Re: Blount

["Dan Forant" <dforant1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This stuff could be a smoke screen for Blount to up the ante. I don't blame
him. It's a money thing. He has easily been the best Celtic player lately
and seems capable of easily carrying on in this fashion. I don't think
Blount really needs his nanny's EWil and Battie. If he does it's time for
some counseling. He's a mature man of what 27? Maybe he wants a different
geographical location. Couldn't blame him there. The Northeast sucks for
many reasons. The Celts have to find a way to keep this center that is
growing in talent in leaps and bounds. So he's mouthy. No one was mouthier
than Bird. Hunter, Mihm, and Perkins are projects still. Showing only
sporadic talent so far. Our pressing need is a PF.

DanF

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Shawn Niles"

> 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.