Re: Vescey: Wallace Safe

["James A. Hill" <jahill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Reason enough to ban all of them from any draft input in the future.  I'd
take the consensus pick from this list over any of their "guesses".

<Jim


< Given another chance of drafting Joe Forte or Tony Parker, Red
Auerbach was quoted in Sunday's Boston Globe saying he'd make the
same choice. If the author cared the least little bit about the
aging Auerbach he would've pretended not to hear that remark.> -Josh

I really don't understand your interpretation, Josh.  "Why Forte over
Parker and Tinsley? " has been a burning question since we drafted
him.  Since the BT has had the audacity to label Forte solely as
"Red's pick,"  I see nothing wrong with Red speaking the true facts
and Peter May reporting them as follows:

    < Somehow, there's this notion still lingering of Red doing a
    Nikita Khrushchev at the United Nations, banging his shoe on
    the draft table and demanding the team take Forte.

    ''It wasn't that way at all,'' Auerbach said. ''It was a collective
    pick.  I advocated for Joseph Forte. I liked him a lot. If I had to
    do it all over again, I'd do it the same way.'' > - May


Here are a few statements made by the BT in the days following the
2001 draft. Does it sound to you that Auerbach was the only one
elated over drafting Forte?

.................................................
Chris Wallace:
``We were a bunch of nervous Nellies when Portland was picking,'' said
Wallace. ``The two players we were looking at were Joe Forte and Tony
Parker and we were hoping to get a chance at one of them.
``Tony Parker was the No. 1-ranked point guard on our list, but we made a
decision to take the best player on the board. That's how Red Auerbach and
Jerry West did it and that's good enough for us.''
Wallace envisions ''seeing him play some minutes at the point next season.''

..................................................
Jim ObBrien:
Forte joins a crowded backcourtb&.Never mind, said a beaming O'Brien.
''You could never understand how happy we are with Forte,'' said O'Brien.
``I thought there was no way Joe Forte could get to 21,'' said a pleasantly
surprised O'Brien. ``From Red Auerbach, Chris Wallace, Leo Papile to my
coaching staff, Joe Forte was a player we coveted.''
...................................................
Leo Papile:
"He was the best player available (at 21) by a wide margin," said Papile.
"Joe Forte's a dynamite player. We think Joe Forte is going to be a
longtime NBA player, a guy that's going to play in this league for 10
or 12 years."
``Joe can cover the point guards and he can also run some sets where
he can kick the ball inside and get it back to shoot. We had him up here
on Memorial Day weekend with Brendan Haywood and Zach Randolph.
Joe spent two very productive days up here and we fell in love with
him.''
Papile indicated that Forte could work himself into the point-guard
equation, currently with Randy Brown and Kenny Anderson in place for
two more seasons and free agents Milt Palacio and Chris Herren
possibly returning. ''If this draft was held last Oct. 15, he would have
gone [from Nos.] 4 to 7. You might say, `why did he slip?' The reason
is because of the real depth of this draft. We rated him the
No. 2 shooting guard in the draft.''

Egg