Re: Questions That Weren't Allowed On Antoine's Chat

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

In my opinion, Antoine made huge strides last season-and I mean just from
the beginning of last season to the end. I think anyone who didn't question
Antoine prior to last season or even early last season simply was ignoring
his obvious flaws and seeing him through green-tinted glasses. But I also
submit that anyone who didn't grow to appreciate his evolution over the
course of last season and into the playoffs is just always going to be
anti-Antoine and there's nothing he can do to change that.

I mean up until last season, Antoine was hard to love. He made the
ridiculous "veteran all-star" remark, repeatedly came in out of shape,
refused every effort to either bulk him up or slim him down, shot way too
many three-pointers when he couldn't shoot them well at all (and against his
coach's wishes), feuded with teammates, didn't play defense, played to
please his "posse" more than he played to please his coach, racked up
technicals at a Rasheed Wallace-like rate, took terrible shots, played
selfishly and generally behaved like the "typical new-age player" that Rudy
Tomjanovich tagged him as. 

The temptation is to say Antoine evolved over those early years, but I
really didn't see it. He rebelled against Pitino too much to really evolve.
Only when O'Brien took over did Antoine start to show some genuine
progression as a player. And even then, I think he had to be convinced that
things were going to be different. When he saw early last year that the team
could actually win, Antoine seemed to embrace that and change his
priorities. I'm not saying he eliminated all the problems in his game-his
shot selection and basic basketball sense remains wildly inconsistent-but he
suddenly committed to being in shape, playing defense and sharing or
actually handing over the spotlight to Pierce. I think winning changed
Antoine, and a changed Antoine helped the team win even more. Winning
brought out the best in Antoine, and that spurred the team to its highest
level of play since Antoine's arrival.

The way this team is built, Antoine is almost irreplaceable. No point
guards, no other power forwards, weak ball-handlers all over the place.
There are very few players who could replace what Antoine does for this
team. That doesn't mean he's better than certain players-Chris Webber, for
example, wouldn't work here; but Antoine wouldn't be able to fill Webber's
role with the Kings, either. There are very few players-Garnett, Duncan,
Nowitzki-who could step in and replace everything that Antoine does on this
team. You can argue that that's a flaw in the way the team is put
together-and I'd agree-but it's hard to argue that Antoine isn't the single
most important player on the team as it is constructed.

Anyway, I was as tough on Antoine as anyone, and I think it was absolutely
warranted. And I'm convinced that if Antoine Walker were playing for Philly
or the Knicks or some other team, even his most die-hard supporters on this
list would have looked at him through most of his career as a selfish,
shot-happy stat-monger. But I'm also willing to see the obvious change that
happened last season. He still drives me crazy, but at least I know he's out
there trying to win and not just pile up stats. That wasn't always the case.

Anyway, Antoine is what he is, which is somewhere between the pro- and
anti-Toine camps on the list. But he's closer to the pro- camp now than the
anti- camp.

Mark