Re: Bird's record as talent evaluator

["Josh Ozersky" <jozersky1@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Kim,

I think Montross was actually pretty quick for his
size -- quicker than Vitaly, for example.  He
was also very strong and fundamentally sound.  But
he was another one of the many "gentle giants"
we've had over the years (e.g. Artis Gilmore, Mark
Blount, Ruben "Mr. Sportsmanship" Wolkowysky, etc.)
His problems were largely psychological.  If Bird thought
he could be better, that's good enough for me.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kim Malo" <kimmalo@mindspring.com>
To: "Josh Ozersky" <jozersky1@nyc.rr.com>; "celtics list" <celtics@igtc.com>
Sent: Sunday, September 29, 2002 6:59 PM
Subject: Re: Bird's record as talent evaluator


> At 12:16 PM 9/29/02 -0400, Josh Ozersky wrote:
> >Bird has never, to my knowledge, made a major mistake
> >about talent.
>
> Ummm, I like Larry and respect his skills, but just off the top of my
head - you don't classify Montross that way?
>
> >He felt that Eric Montross had the potential to be a very good
> >player, but that his constantly being traded, and implicitly his
> >being coached by ML Carr for the first two years of his career,
> >crippled his career.
>
> Maybe. However, to start with, his first year was under Chris Ford and not
under ML. Admittedly he definitely looked more useful then than at any other
point in his career, but still with some pretty clear physical limitations.
I agree that he turned out to be less than I think he honestly could have
been, based upon that first year  and expectations for normal development.
But a lot of the problems he has had in the NBA are consistent with the
physical imitations people thought he had going in - S-L-O-W and not
particularly mobile for a start- and can't be just a matter of ML and
trades.
>
> Kim