WALKER

[Dorine Pratt <norine@sover.net>]

The trouble with Antoine Walker, as I see it, has been stated many
different ways on this list.  He's a very talented young player.  He is
also not a proven leader of this franchise.  Like it or not, he's much
more interested in his own stats and his own finances than he is in the
team.  That's the way he comes across to many, many people who are not
on this or any other list, but who have seen him play.  Antoine may be
worth the kind of money he's asking for someday, but not now, and if he
was paid that kind of money, where do we get the other players we need
to compliment the ones we have?  Perhaps Falk is telling him not to show
up for things such as the shooting camp, to which Pitino invited him and
to which he should have gone, since he's the team captain.  Perhaps it's
the agent everyone should be angry with, not Antoine, I really don't
know.  I do know there are very, very few basketball players who are
worth that kind of money, and he isn't one of them, NOT YET!  He would
be better served if he would put the team ahead of himself.  He is
young, as has been documented here so many times.  Therefore, he has
plenty of time to make the big money, once the team has a chance to form
into a championship possibility.
    I'm beginning to think some people don't even stop to think about
how much money a million dollars is.  These guys don't pay any of their
expenses, the team does.  They travel in the team's private plane or
chartered plane.  They don't have to pay for any of their medical, any
of the facilities in which they practice or play, their food, rooms,
etc., etc.  It costs such a huge amount of money to buy and maintain a
professional team it's mind boggling.  People who do that sometimes
really love the game and enjoy being owners.  They are also investors
and they need to make a profit, just like anyone who is in business.  If
they didn't, why would they be in the business?  When Gaston put up the
money for some of those players who are warming the bench season after
season, he couldn't possibly know that would happen, now could he?  I
believe he's the reasonable one.  He sees that in order to get a total
team they can't afford to tie up that amount of money in a very young
player, whose time will come later.  There has to be some sanity to
player salaries.  Nobody's saying they shouldn't make alot of money,
it's a question of how much can the business stand?  Look, if you will,
at the stars of right now.  None of them, Jordan, Malone, Stockton, etc.
made that kind of money after two years in the league.  Why should
Antoine?  I think Antoine and his agent are the ones who need to be
reasonable now.  Not the fans and not the owners.
    Whatever is done about Antoine, that does not rule out the Celtics
becoming a contending team.  There are alot of good players out there
and our time will come again, with or without him.  Frankly the more I
hear about him and his demands the less I care.  He seems to think
getting more money than almost anybody says he's one of the best.  He
has to earn that status, the money doesn't mean anything other than that
he held the Celtics up for it.  I personally think Antoine has alot
still to learn about humility, about being just a teeny bit grateful
he's in the NBA, and about the fans.  That not showing up for the camp
did not sit well with me.  More than anything else, that ticked me off.
    If you don't like what I said, that's fine, but I said it, and I
stand by it.  I held it in long enough.
Dorine