Re: FW: [Celtics' Stuff Bret and Bart Maverick

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

At 19:30 29/10/01 -0500, JB wrote:
>an excited Antoine, arms flailing, reminded me of that climactic scene 
>with a disheveled, drunk, "Fast Eddie;" slouched over the table, totally 
>spent, after losing  his big early lead, while a clean and
>composed;  "Fats" counted his winnings.  "You're a loser Eddie, you'll 
>always be a loser!" was Fats' parting shot.
>The next impression, was how good for the game and these young men was it, 
>that their idol was taking them through these scenes, where $500,000 to 
>$800,000 could be won or lost in a single night.  How long will it be 
>before one of the young men, loses his money and his soul, over a 
>blackjack table and starts shaving points?

Shaving points. I realize these are just your gut impressions (and 
entertaining too), but cheating in games is a big stretch and a pretty 
unfair characterization based on the evidence.  I don't think he's a 
dishevelved drunk, loser or a potential cheat (I'm not saying you do 
either).  He wasn't reported to be drinking (and he claims he doesn't). He 
wasn't acting agitated at losing money.

Are we not making a big deal about Antoine whooping it up having fun 
hanging out all night with a national icon from his hometown as though they 
were best friends? How many of us would have acted any differently at that 
age given the chance to hang out all night with someone we regard as the 
god of our favorite profession or hobby? Would you hang out all night at 
the casino with Ernest Hemingway or Frank Sinatra?

This is a more plausible scenario than the worst case Antoine is a 
drunk-loser-on-the-slippery-slope-to-a-gambling-addiction scenario. Walker 
provokes even my own worst nightmares sometimes through his excitability, 
but Boston's had some loose canon athletes and he's been a choirboy by 
comparison.

He's not shaving points (yet!!), but, just in case, put me down for the 
Celtics by +7 points tonight. ;-)

Joe