Re: the problem that is Antoine

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

Paul, I understand where you're coming from. But there comes a point where
Antoine has to be held accountable for his play, regardless of his
teammates. The closest correlation I can come up with is New Jersey. Stephon
Marbury for years was the best player on that team. No question. He was so
good he decided he was better off doing it all himself. Van Horn sucked, and
they had no one else. So he put up a lot of shots, scored a lot of points
and the team was terrible. Eventually they decided that attitude wasn't
working, so they traded him for Jason Kidd. Very few changes to the team
other than that. Kidd for Marbury. Kidd comes in, shoots less, misses more
shots... and the team is drastically better. Same teammates, but they aren't
playing like it. Marbury, with a better team around him, may have a good
career in Phoenix. But I'll guarantee that New Jersey considers that trade a
turning point for the franchise, and will never regret making the deal. No
one is saying Marbury isn't a good player. But it wasn't working in Jersey
and wasn't going to work.

I think the Celtics are at that point. I'm not saying Antoine is a bad
player (although he's playing terrible basketball right now). And please
don't lump me in with those who call him a punk. That's not me. I'm just
saying it isn't working and it isn't going to work.

Mark


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OK...now that the meds have taken affect, it's time to summarize. I'd feel a
whole lot better about trading Antoine because thay can't 'build" around him
if that's what they did. And no, I'm not asking for the perfect
acquisitions.
But the last three years of building wasn't even mediocre by NBA standards.
Pitino got nothing as good as Joe Johnson and Erick Strickland. Never! Not
even close, and he had how many tries to get it right. His idea of a third
scorer was Bryant Stith. We were thrilled with Bryant Stith because he was
the
best of a miserable lot. And my point about the Danny Fortson acquisition is
that while he has NBA talent he looked lost on defense and I don't see how
that doesn't go right back to Pitino. Do you realize that this list
considered
Tony Battie a big upgrade over Travis Knight and the really pathetic thing
is
that, he is. So what? He still sucks. Pitino was a miserable coach and a
miserable gm. He didn't know how he wanted to play. One year it was run and
gun, the next it was halfcourt grind it out. I don't know how else you
justify
Fortson and VP. I'd feel a lot better about trading Antoine if the last 3
1/2
years weren't spent in the wasteland of Pitinoworld. I read the "Antoine has
them held hostage" line repeated any number of different ways and I just
want
to stick a spike in my eye and I haven't felt that way since Kenny was in
Portland and refused to pass the ball night after night after night. Damon
Stoudamire is an upgrade and isn't that pathetic. What all this "hostage"
stuff comes down to is that he's such a selfish, miserable, evil human being
that he forces people to act against their better judgement. It's
essentially
another version of the "punk" theory. I'm supposed to believe that someone
like Rick Pitino let Antoine determine whether he succeeded or not? You have
to be kidding. Kenny, Travis Knight, Battie, VP and all the rest had nothing
to do with it? We heard how many rumors about Antoine being traded and Way
was
excited about every one of them. Could've happened Way but, sorry,  I don't
think it's unreasonable to assume that Ricky didn't think any of the offers
were worth it. The only person against trading Antoine in Boston would've
been
Michael Holley and everybody hated him. Pitino could've run for mayor and
won.
It would've been Ricky Pitino Day everyday for a month. Nobody forced Pitino
to play Antoine 40+ mins. a night, night after night. Nobody forced Pitino
to
keep him on the roster. If he's such a cancer trade him for a bunch of
garbage.If you can trade Juwan(sp?) Howard, you can trade Antoine Walker.
Antoine doesn't get anybody fired, he doesn't force Paul Pierce to take 30
shots, he doesn't force his coach to tell a reporter that when Antoine takes
20+ shots he thinks that "other guys got shots," he doesn't force his coach
to
tell a reporter that Antoine and Paul are going to get 30+ shots, he doesn't
force himself on the floor playing 47mins. when he shoots 10 for 30. If you
think Antoine is hurting the team, sit him down. We now have coach #2 who
continues to play Antoine big mins. when everyone says he continues to hurt
the team. Why? I like to think that maybe what we have here is a player who
plays the point forward because Ricky's point guard sucks and nobody else on
the team is a better passer. He takes a lot of threes because both his old
coach and especially his new one - "I want four three point shooters on the
floor" - wants a lot of threes taken. Who's the team's best three point
shooter? The team's best inside scorer? The team's best rebounder? Have they
acquired a better rebounder, passer, inside scorer. My argument is that what
they have acquired to help out the young man is pathetic by NBA standards
and
that has nothing to do with Antoine's character. It's all on Ricky. All of
it.
The new regime has already acquired better talent then Ricky did in
three-plus
years