Re: Last night

["Dan Forant" <dforant1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Wallace is a con artist and part of the management problem.

DanF 
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <hironaka@nomade.fr>
To: <celtics@igtc.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 16, 2002 6:03 PM
Subject: Last night


> As noted, Josh Ozersky, Michael Gooen and I had great 
> seats for last night's game, courtesy of Michael's firm. 
> 
> And much to my surprise, Chris Wallace spent a lot of 
> time talking to us, right up until the opening buzzer for 
> teams to break the huddle. 
> 
> I won't report on what he said to Josh (I'll leave that 
> to him). Josh asked a lot of good questions and has a 
> good rapport with CW. But here's what Wallace said in 
> response to some of our other questions, this to the best 
> of my recollection. 
> 
> I asked if the Sonics had specifically asked for Joe 
> Forte to close the Baker trade, or if it was done to save 
> the million off next year's payroll. He replied that it 
> was a "financial decision".
> 
> He added that the Shaw League standout would NOT have 
> gotten playing time this season in Boston behind Bremer. 
> He said Bremer had "way more experience" playing the 
> point. So that tells you what he thinks.
> 
> I asked him if his opinion of Forte and Joe Johnson had 
> changed since draft day (when he had lots of good things 
> to say about their future).
> 
> He replied that there was a misperception in the media. 
> He said that sometimes you draft a player to build team 
> depth in talent, which can be used in trades that improve 
> the team's competitiveness. 
> 
> Well we've more or less heard that before. But he also 
> added at one point that Joe Johnson "isn't a point guard" 
> or "isn't going to be a point guard". I was kind of 
> caught off-guard by that one, but I think that's what he 
> said. Maybe Josh or Michael can confirm? 
> 
> He posed to us the rhetorical question: "tell me this, 
> who would you guys rather have, Vin Baker or Rodney 
> Rogers?". Thankfully, none of us retorted with "but who's 
> contract would you rather have?!" 
> 
> I was starting to wonder if our questions were a bit too 
> aggressive, although we were all polite and cordial. 
> Whatever the case, Wallace was engaging and stuck with us 
> until the tipoff. I believe he trusts Josh a lot. He said 
> he was looking forward to reading his next column etc. 
> 
> But yeah, he cares about fans and was candid to a 
> surprising extent. It probably didn't hurt that Michael 
> was wearing his Bill Russell #6 jersey (which as he noted 
> in his post, Rodney Rogers also seemed to appreciate). 
> 
> Michael asked about our rights to overseas players, 
> specifically Ben Pepper. That gave Wallace an opening to 
> remind us that we have Ben "safely salted away."
> 
> Wallace said that the Celtics still own the rights to 
> Josip Sesar as well, and that he'll monitor how he 
> develops. 
> 
> He said that of all our overseas players, the guy with 
> the best chance to make it in the NBA is Darius Songaila, 
> who's been looking good in Russia. 
> 
> Wallace confirmed that we own these player's rights "in 
> perpetuity", but that they could force the issue by 
> coming to training camp (and getting cut).
> 
> There were other interesting comments, but I'll leave 
> that for Josh's column. 
> 
> We all had a lot of fun whooping it up during the game, 
> with Michael's dad also there. Josh got in a chat with 
> Mike Gorman as well. It was a very relaxed environment. 
> It didn't take any special effort to get these guy's 
> attention. They were standing right there. 
> 
> Continental Arena is a strange place to watch exhibition 
> basketball. There was complete silence between highlight 
> moments, like we were watching the Amish Basketball 
> Association. 
> 
> Oddly, the arena even set up an artificial "sold out" 
> cheering section of around thirty people, including 
> hidden cue cards that read "make noise". The section was 
> flashed up on the jumbotron and presumably out to TV Land 
> during time outs. I've never seen something like that 
> before. 
> 
> But there was one very audible "ooh" from the crowd when 
> Shammond put a cross-over ankle breaker on someone (Tamar 
> Slay I think). 
> 
> (Mr Gooen aptly suggested the Michael Jackson-inspired 
> nickname "I'm bad, I'm bad, shammond...")
> 
> I felt Shammond and Delk again managed to "look the part" 
> of point guard tonight. Delk seemed at ease with his job 
> and was a weapon from the top of the key. Shammond had a 
> high number of shots that rimmed in and out, but still 
> shows a lot of flash and self-confidence. 
> 
> But neither guy or Bremer is at all methodical in hunting 
> down assists or moving the ball to the hot hand. Again, 
> I'm not sure that's even there role on this team. The few 
> times the Celtics saw sufficient daylight on the break, 
> it was off a direct defensive rebound and dribble by the 
> captains. As inept as the Celtics were on offense, the 
> Nets were also doing a good job of transition defense I 
> thought.
> 
> Bremer finally impressed me a great deal, with his 
> defense and those two strong slashes to the hoop in the 
> fourth. Nice. He'd be a great two guard if he were 6-6. 
> His funny jumpshot is a turnoff. 
> 
> I know Josh might disagree here, but I'm actually 
> starting to believe Obie when he courted ridicule by 
> saying point guard is a team strength.
> 
> Obie's one proven ability is relating to NBA players, 
> bringing out the creative strengths of the captains and 
> getting maximum team-based contributions from the other 
> guys. Everyone's happy.
> 
> This being the case, Obie really needs to figure 
> something out with Baker and his 50 million contract. 
> 
> They say you can't be seriously disillusioned unless you 
> had illusions in the first place, and Baker's "illusion" 
> is that he'll finally be happy in Boston and be allowed 
> to succeed. 
> 
> Last night, no one gave Baker the ball and he very much 
> looked like a spare part. He seemed like a guy who won't 
> fit in at all with the team as a sixth man. The scrubs 
> either won't look to pass to Baker, or they are too short 
> to look over defenses and find him.
> 
> I frankly don't care if Battie isn't REALLY hurt (he 
> looked it for awhile), Obie needs to seize this excuse 
> and give Baker some starting minutes with Walker and 
> Pierce. Baker's injury just looked like a mild kick in 
> the shins, whereas Battie was seriously limping off the 
> court.
> 
> And, yes, there STILL seem to be no plays run for Baker. 
> Obie had four days since Thursday to work on something, 
> and nothing has happened. Vin subs in and appears to run 
> through the same high post plays of the starting center 
> (Battie), or a bit of Walker's point forward role. He's 
> miscast in either role. 
> 
> Obie needs to get over the fact that he wanted the same 
> roster as last year, and opposed the trade. He's stuck 
> with Baker now and he needs to make the most of a still  
> in-shape and reasonably talented player. 
> 
> Right now, Baker is getting half the touches he got in 
> the darkest days with Gary Payton and the Sonics. 
> 
> Sooner or later this is going to come to a head. How the 
> Fleet Center treats an underperforming Vinnie might 
> trigger all kinds of things. 
> 
> Obie's main coaching challenge this year will be to 
> address this. It should be a night and day obsession. If 
> Baker is unhappy and underutilized right off the bat, 
> this team is going nowhere for four years. 
> 
> I'd hope Obie is thinking hard about this after last 
> night's game. And like Josh I hope that he fully consults 
> his father-in-law on this subject, rather the Dayton 
> playbook.
> 
> Joe H.
> 
> 
> 
> 
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