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Re: Walker, Mercer, the Celts



I think in this post you are coming to an idea that the owners should get
together and say that they wouldn't pay above a certain dollar figure for any
player.  That would be in volation of anti-trust laws.  And since only baseball
has a exemption from anti-trust laws, I'm guessing the the players association
would take that to court and win.  (I think the term for that is something like
collusion).  

I see all of these posts about Walker and I say to myself, what is the
difference?  There isn't going to be a basketball season anyway.  We will have
to spend all YEAR talking about this.  This is a battle between the rich and
the richer.  The owners keep saying that they are all losing money. Well why
don't they bring in some impartial auditors to prove it to the players
association so they will shut up.  Then the players can see that if they keep
fighting for more and more money that more and more teams will be out of
business.  

No teams, no money.  Granted the players don't need to worry about how much
they make as long as someone is pay it.  But they also need to make sure they
don't bankrupt the league.  Soon all teams will be one superstar and 12 CBA
rejects.  Because that is all owners can afford.

Shawn Roth

Celtic Pride is still alive!

Originally from Chris Littlefield:
> 
> What's the bottom line as far as fielding a competitive basketball team in
> the NBA?  What are the most valuable commodities?
> 
> The players.
> 
> Walker, despite showing many of the tendencies demonstrative of being a
> prick, is a _player_, the best player the Celtics have under contract BY
> FAR.
> 
> Remove Walker from the roster of the 1997-1998 Celtics, and how many games
> would that team have won?  Maybe 15.
> 
> What if, in an alternate reality, we had gotten Ray Allen as the #6 pick of
> the 1996 draft instead of Walker? We could not have done any worse as far
> as records go in 1996-7, so I'm assuming we still would've ended up with
> the #'s 3 and 6 picks in 1997.  Maybe we would've drafted Mercer and Battie
> instead of Billups.
> 
> Anyone think a starting lineup of Declerq, Battie, McCarty, Mercer and
> Billups/Anderson would've won more than 20 games, regardless of Pitino's
> well-documented coaching skills?
> 
> What I'm getting at is this...Walker's skills and production and commitment
> to this team were the primary enabler of 36 wins, a 21-game improvement
> lest we forget.
> 
> Why is Walker's skipping out on the workouts such a big deal?  Peter May's
> just a rabble-rousing jerk.  Walker did the same thing last year (which
> raises the specter of the double-standard applied to the Eric Williams
> trade, but that post was long ago and far away).  Why is it an issue now?
> 
> It all comes down to the money.  If Walker were a prick (and Larry Bird was
> no saint in his day.  The stakes were just much lower, and we were winning
> 60 games a season) UNDER CONTRACT for the next 4 years, this would be an
> entirely different issue.  We'd probably be talking about trading him
> somewhat but mostly looking for him to tap into even more of his seemingly
> endless potential.
> 
> But now that we're looking at $100 mil+ contracts, it's all about greed and
> the owners crying, etc.  Hey...they're ALL rich.  The owners want to
> legalize limits to their spending.  Why is that?  If you can't afford
> something, don't buy it.  If you want to level the playing field, then
> present a united front to the players stating that hey, the Bird
> Exception's still in effect but no-way, no-how are any of you players
> getting more than X.  They need to contractualize spending limits?  Why not
> just say "No $100 mil contracts for you!  30 Years!"  Hey, what's the first
> rule of marketing?  Sell not at what is a fair price, but at what the
> market will bear.  It's not a matter of how valuable a certain commodity
> is, it's how much the buyers (owners) are willing to pay for it.  It looks
> like so far the market will bear $100 mil+ contracts.  The owners are
> stewing in their own meal, and the players, selfish and rich, are taking
> advantage of perceived market value.
> 
> What would you do in a similar situation?  What if your boss just bumped
> you to, say, $50K/year, when a headhunter calls up and offers you $100K for
> the same job.  Then you check the market and your job value has just gone
> berserk, to let's say $250K/year.  I don't know about you, but I'm not
> worrying much about the company paying the bills quite yet 'cause I figure
> they've got the money.  They have to, don't they, to be able to offer me
> this exorbitant sum in the first place?
> 
> 
> 
> Okay, back to Walker.
> 
> Why are so many people disappointed with or resentful of him, anyway?  What
> has he done that's so deserving of what's essentially become vilification?
> 
> Has he...assaulted a cop while stoned  (Chris Webber)?
> 
> Been pulled over stoned and in possession of an illegal firearm (Allen
> Iverson)?
> 
> Been jailed (Allen Iverson)?
> 
> Not played in a bunch of games due to really weak injury excuses while
> dealing with a scandal from gifts received in college  (Marcus Camby)?
> 
> Physically assaulted refs (Van Exel, MAGIC JOHNSON, Vernon Maxwell)?
> 
> 
> 	Hey, don't get me wrong.  He's no saint.  This is the list of
> things I would like to see him change:
> 
> 1) His attitude toward the refs.  He's whiny and argues calls where he
> shouldn't.  Sometimes he's okay with it.  Most times he's not.
> 
> 2) Shot selection.  At times he can be positively brilliant offensively.
> More often than I like he gets this 'I'm the Man' attitude and does his one
> on four routine, missing the easy pass.  What's so frustrating about this
> is that he is the best passing big man the Celts have had since LB, and has
> the potential to be the best passing big man in the league.
> 
> Tell me you haven't seen Walker dazzle with passes that would make Kenny
> Anderson jealous, then follow up with some of the most head-up-the-ass
> drives imaginable.  I don't think the problem is incurable, but it sure is
> frustrating.
> 
> 3) Free throws.  He's got to get at least to 75%.  Anything less than that
> is abominable and his own fault.
> 
> 4) Shooting %.  His 2-pt fg% for the year was 45%.  Not too bad but should
> be over 50%.  His overall shooting percentage for the last 25 games was
> 47%.  Here's hoping a healthy Kenny A.'s presence will continue that trend.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 	So hey, while I defend Walker, I'm not blind to the fact that he is
> an unpolished, unfinished product.  On the other hand, I think he's a
> 6'9.5" forward with potential superstar skills in every phase of the game.
> What he needs, like the rest of this team, is time and maturity.  And he
> needs more help up front (and by up front, I mean along the front line, not
> in his frontal lobe area)
> 
> 	No one can show me that this is not a player who is immensely
> competitive, arrogantly confident, and wants nothing more than to WIN.
> Period.  That's what Jordan, Bird, and Magic are.  Anything less, and you
> go home early.
> 
> 	If you lose Walker now, how do you get fair value back?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 	Okay, enough about Walker.  What about Mercer?   Here's what he
> needs to do:
> 
> 1) Get stronger.
> 
> 2) Post up, go to the hole more.  He only averaged 2.7 free throws/game,
> while shooting 90% from the line the last 4 months of the season.  That
> needs to be taken advantage of.
> 
> 3) Expand the shooting range.  Let's see some 3's, Ron!
> 
> 4) Take more shots.  Averaged 17+ points per game over the last three
> months of the season.  I'd like to see that continue.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 	As a team, we need a higher FG% and better rebounding. We're
> getting enough shots. We need a healthy Kenny A. to run the offense.
> Pierce should be a welcome offensive addition.  And we need to sign some
> kind of real center, probably either Geiger or Austin.
> 
> 	If we could keep the Fab Four intact and come up with enough dough
> for Austin, I'd be one happy camper.
> 
> 	Along this line, I say trade Barros and sign Eric Murdock in his
> place for much less.  I like Barros, that's why he can be traded.  Outside
> of the Fab Four, he has the most value at this time, and could bring maybe
> a Doleac or Clark in return.
> 
> 	Whoo.. It's been a while.  Sorry if I bored anyone.  This has been
> building for a while.
> 
> 
> Here's to an early resolution to the lockout!
> 
> 
> Chris
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