Re: Vin Baker and the summer League

["Dan Forant" <dforant1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

If Baker is indeed an alcoholic, forget about it. Maybe Gatorade come's up
with a vodka flavored health drink. He's a nice guy that doesn't belong in
basketball anymore. This was an awful gamble the organization took. I can't
imagine anyone coming to the  Celtic's needing love and affection and
direction from management. Kedrick is a good example of someone getting
nowhere in how many years now?? If you don't bring  it you won't get it here
with OB and gang.

DanF


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Snoopy the Celtics Beagle" <snoopy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <Celtics@xxxxxxxx>; <Celticsstuffgroup@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, July 27, 2003 12:25 AM
Subject: Vin Baker and the summer League


> 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
> Please visit the <http://www.celticsbeagle.net/>Celtics Beagle Website