Re: See, it's OK to be critical...

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@BATTELLE.ORG>]

Paul, I shouldn't have brought up the Antoine/knife/Pitino reference. I'm
sorry I did. I have my beliefs about how that all happened, but it's ancient
history. What matters is now. You're right, the record is great. But didn't
the Lakers have a great record last year, and Phil Jackson still criticized
Kobe-a great player-because he believed Kobe could be better. And Jackson
was right. Iverson's a great player, but Larry Brown believes he can be
better. Antoine's close to being great, but he certainly has room to get
better, don't you think? And it's not a matter of lifting weights or
practicing free throws or anything like that. Antoine's improvement is
simple judgment on the floor.  When Antoine decides to attack the basket
either off the drive or from the post, he can be devastating. It creates
passing lanes (his two highest assist games are the Washington and Cleveland
games-also his two lowest 3-point games). It forces the defense to collapse
and creates open shots for shooters or cutters. 

Antoine's not perfect. That's not a crime. But if it's OK to criticize Kobe
or Iverson or Jordan or other stars, why can't we criticize Antoine? He can
get better (don't you believe there's room for improvement when you're
shooting 38 percent? And that 3-point percentage that seemed so gaudy early
is down around 35 percent now, not so gaudy at all). It's up to him. Maybe
everything Antoine does on the floor is dictated entirely by Jim O'Brien,
but I doubt it. What I do believe is O'Brien is smart enough to know he
won't win a tug of war with Antoine (or Pierce for that matter). "He lets me
play the way I want to play," as Antoine himself said. Maybe you have to
give Antoine carte blanche to shoot 23 times a game and 10 times a game from
3-point range in order to get the rebounding, passing and defense from him.
If that's the case, it's too bad. And if that's the case, then O'Brien is
doing all he can do. Maybe in that sense, you're right.

Mark


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Paul M. wrote:

And maybe O'Brien actually believes that Antoine is helping his team
improve! You think their record might indicate that? You say that if Iverson
could shoot less then it couldn't hurt Antoine... But while Antoine is
shooting so much the team is 15-8. Is that hurting the team? Maybe O'Brien
believes that Antoine is shooting, passing rebounding, doing everything he
can and should to help the team win. Even the Peter "The Prince of Darkness"
May said that Antoine is finally making his teammates better this year. And
their record might actually prove that. Again you might think that he needs
to shoot less. But my concern was Mark's comment about O'Brien's fear of
Antoine's knife in the back. Maybe his lack of criticism has nothing to do
with his fear of Antoine. Maybe he just thinks Antoine is doing everything
this year to help his team win. Their record proves nothing?