RE: Tinsley

[OzerskyJA <OzerskyJA@cmog.org>]

Hard to believe that there has never been an asian player in the league --
harder still to believe that we would have to import one from China.
(Although given the size of the talent pool, maybe it's not that hard to
believe.)  Still, when you think of all the heady but undersized white
guards who have made it to the league all these years, I can't believe 
there hasn't been an equivalent athlete of asian descent. Especially when
you factor in
all the Nisei in california, chinese-americans, korean-americans,
philipinos, etc. There are
actually two native frenchmen in the league now, and not a single person of
asian or part-asian descent.  Weird.



Josh Ozersky	
Marketing Communications Specialist 
Corning Museum of Glass

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Hironaka [SMTP:j.hironaka@unesco.org]
> Sent:	Friday, March 16, 2001 4:08 PM
> To:	Berry, Mark S; celtics@igtc.com
> Subject:	Re: Tinsley
> 
> "Berry, Mark S" wrote:
> 
> > There are questions about Haywood. If there weren't, he'd be the
> no-brainer
> > first pick in the draft. He has that kind of physical ability. But the
> knock
> > is he's inconsistent and doesn't always give great effort. I tend to
> side
> > with the big guy in most of these cases in college, because at that
> level
> > guards still dominate the ball. Carolina has Joseph Forte and he is the
> > focus of that offense. Haywood sometimes is forgotten. Also, most teams
> play
> > a zone against Carolina because of Haywood and big Kris Lang inside, and
> > Carolina (like most college teams) attacks the zone by finding open
> > shooters. Makes sense when that 3-point line is so close. But it means
> > Haywood doesn't get many touches. Anyway, he'll be long gone before the
> > Celtics pick.
> >
> > This is shaping up as a strong group of centers, but they all come with
> > question marks. Yao Ming may be the best of the bunch, but can we be
> sure
> > since his competition is the Chinese leagues? Is he just Shawn Bradley?
> Eddy
> > Curry seems to have Shaq-like physical ability and incredible skills,
> but
> > he's a high schooler. Ditto Dasagna Diop and Tyson Chandler. Arizona's
> Loren
> > Woods would have been a top-five pick last year, but this year seemed
> soft,
> > disinterested and may have played himself out of the lottery. And he's
> > rail-thin to boot. Chris Marcus????? Who knows? I'm still hoping one of
> > these guys falls to the Celts, and it seems likely to happen.
> >
> > As for the point guards, I may be the only guy in America not completely
> > sold on Duke's Jason Williams. He's a great shooter, but he plays a
> little
> > too much like a shooting guard for my liking. Takes a lot of quick
> > three-pointers, sometimes doesn't get his teammates involved, treats
> > penetration like a last option. I think he'll be a good pro, but I don't
> > think he's a classic point guard. I don't know enough about Tinsley to
> > comment. Same with Tito Maddox (Fresno St.). Frank Williams reminds me a
> > little of Eric Barkley, the St. John's PG who fell to Portland at the
> end of
> > the first round last year--good leader, does everything well but nothing
> > exceptionally well. Omar Cook may be the best passer of the bunch, but
> he
> > can't shoot at all and seems awfully small.
> >
> > The bottom line is take the best player available. Hopefully, that
> > translates to one of the centers and a point guard, but you shouldn't
> pass
> > up a talented wing player like Jason Richardson or Gerald Wallace if
> they
> > fall in your lap.
> >
> > Mark
> 
> Great post, thanks. My impression is that all the prep centers have failed
> to
> live up to their pre-senior year hype. Curry hasn't played all that well
> in
> tournament games, and certainly hasn't dominated. Tyson Chandler has been
> even
> more of a letdown, even though he is the one more likely to declare for
> the
> draft. I think he's got a long road ahead of him, along the lines of
> Jermaine
> O'Neil's pro career, because he's skinny and clueless about low post
> moves. I'd
> love to watch Chris Marcus play to try in my amateurish way to guess at
> his
> upside...imagine not picking up a basketball until your senior year in
> high
> school! Now that Zhi Zhi Wang got the greenlight for the NBA, I think that
> Yao
> Ming might have the number one spot locked down. A healthy version of Bill
> Walton was arguably the greatest joy to watch in sports.  Yao Ming is not
> a
> Shawn Bradley in terms of body type, but a young Sabonis or Walton.  I
> have no
> idea what his character or temperament is though. Those kinds of things
> really
> do matter as far as I'm concerned as a fan (I'm thinking of
> take-no-prisoners
> overachievers like Dave Cowens and even Antoine in his own peculiar way).
> I've
> been waiting all my life for an Asian guy to make the NBA, and I figure
> why not
> Boston since we were the first team to draft and sign an African-American
> player. But that's a long shot, and I'd much rather we made the playoffs
> at this
> point.
> 
> 
> 
>