Screw Baker -- Obie's Still the Problem

["Josh Ozersky" <jozersky1@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Bruce Allen didn't link my piece because all everyone
is talking about is Baker -- but he's not the problem.
Here's the new Hoopsworld column



Death Wish

I don't mean to suggest that I want to die; far from it!  I want to live and
see the Celtics flourish; games like last night only inspire suicidal rages
for a few futile seconds at a time.  No, the death I'm referring to is the end
of Jim O'Brien's tenure as the coach of the Celtics.

I think he wants it to happen.

The sick-making character of Tuesday's loss went far beyond another bad game.
Sure, it had all the qualities that have disgusted Celtics fans in recent
years:  the barrage of 34 (!) three-pointers; the four men standing around the
perimeter; the criminal misuse of gifted, mobile athletes like Ricky Davis,
Marcus Banks, and Chris Mihm; and, lest we forget, a central role for Walter
McCarty, while Brandon Hunter and Kendrick Perkins rot on the bench.  But this
was so much worse, because Jim O'Brien stepped to the microphone and
bald-facedly announced the return of Obieball.  29% shooting.  No fast breaks.
Even Jeri Welsch turned to a spot-up shooter.

"We're a team that lacks a low-post scoring punch right now," Obie said, "and
we'll take every open three that we can get.''

Do we really have to sit still for this?  Isn't there anything anyone can do?
Goodbye to passing.  Goodbye to the fast-break.  So much for Marcus Banks.  So
much for Chris Mihm, and Hunter, and all the other players Ainge acquired.
Even Tommy Heinsohn is disgusted, calling out his pet Walter, and correctly
predicting that Ricky Davis would be placed on the three-point line whether he
was suited to it or not.  This can't go on, and I think Obie knows it.

All this gives rise to a couple of major questions.  First of all, is there
anyone left who still believes that the pig-headed, stationary style of the
last few years was a "devil's bargain" foisted on the unsuspecting O'Brien by
Antoine?  It's clear that in any game of Celtic Survivor hosted by O'Brien,
Walter is going to be the last one voted off.  O'Brien just loves the old
system, and only wishes he had more untalented blitz defenders and
one-dimensional three-point shooters to play.  He actually had the gall to say
that we have no low-post threat -- manifestly untrue as he has at least three
that I know about.  Worse still, he just ceded the lane to the Pistons.  How
can a basketball coach on any level just decide that the team won't even try
to score in the paint?  The Celtics of November wouldn't have had a problem
scoring, even without Vin Baker, whom O'Brien has driven to drink yet again.
Why they can't score now is strictly on the coach, who seems to have actively
impeded the running game that had turned the Celtics around earlier this
season.

Second of all, where the hell is Danny Ainge?  It has to pain him as much as
it does me to see the Celtics gutted and misused this way; doesn't he have any
power at all over O'Brien?  If he doesn't feel that he can fire Obie now, the
least he can do is trade Walter, or at least have a serious sit-down with his
intransigent coach.  Can Ainge really let this happen to the Celtics?  I think
Obie wants to get fired, and is taking the Celtics down the only way he knows
how.  I'm sorry that the Vin Baker story will push this mystery into the
background; because I think something has to give, and soon.  This game was a
towel thrown in Ainge's face.  And the fans.

Death to Obieball!