Re: The Celtics Report: Goodbye

["Joe Corrao" <joecorrao@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm still sad.....

Joe Corrao 718.625.1297 http://www.4eyedanimation.com/http://www.joecorrao.com/

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From: "Josh Ozersky" To: "celtics list" , "Viking" , "Joe Corrao"
Subject: The Celtics Report: Goodbye Date: Mon, 20 Oct 2003 12:08:24
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16:07:21.0797 (UTC) FILETIME=[3E659F50:01C39724] My hoopsworld column:
Goodbye The Debate is Over. For seven years, the agonizing "Antoine
Debate" has defined the Celtics and their fans. Antoine's admirers, who
included Larry Bird and Tommy Heinsohn, pointed out his versatility, his
peerless competitive spirit, his leadership, and his baffling ability to
take almost anyone off the dribble. His detractors retorted with equally
telling points of their own. Antoine, they said, was a hydrocephalic
egoist who still, after seven years in the league, launched mindless
three-pointers, drove into traffic, and dominated the ball to an
unconscionable degree. To claims about his versatility, they pointed out
that while he could rebound better than a guard and pass and dribble
better than a forward, he couldn't do either as well as a traditional
specialist, and deprived the Celtics of quality production at either the
1 or 4 spots. "Name me one thing he does well," one GM challenged Steve
Bulpett. Now the debate is over. Antoine Walker is no longer a Celtic.
It's hard for me to write those words. I understood better than most of
his detractors, I think, what Antoine Walker's limitations were. He did
his work facing the basket because he lacks explosiveness around the rim,
and can be easily blocked by athletic players down low. He liked the
three pointers because he played long and hard, never resting on defense,
and the three-pointer was a dangerous weapon in his hands, albeit an
unreliable one. But as more than a few erstwhile Antoine defenders have
said in emails to me this morning, Antoine was the Celtics. He set the
example for dedication, competition, leadership. The other players
legitimately looked up to him and liked him. The Celtics were one of the
few teams whose players hung around with other socially, almost to a man;
and that chemistry, which proceeded directly from Antoine's generous
heart, is over with now. People were surprised at how well the Paul
Pierce / Antoine Walker partnership worked, since Antoine had been so
invested in his identity as a scorer. But Pierce was better, and Antoine
wanted to win. More importantly, Pierce isn't really a vocal leader by
nature; Antoine's assertiveness freed him to just play his game. Now he's
the leader, and we'll have to see how that will work. I will miss
Antoine. I don't think that Raef LaFrench is nearly the player he is. But
I think the trade had to happen, and I think that in the long run, it
brings us closer to a championship. Here's why. Antoine Walker's skills,
though prodigious, were only occasionally the sort that led to
championships. When posting up down low against an inferior defender, his
passing skills could open up the whole court. When you would see him
hitting cutters over his shoulder or running a give-and-go with Tony
Battie, it was like a glimpse of everything you hoped for from a good
Celtics team. More often, though, everyone stood around and watched him
make something happen. The imperative for this season had to been to
install a running game, the better to share the wealth and (ostensibly)
to relieve the isolation burden on Pierce and Walker. In truth, no team
has ever won a title playing the kind of "you get yours after I get mine"
offense that Walker required. His weaknesses, excusable in himself,
became the weaknesses of the whole team. The deciding moment, I suspect,
came last week when Antoine made the following remarks to the Boston
Herald: "It's very difficult for a rookie to come in and play on a team
where the ball is dominated by two players. He has to find away he's
going to be effective in the system. What a lot of people have got to
understand is guys are brought in to fit into me and Paul...We've talked
about playing up-tempo, but that's about it. To be honest, when all is
said and done, it's back to the grind, as always." To call this
ill-considered misses the point. Toine rarely dissembled to reporters;
one of the many things to like about him in person was his willingness to
talk frankly about basketball matters. What these words told me (and, I
suspect, Ainge) was that Toine hadn't bought in to the idea of a running
game; he still saw himself as the primary ballhandler and shooter. But
running isn't something you do three times a game; it has to be the first
reflex for all five players. I had hoped that Antoine, with his fabulous
dribble, would have flourished in that system; but it wasn't to be. Of
course, you can't judge any trade by only looking at one side. Maybe
Antoine had to go. But what did we get for him? A couple of years ago,
the names you heard discussed for Toine, at least by fans, were other
all-stars -- guys who had the rare gift of creating their own shot and
demanding a double team, or young big men of untapped promise. But that
wasn't Antoine's value on the marketplace. Antoine now returns to the
place from which he came: for the pick with which we got him was
originally acquired from Dallas. I'm willing to believe that Raef
LaFrentz, Jiri Welsch, and a pick are the best Walker could fetch, but
are they good enough? LaFrentz didn't put up very impressive numbers last
year on the overstocked Mavs; but the previous year, his numbers were
.458 shooting, 13.5 points a game, 7.5 rebounds, 1.1 assists, and (most
importantly) 2.73 blocks, 2nd in the NBA. That last statistic is a little
misleading -- LaFrentz isn't a great one-on-one shotblocker, like Tim
Duncan or Ben Wallace. He blocks most of his shots on another's defenders
assignment, coming from the weak side. But that's perfect for the O'Brien
/ Harter help defense system. More importantly, his offensive skills are
ideally suited to an uptempo system. He can score from all over, knows
how to work and play well with others, and gets rid of the ball in a
flash if he doesn't have a good opportunity. More importantly, his
presence in the lineup opens up much-needed minutes and shots for Kedrick
Brown, Vin Baker, and, one hopes, Brandon Hunter too. In a way, you
should think of the trade as being for those guys as well, since they
will now get an opportunity they couldn't have had with Antoine in place.
As for the rest of the deal: Welsch is a big, talented combo guard that
might turn out to be the next Ginobli (or not.) Mills is a throw in. But
don't turn your nose up at the Mavs' pick because it will probably be in
the high 20s: just this year, we got Kendrick Perkins with that pick. And
there is always the possibility that we can sweeten another deal with it,
or trade up in the next draft. So we lose the Celtics' leader, their most
talented big man, and the only elite scorer other than Paul Pierce. And
we gain an upgrade on defense, a better uptempo player in attitude if not
in skills, a higher shooting-percentage, and more time and shots for the
talented players we already have on our roster. We add the shooting guard
we needed, and get a pick too. It's not a trade to exult over, but it
might help get us closer to a title. Still, it's a huge risk, comparable
to signing Vin Baker a couple of years ago. And for those of us, like me,
who lived and died with Antoine and watched him develop as a player and a
man for the past seven years, it can't help but feel like a deep
emotional loss. We'll never see him launch a three-point brick with 20
points left on the shot clock, but we'll never see him pirouette into the
lane and drop in a spinning bank shot that you would never see before,
and never see again. You won't have to see him get stuffed by Kenyon
Martin; but you also won't see him dominate and dismay Cliff Robinson or
Jermaine O'Neal either. When Antoine was drafted, the Celtics were at
their lowest and most dismal ebb. Reggie Lewis was as dead as Len Bias,
and M.L. Carr was the coach and GM. I was 28, marooned in a cold place
far from home, and he brought my dormant love and hope for the Celtics
back to life. I screamed at him, argued about him, finally got to meet
him and talk to him, and came to feel like he was part of my family, for
good and evil. Now he's gone. But let's have a moment to feel how much he
meant to the Celtics franchise, and the Celtics family, for these last
seven years. And hope that the Celtics will find a way to replace the
huge, gaping space he has left behind.

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