Misc quotes from Obie

["j.hironaka" <j.hironaka@unesco.org>]

Obie-won has good news for us on Kedrick Brown's progress, continued high 
praise for Joe Johnson, reports Vitaly and Eric Williams will start 
initially against Charlotte, and says that he can't help coaching to win 
even if its the preseason. I hope someone will provide a game report to our 
list.

p.s. Paul Pierce's comments on Joe Johnson in today's Herald article are 
also very insightful. He basically confirms that JJ has great talent but 
needs to be more aggressive than Moiso's "eye of the poodle" game face. 
That article is at: http://www.bostonherald.com/sport/basketball/cs10102001.htm


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 From Obie in the Boston Herald.

``I thought Kedrick Brown and Joseph Forte have played great basketball in 
the three practices that we have had down here,'' he said. ``It's almost 
like a lightbulb went off over Kedrick's head, and he has just done some 
things that we knew he could do but didn't know how quickly he would get 
comfortable.'' .

``Joe (Johnson) knows how to play the game of basketball,'' said coach Jim 
O'Brien in what is a high compliment from someone who holds ``playing the 
game right'' among his most treasured ideals. ``He looks comfortable out 
there while he's learning.

``I think that Joe is going to be immediately a key guy in our rotations 
because he's such a good ballplayer. I have a lot of confidence that he 
plays many aspects like a veteran. I would compare him to when Paul was a 
rookie. Even though at some phases of the game he was a little 
inexperienced, I thought he was able to give us a lot as a rookie. And I 
expect the same thing from Joe Johnson.''

``Joe makes very, very good decisions with the basketball,'' O'Brien said. 
``Even some of our veterans are forcing the issue early in the season - 
like they're making passes that aren't really there and as a result they're 
turning it over. Joe doesn't do those things. He has maturity from the 
standpoint he makes the play that the defense dictates that he make.''

``I couldn't coach a game where I wasn't thinking about winning,'' O'Brien 
said. ``That would be impossible. I could say I want to get some positive 
out of a preseason game, but the reality of the situation is that as soon 
as the ball goes up, I'm going to try to win.''

``You go into these games with a lot of goals, but the simple fact is I 
want to win. I want to win within the context of being able to get people 
that I need to see on the court, not to the level that I'm going to only 
play eight guys.'

``We have to get a chance to see what every center can do, every point 
guard can do, and we have to see the rookies. But I want to win, and I will 
be disappointed if we don't. We will play all the games to win. We 
understand that our first four are against a pretty darn good caliber of 
team (Charlotte twice, Dallas and San Antonio), but so be it. We have to 
beat good basketball teams.''