Re: Josh... thoughts, insights from yesterday?

["Josh O." <igtcjosh@yahoo.com>]

Just got back from Boston.  What an experience!  It
will take me a couple of days to get my column ready,
so here are some quick impressions.

I got to sit at the media table next to Jo Jo White,
and he analyzed the celtics during the entire
practice.  Jo Jo is very high on all three rookies,
and believes in the team as a whole; he really
underlined team unity.  Antoine, he feels, is doing
the right things and is on his way, although he still
has a few bad habits he needs to break.  I'm going to
transcribe the whole conversation, but it will take me
a while.  I talked to Chris Wallace for a long time,
and he said a lot of stuff, the most significant of
which for Mark was that he definitely doesn't see the
Celtics getting a franchise center at any point.  He
clearly plans on building the team without one, and
part of that concept was what he calls "talent
inventory," which would make trades possible down the
line.  (Jo Jo also weighed in on this, pointing out
that his teams won two championships without a center,
and one of them was against Kareem Abdul Jabbar.) 
Another nice thing to see was Dr. Jack Ramsay walking
around in a white shamrock sweatshirt, giving advice
the coaching staff after the game.  

Players:

Antoine:  Twon is in the same shape he was in at the
end of the season, or slightly better.  He still puts
up a lot of weak looking shit around the rim that goes
in (or doesn't).  He takes too many three pointers,
and his game is still ugly.  He does dominate the
opposition, though, and if begins to look to drop the
ball off more off penetrations, things could really
heat up.  (On the play, much commented on, in which
Kedrick blocked his shot, Jo Jo called Antoine's
attention to his mistake on the way back downcourt. 
"Twon!  Drop it down.  Drop it down."  Twon looked
back, and said "it was a foul."  But he seems to be
learning.

Paul:  Played at half speed, still dominated.  Would
you believe I actually got to briefly interview Paul
at the end of practice?  His hands are huge.  What a
laid-back guy though.  Oh yes, the game.  Well, Paul
took some three pointers, made a few layups, played
some D.  I don't know how people arrive at his scoring
33 points.  

Forte:  Looked great.  Made a beautiful lookaway pass
on the break.  Paul D'd him up on the perimeter, and
he sank a long jumper right over him which barely
stirred the net.  Gorgeous game.  I got to talk to him
as well.

Johnson.  Jo Jo was really impressed with this guy. 
You can really see the kind of talent he has, and how
he can score from nearly anywhere on the court. 
Didn't notice him much on D.

Kenny:  Seems slower than he used to be, but probably
was just dogging it.  Made a few nice passes, lofted
in a few layups, but didn't control the tempo in any
meaningful sense.  Has his jump shot back.  

Brown:  Kedrick is so fast you can hardly believe it. 
This guy is a star waiting to happen.  He burned
somebody so fast on a drive to the basket that I
turned to Jo Jo and asked who was defending him.  (I
figured it must be Chris Herren or Kenny Anderson.) 
"Didn't matter," said Jo Jo.  "No, but who was it?" 
"Didn't matter." Jo Jo replied.  "Didn't matter," he
added again, for emphasis.  It's true.  It was one of
the those moves that almost nobody can stop.  I didn't
get to talk to Kedrick but he looks like a teenager. 
Forte is only a year or two older but really seems
like a man.  They're both really good guys, though.  

There genuinely seems to be chemistry and cameraderie
among the team.  That made me feel good, much more so
than this ragged scrimmage.  Jo Jo and I were talking
about vitaly at one point, and I asked why the team
didn't take advantage of Vitaly's ability to hit the
16 footer, particularly off pick and rolls.  He said
that that was something they worked on in practice,
but that you wouldn't see it in this scrimmage, which
was more like an all-star game, with guys trying to
impress the fans.  BTW, I hate to say it, but Vitaly
looked lousy.  He was fumbling the ball all over the
place.  After the scrimmage, I saw him sitting by
himself and he looked really unhappy.  So that might
have been a bad day for him.  

anyway, I feel psyched about the team, but make no
mistake -- this is the same Antoine from last year. 
But the overall talent level is like night and day.
--- "Berry, Mark  S" <berrym@BATTELLE.ORG> wrote:
> Just wondering what you thought of the practice and
> if you were able to talk
> to Wallace. Thanks for the info.
> 
> Mark
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