The three rookies

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

This is an earlier Mike Fine story in the Patriot Ledger about the rookies 
Joe, Joe and Kedrick.

October 11th
...the veterans do know this: with three rookies to torture, boy, they're 
going to have some fun.

"For you to come by yourself as a rookie is hard," said Joe Johnson, the 
most highly-touted of the Johnson-Kedrick Brown-Joseph Forte trio. "This 
hasn't been easy, but having them makes it not so difficult."

"The veterans call on you for errands," said Johnson, the team's top draft 
pick from Arkansas, "but at least there are two others (rookies). It's 
always getting (the veterans) something to eat, some coffee, a newspaper. 
Tony (Battie) has been on me mainly, but you do it. One day I'll be in 
their situation, and I'll do the same thing."

"I'm not a coffee drinker," said Battie, who admitted to other forms of 
harrassment, but other than the usual matters of bag-carrying and 
pre-heating the shower for the veterans, he's big on the little things. 
"Sometimes if the ball rack is right there, I say 'Get the ball.'"

Of course, the kids comply. Veteran Paul Pierce made mention of weighting 
down the luggage.

"Hopefully he won't do anything like that," said Forte, the most outgoing 
of the three, and perhaps the one who'll suffer the least, simply because 
he's attached himself more to Pierce and Antoine Walker. Still, it didn't 
keep him from having to fill an order at the local Wendy's when the team 
scrimmaged in Lowell Sunday.

"Kedrick and Joe hang out," Forte said. "They're both real quiet. I mess 
with Paul and Antoine. They're both real live. That's why they click. I 
just like having fun like Paul and Antoine."

Live enough to get the 20-year-old Forte into the Foxwoods casino until 2 
a.m. earlier this week. The underaged kid won about $200 at the craps 
table. "They let me in. I had a hat on," he said.

One reason Forte is here is because Red Auerbach liked him. "I'm very 
flattered," he said. "That means there's also a lot of pressure. You want 
to play well for Mr. Auerbach. He's a big part of me being here."

Johnson, meanwhile, has often been compared to Pierce, partly owing to his 
size and varied offensive game. "That's a compliment," he said, "but I 
wouldn't say our games are very much alike."

Brown has come along the slowest, but the key is that he's coming. "It was 
like a light bulb went on in his head in Connecticut," O'Brien said. "He 
had three good practices, and he was getting more comfortable with the 
offensive and defensive schemes."

Chances are slim they'll be playing together often, which might seem 
strange since they've been together since the summer, when they arrived 
early for some pre-schooling.

"Playing time is up to the rookies," O'Brien said. "They have to prove in 
practice and game situations that they're capable of getting quality 
minutes in the NBA. I'm playing the best players.

"I'd say Joe Johnson and Joseph Forte have a tremendous amount of 
confidence. Kedrick is quiet. It's difficult to determine if that's quiet 
confidence or if he has to get used to what he's doing. This is a bigger 
jump than for Joe and Joe."

Now it's up to their teammates as well as their coaches to help them 
integrate into the pro game and open up their personalities.

"We're trying," Pierce said. "They're getting comfortable with their 
teammates and the NBA. You can see them getting better each day."

Mike Fine may be reached at mikefine@ledger.com.