Re: Auerbach quote

[kim <kimmalo@mindspring.com>]

At 12:52 AM 5/4/02 -0500, Dan Stadnick wrote:
>Red Auerbach after the game, talking to that guy on TNT:
>
>"but the guy that really did the job was Walker.  Walker played both ends,
>rebounded, passed the ball, brought the ball up;  If I gave him a broom he'd
>sweep the floor at the same time."

He's right though. I've been one of 'Toine's big critics over the years, as 
frustrated as I could be by how clearly he wanted to win and had a 
salivation worthy collection of skills to do it with and how little clue he 
had about how to go about it and how much he was his own worst enemy. 
There's been a lot of talk about these playoffs being Paul's coming out 
party, and please don't think I'm in any way belittling his fabulous 
performance in game 5 or dumping excessively on him for what went before, 
but Walker carried them to that point in the series as much as any one 
player has. Yeah, he still takes too many bad shots and harps at the refs 
too much and a bunch of other things, but he also is clearly starting to 
mature (he didn't have to say that he knows Paul's the #1 star and that he 
doesn't resent it because IMO anyone who's been really watching all season 
long could see it and celebrate what it said about him) and has genuinely 
worked on his game (first sign of that I saw was in the early part of the 
season when he clearly had worked on something not flashy or fun but badly 
needed -free throws- over the summer) and after years of being told he can 
wiggle when he's earned something to dance about, well, he earned last 
night's wiggle and a few to spare

(er, sorry snoopy but for sound biological reasons, no, I'd NOT prefer to 
watch Ellie wiggle)  : )

Man it's fun to be back in the mix with a team it feels good to root for. 
Looking forward to finally getting to use some of my playoff tickets with 
this series, even if they aren't in quite as impressive a location as 
DanF's... : )

Kim