Vecsey on Ainge and the Celts (including what Ainge allegedly offered for Bonzi)

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

Here's Vecsey with a hatchet piece on Ainge. The only part I agree with is the question: "How can you loathe how Walker played in Boston and award Jim O'Brien a plump extension?" 

Anyway, the offer Vecsey claims was made for Bonzi, Patterson and McInnis is interesting. Would have been a good deal for the Celts. Here's the whole thing:

Mark



"In case you missed it, Danny Ainge tried to trade Baron Davis shortly after the condensed Hornet aborted 17-of-22 from the field, including 12-of-13 from off shore against the Knicks. "I hate his game," said the Celtic exec. "It reminds me too much of my own, er, Antoine Walker's." 

Ainge's actions and attitude are mystifying and maddening. How can you loathe how Walker played in Boston and award Jim O'Brien a plump extension? 

I've probably plummeted behind the times, but isn't the coach responsible for his players' style of play? What, Walker repetitively disobeyed O'Brien by launching so many threes and over-handling? Find fault with his shot selection, turnovers, conditioning and court conduct unbecoming a Kentucky fried forward all you want, but the Walker-Paul Pierce parlay was pretty powerful over the last few seasons. 

Naturally, Ainge is very supportive of O'Brien, whose 7-11 Celtics have tumbled to nearly the top of the Atlantic Division, the NBA's Neverland, where teams gain crucial ground by losing four out of five; Danny Boy had better be supportive bearing in mind the lurch his trade left the franchise in when it should be competing with the Pacers, Pistons and Hornets as the east's elite squadron. 

Oh, yeah, Ainge also is decidedly displeased with the assembled talent. 

Of course, if you're keeping score at home, in only six months on the job, Danny Boy's imported body count stands at seven, almost half the 15-man roster . . . with plenty of time left to further refurbish his existing Fall Collection. 

In fact, the same guy who reviled Walker for getting into with Boston's fans reached out for, you guessed it, the profoundly profane Bonzi, who constantly cursed out his coach, messed over the media, quit trying weeks ago and flipped off Portland fans who, in the end, were booing him every time he touched the ball. 

* 

D.C. sources close to Bill Strickland, agent for Bonzi and Rasheed, among others (Allan Houston, for example; all his clients aren't potholes) says the Blazers gave him permission a while back to seek out desirable trades. 

He uncovered the following opportunity: Eric Williams, Tony Battie, Kedrick Brown, Walter McCarty and Mike James in exchange for Bonzi, Ruben Patterson and Jeff McInnis, yet another Strickland client. 

As badly as the Blazers are itching to dump Patterson, the five-for-three offer couldn't satisfy all the parameters fulfilled by the one-for-one swap with Memphis. Portland got Wesley Person, a quality guy (a lifetime 42 percent, 3-point shooter) on the last year of his contract; the talent disparity was evened up by the draft pick. 

In all fairness to Ainge, he has only just begun to get a feel for moving the Celtic chess pieces. Fact is, already he has managed to distinguish himself from his counterparts by falling below the bar in the east; that'll teach him (and Boston's new owners) to try to fix something that was battered and bent, but not necessarily broken."