From: "hironaka@nomade.fr"<hironaka@nomade.fr> To: celtics@igtc.com Subject: Last night Date: Thu, 17 Oct 2002 00:03:16 +0200 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. ------------------- L'e-mail gratuit pas comme les autres. NOMADE.FR, pourquoi chercher ailleurs ?