Re: A passing fancy

["James A. Hill" <jahill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Gee, I don't Walker from this perspective at all.

Snip....  (And hopefully not taken out of context)

>I think it's great that most Celtic fans have seemed to come to terms with
>Antoine the basketball player. It only took six years. They are no longer
>looking for his every mistake.  They realize that what they see is what
they
>are going to get because that is who he is.

I think Walker was far and away a better team player, last year, then he had
been before and less prone to judgment, IMO, errors.


>I don't think it's as much that he has changed on the court, because he
>really hasn't.

I think he is like night and day.  IMO, he was so individually focused he
was painful to watch.

>He's changed off the court.  He's worked harder in the off
>season.  He's been more responsive to the Coaches and his teammates and
just
>simply matured.

I absolutely agree.  The off season work with MJ has been huge.  I think the
fact he didn't have a "mentor" when he came to the team without Reggie and
potentially Bias, actual NBA star players, there to show him the ropes hurt
his development.

>But his game is basically the same. He still takes a lot of threes and he
>still drives into traffic and gets his shots blocked. People are just more
>willing to overlook those things.

I don't see the same repeated errors as before.  But he also has other
"real" players on the court with him for a change.


>Do you think he could have had three offensive fouls or had only three
>rebounds in a game this time last year and anyone would have written that
>there was nothing in his game left to criticize?
>I don't.

I'm not sure I agree completely with that post but when you are making the
players around you better, there's been a knock on Walker that he didn't do
that before, the consideration of just your stats is tempered with "what"
you also brought to the game.

 >So who has really changed?  Antoine or Celtics fans?

Antoine, hands down.  He is now playing the game the way many of his
detractors felt he could and should, but wouldn't, before.  Big difference.

<Jim