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 Inside the NBA
Posted: Tuesday April 20, 1999 05:33 PM Clipper at a Crossroads | Around The Rim Spotlight: Thurl Bailey Antoine Walker can't get a break in Boston By Jackie MacMullan
It was a high-percentage, routine jumper from the foul line. Too bad Boston forward Antoine Walker missed it. As soon as the ball rolled off the rim, the FleetCenter crowd began booing the Celtics' captain. The game against Atlanta on April 14 was less than a minute old, yet already the fans wanted blood, and it was clear whose they wanted.
Two nights later, on the same parquet floor, Walker banked in a difficult three-pointer with .7 of a second to play, propelling the Celtics to an 82-81 win over the Heat. The crowd, roaring with delight, gave him a standing ovation. Then last Sunday, in the first quarter of a game against the Wizards, Walker's season took another twist when he sprained his left ankle. Team officials feared he would miss the Celtics' final 10 games. As a Boston team that had delusions of playoff grandeur fights to keep itself out of the Atlantic Division basement, Walker's injury may have a devastating effect. Before going down, though, he had become almost as infamous among Celtics fans as Sidney Wicks and Curtis Rowe, the poster boys of the Celtics' darkest days. No other team leader in the history of this storied franchise was exalted and then condemned the way Walker has been, with sentiments often shifting from one quarter to the next. The Celtics clearly consider Walker their star of the future, having signed him to a six-year, $71 million contract extension in January. Walker was deemed a sound investment three months ago because he's only 22 years old and can score, rebound and pass. Yet Boston fans, spoiled by decades of excellence and blinded by faith in coach Rick Pitino, have not warmed to Walker, who has never been to the playoffs and whose career record in Celtics green was 67-137 at week's end. Some parochial Bostonians despise his signature celebratory move, the wiggle, which he performs even after scoring meaningless baskets. Walker's declaration last summer that he was "a veteran All-Star" also cost him, and he did not endear himself to Celtics fans this season by reporting to camp out of shape. What Walker's critics fail to note is that he had played extremely hard over the past month, and his once reckless shot selection had been remarkably judicious. "If I have a bad game and they boo me, that's fine," Walker said after the loss to Atlanta. "I make the big money. I'll take the blame. But if I take a shot and it doesn't go in, you're going to boo me? It's ridiculous." No athlete could have endured the scrutiny Walker was under. His heroics against the Heat last Friday were a welcome salve for his wounds, but he understood such relief was only temporary. The larger issue is how Walker's woes have affected his teammates, notably rookie forward Paul Pierce and second-year swingman Ron Mercer. Team sources say that Mercer, who can sign an extension with the Celtics this summer but was shopped before the trading deadline, will think long and hard before re-upping. Mercer recently changed agents. He dumped David Falk -- who has a cozy relationship with Pitino and handles a number of Kentucky alumni, including Walker and Celtics forward Walter McCarty -- to go with Master P. Mercer also severed ties with financial adviser Rick Avare, a Pitino pal from Kentucky who is now on the Boston payroll. Mercer says the moves were business decisions, not a declaration of independence from a controlling coach. He has spoken very little about his future, but after the Hawks game he was visibly shaken by the treatment Walker had received. "Antoine is a strong person," Mercer said. "If anyone else on the team was going through that, I don't think we could deal with it. It's so unfair to put all the blame on him." Pierce admits that he, too, was jolted by the fans' hostility toward Walker. "I don't understand," says Pierce. "He's been playing some of his best basketball, but he can't make mistakes anymore?" Walker says he will "reevaluate everything" at season's end. He has few options. He is locked up in Boston until 2006, and even if he decides to ask for a trade, his base salary makes him a poor candidate for a swap. Perhaps that's why there's so much frustration in the air at the Fleet. The stark truth is that Walker is stuck with the Celtics, and they are stuck with him.
Life Without Jordan: When Chicago swingman Toni Kukoc tunes into a Houston game and tracks his old teammate Scottie Pippen, he wonders if he should adjust his set. The guy languishing on the perimeter with a look of frustration on his face sure doesn't appear to be the All-Star who won six NBA titles with the Bulls. Conversely, neither Kukoc nor anyone else would have guessed that the former Chicago player who would flourish most in a new environment would be swingman Jud Buechler. He was a bit player in Chicago's title runs, yet he has been a significant contributor for Detroit this season, averaging 5.6 points and 21.6 minutes a night through Sunday. Pippen, meanwhile, was shooting a career low 42.6% from the floor and averaging just 14.2 points and 6.4 rebounds at week's end. Clearly he misses playing alongside Michael Jordan -- who wouldn't? -- but he seems to pine nearly as much for Chicago's triangle offense, which accentuated his strengths. Pippen, Jordan and Kukoc all knew what the others planned to do before they did it because the rhythm of the offense had become second nature to them. "Most teams have plan A, B and C," Kukoc said last week. "With us, it was A and, only if necessary, B. C never existed." In Houston, plan A is Hakeem Olajuwon. The Rockets won two championships by going to him in the low post. The team's other primary offensive threat is Charles Barkley backing into the basket. That leaves Pippen in the unfamiliar role of a perimeter player waiting for a kick out from the double team. "I'm not sure why that's a surprise to Scottie," says longtime Bulls assistant Tex Winter, the architect of the triangle offense. "I've always said that for Scottie to score big, he has to score threes." Pippen's success shooting the three in Chicago was bolstered by his effectiveness as a penetrator and creator. He says those skills are often lost in Houston's offensive schemes. "I got used to getting touches and cutting and creating and anticipating what I could do next to get easier shots," says Pippen. "Here I'm not allowed to do that. I'm not used to an offense focused on one individual. The biggest adjustment has been standing out there, waiting to catch and shoot threes. That's not my style." Most observers agree that Pippen will eventually have a bigger impact on the Rockets. "It may take some time, but Scottie will find his niche," Winter predicts. "You can't make too much of his demeanor. It's Scottie's personality to get frustrated with things." If Buechler was frustrated by his lack of playing time in Chicago, he at least had the privilege of playing for a champion. Winter says he always felt that Bulls coach Phil Jackson should have used Buechler more, but Jackson's dilemma was obvious: Carving out time for Buechler meant shaving minutes from either Jordan or Pippen. Detroit has experienced no such difficulties. The Pistons envisioned Buechler as a hardworking role player who could knock down three-pointers and give them between 10 and 12 minutes a night. "But right away he surprised us with his athleticism and his defense," says coach Alvin Gentry. "The more I saw, the more I wanted him in there. He was a big-time find for us."
Clipper at a Crossroads: When Michael Olowokandi was drafted first by the Los Angeles Clippers last year, he steadfastly refused to discuss his new employer's disastrous past. As the 1998-99 season inches mercifully to a close, the rookie center must now confront the past as well as the present and the future. The grisly details include a year in which the Clippers could have set records for futility if the schedule had not been shortened by the lockout. Through Sunday, L.A., which opened the season with 17 consecutive losses, had won only seven games. Now Olowokandi must consider what will be left next year of what is already a shell of a team. Forwards Rodney Rogers and Lorenzen Wright -- both of whom will be free agents this summer -- and veteran guard Pooh Richardson have made it clear they want out. Forward Maurice Taylor, the Clippers' first pick in the '97 draft, also could become a free agent after next season and opt to leave. "I think Maurice will stay," Olowokandi said last week. "His attitude has always been positive. He gets upset when we lose. He cares what happens to our team." That in itself is a novelty. Players who have been in Clippers purgatory for several seasons tend to become indifferent. Losing breeds losing, and too often in close games this season, veteran players who have seen their team blow it in the past have let it happen again. "I have to overcome whatever negativity surrounds the Clippers," Olowokandi says. "I don't dwell on last year or experiences that are specific to some of my teammates. If my experience turns out to be sour [too], then so be it." Olowokandi, who had hoped to be Rookie of the Year, concedes that he didn't expect such modest personal statistics (averages of 9.1 points and 7.8 rebounds through Sunday) or such gruesome team results this season. With point guard Sherman Douglas finally healthy and contributing, Olowokandi's revised goals include finishing the year with a win total that reaches double digits. Atlanta coach Lenny Wilkens , who is also head of the National Basketball Coaches Association, has petitioned the league to change the injured reserve list to the reserve list, thereby allowing teams to carry 14 players legitimately, instead of conjuring up injuries to stash healthy players. Wilkens proposes that the two players on reserve receive the minimum salary, with the understanding that they cannot be kept on reserve for more than one season. "The way it works now is a farce," says Wilkens, who dressed only 11 players against Boston last week because his organization refuses to put players on injured reserve unless they are really hurt ... Portland is concerned that forward Brian Grant may be hindered the rest of the way by a sore left knee. Grant has missed two games in the past two weeks ... Utah coach Jerry Sloan , an assistant to Wilkens on the 1996 U.S. Olympic team, expressed disappointment last week at not being chosen team coach for the 2000 Games. Houston coach Rudy Tomjanovich , who coached the U.S. in the world championships last summer, was given the nod instead. "What did I do wrong?" Sloan said. "I don't mind criticism. Did I do something wrong? I'd like to know." Those in the know say that USA Basketball's intent was not to slight Sloan but rather to reward Tomjanovich for having coached a team that was supposed to be composed of NBA All-Stars but, because of the league's labor strife, was made up of CBA and college players. Issue date: April 26, 1999
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