RE: Fatigue - Mental or Physical?

["Wright, Cecil" <Cecil.Wright@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I do not question whether the players are working hard or not.  They are.
But this is a flawed team as has been pointed out on countless occasions.
If the desire to work hard was not there, they would not have come back
against Portland, as they did, late in the game.

Other teams have to work hard and be tough also.  Stackhouse sent a message
to Pierce about being tough.  Stoudemire sent a message to Pierce about
being tough.  It is up to the players to answer the bell.  And though they
seem willing to try, someone needs to step to the fore and lay down the
gauntlet.  My biggest fear is that Paul or Toine will succumb to an injury
thanks to the meg-minutes they are playing.  If that happens, we have nobody
on the bench who can even come close to giving us the contributions they
make.  That's why I am not bothered much by the fact that Obie gives them a
day off here and there.  Hell, Steve McNair didn't practice at all the last
few weeks of the season.

For me and maybe you Mark, it's about effort.  For some others in this
house, it's about Ws and Ls.  They can give all the effort in the world but
if they lose, you know what will be said.

Cecil  


-----Original Message-----
From: Berry, Mark S [mailto:berrym@BATTELLE.ORG]
Sent: January 08, 2003 1:15 PM
To: 'celtics@igtc.com'
Subject: Re: Fatigue - Mental or Physical?


Egg, my fear is that the fatigue thing is becoming the excuse du jour for
the players. I am sure they are tired, but that's part of it. They played
big minutes last season. I think the danger is when the team starts to lose,
the temptation is there to not work quite as hard-why work hard if you're
going to lose anyway? The margin for error for this team-and most NBA
teams-is so small, any lull in effort is fatal. The Celtics accomplished
what they accomplished last season not because of overwhelming talent, but
because they outworked and out-toughed other teams. Now they're being
outworked and out-toughed.

Let's forget about the future for a while-we all know the Baker trade and
the other bad moves have critically harmed this team's future. But this team
still can accomplish some big things this season. They desperately need to
turn things around right now. This road trip may be coming at the perfect
time. The players can get away from home, re-establish that "us against the
world" mentality, and rise to the occasion against some good teams. They
have to recognize the challenge ahead of them over these next four games. If
they're ever going to respond, now is the time. That's my hope.

On the other hand, if they don't respond well on this trip, that's just
another sign that it's not going to happen for this season's team. I hope
that's not the case, but if we see some bad efforts on this trip, that's
going to be my impression.

Mark