On Hoops season review

["Greg Odegaard" <gmodegaa@longvred.rmc.com>]

The On hoops folks always have a interesting spin to the stories.  Of
course this should be interesting to us all:


"Boston
36-46 Regular Season
Pitino worked his magic once again

Looking Back - After all the ingloriousness of the Cs' ML Carr experiment,
it once again became fashionable to be a Boston Celtics fan. Rick Pitino
came with a huge reputation and an equally as massive salary, and he was
given a free hand to re-work this team in whatever way he saw fit. This
didn't make him immune to criticism, but it did make the Celtics much more
talented, enthusiastic, Kentuckified, and, right from the first game of the
season, successful. The C's were only 2 games below .500 at the turn of the
calendar year, attesting to how far they've come since the 15 win campaign
of just 1 season ago.

MVP - Antoine Walker. A wonderful young talent who only has to improve his
shooting percentages and his temperament, the world is at Antoine's feet.

DPY - Andrew DeClercq. We could give it to Ron Mercer's quick hands, but
DeClercq's commitment and drive was the closest Boston had to a much needed
interior enforcer.

MIP - Walter McCarty. When Pitino gave Chris Mills away, we thought this
was a terrible move, but McCarty's work ethic and lithe body quickly
brought us round.

Looking Ahead - So many teams are vying for the title of "most talented
young lineup in the league", but Boston are right up there, especially
considering the addition of Paul Pierce via the draft. The Celtics need to
get bigger and tougher in the paint, but everywhere else, they've got all
the tools, both mental and physical, to make Pitino's system work. Now, as
long as they can re-sign Antoine, who needs to be treated very very
carefully, the re-building of a new Celtics dynasty doesn't seem that far
away."