Bskball.com Column

["Josh Ozersky" <jozersky1@nyc.rr.com>]

Chris Wallace Interview - Live from New York

Sitting in a darkened apartment while, a few dozen blocks to the south,
your city is under military attack is not a cure for writer's block I would
offer
to aspiring columnists. Nonetheless, it was instructive to me. Every
sportswriter on every payroll from coast to coast phoned in columns on
How It All Doesn't Matter Now, and Why I'm Not Writing About the Vikings
Today. But not your Celtics correspondent. I've paid a desperate,
disproportionate
amount of attention the team for most of my life, and never more so than
during
times of crisis. So it was not unexpected that, as smoke and asbestos-laden
fallout
drifted outside my window, I was tuned into to nba.com TV, which has seen fit
in its
mercy, to choose this week for a Celtics playoff marathon.

More attention, more reportage, more analysis of the Celtics are what is
needed in
this time of trouble; and so, after watching our half-court heroics of the
1980s for three
days straight, I began to think seriously about attending training camp.
Whether I am able
to is a matter for the NBA to decide; but I was able to speak to GM Chris
Wallace about
some pressing issues in the meantime. Actually, these were not what you would
call
"pressing issues." But they were pressing to me, particularly as I emerged
from the makeshift
bomb shelter where I had spent a week watching the rise and fall of the last
Celtics dynasty.
What follows is an imperfect transcription of that conversation, based on my
notes. (An earlier
conversation I had with Wallace will feature prominently into my season
preview.)

Celtics Soapbox: Chris, are there any interesting names on the training camp
roster this year?
Anybody you are inviting in to take a look at?

Chris Wallace: Our plan, Josh, was to go to training camp just with the guys
we have. There's
fourteen men there, and while we may bring somebody, that's the way we're
thinking about it right now.

CS: So then presumably the team has no interest in some of these guys we are
hearing about
being available right now - names like Omar Cook, Ousmane Cisse, DeShawn
Stevenson?

CW: Well, first of all, I can't comment on those players, who are with other
teams. But I will say that if we
did bring somebody in, say through a trade, it would have to be an impact
player.

CS: A veteran?

CW: I'm saying, that we probably would not be looking at this point at another
developmental player.
We're not a team historically that believes in cutting guaranteed contracts.
And we're not going to fill
our last roster spot just for the sake of filling it. We believe that leaving
that spot open does three things
for you. It gives you some flexibility in the free-agent market; it eases some
roster and playing-time decisions;
and it lets you play the
minor-league market should anything come up there.

CS: Well, what if somebody really good became available? I see where Anthony
Mason still doesn't have a job.

CW: What you have to understand, Josh, is that you can't look at these
decisions entirely through
the prism of this season. We are looking to the future as well, and we are in
a dicey situation regarding
the luxury tax. Any top-tier free agent is going to be looking for a
multi-year deal, at a significant cost.
And generally, you don't see top free agents coming in for one-year deals.

CS: Unless it's to a championship contender.

CW: Right.

CS: Chris, here's another issue that's been on our minds a lot. There seems to
be a lot of concern, which
you have said is not altogether unfounded, that if Mark Blount plays well at
all this year, that he may price
himself out of our reach. Given that he's big and fast and blocks shots, and
the way he's developing,
couldn't we extend his contract now? Why wait?

CW: Mark's contract is too short to be extended. We would like to launch a
"preemptive strike," and get him
signed, but the way we look at is this. If Mark has a tremendous amount of
value going in to next season, that's
good! That means he played well for us. That's positive (laughs). We want that
to happen. And he will be a
restricted free agent. So while there is some concern, we do know that we have
that option in our back pocket.
[at this point, I wasted a minute or so of Chris' time having this explained
to me. What I should have done,
and what you should do, is to read Larry Coon's FAQ on the subject. But
anyway.]

CS: Now Chris, one thing I wanted to ask you about.

CW: Josh, if we could just go back for a second. I want to say a little more
about Mark. I don't think that
people really have appreciated what Mark has been able to do here. Mark got an
opportunity, and he has
really made the most of it - something you don't always see happen. Last year
was the first time in six years
that Mark has been in one place for a whole year. He has been very devoted to
weight training here during the
summer, and has been working extensively on skills with the coaching staff.
..I think we're already beginning
 to see a serious improvement, based on what Mark showed us at the summer
league. [Word! Anyone who
saw the Shaw league games on ESPN2 can testify to this fact. Celtics chief
scout Leo Papile joking called
Blount "the Shaq of the Shaw league," and he really was a dominant rebounder
at times.] We really believe
Mark is going to help the team this year.

CS: Yeah, Chris, you guys did a great job in acquiring him. It seems that in
recent years, a lot of the character
of these teams has derived from guys who came into the league the hard way -
playing in Europe or minor
leagues, as opposed to getting everything handed to them in the lottery. Guys
like Bruce Bowen.uh...

CW: Adrian Griffin is another. Milt Palacio, to an extent, is like that,
although Milt played for another NBA team before us. But really, few of these
guys were in as desperate straits as Mark was. But they definitely bring
something to our team.

I had other questions for Wallace, such as whether the Celtics were interested
in having a power forward
who played down low when Antoine was manning another position, or whether the
idea was to have the other
forward hang around outside as a spot-up shooter. I meant to ask if the whole
team would be obliged to tape
up their ankles before every game. I mean to see if there was any chance that
a "pure" point guard of Pepe
Sanchez' caliber, or for that matter Sanchez himself, could be squirreled away
against the sure eventuality of
Randy Brown and/or Kenny Anderson sitting benchside in the heighth of junior
men's sportswear. However,
I didn't want to tax Wallace's generosity in speaking to me, and so thanked
him sincerely for his time.

I returned home to write up the interview, and found, to my horror, that
nba.com was showing our 1990 playoff
collapse against the knicks --the game when the wheels officially came off the
Celtic juggernaut, not to be
repaired for ten years. But speaking with Wallace gave me something akin to
hope again, and in this neighborhood,
during this week, boy did I need it.