Bob Ryan on K.C. radio

[Tammo29@AOL.com]

 I wish I had more time, but I don't so I'll have to make this quick.
  Bob Ryan was on WHB here in KC just a little while ago.  Apparently he is 
in St. Louis right now to cover Holy Cross.  The host was talking to him 
about the tournament and Holy Cross, etc., when Ryan interrupted him to talk 
about Paul Pierce, completely out of the blue with no prompting at all.
  He said he realized that many people in the Midwest don't follow the NBA 
because there are no teams in the area.  But he wanted to let people know 
that despite the hype and the media circus following Vince Carter, between 
Pierce and Carter it's a slam dunk, not even close, Pierce is the better 
player.
  He said that he is in the "Upper, upper sanctum of NBA players" and that 
without Pierce the Celtics would not even be close to being in playoff 
contention.
  He mentioned that the one thing O'Brien loves about him more than anything 
is his defensive improvements. 
  Ryan went on to talk about what an intriguing player he is because he has 
taken elements of the great players of the past (slashing, driving and 
getting to the basket) and melded them together with elements of today's 
greats (the ability to shoot lights out and hit a high percentage of his 
outside shots) better than anyone else in the game. 
  Of the 10 minutes Ryan was on the air, a good eight of them were spent in 
praise of Paul.  Not something you usually hear on the radio and certainly 
not something we've seen in print from Ryan since Paul's rookie year.  
  Just thought I'd pass it on.  Especially after some of the negative things 
I've been reading lately.

  While we are on the subject....I don't begrudge O'Brien and Wallace their 
opinions on whether Pierce should play in the
World Championship this summer.  But I hate to see it in the papers.  This is 
something they should keep between Paul and themselves, IMO. 
   Paul always, always works hard during the summer.  He isn't going to be 
taking a month off to go to the Bahamas, whether he plays in the Worlds or 
not.  That's just not how he goes about things.  He deserves to play on the 
team because he has worked very, very hard to get where he is today.  He also 
deserves to have his employers back him every inch of the way.