Kevinn Who? - Catching Up

Agreed about Payton and Antoine. I think they are just getting crotchety in their old age….

Payton has an A in his name Jeff not an E.

Peyton and Antoine would say the Celtics need players like…guess who…Peyton and Antoine. No thanks! I think the C’s are doing a great job of trying to win with not enought talent to win. I enjoy the effort, the demo of young guys potential and the loss at the buzzer. C’mon the 7 guys they had playing were too undersized to really win. We will be fine next year if we don’t dump this young talent we’ve had to wince through their growing pains. Perk is my epiphany. I thought he was a flat out bust and he looks like a player the last 3 weeks. Get Rondo some help on defense and he will be an all D team member. He’s that good.

Actually, I completely agree with Payton and Antoine; they’re probably frustrated not just because Ainge decided not to re-up (which, in hindsight, remains a smart decision but for his inability to REPLACE their veteran leadership with a shorter-term veteran) but also because they must feel for Pierce being all alone out there. I don’t blame them for being “crotchety.”
Heck, I’M bitter! LOL.
By the way, I’ll be at Philips Arena on Tuesday night to FINALLY WATCH THE CELTICS, LIVE! Not that there are any Celtics left to actually watch — nor are they are any Hawks left! — but I’ll be there, explaining to my fiancee what all the fuss is about.
Will anyone of consequence suit up for this one? Big Al? Anyone?

Gary Payton and Antoine Walker know the deal. There not stupid, any team who wins in the NBA has some sort of veteran leadership. Case and point the Heat last year. The Celtics are not going to win until they can get 5-6 Veteran players who will know there role and place with the team. They have this in a way with Pierce, Wally, Scal (did I just say that) and in a way West (I think he has a veteran mindset on the court) and I think Danny Ainge tried doing that in a way with Theo Ratliff, but obviously certain things didnt go his way.
I say this not to diss the young guys because I think this team with certain pieces playing a whole year around each other would have contented for the Atlantic. But thats not sayin much. Getting Oden will help, getting Durant will also help. But how many of us really think if we put Oden on the C’s, that they will be a solid contender for the NBA Title in 2-3 years. Your gonna have to wait 5 or longer. And some of us might actually have the patience………..rrrrrrright.
But I think Ainge knows all this because even if they do contend in 4-5 years on a regular basis. Ainge wont be here to see it, and do you think he wants that? The team he puts out on the floor for next season will make or break him and his right hand man Doc……lets hope we can hang Banner 17 sometime freakin soon.

Payton sure backed down towards the end of that conversation…

Antoine was a talented player who absolutely refused to become the much, much better player that he surely could have been. He has maintained his delusion that he was or is a great three point shooter. He was a decent three point shooter when his feet were set and he was squared up to the basket. If you watched his feet before he shot you could tell whether the shot even had a prayer. He never figured that out in Boston, Dallas, or Atlanta. His shot selection in Miami has been marginally better; maybe he figured out he wasn’t going to get much playing time if it didn’t. The trade for LaFrentz might have been stupid, but the idea that the Celtics were never going to progress with Antoine Walker playing such a big role was not.

Antoine should be happy that the Celtics facilitated a trade to Miami on such favorable terms for him. Antoine should be happy that Miami got the advantage of the David Stern professional wrestling rules of NBA officiating (where the chosen one gets, if not an outright win, special treatment that can lead to a win.)

Antoine has done nothing since his trade to Dallas to make me think that the idea of trading him was wrong. The bitterness in the views that he continues to express, even after the Celitcs helped him get a great sign and trade deal with Miami that led to a championship ring, reinforces my opinion.

If the Celtics were to get Oden they could be seriously contending for the NBA East championship in two years. Maybe that doesn’t make him a savior but it makes the Celtics a far better team than they are now. It also makes them a far better team than the Celtics teams that had Antoine playing perimeter offense, like LaFrentz, rather than down low where he could have helped the Celtics on a much more consistent basis. Unfortunately Antoine can’t handle the truth (and I don’t mean Paul Pierce.)

Tone is a looser who wasted his considerable ability through sheer ego. If Tone could have ever put his ego aside and had a realistic view of his strengths and weaknesses as a player, he would have been a periniall all-star. Instead, he let his own inflated opinion of himself turn him from being the next Cedric Maxwell, garbage man constantly inside getting rebounds, drawing fouls, getting put backs and scoring with his back to the basket while taking the occasional jump shot to keep the defense honest, into a selfish chucker who never understood his role or fit into the team. I don’t hate Tone because he had no ability. He had lots. I hate him because he had ability and refused to see it or exploit it because he was more concerned with looking good an showing everyone how good he was (or thought he was) than with winning. Tone is the anti-Bill Russell. I think as he is getting older it is dawning on him what a wasted career he has had and what a looser player he has been. Gravy training a ring from Snack and Wade doesn’t change those cold hard facts. Considering that, I am not surprised he is bitter.

As for Payton, he is a great player and a great competitor but one of those guys that nothing will ever be good enough for. Unlike Tone, I don’t really have any complaints about Payton’s game. It is just that for Payton it is and always will be about him and all his precieved disrespects. Payton could have won six rings and ten MVPs and he still would feel slighted in some way. That is just who the guy is.

Oh please, JohnCK. When walker came back to the C’s the 2nd time around, the C’s at that point where on the doorstep of missing the playoffs and he then helped lead the C’s to a freakin’ division title!!!!

You want to know why he’s all bitter and ticked, my friend? ‘Cause He WANTED to stay but Ainge wouldn’t give him the time of day…wouldn’t even offer him a low-ball contract(he didn’t offer him ANY contract to stay but instead told him to find a team to s&t to)!! >:(

If Ainge would’ve made some kind of offer to him, perhaps He’d be here and our Young Players would’ve tasted some more SUCCESS instead of endless lottery/losing crap…..