Re: Digital City Boston link from Josh Ozersky

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

I read this, Josh, and although I like BSG, I don't agree with a lot of what
he says here, or has said recently about the Celtics.

First there's this: 
"For instance, in the first 34 games, Pierce played selfishly, pouted on the
court, looked listless on the defensive end and seemed like a shadow of his
former self... and then Pitino jumped ship. So what happened? Pierce
immediately -- and I mean, IMMEDIATELY -- started playing hard on both ends
and submitted the finest two-week stretch of his career: 26.0 points, seven
rebounds and three steals per game (not to mention some clutch shooting down
the stretch against some tough opponents). The fist-pumping, the fire, the
relentless urge to make something happen... it's all back for the Peep." 

"Pierce played selfishly, pouted on the court, looked listless on the
defensive end and seemed like a shadow of his former self... "  And BSG acts
like Pierce isn't accountable for this at all. It was all Pitino. Pitino was
forcing him to play this way. Come on, he's right about the way Pierce was
playing, but Paul Pierce wasn't coached to play like that. He made that
decision himself.

Then there's his comparison of the "elite" forwards. He has a pretty good
list, but conveniently ignores the fact that everyone on the list but Toine
and Mashburn shoot at least .467 from the field. Toine checks in at .414.
Can we ignore how awful that is? In fact, look closely at those
Mashburn-Walker stats. How different are these guys? At least Mashburn plays
small forward and shooting guard, where Walker supposedly plays power
forward. Remember that Walker-for-Mashburn and P.J. Brown trade we all
screamed against? Sounds pretty good right about now.

It's hard to defend Walker's .414 shooting percentage. You can talk about
supporting cast, but Abdur-Rahim is on a worse team and shoots .487. You can
say he's undersized, but Antawn Jamison shoots .471 (in just his third
season). His assists look good, but not as good when you then see that he
leads all those forwards in turnovers. He's also better than only Duncan and
Jamison from the free throw line. He's comparable to most of the power
forwards on the list in rebounding. We won't even talk about defense, or the
fact that the Celtics are worse than any of these teams save Vancouver or
(maybe) Golden St. In short, Antoine Walker doesn't deserve to be on that
list. It's no disgrace, by the way, just the truth. Neither does Jamal
Mashburn. 

BSG also talks about this recent stretch of decent play and says it was done
"even" without Kenny Anderson, but then he later points out that the Celtics
actually have a slightly better record without Kenny than with him.
Subtracting Kenny from the equation is a wash at worst and maybe even a net
positive because of the effect he has on the team. We all have seen that.

BSG has ripped Pitino for everything that is wrong with the Celtics, and in
the sense that Pitino is the guy who built the team, that's fine. But the
story surfaces about Toine pouting against Golden State and, rather than
question Toine, he immediately blasted Pitino for leaking the story to the
press to make him look good. No proof of that at all, and never mind the
fact that Pitino was far more patient with Toine than most any other coach
would have been (it was Pitino's undoing).

Forget about stats and throw out the quote from the unnamed Celtic about
quitting on Pitino to get rid of him. Anyone who watched this team from that
Philly game early in the season right up until the point Pitino walked away
could see that this team quit. Is that really easy for all of you to forgive
and forget? I just don't understand. These are still the Boston Celtics,
aren't they?

I'm not saying this mess isn't Pitino's fault. Ultimately, it's his fault,
and he made some terrible decisions. But I'm not willing to give the players
the full pardon most of you seem willing to give. They disgraced the
tradition of the Boston Celtics with the way they behaved this season. I can
forgive losing, but not quitting. That's what they did, and it's
inexcusable. "Sure, they quit, but they didn't like Pitino..." doesn't work
for me.

Mark