Bird on the Celtics (Jackie Mac from the Globe)

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@BATTELLE.ORG>]

Some good stuff...

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JACKIE MACMULLAN
For playoffs, Bird still a Green backer

By Jackie MacMullan, 4/18/2002
The Celtics are in the playoffs for the first time in seven years, and Larry
Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parish are not walking through that door to
lead the Green to their 17th championship.
But that doesn't mean Bird, clicker in hand, won't be intently watching his
former team as it attempts to bushwhack its way through the cluttered
Eastern Conference.
Bird expected to be back in the Celtics fold before now. The plan was to
spearhead a group that included Boston businessman Steve Belkin to buy the
team. Bird was even willing to kick in a few million himself, then assume
the title of head of basketball operations, which would allow him to make
trades, sign and draft players, choose a coach.
There was only one glitch: Celtics owner Paul Gaston, whose relationship
with Bird ended acrimoniously, wasn't interested.
Was Gaston not willing to sell to anyone, or not willing to sell to Bird?
"Probably not to me," Bird admits.
Bird's group is researching other available franchises, but the price, the
location, and the players would have to be right.
Boston had two out of the three, but league sources say the current price
tag affixed to the Celtics is in the neighborhood of $360 million.
"I watch the Celtics," Bird says. "They seem like they're playing with more
confidence. Obviously, the coaching staff has made a big difference.  Dick
Harter was a great addition. He's shored up their defense.
"I don't know [Jim] O'Brien at all, but he's done a great job of turning
those guys around. They were going down last year. You could see it in the
players' faces how unhappy they were."
Like the rest of us, Bird has enjoyed the ascension of Celtics star Paul
Pierce into the NBA's elite.
"He's pretty amazing," Bird says. "He's got to be one of the top five
players in the league. I should be careful - I haven't counted all the guys
up. But the top five to 10, anyway.
"You know what I can't believe about Pierce? Every time I watch him play,
he's hitting every one of his shots. But then, when it's over, you look and
he's shooting 40 percent. I am always so surprised when that happens. Forty
percent is so bad. It's horrible.
"But as I'm watching, I don't ever remember the misses. Maybe it's because
he plays so hard."
Bird, sitting comfortably in his new digs in Naples, Fla., chuckles to
himself when he considers Pierce's shot-happy sidekick.
"Now Antoine [Walker]," he says, "with him you notice all the misses because
he takes so many bad shots."
Bird has always been one of Walker's biggest fans. He tried to acquire him
when he was coaching the Indiana Pacers, and former Celtics coach Rick
Pitino and Walker were publicly feuding.
"I love Walker's game - always have," Bird says. "But he belongs underneath
the basket. Antoine has made the All-Star team what, two times?  If he
stayed underneath he'd average at least 5 more points a game. He'd be going
to the line so much more.
"He should be one of the top eight players in the league. But he's fallen in
love with the outside shot. You watch him come down the floor, and you find
yourself yelling, 'No!' because you know he's going to take one of those
ill-advised threes.
"It's too bad because you know he's never going to get off that."
Why is Bird so sure it's too late for Walker to establish himself as a
low-post threat? 
"Because the older you get, the farther away from the basket you get," Bird
says. 
Bird has a point. As age and injuries caught up to him, he ventured down to
the block less and less. Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan also found
themselves relying more on perimeter offense as their careers wound down.
The adjustment requires extra time in the gym, refining the shot.
"I ran into Antoine last summer," Bird says. "I said to him, 'You guys must
shoot a lot of threes in practice.' He said, 'No, we never do.'
"I'm sure they must be working on them. When I was in Indiana, my guys had
to make 50 [threes] before they could go.
"Reggie Miller wouldn't leave until he made 100. Mark Jackson took about
200. Chris Mullin was up around 300. Sam Perkins took 250 every day."
Walker was right - the Celtics don't spend much time on 3-point shooting in
practice. But they do devote most of their pregame shootarounds to game
shots, which in Walker's case translates into treys.
"The only major problem with shooting all those threes is if you start
missing them, and you get that long rebound, then teams can run on you, and
get back in the game pretty quickly," Bird explains. "It puts a lot of
pressure on Dick. I can just see him putting his head in his hands as they
launch up another one."
Harter was one of Bird's trusted assistants in Indiana. The other was close
friend and former teammate Rick Carlisle, who would have been the next
Pacers coach if Bird had stayed on and assumed a role in the front office.
But, when Bird walked away, Carlisle's chances evaporated. Isiah Thomas was
chosen as Bird's successor. One year later, Carlisle took over the Detroit
Pistons. 
Detroit was not forecasted as a playoff team, but Carlisle guided them to
the Central Division title and a No. 2 seed.
"I love it," Bird gushes. "I knew Rick. I knew he'd be great. We usually
talk after every win. I know better than to call when he loses.""
Bird says Detroit big man Ben Wallace is his new hero.
"I saw him pull down 28 rebounds in a game," Bird says. "They say he's
limited. They say he can't score, can't do this or that. You know what I
say? The guy pulled down 28 rebounds in a single game. Try doing that."
Bird, incidentally, did try once, against the Lakers.
"I finished with 21," he says. "It was hard. We shot 51 percent for the
game. There weren't a whole lot of opportunities."
He does not regret leaving the Pacers, but does believe they erred in
passing Carlisle by.
"It worked out better for Rick, but not the Pacers," Bird says. "The young
kids would have developed so much more. He would have spent the whole year
working with Al Harrington, Jonathan Bender, Jeff Foster, Austin [Croshere].
They'd all be 10 to 20 percent better.
"I feel bad for some of those guys, especially Austin. I can't understand
why they buried him. He's talented, and he works his tail off ... it's too
bad how it's gone there. I watched one game. That was enough."
Bird will tune in to your Boston Celtics during the playoffs, even if they
won't be his Boston Celtics any time soon.
"I'll be watching," he says.
Too bad it can't be from loge 12 at the FleetCenter - where the owners sit.
Jackie MacMullan's column appears every Thursday. Her e-mail address is
macmullan@globe.com.

This story ran on page E1 of the Boston Globe on 4/18/2002.
(c) Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.


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