Vin Baker and the summer League

[Snoopy the Celtics Beagle <snoopy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Vin, I think, was smart not to play.  He's almost certainly not ready for 
that.  He had to spend a lot of time getting used to not having whatever he 
was having, and that always takes a toll on mind and body.

Then, there's the whole ordeal of getting back into shape--not BASKETBALL 
shape--just shape.  From what little has been said, the impression I have 
is that Vin has cleaned up.  He's in shape.  Now, he has to get into 
basketball shape.

Confidence will be tremendously important now.  He can't risk coming back 
too fast, only to get smoked by a bunch of NBA wannabes.  He knows--as do 
we all--this is his last realistic chance to be an NBA player for ANY 
team.  He has to come roaring back, or as soon as the C's can get rid of 
him, he's gone.  He can't afford to be just "good" or "a contributor".  He 
needs to blow people out of their sneakers, or he's not going to make 
it.  He will not be cut any slack once he returns.  The only reason he's 
still here at all is the C's want to get SOMETHING positive for the 
overlarge portion of the player budget he took this season while not with 
the team.

This is not really news to anyone, I suspect.  What may surprise some 
people is, I think he'll make it.  I think it's a case of the old adage of 
having to bottom out before coming back.  He could have sat back and 
collected his paycheck while recovering.  He could even have cut some kind 
of deal that would have amounted to a severance check from the Celtics and 
retired quietly.  Instead, he's working hard to come back to a harsh 
spotlight that will hold him personally accountable if he messes up at all.

He's going to need to be the Prototypical Celtic Player, first in practice, 
last to leave, and all that.  But there was a time when he was an 
All-Star.  He's an athlete, and every athlete is always sure there's one 
more season, one more game, left in them.  Maybe, if he's cleaned up and 
straightened out, there is.

I remember when Bill Walton came to Boston.  He looked like a tired, 
injured man, who wanted to get away from the people who left him for 
athletically dead.  He came to Boston, expected only to give Parish a few 
desperately needed minutes of rest in a game, and rediscovered his 
game.  He was, in many ways, the Walton of old, with the amazing passes we 
remembered from 1977.  I loved his enthusiasm, as he was the first Celtic 
to openly declare that year that he wanted nothing less than a 
Championship.  As fate had it, all we really got from him was one year, his 
last.  But what a year.

Perhaps, just perhaps, Vin Baker can give us something like that.  I think 
so.  I hope so.

Snoopy the Celtics Beagle
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