BskBALL.com on proposed Van Exel to Boston deal

["R. Singh" <rrsingh2@attbi.com>]

02/19-VECSEY ON C's- The "venerable" Peter Vesecy announces in his
latest installment from the Post, that "Sources tell me they're prepared
to swap Kenny Anderson, rookie Joe Johnson and Randy Brown for Van Exel
and Calbert Cheaney."... While we discussed a few days ago that talks
regarding Nick Van Exel and the Celtics did take place. I can assure you
Joe Johnson was never a factor, and the C's traded away Calbert Chaney,
taking him back is not an option. The deal as it was laid out to me by
highly placed sources close to the Celtics, was simply Nick for Kenny
and some luggage to make it work under the cap, and the C's turned away
from Nick's contract terms... While it's a great pro-Van Exel story Pete
spun, in the end his mission is the try and convince the Cablevision
stiffs (The Knicks) to get after Nick before another team does. The
Celtics have little interest, their focus if they made a trade is
trimming off the roster fat, not adding some more.