The Gospel According to Mark

[Ryan W <ubiquitous_am_i@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- "Berry, Mark  S" <berrym@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Thanks, Egg. I went back and found it in the
> archives. Did everyone just
> miss this?! Isn't this a pretty darn inflammatory
> post? And yet no replies?
> Did I miss them?
> 
> I guess we all suspected as much, but for Ainge to
> come out and state it so
> matter of factly is surprising. 

Perhaps it was sacrasm....from what I remember of JB's
post of his conversation with Ainge, he asked him
about this new fast breaking offense, to which Ainge
quipped, "yeah, now all I gotta do is convince Jimmy
and Antoine."  That sounds like none-too-serious,
playful banter from Ainge...it doesn't sound like it's
going to be a problem (or that Ainge anticipates it
being a problem)...it sounds more like Ainge knows the
public preconceptions about Antoine and Jimmy and was
comically playing off such knowledge.  

> Forget any optimism with Banks... if Obie
> and Antoine are both back, it will be more of the
> same. 

Why, Mark, do you keep repeating this pronouncement
like it's the God-awful truth?  I asked you before for
at least a reasoned explanation of this "argument" but
you've never been forthcoming.  The reason?  There is
no explanation.    

> Long stretches of the Delk-Pierce-EWill-Antoine-   
> Battie group, with Antoine playing "point
> forward" and the take-turns offense. The easy thing
> would have been to fire
> Obie. That's what Ainge should have done. Take the
> heat for firing him after
> two playoff trips, but do it for the future of the
> franchise. But he didn't
> do that.
> 
> So, the next option is dealing Antoine. Obie and
> Antoine are joined at the
> hip. If Antoine is there, Obie will let him do what
> he wants. That's the
> deal he made with Antoine. 

Again, with the prejudice that Antoine and O'Brien
will never change is the even more galling prejudice
that Antoine and O'Brien are joined at the hip...and
that to "save" the franchise, both must be annexed. 
Why are O'Brien and Antoine joined at the hip?  You
have said before that it was because Antoine was given
full reign when Obie came aboard...full reign which
eventually led to the playoffs.  This "success" in
turn caused O'Brien to let Antoine do whatever he
wanted....first because that carte blanche had
resulted in the playoffs (giving Jimmy job security)
and secondly because Jimmy knew that if he ever tried
to reign in Antoine he would suffer the same fate as
Pitino.  And so, you reason, both must be gotten rid
of because of their co-dependency (which is killing
the Celtics).  Their is a problem to this reasoning. 
You are assuming that both Antoine and Jimmy are
idiots.  You're assuming that the same survival
instinct that led Jimmy to attach his kite to
Antoine's "star" won't do the same now that Ainge is
in charge.  Wouldn't it be more likely that O'Brien,
seeing that the winds have changed and that Ainge is
in charge, quits being Antoine's "bitch" and instead
becomes Ainge's?  That's reasonable.  But no, you want
to paint O'Brien as an idiot....stupidly going down
with the sinking ship that is Antoine.  

(As an aside--because this is getting long--how can
you criticize O'Brien in one instant--the one directly
preceeding my above paragraph--for putting all his
eggs in the Antoine basket and then in the next
instant--the one directly following my next
paragraph--conclude that it was his only choice?)

As for the sinking ship known as Antoine
Walker....again we have the notion that Antoine
can't/won't change, either stemming from a high degree
of stubbornness or lack of talent.  You like to repeat
that over and over in your posts...that Antoine can't
change, that he's malicious in the desire not to
change, ect....  However, looking back, all I see is
an Antoine that has attempted to change....and even
succeeded in doing so.  Let's look back from now to
the not so distant past (I'd look all the way back,
but my memory isn't that good...and I don't have the
ego necessary to compile every piece of evidence that
proves my point)....following this past season, Ainge
told him to get in better shape.  Bingo, Antoine loses
17 pounds...which shows that he can both follow orders
and change.   Look back to when O'Brien took
over....Antoine, along with Paul, was told to carry
the team, playing huge minutes and about three
positions (point, small and power forwards), all of
which Antoine did without complaining and at a loss to
his personal statistics.  This again showed that
Antoine is able to change, that he is not stubborn,
and that he will do what is best for the team when
asked to do so.  Lastly (at least in my compromised
memory), is the whole "Paul is the stud of this team",
admission.  First of all, it was unprompted.  That's
big because it shows that Antoine has a conception of
his role on this team that corresponds to
reality...that he doesn't overly exagerate his
importance to the team.  It shows that he actually
does have a high basketball IQ.  This also shows again
that Antoine can change (and this change was initiated
by Antoine himself) and that he is able to put the
team above himself.  From these three examples, how
can one not fail to expect Antoine to do exactly what
Ainge tells him to do?  

Ryan

> And, looking at the
> roster, he really doesn't
> have much choice. What's he going to do, bench
> Antoine in favor of Hunter?
> Of course not. So Antoine gets free reign to play
> his game (ugh). And as
> long as Antoine is playing Antoine's game, Banks
> will look a lot like Kenny
> Anderson and Milt Palacio and Tony Delk and Shammond
> Williams and JR
> Bremer-a short guy standing at the 3-point line,
> waiting for Walker or
> Pierce to kick it out to him.
> 
> Obie and Antoine both will be gone before the 2004
> season. The battle over
> style of play and, as someone already pointed out,
> the looming battle over
> the allocation of playing time between "Obie's guys"
> and "Danny's guys" will
> be the reason. Antoine may not even make it past the
> trading deadline,
> although I think a draft-night trade next summer is
> more likely. And Obie is
> too stubborn to step off the train tracks. What's
> discouraging is we're
> going to waste a season sorting those things out.
> 
> Mark
> 


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