Re: What's up Doc Stern ?

["Greg Odegaard" <grodeg@kalama.com>]

OK I did find it and though he does give high praise to the "style" of play
from the Nets, I can't find anything negative about the Celtics. Just the
opposite. Where does all these sour grapes come from?
Sad given the wins of late. Enjoy,
Greg

Thursday, May 23
Updated: May 23, 1:23 PM ET

Cousy admires the way Kidd runs the Nets
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
By Adrian Wojnarowski
Special to ESPN.com

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The Boston Celtics clutch Bob Cousy's heart and
history, the franchise's rise out of the rubble restoring rightful order to
his Memorial Day Weekend. From his Worcester, Mass., home, he's making the
short drive down the Mass Turnpike bound for the gymnasium with 16
championship banners, with Red and Russell sitting within the screaming
sellout.

Bob Cousy was blessed with great peripheral vision, just like a certain Nets
point guard.
These are old times for the Cooz, bringing him back 50 years to when the
game's greatest dynasty was born with him bringing the ball down the court.
Between his legs and around his back, Cousy passed to Havlicek and Bird, to
Pierce and Walker, to Games 3 and 4 of these Eastern Conference finals at
the Fleet Center.

"As a 73-year-old, it isn't easy to get animated anymore, but this team has
got my attention," Cousy said the other day. "This Celtics team has got my
blood flowing."

As hard as Cousy roots for them, as badly as he wishes for that
Lakers-Celtics NBA Finals, the means to Boston's ends leave him a little
torn, a little longing for the old days. The Celtics are working
relentlessly to strip the beauty out of this basketball, slow these games to
an unwatchable grind and make the Game 2 thud, thud, thud of 117 missed
shots the soundtrack of this series.

If the Celtics must make everything so murky for victory, so be it. But why
does everyone play this way now? Cousy doesn't love his basketball down and
dirty, but fast and furious. There was a time Cousy never could've imagined
thinking this way, but it's true and he believes it and so: Why can't a
little of the ne'er-do-well New Jersey Nets rub off on the rest of
basketball -- even the Celtics?

"When we were winning our championships, we had six plays with two options
on each one," Cousy said. "Red loved it if I never called a set play the
whole 48 minutes because that meant we blew someone's doors off in the
transition game. With the sustained intensity of the defense in the
playoffs, you can stop any half-court offense with fairly even matched
teams. But it doesn't matter if the Celtics spend three weeks working on
stopping the Nets, if you've got Jason Kidd running, you're never going to
stop them. Never.

"I'm not talking the kind of running in the school yard and All-Star Games.
I'm talking about a controlled running -- what just four or five teams out
of everyone in the league do."

He sighs over the telephone, wishing this wasn't the case. The Celtics are
clearly his heritage, but Kidd and these Nets, they're the living, breathing
legacy of the way those old Celtics played the game. From fast breaks and
scoring balance, to the backdoor layups out of that Princeton passing
offense Pete Carril borrowed liberally from Auerbach, to the planet's best
point guard playing the position like Cousy invented it, these Nets are a
throwback.

When they're crisp, they're a clinic. When Kidd has the Nets running, they
play a brand of basketball determined to bring a tear to a great old point
guard's eye.

 " It's complete crap that you can't run in the playoffs. You can develop
that style. The Nets have done it. "
  - Bob Cousy

"It's complete crap that you can't run in the playoffs," Cousy said. "You
can develop that style. The Nets have done it. Everyone else will walk that
sucker up the floor. If we all agree the players just don't pass that well
today, then what's to say if they're going to pass the ball five or six
times to get a shot that they're not going to screw things up even more?"

"I'll go to my grave not understanding why basketball has come to this. Has
the game passed me by that much? Has it? Well, I don't believe it has."

Kidd is responsible for turning the biggest joke in basketball into
something scintillating. And when he speaks of his influences, always two
names tumble out of him: Magic Johnson and Cousy. They played that right
way, Kidd believes. They played for everyone else. They played for winning's
sake.

Cousy doesn't watch much regular-season basketball these days -- "Guys mail
it in too often," he says -- but he watches Kidd when he gets the chance. He
never takes his eyes off him. Sometimes, he hopes the young players are
watching him, too, understanding a point guard can completely control the
game even when shooting is the last thing on his mind. This was true a half
century ago and it's true today.

"He's a throwback," Cousy said of Kidd. "He's out there creating and
developing for other people. He makes everyone else around him better and
there's no highest compliment to what we're all about. Not too many function
anymore as such. I was blessed with peripheral vision, just like Jason and
Magic, and that's a tremendous advantage."

There goes the Cooz, using "We" when he speaks of the New Jersey Nets before
making his way to the FleetCenter this weekend. Yes, Cousy always had that
great vision on the floor and he's never lost it. He's always going to go
with his love, his history, and cheer that team of his that's made his
Memorial Day weekend matter again. Yet, Bob Cousy longs for something beyond
the glory of the Celtics -- the glory of the game -- and so it truly won't
be old times in Boston until Jason Kidd brings his team to town, until
they're running right out of those 1950s and 60s, and right into the heart
of an old point guard.

Adrian Wojnarowski, a sports columnist for The Record (northern N.J.), is a
regular contributor to ESPN.com.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Shawn Niles" <shizzjr@hotmail.com>
To: <birdwl@earthlink.net>; <Celtics@igtc.com>
Sent: Saturday, May 25, 2002 5:34 PM
Subject: Re: What's up Doc Stern ?


> Let me add another ex-celtic to the list of ex-celtics who do not seem to
be
> doing their part during these playoffs... Mr. Cousy. He has been nothing
but
> negative towards the C's. And has gone out of his way to praise the Nets.
I
> have only two words for messr's Bird and Cousy....   Screw em!
>
>
> >From: bird <birdwl@earthlink.net>
> >To: Celtics@igtc.com
> >Subject: Re: What's up Doc Stern ?
> >Date: Sat, 25 May 2002 14:04:13 -0700
> >
> >>From: "Dan Forant" <dforant1@nycap.rr.com>
> >>
> >>Hey, I'm with you, they don't come any more loyal than Tommy H. He has
> >>given
> >>his quart of blood for the Celtic organization. Can't say that of
certain
> >>other Celtic retirees.
> >
> >Yet another reference to "Larry Bird's not at the Fleet and it's so
> >terrible!"?  When are we going to see the end of the beating to this dead
> >horse?
> >
> >The keys to Boston''s win this afternoon are going to be playing good
> >defense, making good passes for easy scores, and the home crowd.  *Not*
> >whether or not Larry Joe Bird or Satch Sanders or Hank Finkel show up at
> >the Fleet.  It's about what happens on the court by the guys who are in
> >Celtic uniforms *now*, not twenty years ago.  See, that was then, this is
> >now.
> >
> >Bird
>
>
>
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos:
> http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx
----- Original Message -----
From: "Shawn Niles" <shizzjr@hotmail.com>
To: <birdwl@earthlink.net>; <Celtics@igtc.com>
Sent: Saturday, May 25, 2002 5:34 PM
Subject: Re: What's up Doc Stern ?


> Let me add another ex-celtic to the list of ex-celtics who do not seem to
be
> doing their part during these playoffs... Mr. Cousy. He has been nothing
but
> negative towards the C's. And has gone out of his way to praise the Nets.
I
> have only two words for messr's Bird and Cousy....   Screw em!
>
>
> >From: bird <birdwl@earthlink.net>
> >To: Celtics@igtc.com
> >Subject: Re: What's up Doc Stern ?
> >Date: Sat, 25 May 2002 14:04:13 -0700
> >
> >>From: "Dan Forant" <dforant1@nycap.rr.com>
> >>
> >>Hey, I'm with you, they don't come any more loyal than Tommy H. He has
> >>given
> >>his quart of blood for the Celtic organization. Can't say that of
certain
> >>other Celtic retirees.
> >
> >Yet another reference to "Larry Bird's not at the Fleet and it's so
> >terrible!"?  When are we going to see the end of the beating to this dead
> >horse?
> >
> >The keys to Boston''s win this afternoon are going to be playing good
> >defense, making good passes for easy scores, and the home crowd.  *Not*
> >whether or not Larry Joe Bird or Satch Sanders or Hank Finkel show up at
> >the Fleet.  It's about what happens on the court by the guys who are in
> >Celtic uniforms *now*, not twenty years ago.  See, that was then, this is
> >now.
> >
> >Bird
>
>
>
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos:
> http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx