The Confidentally Optimistic Bill Walker

via multimedia.heraldinteractive.com

Bill Walker is the one. He's the guy the true die-hards know is our best shot. Not to win a championship, not to be an All-Star (at least this year), but he's our best shot at being "the young guy that makes good". We've been taunted and teased before, but sometimes...sometimes it works out. The last guy that worked out was Rajon Rondo. Before that it was "Big" Al Jefferson. We've been disappointed before though too. Gerald Green, Oriene Green (don't trust anyone named Green), Sebastian Telfair, the list goes on. But this kid is special. He brings an intensity on the court we didn't see from either Gerald or Oriene. Off the court he brings a sense of responsibility and duty that would make Ray Allen blush. Today's news just reinforces what we already know about ol' Billy.

Per Today's Herald:

Bill Walker is another of those great positive thinkers.

Mere days after having the fourth knee surgery of his young life, the 21-year-old Celtics forward said yesterday that the recovery process “is going to be one of the easiest rehabs I’ve had. Of all my injuries, this is going to be the easiest one.”

Doctors have told Walker, who turns 22 on Friday, that recovery will take 6-8 weeks, but Walker has a shorter period in mind until his return to the court.

“Four weeks,” he said, jaw set, during a visit to the team’s Waltham practice facility for treatment.

Honestly I have never been as disappointed in the Celtics as I was when Danny Ainge opted to let Leon Powe walk when all it would have taken was a minimum contract offer. It wasn't because Leon Powe was going to be an All-Star this year, it was because Leon Powe never gives up, he never surrenders, and he never waivers in his drive and confidence in himself as a player. You need guys like that on your team. They don't complain, they don't cause problems. They just sit, they play their role, they learn, and they wait for their chance like a pitbull waiting for a big juicy steak. That's Bill Walker right there. That's why he's different.