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Blount
Blount remarks suggest departure
By Mark Murphy
Monday, March 22, 2004
Mark Blount has told anyone and everyone, essentially, that he's out of here
at the end of the year. The Celtics center has said it publicly. He's said
it on the team bus and in the locker room.
No one took the early season trades that broke up this team harder.
Blount, who had some close friends traded away, reacted as if he were the
child in a bitter divorce. Danny Ainge's moves cut him deep.
So deep, in fact, that the emotion may have helped push his game to a
surprising level.
Only two players in the league, Shaquille O'Neal and Kevin Garnett,
have pulled down more rebounds this month. Blount's 12-point, 12-rebound
performance during Saturday's loss in San Antonio marked his 10th
double-double in the last 14 games.
Interim coach John Carroll is so moved, he's initiated a campaign to
have Blount named the NBA's most improved player. It's all created an
interesting challenge for Ainge, with Blount in the last year of his
contract and the prospect of joining his mentor, former Celtics coach Jim
O'Brien [news], at some unspecified stop down the road.
How do the Celtics hold onto this guy? And do they want to?
Blount said he hasn't heard word one from the team on the subject.
Ainge, scouting the NCAA regionals in Raleigh, N.C., this weekend, was
a bit subdued when he said, ``Mark knows that we want him.''
Asked about Blount's chances of remaining a Celtic, Ainge said, ``Those
things are left for the right time. I don't know what's going to happen.
He's playing as good as he has in his whole career. You'd think that he
would enjoy the way he's playing. The bottom line is that we love Mark, and
we want him to stay.''
The problem is that Blount, regardless of his hard work and stated urge
to help drive this team into the playoffs, probably doesn't love his own
situation.
His much-publicized spat with Ricky Davis, an oral blowout that caused
Carroll to kick both players out of a recent practice, shouldn't have come
as a surprise. Blount was the loudest locker room critic of the trade that
brought in Davis and shipped out two of his closest teammates, Eric Williams
and Tony Battie.
The team didn't view the argument as being triggered by the
controversial Davis.
Instead, a number of staffers were reportedly upset with Blount's
behavior leading up to the cross-court shouting match.
But considering the way he has responded on the court, Blount has
essentially left himself above internal reproach.
``I hear Mark talk all the time,'' Carroll said. ``It's a matter of
what I choose to worry about. All I care about is his ability to perform
when the ball goes up. What happens later is not my area. At the same time,
it's my job to try and help him perform.
``Mark is an emotional guy, and that is what drives him. Sure he's
emotional and says things, but in the big picture it's like a mouse nibbling
at your toes. There are other things that are more deserving of your
attention.''
This has become Blount's mantra as well. If the 7-footer has surprised
himself with his recent play, he's keeping that particular emotion to
himself.
``I mean it - I don't even think about it,'' he said. ``I'm still
learning the game, watching a lot of film with John Carroll and Frank
Vogel.''
Blount, a favorite of O'Brien's for his fanatical approach to
conditioning, continues a rigorous pregame shooting routine with Vogel.
There isn't a Celtic in better physical shape or more tuned in on the
defensive end.
If anything, the trades served to heighten Blount's on-court awareness.
And yes, the memory of those deals, as well as O'Brien's resignation, still
burn.
``All of the trades,'' Blount said, ``they were just people that I
worked with. If you work with someone for five, six, seven years, it will
affect you when they leave.
``So right now I'm just trying to work with the core group, guys like
Paul (Pierce) and Walter (McCarty). I'm benefiting from the fact that we
have a lot of shooters. You're either going to guard them or guard me, and
right now I'm really getting helped by that.''
The question is what Blount will remember more come July, his
improvement within the current group or all of those old hurts.
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