McHale

[stephen beauregard <sb@maine.rr.com>]

http://www.bostonherald.com/sport/celtics/cnotes04162002.htm

McHale charts stars for his old team

Celtics Notebook/by Steve Bulpett
Tuesday, April 16, 2002

MINNEAPOLIS - The last time Kevin McHale was in the same building as the
Celtics, he opined that Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker couldn't carry
Larry Bird's athletic supporter. He wasn't offering any mea culpas
before the C's 93-90 win over the Timberwolves last night, but he wants
you to know he's quite pleased with his old club.


``Jim O'Brien's done a tremendous job,'' said McHale, No. 1 in the
Timberwolves' basketball operations, No. 32 in the FleetCenter rafters.
``I think he deserves a lot of the credit. I think Pierce and Walker
have individually really stepped up their games. They play a lot of
one-on-one and breakdown offense, and they're tremendous players at
that. They have improved a great deal.

``But I still stand by my statement. The question was asked to me, `How
do these guys compare with Celtic greats?' And I said, `Well, they
don't.' You start off with Bill Russell and you work your way down.
There is no comparison between the guys now and the guys before. But
they've made some great strides. I watch them a lot. I pull for them all
the time. I'm glad to see them do well. They're in the Eastern
Conference, where anything can happen now. The ball bounces your way a
little bit in the East, and you could be in the finals.''

McHale pointed out that Pierce and Walker still have another major step
to take.

``The whole thing is now, at this level, can you take all the things
that God blessed you with and can you turn those into making all your
teammates better, too?'' he said. ``That's the next step for those guys
- not how good you are, but how good you can you make your teammates?
Can you make (Vitaly) Potapenko a better player? Can you make (Tony)
Battie a better player? Can you make all of these guys better? That's
the next hurdle those guys have got.

``But unfortunately in the NBA now it's really how good you are. Once
you mature, then you start to understand it doesn't make any difference
how good you are; it's how good the guys you're playing with are. You're
not going to lose your talent, but you've got to be able to expand other
people's abilities, and that's how you win. That's why Larry Bird was
such a tremendous player. Everybody who stepped on the floor was a
better player for playing with Larry Bird. That's the next level and
that's the hardest thing for these guys to do because I do believe that
today's game is much more individualistic and there's much more glory
about being good yourself than being on a good team.''