --- end of quote ---
>
> You're missing my point. I'm not saying that they should work out all
> day, every day. In fact, it would be counterproductive because of
> overtraining. Rest and hobbies are obviously healthy and necessary, even
> if you work at your job only 7-8 months per year. What baffles me about
> players like McCarty is that they have apparently forgotten what their
> "day job" is. Dabbling in other pursuits in the offseason is fine;
> immersing yourself in them to the point where you're neglecting your
> profession (one in which strength and conditioning are of paramount
> importance) is not. I could understand dismissing such criticism when
> you're dominating your competition (e.g., Shaq's or Jordan's situation),
> but McCarty is not exactly in that category.
>
> Some players (e.g., Bird, Malone, Russell, and many others), have(had)
> this quaint notion of earning their paycheck and trying to be the best
> they can be in their profession. Of course, it's McCarty's decision
> whether he wants to have a career in the NBA and get another contract by
> taking his job seriously, or whether he wants to use the $8M gift from
> his teacher as seed money to enter the music business and forget
> basketball. The point is, despite considerable physical gifts (length,
> speed, agility), he's an irrelevant player right now, and is definitely
> not earning, or even trying to earn, his paycheck. Even Tony "now you
> see me, now you don't" Battie was reportedly working out hard last
> summer, and while Antoine eschews strength and conditioning work, he
> apparently does try hone his skills on the court (maybe not in the way
> we'd like, but it is basketball).
>
> Kestas