Must me call each other names when the real a-hole moved to Louisville.

["pmaurice" <damekmo@teleport.com>]

Far be it from me to ruin this beautifully aggressive thread we have going
here today. Just another weekend morning for me after a Celtics' win and the
venom is flying. The team is 4-2 and I'm just as pissed off as Noah. There's
just no getting out of this box.

I wonder that it feels like to hear your coach and gm say over and over again
that they don't have any real confidence in your game. It seems to me that
when O'Brien and Wallace talk about getting Antoine and Pierce some help, when
O'Brien admits those two are getting 30+ shots, they're saying that Battie VP
and everyone not named Paul and Antoine can do some things, but they're never
going to bring anything close to a consistent NBA -level offensive presence
every night. That must hurt, unless of course you accept your role, know your
limitations, are encouraged to do what you can do best, and have faith in the
judgement of your coach and gm. Unless of course you're all on the same page.
Welcome to the current Boston Celtics.

There was a quote from Nate MacMillan in one of the papers about the Sonics
needing more than two players to play well if they're going to win. I've heard
this theory about "winning basketball" somewhere before, but I forget where. A
couple of thoughts and believe me, none of them earth shattering insights.
Josh, it doesn't just make me uncomfortable watching this team taking threes
in the fourth quarter of close games. It's actually pretty frightening. But
I've heard this, "stick to the game plan," quote from Pierce too many times in
the first 6 games to think it's going to change. And you know what, this team
is 28-26 since O'Brien took over so something must be working. And I'll be the
first to admit that I have very little confidence they'll beat the Pacers on
Wednesday, but they've proven me wrong over and over again since O'Brien took
over. If ever a mailing list deserved "cranky"- and that's being kind - posts
it's this one. I mean, let's be honest, this team has sucked for so long can
you really blame Way for being "that Way." (Oh God, I amuse myself so much.)
But here's what we seem to have going. Some people on this list, Dorine and
Mishra to name just two of the more consistent ones, were on Pitino's case
because they realized he had his head up his ass every minute of the day for
three and a half years. So those of us who were patient should just give it up
and accept that we were wrong and they were right. Like Chris Wallace at the
feet of Antoine Walker, I'm genuflecting to everybody who had it right all
along. If Ricky ever had this team playing close to .500 during his tenure we
certainly would've given him a hell of a lot more than the benefit of the
doubt whenever he opened his mouth, made a trade, or called a play. The guy
failed at everything over and over again and some of us still were going with
him, marching off together straight into basketball hell. It's the owner's
fault, it's the players' fault, it's the weather. You know what, it was Ricky,
end of story. How much more proof do we need? So here's how I'm playing it
this season. Whenever Chris Wallace and O'Brien say things, I'm going to
assume they know what they're talking about. Things like "Antoine is a team
player," and "Antoine doesn't care about scoring. He'd like to get a triple
double every night," and "We just need to get more help for those two guys."
Totally insane stuff like that - I'm going to give them the benefit of the
doubt. We gave the real team cancer, the proven team a-hole the benefit of the
doubt when he said he knew how to construct and coach an NBA team. For some of
us, and I'm including myself here, we were upset and pissed off every time he
screwed up but "The guy's been a winner everywhere he's gone. He must know
what he's doing. Just give him more time." Wrong answer. The guy was a screw
up and screwed up the franchise. O'Brien and Wallace are totally insane,
cowardly, lying, kiss-asses who don't know a damn thing about constructing a
team or creating an NBA game plan. OK, fine. I just hope those morons keep it
up. This team needed a lot of help on the court when Pitino bailed and the
acquisition of Joe Johnson, Erick Strickland and - yes Alex - a healthy Kenny
Anderson starts to "successfully" address those needs. I don't know, they seem
to be building this team from the outside-in, yes? Didn't "The Genius" say
something about "lemons and lemonade?" Since Pitino's departure it's like
Julia Child has replaced me in the kitchen. Unlike the genius that was the
Pitino-plan, O'Brien and Wallace are actually "successfully" addressing the
team's needs. Not all the team's needs at once, and not the one I would've
addressed first, but certainly one of the many needs and here's the best part,
they're doing it, so far, "successfully!" They brought in a couple guys who
can move the ball, score, and play a little defense. What a concept! Way was
right, I love Erick Strickland. Are Wallace and OB perfect? Probably not, but
given what we just went through they aren't doing a bad job of resembling
something approaching perfection.  I spent the summer , like a lot of you,
screaming at my kids, drinking to excess,  and hoping that the Celtics would
pick up a big man so they wouldn't have to keep taking threes at the end of
games. But so far, this team is better defensively, and at the end of games
I'm going to squirm, I can imagine Josh is going to kick the crap out of his
dog, and it seems like the 3-pt. strategy has a good chance of working. And
given their track record OB and Wallace will probably surprise us all one day
and pick up a center and then have something resembling a balanced and maybe a
really dangerous/dominating(?) NBA team. I don't know, so far it seems as if
O'Brien and Wallace kind of know what they're doing.

But what I really wanted to say to the list this morning is, "Hey Mishra and
Mark, you S.O.B's....nice game last night, huh?"

Paul M.