Re: [Celtic_Pride] By Peter Stringer NESN.com staff

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

kevin from singapore wrote:

> By Peter Stringer
> NESN.com staff
> April 12, 2001
>
> Walker, who still remembers visiting Pierce in the hospital,
> has nothing but praise for his friend.  While some would
> expect Walker to be jealous, he's beaming with pride.  And
> he knows what's at stake as Pierce enters his contract year
> with the Celtics.
> "We've got to take care of our leading scorer.  He's the
> best two guard in the Eastern Conference, and that's not
> because he's my teammate, it's because it's the truth," said
> Walker of Pierce.
> Pierce has also been the Celtics' best player for the last
> two months. And Walker knows it.  O'Brien has said that
> Walker comes to him during timeouts and asks to get the ball
> to Pierce.  And he makes it happen on the court, even when
> the defense knows its coming. Walker wants more than
> anything to be a winner, and he now knows that he doesn't
> have to do it himself.  And he doesn't want to do it
> himself.  He wants it to happen with Pierce and O'Brien.
> "The organization has got to try to persuade [Pierce] to
> stay here. Obviously, he has to make a decision on his own.
> It's going to be a lengthy contract and he has to be sure he
> wants to stay in Boston. And that follows hiring Coach
> O'Brien because he's like myself.  We want to play for Coach
> O'Brien."

Thanks for posting this article, Kevin. The Walker quote above doesn't
resemble at all the unnamed source that Peter Vecsey quoted. In light of his
spectacularly low success rate predicting trades, Vecsey in my mind is the
Machiavelli of sportswriting who's real kick seems to be to artificially
create discord on teams. I bet a lot of his readers, especially those outside
Boston, automatically assumed his unnamed source must have been Antoine
rather than NY homeboy Kenny Anderson or someone else with too much time on
their hands, as if Toine would go out of his way to even talk to this guy
about the Pierce situation or any other topic. It would be the first time in
his career that he commented critically on a teammate or coach during the
season.

I hope we can add genuine two-way talent to the 8-man rotation next year, but
as far as the two captains I know you could do a lot worse in terms of
character and ability. Antoine and Pierce both have a cocky jet fighter pilot
mentality, but right now its sort of like having a Chuck Yeager and John
Glenn flying their asses off for the Polish air force against the Luftwaffe.
What the team accomplished under O'Brien, especially on the road, is
remarkable.  Even if they fail to add a single new player this summer, I
would predict 41 wins right off the bat. Who knows, a good draft could add 4
to 8 wins to that total. That's how I feel right now. It's tough knowing the
season ends in just a few days. There were a lot of highlights and positive
signs this year. The 2001 team gave their money's worth under O'Brien. All
that's left is to root against LA in the playoffs, but the Flakers seem to be
peaking at the right time.

Joe

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