Lex Nihil Novi

Are we Getting Better?

2012-01-28T21:20:00.005-05:00

Well, let's see.

At 9-9, with 4 straight wins under our belts, it seems reasonable to conclude, the Celtics of old (i.e., 2007-08 forward) are about to take over.

Maybe.

Probably not.

A closer look at the nine wins gives us a little more insight:

Detroit
Washington
Washington
New Jersey
Toronto
Washington
Orlando
Orlando
Indiana

Detroit is playing .190 ball, while the Bullets (sorry, I'm old school) are winning at the brisk clip of .158, and we've claimed one-third of our wins against them. Next we have the Raptors earning a win about as often as Pete Rose got a hit. Yes, the Magic are playing .600 ball, but does anyone take them seriously? I do take the Pacers seriously, but even Indiana is a mere 6-4 in their last ten games.

Something to consider before you celebrate the Celtics recent "resurgence."

Bob Ryan Tried to Warn Us

2011-12-29T17:06:00.004-05:00

A starting lineup that includes a 33-year-old, a 34-year-old, a 35-year-old, and a 36-year-old?

A point guard who commands scant respect as a face-the-basket scoring threat and who is a subpar free throw shooter? A bench that does not have a single player whose job description on his income tax form reads "Drop-dead jump shooter"? In the abstract, such a team would be given little chance of being so much as a .500 team, let alone a championship contender.

Danny Ainge is in the same position Dave Gavitt was 21 years ago. He has a core of aging Hall of Famers, and they aren't going anywhere. His only hope is to build around them with young talent, young legs, and young enthusiasm. Good luck. The 1989-90 Celtics season ended in a shocking manner. Up, 2-0, against the Knicks, and coming off a historic Game 2 performance at home in which they scored a playoff-record 157 points, they lost Games 3 and 4 in New York before suffering a completely unanticipated defeat at home in Game 5. That was it. They lost to the younger Knicks in 1990, the younger Pistons in 1991, the younger Cavaliers in 1992, and the younger Hornets in 1993 before missing the playoffs in seven of the next eight years.

Oh, there were some good moments left, most of them having to do with Larry Bird, who was able to ignore a mounting string of injuries and turn back the clock with a golden performance every once in a while. But things went progressively downhill in a team sense, the Celtics winning 51 games in 1991-92, after which Bird retired; 48 games in 1992-93, after which Kevin McHale said bye-bye; and 32 games in 1993-94, after which Robert Parish set off on his farewell tour elsewhere.

Gavitt knew his toughest task would be managing the end of the (original) Big Three. But what were his options, really? Trade Larry? I don't think so. Trade Robert? And find another center half as good? Trade Kevin? Well, that was a possibility, but Gavitt could never bring himself to do it. Nope. Gavitt wound up staying the course. The Big Three simply faded away. So, too, did the entity known as the Boston Celtics. Is that a grim enough scenario for you?

Well, you'd better buckle up.

You're about to have a deja vu professional basketball experience.

Here are the current Big Three, still skilled, still exemplary in their work habits, still a fountain of basketball knowledge, still completely respected around the NBA for what they have accomplished. That's all very nice, and there will be some very nice retro experiences ahead, perhaps even enough of them to justify an emotional investment in the Celtics teams that lie ahead. But the Big Three are no longer the core of a championship team.

The frustrating thing about being an aging player is that some nights it's still there, and someone can be deluded into thinking nothing has changed. But it is not there with the regularity that made someone a star. Allen and Garnett each have reached that stage. As an example, two years ago, Allen went from setting a record for 3-pointers against the Lakers one night to an 0-fer the very next game. Last May, KG went from a killer 28-point, marauder-on-defense Game 3 against the Heat to Just Another Guy status in the remaining two games.

Let's be honest.

Who among us thought there even would be a Year 4 for this core group, let alone a Year 5? They all will take to their graves the knowledge that no other Celtics team played as consistently hard from start to finish as theirs did in 2007-08, and it's reasonable to assume that, if asked on their deathbeds to recall the final score of the final game against the Lakers, a smile will come across each and every one of the faces as they whisper, "131-92."

--Grampa Celtic

McHale Clotheslines the NBA

2011-09-19T13:34:00.003-04:00

Originally Published by Lex January 2008

At 29-3, it's time to give thanks where thanks are due. Others can say Danny hoodwinked his old friend Kevin McHale. But by now members of the Celtics family know better.

McHale gave us Kevin Garnett.

Al Jefferson is a nice player. He puts up some good numbers. But he barely plays a lick of defense. He is not a leader. There is not a prayer this team would even have 20 wins at this point, much less 29, if Jefferson were on this roster instead of Garnett. I'm not even sure we'd be over .500.

Throw in Theo Ratliff's expiring $11m contract, and the deal gets a little sweeter. The bottom line remains that we got Kevin Garnett for a bunch of junk.

McHale got along famously with KG. He took him under his wing. He was responsible for transforming his line-drive jumper to the thing of beauty it is today. McHale tried to surround Garnett with championship talent for 12 years. It didn't work out.

Plan B?

Send him to McHale's other team. The team McHale played 13 years for, and won three championships. The team that retired his number in the city that still adores him and which he still adores.

If the Timberwolves weren't going to win a championship with McHale, well, then, the Celtics were.

We already retired McHale's jersey once. But, you know, we retired Russell's jersey twice. If we win the title this year, maybe the Celtics should re-retire McHale's jersey, only this time at the bottom of the McHale banner would be found the numbers 44 and 5, for Ainge and the Ticket.

Number 5 is also the number worn by Bill Walton in the Celtics last championship season.

He deserves an invitation to the championship parade, too.

KG Deal Better than Parish/McHale, DJ, or Walton Trades

2011-09-19T13:32:00.003-04:00

Originally Published by Lex on 1/6/2011

I would hold off on making this assessment until #17 is hoisted to the rafters.

But our old friend Peter May is suggesting that is the case even before we know what happens in June.

Flip Recalls First KG Encounter

2011-09-19T13:31:00.003-04:00

Flip Saunders got nostalgic this week, reminiscing about his time with Boston forward Kevin Garnett, whom he coached while with the Timberwolves.

He told a funny story about how Garnett ended up with Minnesota in 1995. When the Timberwolves went to scout him as a high school senior, Saunders and other front-office executives agreed that they would come out telling everyone they wanted him.

They hoped that by hyping Garnett, a team in front of them in the draft order would pick him, allowing Rasheed Wallace, Antonio McDyess, Joe Smith or Jerry Stackhouse to fall to Minnesota at No. 5.

"So we went and we watched him work out," Saunders said, "and about five minutes in, I turned to (vice president Kevin) McHale and said, 'We better hope he's still there at No. 5.' "

Saunders also recalled the first time he started Garnett -- in Boston, coincidentally.

"And he was playing a lot," Saunders said. "When I took him out at the end and he walked by me, he said, 'Coach, thanks for playing me so much.' He was just 19 at the time. Things have kind of changed."

Now Garnett is a perennial all-star, a most valuable player candidate and a likely hall of famer.

"He's going to go down as one of the greatest power forwards of all time," Saunders said. "I said it eight years ago when he was 24, he would go down as the most versatile player to ever play the game.

"No one is as versatile as him when you look at a guy who can score, rebound, can defend all five positions, is a great passer, his unselfishness and his passion to play. He's a special player. Fortunately for me, I was lucky to coach him for nine years."

1986 C's Fight Over History

2011-09-19T13:28:00.001-04:00

The 1985-86 Boston Celtics were something special.

There's no disagreement about that.

But as memories fade over time, the 72-10 record of the 1995-95 Chicago Bulls tends to stand out when the debate turns to all-time great NBA teams.

Make no mistake, members of the 1985-86 Boston Celtics are intimately aware of the need to continue fighting for their place at the table.

First, Danny Ainge was asked about the 1985-86 Celtics home court advantage. "You guys were 40-1," the interviewer posited. "Actually," Danny said, "we were 50-1, if you include the playoffs." "Yeah, and I guess you'd have to include the playoffs since they are the most important part of the season," the interviewer conceded.

The 1995-96 Chicago Bulls lost two games at home.

Next, Larry Bird was asked about the new Big Three. He responded by saying that the phrase "Big Three" as applied to the 1985-86 Boston Celtics was a kind of backhanded slap in the face to Dennis Johnson, Danny Ainge, Bill Walton, Scott Wedman, Jerry Sichting, and Rick Carlisle.

Dennis Johnson was selected to the all-defensive team nine times. He won the finals MVP once, and was largely responsible for holding Magic Johnson in check during the 1984 finals. He was also considered "money" in the fourth quarter of big games.

Bill Walton was a former league MVP, and won Sixth Man of the Year in 1985-86, leading the entire league in rebounds per minute. Scott Wedman had been an NBA All Star, and filled in for Kevin McHale when he missed 14 games with an injury. During that stretch, the Celtics went on a long win streak that included two wins over the Lakers. All Jerry Sichting did was shoot .570 from the field and .920 from the stripe in substituting for DJ and Ainge at both guard spots.

After the Chicago Bulls Big Three of Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and Dennis Rodman, the rest of the starting lineup was comprised of Luc Longley and Ron Harper. Neither of those two would be confused with an NBA Finals MVP or 9-time All-Defense member. Toni Kukoc did win Sixth Man of the Year, and Steve Kerr was probably about as good as Sichting. But to even mention Bill Wennington in the same breath as Bill Walton, who absolutely owned Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in both games against the Lakers, is ridiculous to say the least.

Speaking of Mountain Man, Bill Walton was the latest to weigh in on the 1985-86 Celtics. In an interview with Bill Simmons, Walton was asked to comment on the two games he dominated Kareem that year. "Oh come on, Simmons," Walton protested in feigned disbelief, "you must be smoking some good stuff because I never dominated Kareem." Walton always defers to his UCLA predecessor when anyone hints that he outplayed him in head-to-head matchups.

Next Simmons asked Walton if he thought the Cs would have even won the title that year without him. Again, Walton feigned disgust with the interviewer.

But Walton's tone changed when the subject came to how the team as a whole stacks up against the all-time great teams in NBA history.

"Now in your single home loss to Portland that year," Simmons interjected, "the Trailblazers gave you some matchup problems."

I thought Walton was going to come through my headphones at work.

"Match-up problems? What matchup problems? This is the 1986 Boston Celtics we're talking about here. There were no matchup problems for us that year!"

Walton went on to explain how out of the team's 15 losses that year, 14 came to teams with losing records (by which he actually meant losing records at the end of the season). The only serious foe the Celtics faced that year, Walton continued, was themselves. The team's own inability to stay focused, he said, probably cost them a shot some improbably high won-loss record.

Keep on a fightin', guys.

The battle in the trenches may be over, but the battle over history is just beginning.

Clutch Effort by DJ Leads C's to Win

2011-09-16T11:36:00.001-04:00

Clutch Effort by DJ Leads C's to Win

1985-86

MILWAUKEE Naturally, it was Dennis Johnson. With a tough game on the line, he is the one the Celtics like to see with the ball in his hands.

It was a familiar story last night in a 112-109 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks here. Kevin McHale led the Celtics in scoring with 29 points. But that seemed secondary when compared to clutch three-point effort by DJ with 1:37 left, accomplished with a crowd of 11,052 and Milwaukee's Paul Pressey screaming at him.

His 19-foot fadeway jumper from the right side wiped out a 107-104 Milwaukee lead. Johnson was fouled on the play and sank a free throw to create a tie. From there, the Celtics found it almost easy to overcome a 108-107 lead provided by a Ricky Pierce free throw 11 seconds later.

McHale put Boston ahead to stay with a jump hook, 109-108. Then Boston's defense forced a 24-second violation and Johnson finished the Bucks off with a driving layup with 26 seconds left to hand Milwaukee its first home-court loss of the season.

In fact, it was the first loss for the Central Division leaders in 24 straight games here. Johnson, who added a free throw with four seconds left, hit seven of 10 shots and finished with 16 points as the Celtics won their eighth straight.

"Seems to me he's done that to Milwaukee before," said the Celtics' Scott Wedman. "I can remember a couple of clutch shots against them with a hand right in his face. He likes that situation."

Johnson, who was playing most of the fourth quarter with five fouls, said he took the shot because it was there, and it was no time to be timid.

"The shot came off a busted play that we were running," said Johnson. "We went down to Larry (Bird) and he got tangled. The ball jolted loose. He pushed it out to me and I got free on it. The jumper was there.

"I will take it if it's there. I've missed a lot in my career but I know I will make some. Besides, I wasn't really shooting that badly."

Johnson said the 24-second violation on the next sequence was just as important.

"That was probably the best defense we played all night," he said. "What I think happened was they were behind and the crowd was making so much noise that nobody paid attention to the clock. People were out there saying 'shoot the ball, shoot the ball.' But by the time they did, time had expired."

This was one of those NBA games that isn't decided until the final two minutes. But if you waited that long to show up, you missed a classic duel of division leaders. Boston hadn't won here in two years, and the Bucks (15-7) seemingly have their best team since the Bob Lanier era. If it wasn't Pressey (28 points) giving the Celtics fits, it was Terry Cummings (25) or Sidney Moncrief (22).

The Celtics had their problems. Robert Parish (1 for 7) disappeared on offense and had but three rebounds. But it hardly seemed that way early as Boston once led by 15 points, 50-35.

But that was before the Bucks went on a 23-10 run to close the second period and cut the Boston lead to 60-58. Cummings had 18 of his 25 points in the first half. Celtics coach K.C. Jones, his roster reduced to 10 players again, went to his bench late in the third period, and what had been a 79-73 lead was turned into an 85-84 deficit.

With the lead gone, Boston went back to basics. Bird and McHale returned, and the inside game began to work. A clutch basket by Rick Carlisle and two free throws by Bird got Boston an 88-84 lead. McHale hit two straight and Boston led, 92-89. Milwaukee came right back to tie the game at 94 on a three- point play by Pierce with 6:54 to play.

Milwaukee took the lead at 96-94 on a fast-break hoop by Sidney Moncrief. But McHale hit a jump hook and Bird finished off the Celtic gold rush with a 14-footer and Boston led with 5:03 left, 98-96.

Milwaukee fell behind, 102-99, and then rallied for a 105-102 lead with 2:27 left, with Pressey and Moncrief leading the way. But they couldn't hold Boston down.

"One thing about Dennis," said Jones. "He's always been a player that plays bigger than 6-4. He always comes up with the big play. We've come to expect it.

"You need luck to win a game like this and we got some. Course, there was the 24-second violation. Sometimes, you have to make your own luck.

Exactly what kind of Mormon is Danny?

2011-09-16T11:34:00.002-04:00

Exactly what kind of Mormon is Danny?

The 1985-1986 Celtics were renown for trash talk.

One time late in the game on a West Coast trip with the score tied, KC Jones called a time-out to diagram the next play. As the time-out expired, Bird strolled past the Phoenix Suns bench to "his" spot in the corner beyond the arc, and told anyone who would listen, "DJ's gonna pass me the ball right here. In one motion, I'm gonna catch it and shoot it, and the next sound you'll hear will be the ball snapping through the net. The good news for your team is you have front row seats." After the time out, the play went down as Bird said and the Celtics walked home winners. As KC later said, "now that's arrogance."

But the trash talk wasn't always directed at opponents. Bill Walton was often the focal point. Bird liked to ride Walton about his radical political views, long-haired days from Portland, and, of course, his injuries. One of the 50 greatest players of all time, Walton could have been even greater had his body not failed him. Over the course of his career, Walton missed the equivalent of nine full seasons of basketball, and Bird never let him forget it. One night after Rick Carlisle played a crucial role in about 10 minutes off the bench against the Lakers, Bird told Carlisle in front of everyone else, "now, Rick, if you can do that in 10 more games, you will have contributed more in one season than Walton has during his entire career."

Ainge was thankful that the Celtics signed Walton during the summer of 1985. Prior to his arrival, Ainge bore the brunt of Bird and McHale's wit. Despite proclaiming to be a devout Mormon, all Ainge ever talked about was money and his golf scores. He bragged about both. Ainge tithed all his money to the Church, and every time he reported his golf score, it seemed to improve over the last time. McHale tired of this, and always had an antidote ready: He'd pull out a copy of the Mormon Holy Book, ask Ainge to place his hand on top, and repeat his score to the entire locker room. Ainge never played along.

1986 REUNION IN 2007

2011-09-01T08:24:00.002-04:00

7/15/07

1986 REUNION IN 2007

Nice to see former Celtic Scott Wedman at the summer league. The new coach of the CBA's Great Falls Explorers was on the lookout for players who may fall his way. ``Know Your Body'' Scotty said that, of his former teammates, he keeps in touch with Bill Walton the most.

``Then a couple of days ago a bunch of us were sitting down. It was Rick Carlisle, Kevin (McHale) and Danny (Ainge) and myself - and we were watching Jerry (Sichting) coach,'' Wedman said. ``We had five players there. We could have suited up . . . and walked up and down the court. Maybe.''

Wedman has been doing clinics for more than 15 years, working with young players in AAU programs and the like. This is his second season coaching in the minors, and he seems to enjoy the situation.

The NBA Finals Ain't What they Used to Be

2011-09-01T08:23:00.002-04:00

6/23/94

The NBA Finals Ain't What they Used to Be

Exhibit A: the 1985 Celtics-Lakers series.

Remember Game 1, the Memorial Day Massacre? Boston 148, LA 114? Recall that Scott Wedman shot 11 for 11?

Scott Wedman was not Boston's sixth man. That was Bill Walton. Scott Wedman was not Boston's seventh man. That was Jerry Sichting. Scott Wedman was Boston's eighth man.

When Scott Wedman stroked the first of those 11 baskets in that game, the score was Boston 52, LA 29. Here was a man capable of making 11 consecutive outside shots in an NBA Finals game, and he couldn't get into the game for the first 15 minutes.

Let me ask you something: You see any Scott Wedmans on either of these teams? Me neither.

CELTICS' TRADE WEDMAN

2011-08-31T14:26:00.009-04:00

October 18, 1987

CELTICS' TRADE WEDMAN

Now you see 'em, now you don't. Sam Vincent and Scott Wedman took the floor in Houston for the first Celtics exhibition game of the season Friday night, but by halftime, they were removing their uniforms and returning via cab to the hotel.

They had just been informed that their new mailing address was Seattle, USA.

In exchange for these two players, the Celtics obtained either a 1988 or 1989 second-round draft pick (one belonging to New York), plus an undisclosed amount of cash. That doesn't sound like a lot for two men, unless you consider that the old Branch Rickey dictum of "addition by subtraction" was in play here. Specifically, the Celtics unloaded two salaries attached to a pair of players who didn't fit into their plans. What they got in return was almost incidental.

Vincent, the 1985 No. 1 draft pick, never really got off the launching pad in Boston, and he was victimized by a numbers game and his size. "Sam really didn't get a chance to develop here," admitted K.C. Jones. "We have Dennis (Johnson) and Danny (Ainge), and then there was Jerry (Sichting) and Sam. Dennis and Danny can play together, but Jerry and Sam couldn't because they're just too short and give up too much at the defensive end. Now we've got Reggie (Lewis)."

If there were any lingering doubts about anointing the Northeastern kid, they were eliminated in the first half of Friday's game when Lewis bounded off the bench in his first professional action and played smoothly, scoring 9 points in 10 minutes.

"I was surprised," said Vincent. "I hadn't even thought about not being here, or the fact that we had two small guards. I've been having a good camp, and I don't think this trade represents dissatisfaction with my play as much as me being in a numbers game.

"I don't feel I really ever got an opportunity here," he continued, "but I'm not bitter. I'm just a little disappointed, because I really enjoyed playing with these guys. I'm going to miss Larry (Bird) and his antics, Kevin (McHale), DJ and the rest of the team. I loved the feeling of being a part of all that. But now maybe I'm going to a team that needs a point guard, and I hope I can get myself established."

As for Wedman, the 13-year veteran never really got over the devastating effects of the heel injury that restricted him to six games last season. He had lost his backup small forward spot to Darren Daye and represented excess baggage on the current ballclub. He departs Boston with two championship rings, so he would hardly call Boston an unpleasant experience.

"I don't know much about the situation I'm heading into," he said. "I was surprised. But it's kind of funny. I remember going to an exhibition game three years ago and Gerry Henderson didn't play, and I wondered what was going on. Then I learned he was traded to Seattle. Now it's happened to me (indeed, this was the third anniversary of that Henderson maneuver)."

Wedman, 35, hadn't played badly in camp this past week, either, but his time in Boston had passed. "The one thing I want to say," Wedman concluded, "was that I enjoyed playing for K.C. and with these guys. I mean, I really enjoyed it."

The Celtics have now suddenly freed up significant salary money under the cap, dumping $375,000 in Vincent and at least $200,000 in Wedman.

WEDMAN STANDS IN THE SHADOWS HEEL INJURY COULD HALT HIS CAREER

2011-08-31T14:26:00.008-04:00

May 22, 1987

WEDMAN STANDS IN THE SHADOWS HEEL INJURY COULD HALT HIS CAREER

The upshot of all this is how the situation is wreaking havoc on Scott Wedman's wardrobe.

How would you like to have to come up with 76 different suit and tie combinations to blend in with kelly green?

"That's been the biggest problem," said the 12th-year pro. "It takes me longer to dress and figure out what colors match than it did when I had to drive to the Garden, put on my uniform and go through my warmups."

There are no warmups for these playoffs, only fashion shows with Rick Carlisle. And what kind of chance does Wedman have when he must limit his foot apparel, whether he's wearing a tank top or tuxedo, to Reebok sneakers?

And while we're at it, one of those sneakers, specifically the left one, has the back carved out with a kitchen knife, leaving Wedman's heel with its own natural vent -- an air-conditioned Achilles'.

That trendy little oddity, however, is really a form of therapy to help get the mysterious left heel back in working order, back in basketball order, so the career of Scott Wedman can continue.

If the career is not already over.

"It could be (over), there's no doubt about it," Wedman said. "Hopefully, that won't be the case.

"I'm not real active on the heel. I'm not running on it or anything and, until I'm running, that's the only indication of how it will do.

"I'm going to try and rest it for another month or so, then see. I wanted to get back for the playoffs, I was hoping that could happen, but it just didn't work out."

The heel was a bother from the first day of workouts this season. Wedman didn't even get past Halloween before he was on the disabled list, there to stay until Nov. 25. He had struggled with a similar injury in college and come back strong. It didn't work out the same way this time.

He played sparingly in six games, grappled with the pain, then had a CAT scan performed that revealed a bone cyst. He was back on the DL with plenty of time to spare for Christmas. There he has stayed, and his hopes for the postseason rang hollow after a couple jogs around a high school track.

"I was taking it easy, running on the straightaways, walking on the curves," he said. "That's what seemed to work for me. But after 20 minutes, it (the heel) let me know. If I couldn't handle that, there was no way I could handle running on a court."

But how could he handle standing by and watching off the court? Scott Wedman didn't miss a practice, traveled to every game, knowing full well he could not offer his team anything.

"You definitely don't feel like you're contributing that much," he admitted. "If you're not playing, you're missing a big part of the team thing.

"You go a little nuts in a way. But hanging around and coming to practice kept me into what was happening with the team."

He cherished the few activities that didn't seem to irritate his condition: riding the stationary bike, lifting weights. Weeks and then months went by, and still that was all he could do.

The short-term recovery period was threatening to become a lifetime.

"You tell people this thing will take six weeks or so, and then it's two months," Wedman said. "Then it's longer than that. Whenever an injury is prolonged like that, people start wondering, 'Is this guy loafing? Is he not doing enough? He's not going through the pain as much as he should.'

"Then you start having the same questions. You wonder. But I knew when I got on that track I wasn't ready to come back."

His role as a shooter has been missed in these playoffs, while his role as a cheerleader and support system has barely been noticed. That alone tells you how well he's hidden his disappointment.

"It's really strange," Wedman said, "how a 3-inch square part of your body that is not functioning shuts everything else down."

Everything, of course, except his vocal cords. If the veteran forward isn't allowed to abuse any other part of his body this time of year, he might as well scream himself silly.

"This is an exciting time of year," Wedman said. "My favorite time of year. I've played a lot of years at this time. I know what I'm missing."

WEDMAN, WALTON MAY BE FINISHED INJURIES ARE 'CAREER-THREATENING'; BIRD STILL OUT

2011-08-31T14:25:00.011-04:00

January 9, 1987

WEDMAN, WALTON MAY BE FINISHED INJURIES ARE 'CAREER-THREATENING'; BIRD STILL OUT

They are the wounded. Collectively, they represent all that has been ailing the Celtics. They are Larry Bird (strained back), Bill Walton (ankle) and Scott Wedman (heel).

While Walton and Wedman were present at the Celtics' practice yesterday at Hellenic College, Bird again was a no-show. The star continued his carefully monitored recovery from a strained back he suffered against the Chicago Bulls last Friday night.

Still, Bird is expected back soon. But Walton and Wedman are entirely different stories. Both veterans have missed the majority of the season because of injuries not related to game situations and, as a result, face possible career-threatening situations, according to team physician Thomas Silva.

"I would say that this has developed into a career-threatening situation," Silva said. "I think that this club has to consider whether or not their veteran players are out of it for this season."

Silva said Walton could be back as soon as March but added, "I really don't see him doing much until then.

"You have to remember that he hasn't practiced one minute since we began back in October. There has been no swelling of the ankle and he has been walking with the aid of crutches. It is not full weight-bearing, but that is the next step."

Walton expressed guarded optimism about returning.

"It's still too early to tell," Walton said when asked whether the ankle was beginning to feel better. "I'm still experiencing a little stiffness after having the cast removed, and there is still some pain from the incision, but I just started weight-bearing on it Tuesday night . . . I feel great. I feel confident and I'm looking forward to returning to action."

The prognosis concerning Wedman's return does not appear as promising as Walton's.

"The outlook of Scott returning as an active player does not look very good right now," Silva said. "He had surgery on his (left heel) back in the middle of June, and that has not improved. The tendon (near the Achilles') has been persistently sore."

Would this present more of a career-threatening situation than Walton's?

"I would say that is a very real possibility," Silva said. "This ballclub and the doctors he has seen have been behind him all the way, but now that one-third of the season is over, he's got to face that reality."

And it's a reality that Wedman is well aware of.

"Well, I can't disagree with that," Wedman said when apprised of Silva's comments. "I have to be realistic; it doesn't look good. And it seems that I don't have a lot of options left as far as healing goes, because I've tried just about everything."

Silva described Bird's injury as one in which Bird "experienced pain spread across his lower back.

"The pain does not extend down to his buttocks or his legs, and that's very important, because it indicates no herniation or lower disc problems."

Silva said Bird's back injury may have stemmed from a combination of two things: (1) he twisted his back during the game; (2) he continued to play with the injury.

"I think those were the two things that may have caused this problem," Silva said. "He's a fellow who had just come off a long (four-game) road trip from the West Coast and had a tired body. My recommendation to him is to rest and not think about playing the next few games, but he is improving at this time."

Bird will miss tonight's home game against Sacramento (7:30, SportsChannel). In addition, Bird will not be with the Celtics for their road game against Detroit tomorrow night. Bird is expected to be ready for Tuesday night's game at New Jersey.

"The plan this weekend is for him to start his running so that he'll be ready to practice on Monday and may be ready to play on Tuesday," Silva said.

Today will mark the ninth day of Conner Henry's 10-day contract. After his ballyhooed fourth-quarter effort (11 points, including a trio of three- pointers) against the Bucks Wednesday night, Henry may have bought himself at least another 10 days with the club. "If I said anything negative about him now, I would be tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail, especially after what he did (Wednesday) night," said Celtics general manager Jan Volk. "But I would say another 10-day contract is a definite possibility." . . . K.C. Jones on tonight's game with the 9-22 Kings: "We can't have any letdowns. We just have to go out there with the same intensity as we had (Wednesday) night and try to get something going early."

CELTICS SIGN DAYE; WEDMAN OUT

2011-08-31T14:25:00.009-04:00

December 12, 1986

CELTICS SIGN DAYE; WEDMAN OUT

The Celtics have taken a step toward rectifying their abysmal bench production by placing injury-plagued Scott Wedman on the injured list and signing three-year veteran Darren Daye to replace him on the roster.

Wedman's ailing left heel did not hold up well after he started Dec. 3 and played 25 minutes against Denver. He was unable to practice the next day, and he was pulled from the game after seven ineffective minutes (all zeroes across the board, save for a personal foul) last Friday against the 76ers. Since then -- zilch.

The 6-foot-7-inch, 26-year-old Daye was waived by the Chicago Bulls when Eugene Banks came off the injured list. The Celtics had interest in him when the Bullets released him during training camp, but Chicago claimed him on waivers. Having done that, the Bulls embarrassed the former UCLA star by playing him in one game. His entire Bulls career consisted of a seven-minute appearance against the Pistons Nov. 7.

"They didn't want to play me," shrugged Daye after a morning workout at Hellenic College yesterday. "Sometimes teams say certain things to a guy, telling you that you'll play, and then they don't play you."

"He can play the big guard, he can push it and he can play the small forward," said K.C. Jones. "He's been sitting around for a couple of weeks, and he's rusty."

Daye was a 1983 third-round pick of the Bullets. His career average is 7.8 points per game, which is very close to half of what the Celtics are getting per game from their bench this season.

WEDMAN GETS A NEW DEAL

2011-08-31T14:25:00.005-04:00

May 24, 1986

WEDMAN GETS A NEW DEAL

Scott Wedman is able to smile a bit better through the pain of two broken ribs. He has signed a multiyear contract with the Celtics.

The 33-year-old Wedman, who joined the team on Jan. 15, 1983, played in 79 games this season, averaging 8.0 points. His biggest contribution came from Jan. 24 through Feb. 28, when he started in place of the injured Kevin McHale and averaged 15 points over an 18-game stretch, during which the Celtics were 15-3.

He has had a difficult and ongoing adjustment to becoming an auxiliary player in Boston after being a far more prominent player in both Kansas City, where he broke in back in 1974, and Cleveland. "It's been a great learning experience," said Wedman.

"When you come to a team with so many great players, you've definitely got to figure out where you fit in. I wouldn't say it's been easy. It's been an adjustment, but being here is something I've really enjoyed."

The question arises: Would he rather be a star on a mediocre team or an auxiliary player in Boston?

Replied Wedman, who would have been a free agent at the conclusion of the season, "I think I've answered that by signing this contract."

Celtics have Won 8 Straight (16 of 18 and 37 of 42)

2011-08-31T14:23:00.002-04:00

March 25, 1986

Celtics have Won 8 Straight (16 of 18 and 37 of 42)

It happened in front of the Houston bench, so Bill Fitch & Co. had a ringside seat.

"The last time I saw anything fall that hard," said Fitch, "was when they tore down that hotel." He was speaking, of course, about the Madison, which was detonated one block from Fitch's old Boston residence.

But this was not an object. Rather, it was 88 inches of flesh, bones and blood named Ralph Sampson, who went up for a rebound and never had a chance to walk off the floor.

"It was the old undercut," said Fitch, "but it could very well have been one of our players who did it. It's one of those things that happens every now and then in basketball. Ralph had no way to protect himself."

"It's what every player fears," said Robert Parish, who stands a mere 84 inches. "Not centers, but guards and forwards, also."

Sampson was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital. He was first subjected to a neurological examination and then given X-rays for a possible back fracture. X-rays of the head and neck were negative, and Sampson was released late last night, according to an MGH spokeswoman.

But, at least for a while, the situation was very scary. "On the floor," said Celtics team doctor Thomas Silva, "he was unable to move his extremities. By the time he left the Garden and went to the hospital, he had regained some degree of motion and some sensation had returned to his lower right leg. Those are good signs, but we have to appreciate the significance to the fullest extent that (initially) he could not move his legs."

The Celtics have now won eight straight, 16 of 18, 37 of 42 and 23 straight at home . . . The magic number to clinch the best record in the Eastern Conference is 2, meaning that a victory over Milwaukee tomorrow night at the Garden will take care of that business. The magic number for the best record overall is 6 (Celtic wins or Laker losses in any combination) . . . Larry Bird dropped in two more three-pointers in three attempts, giving him 23 for his last 32 from home run territory. He had over 30 points (36) for the seventh time in his last nine games . . . Dennis Johnson shot 2 for 17, but made his statement with 12 assists . . . In the first 2:40 of the second half, each team had one illegal defense and one delay-of-game warning apiece . . . Bill Walton (7 rebounds in 18 minutes) sent the crowd into rapture and drew a prolonged standing ovation in the second quarter when he answered a nice Akeem Olajuwon rejection of Jerry Sichting by smashing a defensive rebound in finest Karch Karaly style 30 feet upcourt to start a fast break finished off by a Scott Wedman jumper . . . Wedman's 19 points represented his biggest offensive output since the return of Kevin McHale.

MCHALE RECLAIMS STARTER'S ROLE FROM WEDMAN

2011-08-31T14:22:00.002-04:00

March 4, 1986

MCHALE RECLAIMS STARTER'S ROLE FROM WEDMAN

The guy wasn't too bad, you know. With Scott Wedman as a starter for 18 of the past 19 games, the Celtics have gone 15-3. It's not like he spread bad karma, or anything.

But Kevin McHale is now ready to resume more responsibility, and so barring any unforeseen developments between this morning and game time tonight (8:30, Channel 56), he will become the starter. Wedman will once again be a reserve.

Don't think McHale's being pushy, either. At no time in his Celtics career has he ever made a fuss about his geographic location at the start of a game. "I don't care much about starting or not starting," he insists. "It's never been a priority. Playing or not playing -- that's different. To me, it's strictly a coach's decision. Whatever he thinks will be the best for the team."

It's clear that returning McHale to the lineup is exactly what K.C. Jones thinks will be best for the team, because when asked whether he seriously considered, for even one second, maintaining the status quo now that McHale appears healthy, Jones barked "No!"

Wedman's feelings aren't at issue here. If they were, he would still be starting. "I like it (starting)," he said. "I like it a lot. I think starting has helped my confidence somewhat, and I just hope I'll keep doing as well off the bench."

Not that Wedman, a solid team player, disputes the command decision. "Kevin has earned it," Wedman says. "Since he's come back, he's been great."

No argument there. Since his seven-minute, scoreless, five-turnover ice- breaking opener on Tuesday in New York ("I just wanted to see if I could run up and down the floor, but I didn't expect to be that bad"), McHale has resumed his pre-injury level of play. He has shot 6 for 9, 10 for 11 and 10 for 10 in the past three games. He scored 26 points in 30 minutes against the LA Clippers on Friday night and 25 points in 23 minutes on Sunday against Detroit.

Coach Jones says that Wedman can still expect to see a lot of minutes, since he doesn't want to overwork either of his starting forwards. "Kevin got 23 minutes against Detroit and Larry was up around 40 (actually 41). I'd like to keep Larry's minutes down, so there are plenty of minutes available for Scotty."

Wedman averaged 12 points a game as a starter, with a high of 24 on Jan. 31 against Washington. His outside shooting made life comfortable for Robert Parish inside, and he did his share on the boards. He did what could only be described as a professional job. The question now is whether he can pro-rate his performance according to his new level of minutes played. Prior to becoming a starter he had only reached double figures nine times. Then again, prior to becoming a starter, the most minutes he had played was 28 on Opening Night, when Bird was having a long night.

Trainer Ray Melchiorre was searching for a gym in which to hold a midday shootaround prior to the game with the Bulls tonight. When the Celtics last visited Chicago, K.C. dispensed with the shootaround and the team arrived at the Chicago Stadium in a lethargic state . . . Bird has regained first place in the foul shooting derby. His 27-for-28 streak has him up to .899. Chris Mullin is second at .896 . . . The Celtics are 21-10 on the road . . . Chicago will suit up tonight without Michael Jordan (only three games played all season), Jawaan Oldham (broken right cheekbone), Dave Corzine (broken left hand), Quintin Dailey (suspended list) for sure, and will probably play without Orlando Woolridge, who has missed the last four games with a strained muscle in the right knee. Woolridge is listed as "doubtful."

Wedman Feeling Better as Bird Averages 31, 13, and 7.7 on Road Trip

2011-08-31T13:54:00.009-04:00

February 21, 1986

Wedman Feeling Better as Bird Averages 31, 13, and 7.7 on Road Trip

Flanked by his wife, Kim, and physical therapist/chiropractor Steve Krischel, Scott Wedman strolled into the lobby of the Denver Marriott early yesterday afternoon.

"I feel much better," said Wedman. "I'm going to warm up and try to play if I can."

Wedman left the Celtics in Phoenix Tuesday and flew to Kansas City while the team flew to Oakland, Calif. The Celtics organization said Wedman was excused to handle a personal problem, but refused to elaborate. When it became apparent that Wedman wasn't going to make it to Oakland for Wednesday's game, the Celts finally admitted that Wedman was suffering from a strained back.

Greg Kite started in Wedman's place Wednesday and grabbed nine rebounds as the Celts beat the Warriors, 115-100. Larry Bird registered his third triple- double of the trip: 36 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists.

Wedman got a loud round of applause when he boarded the team bus last night. Aware of the speculation and confusion surrounding Wedman's departure, the players kidded Wedman about the rumors sparked by his absence.

"I'm not really that worried about it," Wedman said before last night's game. "People that know what's going on know what the problem is. The main thing now is to take care of my back.

"The longer I let it go, the worse it gets," said Wedman. "Kansas City was the closest place without flying back to Boston . . . I'm sure the people (doctors) in Boston could have helped too, but it would have been a lot more flying time Tuesday."

Wedman said Krischel might accompany him to Boston when the Celtics return home today.

Celtics coach K.C. Jones started Wedman at the small forward spot last night.

He's a Real Nowhere Man: Kevin McHale didn't plan to play last night. Due to a sore left Achilles' tendon, McHale hasn't started a game since Jan. 22 and did not play a minute in the first six games of the Coast trip. Jones finally admitted that he would have left McHale home if he'd known McHale wouldn't play on the trip. "It's something we didn't know at the time," said Jones. "My approach was positive."

Danny Ainge shot 5 for 15 in Oakland and was 12 for 46 on the trip prior to last night's game. "I hadn't shot enough shots to be in a slump until tonight," Ainge said after the Warrior game. "But now I'm in one and I have to shoot my way out of it." . . . In the first six games of the trip, Bird averaged 31.5 points, 13 rebounds and 7.7 assists. Informed of yet another flight delay at the Oakland airport early yesterday, Bird said, "Anybody got a blank stat sheet? I want to mail my stats in for tonight's game and go home. Put me down for 20 points, 18 rebounds and no assists." . . . Jerry Sichting shot 62 percent (18 for 29) in five games after an 0-for-4 start in Sacramento. He's shooting 54 percent from the floor this season . . . Bill Walton is averaging 16.2 rebounds per 48 minutes . . . Rick Carlisle grew a beard while on the road, but says he plans to shave it off . . . Robert Parish had his name misspelled in the official box (Parrish) for the fifth time in seven stops when the Celts visited Oakland. Parish is a six-time All-Star and played four seasons for Golden State . . . Celtics equipment masters Wayne LeBeaux and Joe Qatato have been helping out since the team was in Los Angeles.

WEDMAN SITUATION BOTCHED

2011-08-31T13:54:00.008-04:00

March 1986

WEDMAN SITUATION BOTCHED

The Celtics management's handling of Scott Wedman's back problem was a disservice to Wedman and Celtics fans everywhere. When Wedman left the team and went home to Kansas City Tuesday, it was announced that he had a "personal problem." General manager Jan Volk, trainer Ray Melchiorre, assistant coach Jimmy Rodgers and publicist Jeff Twiss would not elaborate. For 24 hours, fans were allowed to draw their own conclusions about Wedman's absence.

One day later, when it was obvious that Wedman wouldn't make it to last night's game against Golden State, it was announced that Wedman had a back injury. Why did the Celtics try to cover up a back injury? "K.C. (Jones) didn't want to make a big deal out of it," said Volk.

"I figured personal business was all there was to say," Jones said last night. "It was nothing to really get excited about."

In fact, the Celtics made a much bigger deal out of the situation by issuing a short and mysterious statement about Wedman's "personal problem." Since when has a back injury been termed a personal problem? Was no one astute enough to recognize the ominous overtones of this tiny bit of information?

Micheal Ray Richardson, Quintin Dailey, John Lucas and Walter Davis left their teams because of "personal problems." Scott Wedman left because he needed some work on his bad back.

Why did the Celtics attempt to prevent Wedman's injury from being publicized? There are two plausible explanations.

(1) The Tass News Agency Theory: The Celtics only tell you what they want you to know. They are required to do nothing more than that, and are certainly free to handle the media and the public with their trademark institutional arrogance. After all, if they can keep other teams from knowing about Wedman's injury, it could be beneficial to The Cause.

(2) The Internal Medical Squabble Theory: Celtics team physician Thomas Silva bristles when Boston players seek help elsewhere. Wedman went to Kansas City to be treated by chiropractor and physical therapist Steve Krischel. Hiding the nature of Wedman's problem served to minimize the hard feelings and jealousy that permeate the Celtics' medical department.

'86 C's 6-0 with Wedman Subbing for Injured McHale

2011-08-31T13:53:00.013-04:00

2/6/86

'86 C's 6-0 with Wedman Subbing for Injured McHale

Kevin McHale, originally scheduled for bench duty, was scratched moments before game time last night.

Celtics coach K.C. Jones had hoped McHale would see some action, but his damaged Achilles' tendon stiffened up, so once again starting duties went to Scott Wedman,

"Scott (The Lip) Wedman will start," said Jones. The mentor was, of course, alluding to the mouth injury sustained by Wedman in the first half of Sunday's comback conquest of Seattle. Wedman's teeth actually went through his upper lip, and the wonder is that the wound was closed with a scant four stitches.

McHale played 12 first-half minutes Tuesday in Milwaukee, abusing Alton Lister & Co. for 12 points on 6-for-6 shooting, and then retired for the rest of the game when his ailing tendon stiffened.

The Celtics entered last night's game with a 21-1 home record . . . Washington has hung tough through the usual assortment of injuries which are endemic to the franchise by the Potomac. The Bullets arrived here without their best player. Jeff Ruland, who had not been back for long after missing 22 games with an avulsion fracture of the right ankle, reinjured the ankle Saturday night against Detroit . . . With rookie Manute Bol at center for those 22 games, however, the Bullets went a respectable 12-10, which assistant coach Fred Carter thinks is remarkable. "What Manute has done," said Carter, "is like a guy coming out of high school and working for, let's say, General Dynamics. That's basically what it is." Carter says that on a scale of 1 to 10, Bol is up to about a 6, with his offense still in the learning stages . . . The 7-foot-7-inch Sudanese rookie is leading the league in blocked shots, having averaged almost seven a game since becoming the starting center in Ruland's absence.

The Celtics were 3-0 against Washington this season before last night . . . Boston was 6-0 with Wedman in the starting lineup, and during those six games, Wedman had averaged 18.2 points on 53 percent shooting . . . This was the final game before the All-Star break for the Celtics, as well as their final Boston Garden appearance until Feb. 26.

Wedman More than Pulling his Weight in McHale's Absence

2011-08-31T13:53:00.010-04:00

2/2/86

Wedman More than Pulling his Weight in McHale's Absence

Scott Wedman has done a nice job in McHale's place. Wedman is averaging 19.2 points and 7 rebounds while playing 34 minutes per game in the last four contests. He's shot 52 percent (34 for 66) as a starter and has committed only one turnover in four games. Wedman scored a season-high 24 in Friday's victory at Washington.

PERFECT 10 FOR CELTICS; WEDMAN HELPS TOP BULLETS, 97-88

2011-08-31T13:52:00.015-04:00

February 1, 1986

PERFECT 10 FOR CELTICS; WEDMAN HELPS TOP BULLETS, 97-88

You've read this story before: There's a sold-out dance hall and a team on the rise trying to make its name and impress hometown skeptics with a victory over the Boston Celtics. Then Larry Bird and Co. strut into town, break more hearts than Cybill Shepherd and fly home with another notch in the sweatband.

The story line has been played out in Atlanta, Ga., and East Rutherford, N.J., already this year. Last night the site was Landover, Md., as the Celts turned back the heretofore high-flying Washington Bullets, 97-88, before 19,123 at the Capital Centre.

It was Boston's 10th straight victory, and perhaps it is time we started paying attention to The Streak. Boston's win skein is the longest in the NBA this season and ties the fourth-longest of the Bird era (the Celts won 18 straight in 1981).

Friday in Washington was much like Thursday in Chicago and every other day in every other city since Christmas. For a full 48 minutes of court time, there was a sense of inevitability. One always gets the feeling that the Celts are never in danger and will ultimately prevail.

Unimpressed by 7-foot-7-inch Manute Bol, a healthy Jeff Ruland, All-Star Jeff Malone and conehead Leon Wood, the Celts blunted the Bullets. Scott Wedman (starting his fourth straight in place of Kevin McHale) hit 11 of 17 floor shots and scored a season-high 24 points with 9 rebounds. Wedman had 17 points at halftime.

"We wished McHale was back playing the way Wedman was shooting in the first half," said Ruland.

Meanwhile, Robert Parish again devoured the backboards (14 rebounds), and the ubiquitous Bird (14 points, 11 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 blocks) did everything else.

"It all starts with Larry Bird," said Wedman. "Larry Bird brings a winning attitude to this team like nothing I've ever seen."

The Celts trailed only once -- 33-32 in the second period. Boston led, 26-18, after one, 51-46 at halftime, and stretched it to 75-64 at the end of three. The lead swelled to 21 midway through the final period.

Wedman drained his first four jumpers as the Celts bolted to a 12-4 lead. Bullets coach Gene Shue responded by inserting Darren (Make My) Daye and Ruland. Daye took over on Wedman.

"We talked about Wedman's outside shooting and how we had to go out and play him," groaned Shue. "Then we didn't do it."

Wearing a Slick Watts headband on his bald dome, Wood came in and missed his first two shots. Boston held a 12-3 rebounding advantage at that juncture, and Bol was pulled. A jumper by Bird made it 22-10. Cliff Robinson helped the Bullets claw back to within eight at the end of one.

Ruland led a flurry at the start of the second as the Bullets closed the gap to three. Then Manute returned and swatted consecutive shots by Sam Vincent and David Thirdkill. Wood followed with a three-pointer, and it was 30-30. Wood's next three-pointer gave Washington its only lead. Let's not hear any more stories about how great Wood (21 points on 20 shots) is. He heaved his three-pointer while a grumbling Ruland was under the basket being guarded by 6-1 Jerry Sichting.

Jones reinstated his starters, and Wedman put the Celts back on top with a three-pointer. Boston led by five at intermission.

The Bullets trimmed it to three a couple of times early in the third, but Bird, Parish and Danny Ainge (nine assists) soon had the lead back in double figures. Parish snatched six rebounds in the third period. Brutal Bullet shooting (8 for 22) helped the Celts cruise to an 11-point lead at the end of three.

K.C. went with the shock troops at the start of the fourth, and a pair of Rick Carlisle jumpers made it 79-64. A three-point play by Bill Walton with 8:17 remaining made it 86-67. Then Sichting kicked off garbage time with a bomb which pushed Boston's lead to 21 and started the exodus back to our nation's capital.

The Bullets shot 41 percent and totaled a pitiful 16 assists. Bol finished with seven blocks, seven points and six rebounds in 31 minutes, but was never a factor.

Ruland's summation: "It was disgusting."

Shue credited Boston: "The Celtics run basic plays and they make them work. The addition of Bill Walton is a major improvement. When they make substitutions, there's no weakness."

WEDMAN SPURS CELTICS TO MEMORABLE WIN

2011-08-31T13:52:00.013-04:00

January 27, 1986

WEDMAN SPURS CELTICS TO MEMORABLE WIN

Closer to home, the Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers staged a midseason, midwinter classic. Dare we call it Super?

This had to be the highlight of Super Bowl brunches from Waterville Valley to Big Sur.

As stuffed bears dangled from the Garden balconies, the legends of basketball danced a 48-minute symphony on the parquet floor of the archaic train station. Thanks to the magic of CBS, folks who thought Bill Walton disappeared with Patty Hearst discovered that the Big Redhead is thriving in Celtic green.

With Kevin McHale (sore Achilles' tendon) absent, Walton scored 19 points with 13 rebounds in 25 minutes as the Celtics defeated the 76ers, 105-103. Larry Bird added 14 rebounds and a troika of stake-driving three-pointers in his 28-point day, and folks named Scott Wedman (16) and David Thirdkill also contributed heavily.

Before we get to the Wild Man of Borneo -- Charles Barkley -- let the record show that Boston has beaten Philly three times in four tries and leads the Sixers by 5 1/2 games with 41 left. Overall, the Celts have won eight straight and 12 of 13, including impressive victories over the Lakers and 76ers in a five-day span.

Philly came to town with four straight wins and a 17-2 record in the last two months. The Sixers hoped to exploit McHale's absence and reenter the laughable Atlantic Division first-place chase.

Despite a heartbreaking defeat, the inimitable Barkley remained unconvinced.

After barreling his way to 26 points and a career-high 21 rebounds, Barkley said, "I'll stick to my original statement. I don't think they can beat us, and if you are intelligent, you saw the same thing today. They cannot beat us. They cannot beat us. The only problem we have is mental. We gave the game away. I honestly think they know they can't beat us."

Barkley's comments raised some eyebrows in the Celtics' locker room.

"I don't know how many times we got to beat them to prove it," said Danny Ainge. "We beat 'em today without Kevin, the player on our team who probably gives them the most problems. Just tell him to keep yapping, that's all."

Robert Parish (five blocks) added, "I'm tired of hearing about Charles Barkley. He's taking over (Cedric) Maxwell's role in the Eastern Conference -- all mouth. I think it's probably good for their team because they have to go out and back that up, which they did not do today. We'll see what he has to say when we go to Philadelphia."

Wedman (16 points), suddenly playing like the All-Star he was a decade ago, started in place of McHale and scored 10 in the first quarter as the Celts squeaked to a 29-27 lead. Boston led by seven earlier in the period, but Barkley brought the Sixers back.

The second quarter was a groaner. The Celts scored only five field goals and shot 38 percent, while Philadelphia shot 37 percent. The Celts led, 51-50, at intermission.

Memories were created after halftime. Maurice Cheeks (22 points, 8 assists) led a five-minute, 20-4 Sixer run, and the visitors ran to a 74-61 lead.

Bird reentered the game and went on one of his Death Wish vigilante rampages. He started with two free throws, then chuckled with the rest of America as Barkley missed a dunk. The ball bounced off the back of the rim and sailed toward the Bruins' 1972 Stanley Cup flag.

Then Walton tapped in two Celtic misses and stole a Cheeks pass. Bird followed with a crowd-detonating three-pointer. It was 76-70, and Sixer coach Matt Guokas wanted a timeout. We should mention that Thirdkill (18 minutes) was doing a nice job on Julius Erving (13 points, 3 rebounds) at this juncture.

After the pause, Bird rebounded a Moses Malone miss (he shot 3 for 16) and set up Ainge for a jumper. Another Bird three-pointer cut it to 76-75 and forced another Philly timeout.

Before the quarter was over, Walton hit a turnaround banker and a hook over Malone. Then came the clincher. Bird scrambled for a loose ball after Malone missed a second straight free throw and nailed a 35-foot buzzer-beater to send the Celts into the fourth with an 82-78 lead. Bedlam. Don't underestimate the psychological impact of Bird's bomb. It is significant that each of his three- pointers was followed by a timeout or a break between quarters.

The final period was no less spectacular. The Celts trailed, 99-96, with 3:55 left but held Philadelphia without a basket the rest of the way.

Walton played up front with Parish for the final 6:49 and scored over Barkley to cut it to 99-98 with three minutes left. Then Barkley missed another dunk. This one catapulted toward midcourt.

Both teams missed several opportunities before Parish blocked a Malone shot and Ainge found Bird with a cross-court fast-break feed for a layup. Bird was fouled and made the free throw to give the Celts a 101-99 lead with a minute left.

Malone (5 for 10 from the line) made a free throw with 0:40 showing but missed the second. Walton rebounded, was fouled and made two to give the Celts a 103-100 lead with 33 seconds left. Cheeks was fouled driving to the basket and made both to cut it to one with 29 seconds left.

As the shot clock wound down, Bird was forced to fire a bomb. He missed, but Walton flew in from the left wing and snatched the most important rebound of the game. He fed to Dennis Johnson, who was fouled with three seconds left. DJ made both to seal the victory.

WEDMAN TYPIFIES CELTICS' BENCH STRENGTH

2011-08-31T13:51:00.009-04:00

January 20, 1986

WEDMAN TYPIFIES CELTICS' BENCH STRENGTH

Let's start with the obvious and state that Saturday's 125-122 Celtics overtime victory in Atlanta was one of the best regular season NBA games of this or any year.

The Celtics have won nine of 10 since their nationally televised Christmas Day disgrace against the Knicks. Boston plays host to the world champion Los Angeles Lakers Wednesday night, and Saturday's pulsating victory over the Hawks in the Omni indicates that the Celtics are ready for the Lakers.

Larry Bird's 41 points led the Celtics back from a 23-point first-half deficit in a game that was the mirror image of Boston's humiliating loss in New York.

While chestnuts roasted on open fires, the Celtics blew a 25-point lead in New York and lost in overtime. It was Boston's fifth loss in nine games and coach K. C. Jones was criticized for not using his bench during the slump.

The Celtics haven't been the same since. Jones has gone back to his bench and the Celtics have ripped nine of the last 10 opponents. If not for a controversial offensive foul called on Kevin McHale in Detroit, the Celtics might be carrying a 10-game winning streak into the Laker game.

Scott Wedman's turnabout typifies the sudden impact of Boston's bench. Wedman was shooting 41 percent after the Knick disaster and had made only four of 16 shots while scoring only seven points in a five-game stretch. Since Christmas, Wedman is shooting 58 percent (42-73), and averaging 8.8 points. He hit 10 of 16 shots and scored a season-high 21 against the Hawks Saturday.

"The other teams aren't paying much attention to me because they're keying on our big guys," noted Wedman. "That gives me an opportunity to make a difference."

Wedman wasn't too surprised to see the Celtics roar back from a 70-47 deficit in the Omni.

"Nobody on this team doubted we could come back," he said. "We just knew we had a chance and once you get within 10, you're there."

Bird's 17-point third quarter helped the Celtics cut a 22-point half-time deficit to 14 at the end of three. A 14-0 fourth- quarter explosion (six by Wedman) put the Celtics ahead.

WEDMAN'S 11-11 PERFORMANCE HELPS C'S BURY L'S

2011-08-31T13:49:00.006-04:00

June 11, 1985

WEDMAN'S 11-11 PERFORMANCE IN GAME 1 HELPS C'S BURY L'S

Greg Kite scored seven points. Hit three of five shots. Played 10minutes. An afterthought backup center who had spent so much time on the bench during his two-year career with the Celtics that he qualified as a human splinter. Greg Kite.

"Just say it wasn't our day," moaned Magic Johnson, Los Angeles' normally effervescent superhero. "When Greg Kite comes out and can hit three left- handed hooks, you know . . . Incredible. Just incredible."

Translation: Celtics 148, Lakers 114.

Incredible wasn't the word for it. Unprecedented was. Because nobody could have known that the ninth overall renewal - and second straight - of the NBA's longest-running championship serial would open with such record-shattering force.

In obliterating the most potent offensive team in NBA annals, the host Celtics virtually rewrote play-off history. They scored the most points ever in a championship game. They scored the most points ever (79) in a championship first half. Their halftime spread (30) was the largest ever, as was their overall number of field goals (61). Their shooting (60.8 percent) was the most accurate of all time. Their total assists (43) and margin of victory came within one of tying title standards.

Individually, sixth man Scott Wedman surpassed all play-off marksmen with an 11-for-11 shooting performance. And Wedman didn't even begin firing until the score was 52-29 in the second quarter, which in itself constituted yet another, unofficial championship milestone: earliest garbage time ever.

Wedman and Kevin McHale shared scoring honors with 26 points. Robert Parish (18 points, 8 rebounds) made 38-year-old Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (12 and 3) look like a senior citizen as The Chief outraced The Goggled One up and down the court, establishing Boston's frenetic tempo.

Taxing credulity further, the Celtics whipped the whippets who were supposed to run them into the ground - or at least the parquet. The defending champions were considered no match for the lightning Lakers, though LA had dropped eight finals to Boston, including the seven-game 1984 classic. "We thought we were a running team last year," said coach K.C. Jones, "until LA got here in that first game (a 115-109 Laker win) and we all got pneumonia because they were going by us so fast."

The latest edition of the Lakers had done nothing to dispel that blurry image. They set a regular-season shooting record (54.5 percent) and simply turned the tempo up a notch (55.7 percent) in the play-offs, during which they flashdanced past Phoenix, Portland and Denver. In those series, LA won 11 of 13 games, running its overall streak to 31 of 35, and averaged 131.2 points. So when the Lakers visited the Garden sweatshop on an 84-degree afternoon for the championship opener, they were rated series favorites. Even LA coach Pat Riley, a man of perspective, couldn't contain his enthusiasm: "This could be the greatest team in Laker history."

Ah, but not so fast, you LA speed demons. "We never got our fast break going," said Laker reserve and former Celtic Bob McAdoo after the Boston bombardment, "because we spent the day pulling the ball out of the nets. Our game is the quick transition. But they turned the tables on us. That was our game they played."

To the hilt. The Celtics pounded LA from the start: "We came out of the corner like Marvin Hagler," said Jones. Boston blazed from a 9-8 deficit to a 26-12 advantage, forcing Riley to call a timeout. By then, three of the Lakers' most reliable shooters - Byron Scott, James Worthy and Jabbar - were a collective 1 for 14 from the floor.

Meanwhile, guard Danny Ainge was scorching Scott with a 7-for-9, 15-point first period on his way to a 19-point afternoon that served as a yardstick for his teammates. "Once one guy starts to hit," said Larry Bird (19 points), "it catches on."

All Scott could do was catch cold against Ainge. The LA guard entered the series on a 57-percent shooting spree, including a 65-percent decimation of Denver. But in the Boston opener, he got throttled (5 for 14).

In general, the Lakers, who shot a dismal 40 percent, stood by as the Celtics kept connecting in the steamy Garden. "It wasn't too hot," Riley said. "The only heat came from that cannon they kept shooting."

That was torridly evident at the start of the second quarter, when the Celtics buried the Lakers with an 11-for-12 roll, good for a 63-34 cushion. After that, it was all gravy.

"They had their day,," said Riley. "Now our reaction has to be: 'OK, enough's enough.'"

WEDMAN'S WAY WAS PAVED

2011-08-31T13:49:00.005-04:00

May 29, 1985

WEDMAN'S WAY WAS PAVED

He is a basketball player in silhouette. The sun is setting at an angle behind the backboard, making you wonder how long he has been working and how much longer he is going to stay. There are ovations and excitement in his head, perhaps, but he is alone with the sound and the feel of the ball.

He is a driveway guy. A picture.

"You spent a lot of time like that?" Scott Wedman is asked.

"Oh, yes," he replies.

His basketball is the solitary game. The rural game. There is no blaster box parked on the side of an inner-city playground, no mingling of kids choosing up sides, then fighting to maintain their places on the court. There is a more gentle song here. The ball going through the net again and again. Heavy breathing after driving past imagined defenders. Repetition. The sound of a storm door opening. Someone yelling that supper is on the table.

Roots are roots. They cannot be denied.

"Where'd you grow up?" Scott Wedman is asked.

"A lot of places," he says. "Mostly Colorado, when I was going to high school."

"Colorado?"

"But we always spent our summers at my grandparents' place. They had a big farm."

"Where was that?"

"Kansas."

Kansas. Yes, Kansas. That is the look of the driveway guy's game. Stretches of farmland. Good food. Kansas. He is in the NBA and working in the televised frenzy of these final playoffs against the Los Angeles Lakers, but traces of Kansas still can be seen. Even in the middle of all that. Kansas. Colorado. Clean air. Room. Jump shots.

The action spins and spins and suddenly Scott Wedman is alone. He goes through the patterned rhythms of all those afternoons, all those mornings, all those days. Jump shots. How far is far? Distance doesn't seem to matter. Nothing seems to matter. The rhythm is there. The stroke is the same. Jump shots.

"In Colorado," he says, "the basket was mounted over the garage door. Every now and then, I'd break a window. My father would come home, find the broken window and ask what happened. I'd tell him I was shooting and I shot one short. He never complained. If I'd been fooling around, maybe thrown a rock through the window, he'd be mad. Playing basketball? There'd be a new window in the morning. Nothing said.

"In the winter, our neighbor would see me when he came home from work," Scott Wedman says. "It would have been snowing and I'd have shoveled off the court. He'd look at me, out there in the driveway, and just shake his head.

"There's something relaxing about shooting a basketball," Scott Wedman says. "It's just you. You don't have to see how you've done. The reward is there if you've done it right. The ball goes through the basket."

He may have had trouble finding a place in the lineup in his three years with the Celtics, his Kansas mostly kept behind Larry Bird's taller and more diversified Indiana, but there never has been a question about the one thing he does best. He is a shooter's shooter. He will shoot jump shots against the world.

The shot has been his athletic passport. The shot. He has an older brother, Mike, "the athlete in the family," who was a pole vaulter and decathlete at the University of Colorado. Mike Wedman went to college on an assembled number of heights and times. Scott Wedman went to the same college on the shot. College and beyond.

"I remember when my brother got an athletic scholarship," the driveway guy says. "My father said, 'Well, that's great. Now we'll only have to pay for Scott's education.' I always have remembered that. I never let my father forget it."

The family was back in Kansas on Monday. Scott Wedman's father now owns a Ford dealership in Harper, Kan., and both sets of grandparents still live in the town. Memorial Day is a traditional family weekend. The Wedmans ran a family reunion at City Park on Sunday. The Clements, on Scott Wedman's mother's side, ran a reunion on Monday. A lot of the same people were at both reunions. The Monday reunion ended early.

"My grandmother invited a lot of people back to the house to watch the game," Scott Wedman says. "She has the satellite dish. There were a lot of people there, and I guess there was a lot of yelling. That's what my father said, anyway, when he called."

The reason for the yelling was obvious. On Monday, the driveway guy's shot worked better than it ever has worked. In the first game of these NBA finals, he took 11 shots and made all 11 in the Celtics' 148-114 win. He was perfect. No one in NBA history ever has done what he did. Eleven shots. Eleven baskets. Four of them from behind the 22-foot, three-point circle. Perfect. A perfect day. Even if you were shooting in your driveway.

"Funny, I was stopped at a light on the way home Monday," Scott Wedman says. "There was a playground and I saw a lot of kids out there, playing basketball. I remembered that. How you'd watch a big game on television, then go out and just play for three hours straight. I remembered that."

"Did you think about going out there to join the kids?" he is asked. "They would have gone crazy."

"You know, I did think about it," he says. "I really did. Maybe next time."

WEDMAN'S HOT HAND SINKS SUNS

2011-08-31T13:48:00.005-04:00

March 14, 1985

WEDMAN'S HOT HAND SINKS SUNS

Special stat teams and hoopology PhDs were flown in for historical perspective, and literary legends were summoned for fresh metaphors and hyperbole.

But none of the above was necessary. One night after the burning of Atlanta, Larry Bird & Co. returned to earth with a methodical, albeit powerful 123-106 victory over the Phoenix Suns at Boston Garden. And folks went home talking not about those wild scoring fools, Bird and Kevin McHale, but about Scott Wedman (19 points, 13 in the fourth quarter).

The Celts led from wire to wire as Bird (31 points, 12 rebounds, 7 assists) spread the wealth, and his frontcourt sequoia mates were happy to collect. McHale made his first nine shots, and finished with 25 points. Robert Parish also inflicted some wounds, scoring 22 points with 14 rebounds.

And then there was Wedman. A former All-Star and 10,000-point scorer, Wedman is often a forgotten man on this championship squad. His contributions since coming to Boston two years ago have been sparse, but he's adjusted to his limited role and is starting to look like the man who lit up scoreboards in NBA America from 1975-82.

Wedman's 15-of-24 shooting in the last two games was lost under the tonnage of Bird's and McHale's points, but the reserve forward came off the bench last night and hit nothing but net on four crucial jumpers at the start of the fourth.

"Larry's been going so well and our inside game's been going so well that they kind of laid off me," said Wedman, who has hit 61 percent (23-38) while averaging 16.3 points in his last three games. "That opened it up a bit . . . I went out and hit a couple of shots and got it going and kept looking for it."

Phoenix had trimmed Boston's 13-point first-half lead to 89-87 at the end of three quarters. Then Wedman struck.

His first three jumpers helped push the margin back to six, then Bird stole the ball, and Wedman fed Ray Williams for a hanging lane jumper in traffic. The Celts led, 102-94, with 9:48 left and Phoenix called time to regroup.

Wedman wasn't through, but the Suns were. Another Wedman bomb with 5:51 left made it 109-96. The Celts were safe and when cult hero M.L. Carr made an appearance with three minutes left, it was 115-101.

"We were very concerned about Wedman," Phoenix coach John MacLeod said. "We were aware of his ability when he played for Kansas City and we're still aware of his ability to shoot the ball . . . He's certainly going to help them down the stretch."

Wedman's shooting highlighted the final period, but the start was memorable for Bird's Lindberghesque return to the homeland. On the heels of his 60-point torching in New Orleans Tuesday, Bird was inundated with pregame interview requests from everyone this side of Phyllis George, then received one of the longest introductory standing ovations on record. Toss in a few candles and matches and it would have felt like the prelude to a rock concert.

Sir Larry rewarded the devoted masses, hitting a jumper on his first possession on the 14th second of play. He had six rebounds and four baskets in the first six minutes. Alvin Scott was overmatched.

Playing without Larry Nance (groin pull), the Suns were vulnerable underneath, and Boston's frontcourt torched Phoenix throughout the evening. Bird, McHale and Parish scored 33 in the first quarter and the Celts led, 36-24, after one. Bird had 11 with seven rebounds, while McHale scored 14 and Parish contributed eight.

"We were a little sluggish coming out, so we had to get everything down low," said Bird.

Bird fired the Celts to a 47-34 lead in the second. Phoenix got some inspired play from James Edwards (18) and reserves Charles Pittman (6 of 6) and Charles Jones (19), but couldn't get closer than seven for the rest of the half. Meanwhile, Boston's frontcourt domination continued, and the Celts led, 62-51, at intermission.

The Suns ran off six in a row at the start of the third. Dennis Johnson awoke with four consecutive jumpers, but Phoenix cut Boston's lead to two with 7:28 left in the third. Then Parish picked up his fourth foul. The Suns trimmed it to one before Wedman took over.

BENCH MAKES ITS MARK WITH WEDMAN, RAY WILLIAMS

2011-08-31T13:48:00.004-04:00

March 18, 1985

BENCH MAKES ITS MARK WITH WEDMAN, RAY WILLIAMS

After scoring 48 points, the fifth highest total in Celtics regular-season history, Larry Bird said, "Ray Williams had a great game - probably the best of anybody."

Williams had 11 points (on 5-of-9 shooting) with 6 assists, 5 rebounds and 2 steals in 26 minutes of yesterday's 134-120 victory over the Rockets. Meanwhile, Scott Wedman chipped in with 13 points on 6 of 10 from the floor, and Quinn Buckner had 7 assists in 16 minutes.

Bird: "Everybody in the press said we didn't have a bench, but now I think we're a pretty good team up and down the line."

It's ironic that the Celtics would start to show their depth while Cedric Maxwell is sidelined with a knee injury, but Wedman has played five straight strong games, averaging 15.6 points on 59 percent (37-of-63) shooting, and Buckner has settled into a comfortable role as a fourth guard/defensive specialist. Williams keeps getting better and is a Garden crowd favorite.

"My wind felt really good today," Williams said after his longest stint in 10 games with the Celtics. "Everything is just gradually getting better. My teammates know I'm going to push it up and try to pressure the guards. And they know that if they run and get open, I'll get them the ball."

Wedman Scorches Former Team Still Paying his Salary

2011-08-31T13:47:00.007-04:00

March 16, 1985

Wedman Scorches Former Team Still Paying his Salary

It was just like the glory days of the 1970s. A sellout crowd roared as the revived Cavaliers came out for warmups. The only thing missing was Bingo Smith's cotton candy hair and Bill Fitch's paisley leisure suit.

It's the Miracle of Richfield II. Cav chic is back and they're bracing for Cleveland's first postseason appearance since 1977-78.

Last night, the Celtics came to town to show 'em what the big boys eat. The world champions beat the Cavaliers, 119-96, in front of 20,900 victory-starved crazies at the Richfield Coliseum. It was a shocking reminder that the improved, playoff-bound Cavs are still 14 games under .500 and not ready for prime time.

Larry Bird and Kevin McHale continued their Babe Ruth/Lou Gehrig, Phil Esposito/Bobby Orr routine. Bird scored a flawless 35 while McHale contributed 19, all of his in the first 28 minutes. Scott Wedman, the new threat in Boston's Dense Pack frontcourt, had his fourth straight big game, scoring 16 of which 10 were in the second half. Wedman's input is especially galling to Cav management which is still paying half his salary.

Adrenaline carried the Cavs to an early four-point lead. McHale kept the Celts afloat by posting up and over Mark West.

A steal and transition jumper by Bird (10 of 12 for 24 in the first half) put the Celts ahead, 14-13, with 6:44 left in the first. Boston never trailed again.

Scoring 12 points in a four-minute span, Bird made a pair of spectacular teardrop shots off flying drives (one with each hand), then laid one in off the break after Robert Parish blocked Phil Hubbard's shot (Hubbard collapsed in a heap) to give the Celts a 25-17 lead.

McHale and Parish closed the quarter with four free throws and Boston led, 33-25. The Celts outrebounded the Cavs, 19-7, in the period and also took 14 foul shots to Cleveland's two.

Ray Williams and Wedman replaced Danny Ainge and Parish at the start of the second. Wedman continued his torrid shooting, hitting his first three shots and Boston led, 45-33, with 6:26 left in the half.

After a three-point play by Parish gave the Celts a 13-point lead, John Bagley and Roy Hinson (15 in the half) sparked a 7-0 run by the Cavs and Boston called time. The Cavs had cut the lead to six but would never get any closer.

Bird and Dennis Johnson scored all the points in a 10-4 run after the break and the Celts led, 58-46. McHale (12 rebounds in the first half) tapped in an Ainge miss at the buzzer to make it 64-54 at intermission. One sensed the inevitability of a Celtic victory.

The third quarter did nothing to bring hope to the Cleveland crowd. The Cavs played fairly well, but couldn't get closer than nine. McHale was abusing everyone George Karl tried, and Bird tortured Hubbard. A stake-driving three- pointer by Bird made it 81-65 with 6:21 left in the third.

The Cavs kept plugging, and the crowd kept roaring, but Cleveland couldn't gather any steam. Every World B. Free drive was followed by a Wedman jumper or a Parish follow. The Celts led, 90-76, after three.

Wedman hit three more shots early in the fourth and Bird kept the heat on. A transition jumper by Bird with 5:27 left pushed the led to 20 (104-84) and started the exodus of fans who chose not to stick around for the postgame closed circuit telecast of the Larry Holmes-David Bey fight.

Ray-Ray made some nice passes, scored on a tip-in, and converted a three- point play to make it 109-88.

K.C. Jones went to his bench in the final 4 1/2 minutes. M.L. Carr (sore left ankle) who could barely walk earlier in the day, came in and buried his first shot. Carlos Clark, Rick Carlisle and Greg Kite joined Carr and Williams for the final curtain.

WEDMAN SIDELINED FOR REST OF SERIES

2011-08-31T13:47:00.006-04:00

June 9, 1984

WEDMAN SIDELINED FOR REST OF SERIES

Celtics forward/guard Scott Wedman has a hairline fracture in his lower left leg and is expected to be lost for the remainder of the championship series.

Wedman was accidentally kneed in the leg early in the second quarter of Wednesday's overtime thriller in Los Angeles. Wedman told assistant coach Chris Ford he thought he was bumped by Michael Cooper. He asked out of the game and was unable to run when K.C. Jones tried him again late in the half. Wedman couldn't put any weight on the leg Thursday and needed a wheelchair to board the flight home from the coast.

Wedman's leg was X-rayed at University Hospital early yesterday. "The X- rays revealed an undisplaced hairline fracture in the proximal end of the fibula," said Dr. Thomas Silva, the team physician. "He's out of the question for tonight and Sunday. We can't make any prediction beyond that."

In the first four games of the finals, Wedman played 73 minutes, shot 46 percent (17 for 37) and grabbed 21 rebounds. He hit the winning basket in Boston's Game 2 overtime victory.

"Scotty has been shooting the ball well, said Ford. "Now we have to rely on Danny (Ainge) and hope Gerald (Henderson) and D.J. are hitting. But our guys will do the job. In the playoffs, you have to overcome injuries to personnel."

Since DJ started guarding Magic Johnson in the second half of Game 4, Magic is 6 of 14 from the floor with nine turnovers and 18 points in six quarters . . . Larry Bird, who complained of dizziness due to the heat, said, "There's always a lot of emotion on our bench, but tonight the guys were helping out by fanning us and cooling us down during timeouts. They knew that was our bread and butter." . . . The Celtics scored 20 points on second shots. LA had 11 on followups. Boston got 22 points off the break to LA's 15. The Lakers did not score a fast-break point in the final quarter . . . Kevin McHale who had hit only 11 of 34 shots in the first three games, responded with five of eight last night . . . LA missed 12 of 35 free throws . . . Robert Parish would not speak to the media after the game. He took off with ex-Warrior Clifford Ray . . . Celebrities in the crowd included Isiah Thomas of the Pistons, Boston Mayor Ray Flynn and Patriots coach Ron Meyer . . . A group of fans behind one basket brought a clothesline, a reminder of Kevin McHale's flying tackle of Kurt Rambis in Game 4 . . . Banner of the night was directed at Laker fan Jack Nicholson, who did not attend: "Jack - Choke On Your Own Coke" . . . The Celtics fly to LA this morning, and will return from Game 6 on a red-eye that arrives Monday morning at 7 . . . Nine of the last 11 NBA championships have been won by road teams.

Wedman's Contribution Overshadowed by Henderson Steal

2011-08-31T13:46:00.010-04:00

June 1, 1984

Wedman's Contribution Overshadowed by Henderson Steal

Let it rain. The Celtics are going to postpone summer a little longer. After four days of listening to theories about Laker supremacy and whispers of a sweep, Boston has served notice that some extra frequent-flyer miles will be compiled before this NBA championship series is over.

Last night was gut-check time, and when the midnight confessions had all been heard, the Celtics had beaten the Lakers, 124-121, in overtime. The win tied the best-of-seven series, 1-1, and sent a frenetic Garden crowd into the street for an early-morning celebration.

The Celtics had more heroes than a Philadelphia deli. There was Gerald Henderson, who forced the extra innings with Boston's most dramatic theft since John "Havlicek stole the ball" in 1965. There was Scott Wedman, who hit the key jumper in overtime. And there was Robert Parish, who stripped the ball from Bob McAdoo when LA blew its final chance.

A big assist went to Magic Johnson, who specializes in assists, although not of this kind. In a variation of the bonehead play executed by Dallas' Derek Harper last month, Magic dribbled out the clock when the Lakers had a chance to win it in regulation.

Let's start with the finish. Cuckoo Man Jack Nicholson was mercilessly taunting Celtics fans when his Lakers held a one-point lead and the basketball with 45 seconds left in overtime.

After a timeout, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (20 points, but only 9 of 22 from the floor) missed a hook and firestarter James Worthy (29 points on 11-of-12 shooting from the field) was tagged with a non-shooting foul while going for the rebound.

Down by one point with 25 seconds left, the Celtics called time.

Larry Bird (27 points, 13 rebounds and what else is new?) inbounded from midcourt, then wound up with the ball at the right of the key. He passed out top to Henderson, who fed Wedman in the left corner. It was a shot Scott Wedman has probably taken 10,000 times in his hoop life. It never meant more. Wedman's 13-foot fling hit nothing but net.

"You know what they put you in there for," said Wedman, who scored 10 off the pine. "If the opportunity comes, you've got to want to take the shot."

The Celtics led, 122-121, with 14 seconds left. Timeout. Again.

A wild sequence took place when LA inbounded. First, Parish knocked the ball away from Abdul-Jabbar. In the scramble, the ball bounced out of bounds off Bird's foot. LA inbounded again, and this time Parish stripped it from McAdoo. Bird ended up with the ball and was fouled. He made both with two seconds left and it was 124-121.

"I thought I was fouled," said McAdoo. "I saw Robert and I was going to try to take it to the basket. I got raked across the arm, but no call was made. That was the ballgame, but we should have never let it get to that point. We gave it to em."

With :02 showing, McAdoo threw a floor-length pass that touched no one before it flew out of bounds. Then Bird inbounded to Cedric Maxwell and the buzzer sounded.

When folks tell their grandchildren about this game, the end of regulation may be the most memorable aspect.

A collective groan could be heard from Portland to Providence when Kevin McHale missed two free throws with 20 seconds left and the Celtics trailing by two. But just as Havlicek saved Bill Russell (who had lost the ball off a wire support), Henderson knocked the goat-horns off McHale's crown.

Magic (27 points, 10 rebounds, 9 assists) had called time after catching McHale's second miss. After the pause, he inbounded to Worthy. Maxwell (16 points and 12 rebounds) blanketed Magic. Worthy saw teammate Byron Scott on the other side of the floor, but his lob was picked off by Henderson. Henderson took it right to the hoop for two and it was 113-113 with 13 seconds left.

"We were trying to get time off the clock," said Worthy. "I wanted to get the ball to Magic, but he was covered. I saw Byron wide open. But Henderson was quick enough to double back. It wasn't a real zip pass. Henderson made a good play."

"Maxwell did a good job denying Magic the ball," said Henderson. "Worthy sort of lofted the ball to Scott, and I came in for the steal. No question I was thinking steal in that situation. Somebody had to get it. If we'd lost this one, things would have looked kind of dim."

The Derek Harper Special was next. Ironically, Magic is the man who was guarding Harper when the Dallas rookie dribbled out the clock, thinking his team was ahead instead of tied.

Magic knew the score, but he couldn't get the ball to Kareem. After dribling near the three-point line for several seconds, he passed to McAdoo as time expired. Overtime.

"I would rather hold it and take our chances in overtime than throw it in and have them steal it," reasoned Magic.

"We wanted to get the last shot," echoed LA coach Pat Riley. "We didn't want them to have any opportunity. The idea was to get the clock down to six or five seconds and let him go. It didn't work, but their press had more to do with it than our inability to get a shot."

The first 47 minutes had faded into oblivion by the time midnight struck.

With considerable help off the bench from Danny Ainge (12 points), Boston bolted to a 13-point first-half lead. Late in the period, however, the Lakers ripped off one of those 13-2 blowtorchings that can dishearten any team. Boston's lead was down to 61-59 at intermission.

The Celtics pushed their lead to 76-69 in the third before LA fought back again. Worthy started breaking and when Michael Cooper capped an 11-2 run (and it was a run) with a give-and-go layup and another fast break, LA led, 85-82. Worthy and Cooper had scored all 11 points.

Bird, who missed seven of his first eight shots in the second half, put the Celtics back in the lead and Ainge hit a pair of transition jumpers to give the Celtics a 90-87 lead after three. Everything from there led to McHale's misses - and Henderson's steal.

AINGE, WEDMAN: IN-YOUR-FACE VALUE

2011-08-31T13:46:00.009-04:00

June 1, 1984

AINGE, WEDMAN: IN-YOUR-FACE VALUE

A Wall Street type thinker might not consider either Danny Ainge or Scott Wedman prudent long-term investments, but for at least one playoff game the Celtics were able to forget about how much more they have always expected from either of these two oft-frustrated athletes.

The fact is that without their contributions last night the Celtics could not have defeated the Los Angeles Lakers, by any score. There has been perpetual yelping during the last several years over the Celtics' desperate need for some outside shooting to balance their famed inside game. In this vital 124-121 overtime triumph over LA, Messrs. Ainge and Wedman provided that marksmanship.

Ainge bunched his six field goals in two key Celtic runs, the first four coming in the first half and the other two at the end of the third period, after the Lakers had taken their first lead of the night. Most were in transitions, beautiful stop-and-poppers that passed softly through the net. It was the Danny Ainge of the UCLA massacre, as well as the Danny Ainge for whom the Celtics went to trial with the Toronto Blue Jays, the Danny Ainge in whom they have invested a lot of money.

Wedman, whose year-and-a-half Celtic tenure has been extremely unsatisfying for all parties, added five field goals, including the biggest of the game, a 13-footer from the left baseline with 14 seconds remaining in OT that merely gave Boston the victory.

Wedman was one half of an offense-defense shuttle with Cedric Maxwell at the time, and when he received the ball he didn't hesitate. "We had played great defense," said LA coach Pat Riley. "We had doubled on (Larry) Bird to make him give up the ball. We made the next guy (Gerald Henderson) give it up. Finally it went to Wedman, and he buried it.

"I've always respected Scott," Riley continued. "He's a smart veteran player. He sat most of the year, but he had the presence of mind and the attitude to give his team help when caled upon. A lot of guys can't do that."

It was the precise sort of contribution envisioned when the Celtics acquired Wedman from the Cavaliers a year ago January. It's not as if Wedman, a one-time All-Star, was some sort of NBA secret weapon.

"We wondered what the Celtics were doing at the time," said Jamaal Wilkes. "Bird hadn't yet signed his new deal, so possibly they wanted Scott as some kind of insurance. That's pretty heavy insurance."

This is true. Wedman was making over $800,000 when he came here, and that's serious money (even if a lot of it is being paid by the other team) for a man who can't scare up too many minutes of playing time on a team with Bird, Maxwell and Kevin McHale at the forward slot.

As for Ainge, this has not exactly been the Year of the (Ex)-Cougar, either. It was assumed in some circles that Ainge would benefit greatly by the Celtics' coaching change, but instead he lost his starting job - however ceremonial it was - and played no larger role under K.C. Jones than he had under Bill Fitch. His playoff function has been that of a subordinate who gives regulars a quick blow.

But when he entered the game last night he was ready. He connected on his first three shots as the Celtics were expanding their lead to as many as 13 (33-20, 35-22), as he stayed on the floor long enough to stick in another second-period jumper. It was a scene reminiscent of the famous Milwaukee Game 2 of a year ago when he went insane during the first half.

It's obvious Ainge feels his big problem is simply playing time. "I always feel I can shoot," he said with a shrug. "Tonight I hit my first couple so I was able to stay in there a little longer. He (K.C.) didn't feel he had to go to anybody else."

Of course, every player who has ever lived feels his only need is some more "PT." And there are always people moaning about Wedman's lack of playing time.

"Yes," said Riley, "they found something to do with him at a very appropriate time, didn't they?"

An Ainge, Wedman Backcourt Lead C's to Victory

2011-08-31T13:46:00.005-04:00

March 17, 1984

Ainge, Wedman Backcourt Lead C's to Victory

You could dismiss it by saying that it was played in Boston Garden against the NBA's answer to "On Golden Pond," but for Celtics fans, there was something very encouraging about last night's 109-99 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks.

The Celtics took charge down the stretch, overcame a big chill (six points) performance by Robert Parish, and discovered white lightning in the backcourt.

Larry Bird scored 28 and Dennis Johnson came through with 22, but let the record show that this game was won when the unlikely backcourt duo of Scott Wedman and Danny Ainge took over in the fourth quarter.

"We got very large help from Wedman and Danny Ainge," said coach K.C. Jones. "Somebody on the squad of 12 men had to come in and pick up the action. Danny and Scott did that for us tonight."

Early in the final quarter, Junior Bridgeman tied the game for the last time - 81-81. Then Wedman and Ainge put it away with a 9-2 run.

Wedman got it going with a fast-break banker off a feed from Ainge. After Sidney Moncrief (only 14 points) missed a layup, Aingecanned an 18-footer from the right sideline.

Bob Lanier (18) scored for the Bucks, and Milwaukee got the ball back on a Paul Pressey steal. When Marques Johnson (26) lost it out of bounds on a drive to the basket, Bird took advantage of the quick inbounds rule, feeding Wedman for a sneakaway. Then Wedman stole a Pressey pass and Ainge buried a three- pointer from the left corner.

Boston led, 90-83, Don Nelson called time and the Garden exploded.

"I think it was our defense that did it for us," said Ainge, who finished with nine points and hit four of six from the floor. "Scott and I had the open shots and they were going down for us, but the defense created the openings."

"When you get in and hit a couple, you're looking for it more than you would at first," added Wedman, who scored 13 on six for nine. "I thought we got rolling pretty well. We got some off the break and then went outside. Maybe they weren't looking for us as much from the outside."

After the Ainge-Wedman torch job, Marques (26) closed the gap to four (99-95) with 2:48 left. Milwaukee couldn't get any closer. Bird (12 rebounds and five assists) pushed it back to six with a lefthander in the lane. When Marques lost the ball on a drive to the basket, Cedric Maxwell found Bird open underneath and it was 103-95 with 2:04 left. After another Buck timeout, Bridgeman tossed up an airball, and DJ canned one from the left corner to seal it for the Celts.

"That was serious," said a smiling DJ. "I kept my hand up and everything."

DJ was Boston's highest-scoring guard, but Ainge and Wedman were the toast of the postgame celebration. Both have been silent lately. Ainge had played only 15 minutes and scored two points in the last four games. Wedman had yet to score more than 10 in games other than the ones Bird missed with injuries. They played more last night because of Gerald Henderson's calf injury (he kept the streak going with seven minutes in the first quarter) and Jones' thirst for experimentation.

"Danny handled the ball well and shot with authority," said Jones. "And I feel confident with Wedman at guard. He needs this type of work, both physically and mentally, to get into shape for the playoffs. And we need his outside shooting."

"It doesn't surprise me that Scott Wedman is able to make a jump shot," said Nelson. "He's very good at that."

The victory was Boston's fourth in five tries against Milwaukee and improved Boston's record against the Central Division to a phenomenal 24-2.

The Celtics play in Atlanta tonight (Ch. 4, 8).

WEDMAN FINDS PLACE IN CELTICS' SCHEME

2011-08-31T13:45:00.006-04:00

December 12, 1983

WEDMAN FINDS PLACE IN CELTICS' SCHEME

He is still trying to get the knack of his new role, so naturally Scott Wedman wasn't pleased Saturday night when he missed his first three shots against the Atlanta Hawks.

But he made six of his next seven and wound up with 16 points in Boston's 104-87 victory, and anybody who doesn't recognize why the Celtics consider him so valuable hasn't been listening to coach K. C. Jones lately.

"I've been telling people he's just a hell of a guy to have on the team," said Jones, whoseCeltics are the NBA's hottest team, winning eight of their last nine. "The man is a tremendous shooter, and it's something that a man of his caliber can't find more minutes in a game. Most guys in that situation would be griping and complaining. But Scott has accepted the challenge and comes out shooting whenever we ask him. He's a hard worker."

Wedman has been waiting in the wings, principally because he is a shooting forward behind Larry Bird and Cedric Maxwell. Wedman's role is not suited to a player with a big ego or little patience. A nine-year veteran, Wedman possesses Bird-like qualities, and when he played for Kansas City he was often compared to John Havlicek for his ability to get open by moving well without the ball.

But not until Bird went down with a knee injury over the weekend did Wedman start doing the things his teammates expect. Wedman came through with 15 points in 23 minutes against Denver Friday night and played 19 minutes against the Hawks. He had averaged 8.2 minutes and 2.4 points in the season's first 21 games.

"It's different," said Wedman of his new role, "especially after you've played a lot of minutes for several years. If Larry had been around and I'd missed those three shots, I might have been looking over my shoulder. But luckily, I got to stay in, and the shots began to go in.

"I think I've worked harder this year than any other because I know I have to be ready when I get in there. One of the hardest things to do is to come off the bench shooting, but that's my job. I spend a lot of time with my shootingpartner (Gerald) Henderson working on just that."

The injury to Bird not only gave Wedman a chance to play, but it reminded the Celtics that winning is a team effort.

"When we were winning nine in a row (earlier this season)," Wedman said, "we played the same way as we played against Denver and Atlanta. But we all looked to Bird because he is such a fantastic player. When he's out, we look to each other, and if we move the ball and play with patience, we seem to play pretty well."

Wedman added that there is no animosity between he and Bird, since no one has to tell him about Bird's talents.

"He's just great," said Wedman. "And he doesn't let up on anybody. When I'm guarding him, he's on me to play better defense. He plays hard all the time, and you learn to do so, too."

Bird was examined Saturday by Dr. Robert Leach and advised to take it easy, according to trainer Ray Melchoirre. His injury is still being described as strained ligaments in the right knee, and Bird hopes to practice today when the club works out at Hellenic College. "He'll be examined by Dr. Leach again before practice," said Melchiorre, "and we'll know more then." . . . Jones was still not happy with the Celtics' offense, which had 27 turnovers against the Hawks. He was pleased with the Celtics' 48-25 rebounding domination, led by Robert Parish, who also had a game-high 24 points . . . The Celtics looked poised and polished against the Hawks' trapping defenses, and several players gave credit to "Magic" Maxwell for his ability to break the press by dribbling up the wings. Maxwell also had six assists and four steals . . . Boston is 8-4 on the road and 9-2 at home, including one game at Hartford . . . Rhode Island product Sly Williams, out with a thumb injury, said he hopes to rejoin the Hawks tomorrow night, with Scott Hastings likely to replace him on the injured list . . . One bright spot for the Hawks against the Celtics was rookie Glenn (Doc) Rivers, who had eight assists and four steals . . . Seven of the Hawks' 10 steals came in the third quarter, when Atlanta wiped out an 11-point deficit.

ONLY A MATTER OF MINUTES FOR WEDMAN

2011-08-31T13:45:00.004-04:00

October 18, 1983

IT'S ONLY A MATTER OF MINUTES WEDMAN READY TO HELP; JONES WILL GIVE HIM THE CHANCE

He was an extra piece of cord wood stacked against the kitchen wall. He was hot fudge you didn't need on top of your favorite ice cream.

When the Celtics acquired Scott Wedman last January, the league-wide question was, "What are they going to do with him?"

The answer turned out to be, "Nothing." As the Celtics staggered and snarled toward their stunning no-show sweep in Milwaukee, Wedman pined away on the end of the bench wondering why Boston had bothered to trade for him.

It was an unusual situation for Wedman, a nine-year veteran, former All- Star, and scorer of more than 10,000 NBA points. Sitting on the end of the bench, he began to wonder about his own abilities. Were the Celtics so deep that they didn't need him, or was he not good enough to contribute to this talent-laden team?

"(The doubt) was there for a while, but I did get over it," said Wedman. "I realized I was playing behind one of the best players in basketball (Larry Bird). After a while, I didn't leave much room for self-doubt."

"He didn't get a chance to play," says new Celtic coach K.C. Jones. "Any time a good player sits and only gets a minute or two, his game suffers."

It appears that the Celtics are planning on getting a lot more out of Wedman this year.

The 31-year-old forward has averaged 20 minutes of precious floor time in Boston's first five exhibition games. He's responded by hitting 50 percent from the floor (22 for 44) and 83 percent from the foul line (10 for 12). He had 18 points and received a warm ovation from the Garden fight fans during Sunday's slugfest against the Sixers.

"It's mainly just that I'm playing more," said Wedman. "I came to camp in good shape. I played a lot more this summer than I have in the past. I just want to play. The coaches can decide roles and minutes. I understand that my main contribution is scoring, but I think I can contribute in a lot of different ways."

Jones said, "I talked with Scott briefly on the road and asked him what he thought he could do and he said he thought he could come into games and give us instant offense. When you're a shooter like he is, you should think shoot first and pass second.

"I intend to use him more than we did last year. He gives us another weapon. When I see him go up for a shot, I get a good feeling. It's like you know the ball is going in."

The 6-foot-7 Wedman is a lifetime .483 shooter who has averaged 15.5 points a game since coming into the league with Kansas City in 1974. He is capable of playing in the backcourt, but helps most as a shooting forward. Since Bird is Boston's shooting forward and generally plays 40 to 45 minutes a night, Wedman is easily buried.

"Getting minutes is a problem and it's going to be a problem for Scott," said Jones. "But I'm sure there's a way I can work out something new."

Wedman sounds ready for the challenge. "You have to prove yourself every day with this team," he says. "There's so much talent here that you know if you don't perform well every day, there's someone standing behind you ready to step in."

Wedman Tries to Color his White Cavs Sneakers Green

2011-08-31T13:44:00.006-04:00

1/17/83

Wedman Tries to Color his White Cavs Sneakers Green

It is hoped that Scott Wedman (who did not play Saturday) will have some green sneakers by tomorrow night. Attempts to paint his white ones with a green magic marker produced a hideous tie-dyed effect. He's wearing No. 20, formerly worn by Larry Siegfried (in attendance Saturday), Phil Hankinson, Fred Saunders and Wayne Kreklow, among others. Fitch sat with Wedman on the flight to Indianapolis yesterday . . . Charles Bradley's ankle is still hurting and he did not dress for the Cleveland game. Rick Robey's back is not right and he played only five minutes Saturday.

Celtics Acquire Wedman

2011-08-31T13:44:00.005-04:00

January 15, 1983

Celtics Acquire Wedman

Rumors of an impending trade swept the Garden last night after coach Bill Fitch confirmed that a deal that had been in the works for several days was near completion.

After the game, the Celtics announced that they had traded little-used rookie Darren Tillis and Boston's No. 1 draft pick in 1983 to the Cleveland Cavaliers for veteran forward Scott Wednam. The Celtics will also pay Cleveland an undisclosed amount of cash to make up for a good hunk of Wedman's salary.

Wedman, who is in the second year of a five-year contract worth an estimated $700,000 annually, is averaging 18.1 points and 5.9 rebounds per game. The 30-year-old shooting forward scored his 10,000th career point on Dec. 16 against Atlanta.

Cleveland sources said last night that the Cavaliers are about to be sold, and management was trying to trim its payroll in an effort to attract potential buyers.

Before the game, a source said the deal might be a swap of rookies, with Tillis going to Cleveland for former Boston College star John Bagley. The hangup, apparently, was that Cleveland was demanding more for Wedman, possibly veteran Nate Archibald or guard Gerry Henderson.

"If it was up to us," said Fitch, "the deal could have been completed several days ago. But you never know when you deal with somebody else."

The 6-foot-7 Wedman is a multiple-talent forward in the John Havlicek mold, who starred at Kansas City before becoming a free agent and signing with the Cavaliers.

Boston was minus two players last night when it went out to face the New Jersey Nets. Center Rick Robey is still bothered by a back problem. He dressed but was not expected to play. Guard Charles Bradley did not dress because of an ankle sprain. There was immediate speculation that he would also be included in any possible deal, but the Celtics usually don't trade injured players, and thus he was thought to be safe for the moment.

The 93d consecutive sellout Wednesday night against Golden State was a franchise record. The Celtics have the second best road record in the NBA and fourth at home. The Celtics will be on the road again tonight, facing Cleveland at 7:30.

WEBB SAYS HE'S MATURED

2011-08-29T14:46:00.002-04:00

April 17, 1994

EX-CELTIC SAYS HE'S MATURED

When he arrived in Boston last year as a new Celtics player, Marcus Webb quickly became a fixture in clubs and bars from Daisy Buchanan's in the Back Bay to the Harbor Club on the waterfront.

Webb often traveled with a small entourage of fellow pro athletes and girlfriends. Young, attractive and rich, Webb and his friends cut a swath through some of the city's most fashionable nightspots.

But for Webb, the good times came to a grinding halt.

The Celtics forward first gained notoriety when he told the team he missed a doctor's appointment and a practice because police wrongly stopped him while driving on Route 9. Police said that no such incident occurred.

Then, within a 10-day period in March, Webb was arrested twice, first for allegedly slapping an ex-girlfriend and then for allegedly raping his girlfriend at the time. Another ex-girlfriend sued for child support.

The Celtics soon after fined him for lying about the status of his driver's license. Finally, the team cut him. Webb wound up in a jail cell because he could not raise $25,000 bail.

"I'm a very changed person today because of all those things that happened in Boston," Webb said last week in a telephone interview from Pau, France, where he plays for the local team in the French professional basketball league.

Webb said he did a lot of growing up in Boston. But he says he didn't do all the things he was accused of doing.

"I don't want to think about it all. It's over. It's just something that happened," he said.

Webb eventually agreed to plead guilty to sexually assaulting his former girlfriend and was sentenced to 30 days in prison.

After his release from Concord state prison, Webb was given a tryout by the Los Angeles Clippers. But the Clippers were too nervous about possible public relations problems to give Webb a fair chance, according to his agent. Webb packed his bags for Europe.

Looking back, Webb said the best thing that happened to him in Boston was meeting his fiancee, Kathryn West of Cambridge. An August wedding is planned in Montgomery, Ala., Webb's hometown.

In the meantime, Webb, 23, is averaging 19 points and 9 rebounds a game. He's one of the premier players in the league. But he wants to return to the NBA. If he does, he said he'll do things differently this time around.

"I've got family responsibilities now," he said. "I'm more mature."

EX-CELTIC FREED AFTER 28 DAYS

2011-08-29T14:42:00.003-04:00

August 18, 1993

EX-CELTIC FREED AFTER 28 DAYS

Former Boston Celtic Marcus Webb was released from prison on Monday after serving 28 days of a 30-day sentence for sexually assaulting a former girlfriend. Webb, who was charged with rape, pleaded guilty in Middlesex Superior Court to a reduced charge of indecent assault and battery stemming from the March 4 incident at his Waltham apartment. Although Webb was sentenced to 3 to 5 years, he was ordered to serve only 30 days at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Concord.

WEBB PLEADS GUILTY TO ASSAULT

2011-08-29T14:41:00.002-04:00

July 21, 1993

WEBB PLEADS GUILTY TO ASSAULT

Former Boston Celtics forward Marcus Webb pleaded guilty yesterday to sexually assaulting his former girlfriend and was sentenced to 30 days in prison.

Webb's plea in Middlesex Superior Court to a reduced charge of indecent assault and battery -- he had been charged with rape -- was made as his trial was scheduled to begin before Judge Robert A. Barton.

Webb, 23, admitted to attempting the anal rape of the victim, a 22-year-old college senior, March 4 after a day and night of consensual sex in his Windsor Village apartment in Waltham.

WEBB RAPE COUNT IS OUT

2011-08-29T14:39:00.002-04:00

June 11, 1993

WEBB RAPE COUNT IS OUT PROSECUTORS DROP 1 OF 2 CHARGES

One of two rape charges against former Boston Celtic Marcus L. Webb was dropped by prosecutors yesterday after his defense lawyer said that the victim had told a doctor she consented to have oral sex with Webb.

Attorney Howard Cooper, who represents Webb, said a Middlesex grand jury might not have indicted Webb on a charge that he orally raped his former girlfriend on March 4 if a prosecutor had shown grand jurors a report that the woman told a doctor she had consented to have oral sex with Webb.

Cooper said the woman told a physician that she consented to various sexual acts during a night of lovemaking in Webb's Waltham apartment, but that Webb forced her to have anal intercourse despite her objection.

Insisting that grand jurors were aware of the victim's full account of the alleged rape, Middlesex County First Assistant District Attorney Martin F. Murphy said, "We did not violate any of the rules concerning the presentation of evidence to the grand jury.

"We expect to prove at trial that the victim was anally raped, then forced to engage in oral intercourse against her will."

When asked why prosecutors dropped the oral rape charge, Murphy said, "We made a tactical decision to go ahead on the most important charge and not let the motion filed by the defense create a sideshow that would divert attention away from the most important issue in the case and possibly delay the July 20 trial date."

Assistant District Attorney David Meier, who is prosecuting the case, filed a notice with Superior Court Judge Robert A. Barton yesterday saying that "in the interests of judicial economy and in order to ensure a prompt and expeditious trial . . . the commonwealth will not prosecute" a second charge any farther.

Cooper said he has urged Barton to dismiss the remaining charge. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday.

RESTRAINING ORDER VS. WEBB LIFTED

2011-08-29T14:38:00.004-04:00

April 16, 1993

RESTRAINING ORDER VS. WEBB LIFTED

A restraining order against former Celtic Marcus Webb was vacated yesterday when the Dorchester woman he is accused of raping did not appear at a status hearing in the case. Webb, 22, of Waltham, appeared with witnesses in Dorchester District Court to contest the order, but it was vacated because of the woman's absence. Authorities said the woman had notified the court that she did not intend to appear. Webb awaits trial in Middlesex Superior Court on two charges that he raped the woman on March 4 in her apartment. He has pleaded not guilty and remains free on $25,000 bail.

WEBB'S PAST OFFERS GLIMPSE OF MAN

2011-08-29T14:38:00.003-04:00

March 28, 1993

WEBB'S PAST OFFERS GLIMPSE OF MAN PART BRAT, TEDDY BEAR WAIVED CELTIC TALKS OF PAST, FUTURE

Marcus Webb doesn't mean to brag, but he knows he played ball better than anyone back home. He dressed better, too. And he's sure he can outcook the Boston chef who's just sent over some smothered cabbage and sweet potatoes.

"My self-esteem is high about everything," Webb said in his first interview since he was charged with rape and waived by the Celtics 10 days ago. "I know I'm a beautiful individual. Without anyone telling me, I know that. I have confidence."

Webb's confidence extends to beating the rape charge, fending off at least one paternity suit and playing again in the NBA. The 22-year-old Alabamian swears -- always pardoning his language first -- that he'll do it all. With a smirk that runs from his broad shoulders to his small eyes, Webb insists he loves women and basketball, and would hurt neither.

He says this in a voice as Deep South as his dinner manners. He asks the waitress her name, and never skips a please or thank you. Halfway through a 2 1/2-hour supper at Bob the Chef's, a South End restaurant specializing in southern cooking, Webb excuses himself to call his "mama," Mary, who just flew up from Montgomery, Ala. At 6 feet 9 inches tall, he doesn't stand up so much as unfold from the table.

"To the average woman who's been reading about me, I'm going to be, excuse my language, an (expletive)," he said, sounding equally angry and ashamed over his sudden notoriety. "They're thinkin' I'm a geek, a clown from a bad area. That's not me."

The Marcus Lataives Webb that comes across in person more or less matches the Webb they remember back home. In interviews with 30 Alabamians who knew Webb as a boy in Montgomery and a young man in Tuscaloosa, a picture emerges: part teddy bear, part spoiled brat. As with so many young athletes, those were the characteristics that Webb brought with him to Boston when he was plucked from a poor background and pumped full of money.

"He's so full of life everyone likes him, loves him," said his grandfather, Herbert Webb, an associate pastor at a Baptist church in Montgomery. "When he was 12 or 13, he told me, 'Daddy, I'm going to put away all these childish things because I have a goal and that's to play basketball.' "

That goal led him to the game's most storied team, but also to an unfamiliar life in Boston. The Celtics gambled $140,000 a year that the rookie forward could get by on the court; but few who knew him back home thought he would get by easily away from the game.

"Marcus was someone who wanted you to know he was there if a party was going on," said Gary Waites, who played alongside Webb at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. "Now he's got a lot of pressure on him, and too much freedom. He never did understand how to manage his time and his money."

Like Waites, Webb's teachers and coaches in Alabama describe him as a sweet showboat who has trouble with responsibility. He needs guidance, they say, lots of it. At Sidney Lanier High, when he was winning at basketball but slacking off in algebra and biology, coach John Bricken made Webb join the ROTC, hoping it would teach him to act like a champion.

"He had tremendous magnetism," said retired Col. Charles Scott, who runs the ROTC at Lanier. "But it was tough for him to see the serious side of things."

Webb grew up poor on the black side of Montgomery, and sensed the privilege that accompanies athletic prowess. Although he had a steady girlfriend throughout high school, he got used to being scouted by girls as well as coaches. With college costs covered by scholarships, Webb never had a paying job until the Celtics.

"Sports discovered me in 7th grade," he said. "They didn't ask me to play football; they told me. In football, I was Mr. Everything. Basketball, Mr. Everything. Track, Mr. Everything."

When he wasn't astounding classmates, Webb says he was home cooking. In high school, he mastered both baking and sewing.

During college, Webb was famous for his barbecues featuring chicken, ribs and homemade potato salad. One year, he surprised his former roommate with birthday cupcakes. Last Christmas, he prepared a full dinner for his Celtics teammates -- turkey, collard greens and his family's secret red velvet cake.

Webb says the women at home taught him self-reliance. He lived with his grandmother, mother and half-brother Derrick, now 14, in a simple one-story house on Azalea Drive.

"I'm one independent man," Webb said. "I wash my own clothes. I make my own lunch and I make my own bed."

Webb's family still lives in the house where he grew up, with the windows open but the shades drawn against the sun. Like his grandfather's house on nearby Rosa L. Parks Avenue, the house is filled with bric-a-brac in gold and glass. The better furniture is covered in plastic, as are the newspaper clippings and photos of Webbs' triumphs.

Missing from his childhood was the father he didn't meet until he was a high schooler, and then only by chance. George Pugh, a college football star and former head coach at Alabama A&M University, came around scouting and introduced himself as Marcus' father. His son ran right home with the confusing news.

"He said, 'I met some man who said he was my daddy,' " said Ethelene Webb, the grandmother who helped raise Webb while his mother worked three, sometimes four jobs. "I said, 'Go ask your mama about it.' "

Said Webb: "I held a grudge against him, like I'm supposed to. My son should have a grudge if I'm not there from day one."

But Webb and the women in his family stress that he had plenty of male role models around, including his grandfather Herbert Webb and now-deceased uncle Sam Webb, both big, tall men who didn't take any grief. But young Marcus could talk to them.

Still, Webb never talked much about his troubles. Not when his fiancee, Quientina Brown, broke off their engagement shortly after giving birth to their son. Not when he got kicked off the team in college.

"Here was a young man who came out of nowhere, sits out a year and makes it," Pugh said. "He makes the Boston Celtics. I always told Marcus to be humble."

And there were some humbling moments along the way. Webb's coaches say that as his competition stiffened from one arena to the next, he was less able to cope with the challenge.

"Each step, as he came in contact with people with more ability, he had more problems," said Charles Sikes, Webb's football coach at Lanier until Webb broke his ankle in 10th grade and quit the team. "He can't compete with competition."

Even at Lanier, where he was all-state, Bricken says Webb didn't work for grades until a college scholarship was at stake, and then he made good ones. At Tuscaloosa, where no one remembers him as a standout for the Crimson Tide, Webb cut so many classes that his coach Winfrey Sanderson made him sit out his senior year. So he quit school, right after he became a father.

"I can't agree with everything he did when it came to school, but he was no outlaw," said Kenneth Rice, the Alabama teammate who roomed with Webb throughout college.

Compared with Montgomery, where Webb was a fast-growing boy in a slow-moving town, Tuscaloosa was the big time. But Webb was no big man on the campus of 19,000 students.

Still, no one recalls more than the usual kid trouble. At home in Montgomery, Webb flunked Smilie Tade's English class, flipped the bird to the crowd during a game and set his grandmother's kitchen curtains on fire, a mishap that earned young Marcus six whippings.

A hundred miles away in Tuscaloosa, where he majored in psychology, he found more trouble on the big, antebellum campus. Webb was arrested twice, for bouncing a check and not paying parking tickets. He amassed enough speeding tickets to have his license suspended, then revoked when he was caught speeding again. He also couldn't keep it together academically, despite the tutors and carping from coaches during three seasons from 1988-91.

But little in his Alabama days foreshadowed the magnitude of trouble he's in now.

"All of this is so out of character," said his grandmother. To this day, he calls her mama, too, and she defends his integrity despite a litany of legal and professional woes.

On March 18, the Celtics dropped Webb a few hours before he was arrested and charged with raping a former girlfriend. Three days earlier, the mother of his 13-month-old son, who lives in Alabama, had him arrested for allegedly hitting her during a weekend trip to Boston.

Another ex-girlfriend, LaTangelia Sanderson, is suing for child support, claiming that they agreed to have a baby. Yet another woman, whom Webb admits he "used to mess with," has been going around Montgomery saying the child she is carrying is also his.

"We may have the first class-action paternity suit in the country," said Jay Lewis, the Montgomery lawyer representing LaTangelia Sanderson.

Said a disillusioned Sanderson, 20, who has known Webb for a year: "He was like a knight in shining armor: kind, gentle, he listened. I chose to have a child by him, so obviously I must have felt very secure. I don't know what happened."

Webb denies hurting any woman or fathering any child but his 13-month-old boy, TreDarrius Le Marcus Brown, whom he dotes on and wishes had his last name.

"I was raised by two women and taught I shouldn't hurt women," Webb said. "If anyone touched my mother, I know how I'd react. So why should I treat someone's daughter wrong?"

Through it all, Webb says his confidence has never waned.

The Boston Garden was Webb's biggest arena yet, but as a marginal player he got little notice. What he did get was notoriety.

Before being waived, Webb had been on the injured list since December, when the team says he broke his thumb while cracking his knuckles. In January, he claimed that he missed a doctor's appointment and a team practice because the police stopped him on Route 9. He is sticking by the story, even though there is no record of the episode and the Celtics fined him $250. He still has no driver's license. Lying about that to the Celtics earlier this month got him dropped from a road trip.

Down in Alabama, all these stories have made the rounds. At Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa, coaches roll their eyes sadly. They say they are shocked at the allegations, but not surprised that the kid from Montgomery didn't last with the Celtics.

"Marcus didn't set out to get in trouble, but it would just happen, like with not going to classes," said Henry Lyda, an associate athletic trainer with the Crimson Tide.

Back in Montgomery, where Webb hopes one day to raise hogs and chickens, the disappointment is even greater. At Lanier High, where his photo hangs outside the gym with those of other alumni, including quarterback Bart Starr, a Green Bay Packers football Hall of Famer, Webb is a hero.

"He was a swell guy," said Terrell Wright, whose cousin was Webb's steady girlfriend. "Sports-wise, everyone looked up to him."

Then the boys hear that Webb has been charged with rape, that he's been cut from the Celtics. Mouths agape, they come off the court and crowd around. For a good while, the game stops, the heads shake and the ball is quiet.

2D WOMAN ACCUSES CELTICS' WEBB OF ATTACKING HER

2011-08-29T14:37:00.002-04:00

March 18, 1993

2D WOMAN ACCUSES CELTICS' WEBB OF ATTACKING HER

Marcus Webb, the Celtics forward who was charged on Monday with assaulting the mother of his son, has been ordered to stay away from another woman who says he attacked her a week ago.

The second woman, Ericka G. Gomes of Dorchester, obtained the restraining order against Webb on Monday after telling a Dorchester District Court judge that Webb accosted her at the Harbor Club in the hours after midnight last Thursday.

Gomes said she told the judge that Webb yanked her hair and grabbed her hard enough to leave a bruise the size of his palm on her upper arm. She said that at around 3:30 the same morning, Webb came to her house uninvited, picked her up and threatened to throw her over the porch railing.

At his Waltham apartment yesterday, Webb said, "I don't know nothing about" Gomes' allegations, declining further comment. Waltham Police Lt. Kenneth Rautenberg said last night that he knew of the order, but that the department had not served Webb because it had not yet received the official paperwork.

Gomes, an Emerson College senior, says she dated Webb briefly and casually this year, but she broke off the relationship about a week before the alleged attack. Gomes and Webb are 22.

"He grabbed me, and he kept saying, 'What do you want from me?' " said Gomes, who encountered Webb on the night of the alleged assault while she was waiting for a girlfriend who was at the nightclub with her. "I said, 'Marcus, you need help,' and I walked away and he grabbed me again and said, 'Don't you walk away from me.'

"He had been drinking. I just think he has a problem with the word, 'No.' It fuels him."

Gomes has not pressed charges against Webb, which are not needed to get a restraining order.

Gomes' allegations are the latest in a string of problems besetting the rookie, whose future with the Celtics appears to be in jeopardy.

Most recently, Waltham police were called to his apartment about 2 a.m. Monday. There, Quientina Brown, the mother of Webb's 13-month-old son, told police that Webb had slapped her on the left side of the face and thrown her to the floor. Webb, who is 6 feet 9 inches and weighs 255 pounds, entered no plea to the misdemeanor charge.

Webb has been on the Celtics' injured list since Dec. 29 with a broken thumb that the Celtics say he got while cracking his knuckles before a game two days earlier. He was left off the team's current four-game Western swing after reportedly lying to coach Chris Ford about obtaining a valid driver's license.

Webb's license became an issue after he claimed he missed a Jan. 8 team practice and doctor's exam because police had stopped him on Route 9 that morning. No police department record of the incident could be found , and it turned out that Alabama had revoked Webb's license.

Gomes stressed that the timing of her restraining order was coincidental; when she went to court on Monday, she said she had not yet heard about the allegations by Brown, an Alabama resident who was visiting Webb.

"I feel sorry for Marcus, and I don't hate him," said Gomes, who is 5 feet 3 and weighs 119 pounds. "Marcus' problems go far deeper than his problems with fame. Marcus has a problem with ego. He feels like he's above the law, that he's unstoppable."

Gomes said many people witnessed his alleged attacks on her, including club employees, a police officer working a private detail and Celtics forward Alaa Abdelnaby, who she said told Webb at one point to leave her alone. Abdelnaby could not be reached yesterday.

Celtics executive vice president Jan Volk declined comment, saying only that he was unaware of the incidents or that Webb was under a restraining order.

Patrick Gibbons, general manager of the spacious Harbor Club on Northern Avenue, said he did not know of any such altercation, adding that "any time there's a problem, we're there."

Gomes said she was "really humiliated because no one stopped it. It felt like he's a Celtic and he can do whatever he wants and no one cares. The first time he pulled my hair and I screamed, I actually embarrassed myself by screaming. My instincts told me to grab his head and dig my nails in, so I did."

About 40 minutes after Gomes returned to the Dorchester duplex that she shares with a roommate and the roommate's family, she said, the phone rang. It was Webb, allegedly demanding that she have food ready because he was coming over.

"He said he was coming over to beat my (expletive)," Gomes said. "I thought he was drunk and just trying to make me afraid. I figured I was safe at home."

A half hour or so later, around 3:30 a.m., Gomes said Webb began ringing the doorbell, threatening to wake the neighbors unless she spoke with him. Frightened, she went to the door with a bag of potato chips, which he had demanded.

Webb left quietly, but returned a short time later. The bell woke her roommate's aunt, who went to the door to tell him to leave, Gomes said. Gomes then went to the door, and he allegedly pulled her outside.

"He commenced to grab me and he was tearing at my clothes and he's just crazy, that's all," Gomes said. "He had me up against the railing (of the first-floor porch), he picked me up and he said, 'I'm going to throw you over.'

"I said, 'Go ahead, you have the advantage. I'm no match for you.' And he put me down."

Gomes said she tried to get a restraining order Friday, but got to the court too late. The one she now carries with her everywhere forbids Webb from coming within 200 yards.

WEBB OF INTRIGUE ROOKIE HAS CELTICS BRASS IN SUSPENSE

2011-08-29T14:36:00.005-04:00

July 14, 1992

WEBB OF INTRIGUE ROOKIE HAS CELTICS BRASS IN SUSPENSE

Had circumstances been different, Marcus Webb feels he wouldn't be banging bodies at Brandeis this weekend, looking for a job. Instead, he'd be wondering where to invest his first million as one of the NBA's top draft picks, his lifelong dream about to become a reality.

He may still realize that dream, but it's a longshot. The 6-foot-9-inch, 260-pound bruiser has impressed the Celtics' higher-ups with his hustle, physical play and strength. Said chief scout Rick Weitzman, "he has been a lot better than any of us anticipated." So much so, that after just two nights of workouts, Webb said he already had been approached by representatives of teams in Greece and Italy.

"I told them to call my agent. I'm playing ball, he's laying the plans," Webb said.

Webb was somewhat of an unknown arriving here. He had been penciled in as the starting center last year for an Alabama team that produced two first-rounders, Robert Horry and Latrell Sprewell. He was going to be the wide-body inside and fully anticipated a productive senior year that would make him one of the top college players in the country.

Instead, he was indefinitely suspended from the squad in September, primarily, the school said, for academic reasons. His grades were OK; he just didn't get to class often enough. He was reinstated after the first semester, worked out and practiced with the team, traveled with it, but never saw any action. He then was dismissed for good in February.

Webb said he did have problems getting to class. But he also said coach Wimp Sanderson wanted to redshirt him and he would have none of it. That led to friction between the two.

Regardless, he missed the entire season. And what would have happened had he stayed on the team and progressed as he thought he would?

"Lottery," he said confidently after yesterday's workout at Brandeis. "No question about it. The best players in the conference? I would have played them like there was no tomorrow. Shaquille O'Neal? No tomorrow. Oliver Miller? No tomorrow. I wasn't about to go into the locker room after any game and say, 'if only.' I wanted to give it everything I had.

"It was really frustrating," he went on. "All summer I had worked on my game. I was a senior. I was going to dominate, dominate every big man."

Webb, who has a 5-month-old son, latched on with the Atlanta Eagles in the US Basketball League in June. Weitzman, who had put Webb on his 'People to Watch' list for this past college season (but rolls his eyes when told about the lottery prediction) then got him into camp.

It seems like an excellent mix. Webb is young, strong, eager and willing to do the dirty work inside. Celtics CEO Dave Gavitt likes Webb's physical approach. The immediate goal? Landing a spot on the Celtics team that will play later this week in New York in a tournament with the Nets, Knicks and Sixers.

Webb has athletic bloodlines. His father, George Pugh, was an All-American football player at Alabama. His cousin, Alonzo Spellman, played football at Ohio State and was a first-round draft pick of the Chicago Bears. At Sidney Lanier High School in Montgomery, Ala., he played tight end and outside linebacker and was so good that he said he was 'Bama's top football recruit.

"They tried to get me to play even after I went there to play basketball," Webb said. "I just felt there was more money in basketball. In football, you gotta give it up after five, six or seven years. Basketball, you can play a lot longer."

In three years with 'Bama, he progressed steadily, though he is probably best remembered for dislodging a basket from the backboard with a dunk against Wichita State, causing a 35-minute delay. He didn't have big numbers, but he had size, desire and was seemingly the ideal complementary player. He still thinks that's the case in his latest challenge.

"I have a great dream to be in the NBA, to take care of my boy and my mother," he went on. "I think I can make it in this league. The way I look at it, I have God-given talent and it's up to me to show Him I use it the right way."

Todd Day Ties Bird Record in Win Over McHale

2011-08-22T15:50:00.005-04:00

December 23, 1995

Todd Day Ties Bird Record in Win Over McHale

Dana Barros moved into the NBA record book and Todd Day turned in a career performance last night at the FleetCenter, but it was Dino Radja's free throw with 2.4 seconds left that allowed the Celtics to narrowly escape with a 114-113 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Barros broke the NBA record for consecutive games with a 3-pointer, connecting on his second try of the night with 8:56 left in the first quarter to reach 80 straight games. Day had a career-high 41 points, but the Celtics needed to rally late in the fourth quarter to avoid a loss of catastrophic proportions.

Radja, who finished with 19 points, was fouled by Tom Gugliotta after a scramble for the ball in front of the Celtics' basket. He hit the first free throw and missed the second, but the ball caromed hard off the rim toward the right corner, where Celtics guard David Wesley retrieved it as time expired.

"Thank goodness for the long rebound," Celtics coach M.L. Carr said with a major sigh of relief. "It worked out well for us that Dino missed the second shot, but in those situations you always hope for the points. I learned that from Red (Auerbach) a long time ago."

Carr might have also learned from the master that a win's a win, even if it is accompanied by far too many anxious moments against one of the league's worst teams. The Timberwolves left town with a 6-17 record, 2-10 on the road. Yet the Celtics (12-12) received a major scare before snapping a two-game losing streak and reclaiming a .500 record.

"This proves again that we're not good enough to take anyone lightly," said Barros, who finished with 17 points. "We can't go out and expect to win any game unless we play a good game. It doesn't matter whether it's Chicago or Minnesota." Barros' only 3-pointer of the night provided the headlines around the league. But his electrifying one-on-one drive past Terry Porter for a layup with 33.4 seconds left put the Celtics in a position to win the game, giving the hosts a 113-111 lead. Gugliotta tied the game with 20.6 seconds left when he hit a pair of free throws.

The Celtics called a timeout and set up a play to isolate Barros again. But this time Porter denied him the ball, forcing Dee Brown to improvise. Brown drove from the left side, but appeared to be hit as he reached the lane and was stripped of the ball. Day picked up the loose ball on the right baseline, but was also separated from the ball as it rolled toward the lane.

Radja, in the right place at the right time, collected the loose ball. Gugliotta had no choice but to foul him. "In that situation, Dana or Dee can get the job done and both are good free-throw shooters," said Carr, explaining the play he diagrammed in the huddle. "But it didn't exactly happen the way it was supposed to. We'll take it anyways."

Day practically did that himself. He scored seven more than his previous career high, including a 24-point explosion in the second period that tied Larry Bird for most points scored by a Celtic during a quarter. Day's one-man show helped his team to a 69-62 halftime lead, but the Timberwolves wouldn't fade away.

Behind Christian Laettner's 23 points, 19 from Isaiah Rider and Gugliotta's 18, they pushed the Celtics into a 109-106 deficit with 1:38 left. Brown, fouled by Kevin Garnett (17 points) on a 3-point attempt, canned all three free throws with 1:23 left to knot the game at 109.

Sherm Dealt for Todd Day

2011-08-22T15:49:00.011-04:00

November 27, 1995

Sherm Dealt for Todd Day

The departure of Sherman Douglas leaves the Celtics with less of a crowd at point guard, but many of his former teammates will miss Douglas' contributions -- both on and off the court. "Sherman was the heart of this team," Dino Radja said. "I think Sherman got us to the playoffs last season -- it was not me, it was not Dee (Brown). He was leading us. We helped him a lot, but he was the leader.

"He might look ugly, but he has a big heart and he played with all of his heart every night. We are definitely going to miss him." Douglas was traded yesterday to Milwaukee for Todd Day and Alton Lister, leaving Dana Barros and David Wesley as the Celtic point guards. "One thing is obvious -- this is a business," Radja said. "Each of them deserved to play and you can't fit three of them in. It was unfair to them. One of them was going to suffer."

If Douglas represented the heart of the Celtics on the court, he provided much of the team's soul off the court. "He was a good person to have in the locker room, he always kept us laughing," Brown said. "I wish him all the luck in the world. He's a hell of a ballplayer. "I've been around him for four years and I really appreciate him as a person. Sherman is a character, a funny guy, and he really enjoyed playing. He was very competitive, and I hate to lose him. We have other guys like that, but he did a lot for this team."

Of the remaining point guards, Wesley seemed most affected by the claustrophobic conditions. "I hate to see Sherman go," Wesley said. "It's tough for him, but I'm glad to get the minutes. Obviously, with less guards it means more minutes. Everyone wants to play, and it's tough to do with three point guards."But it's part of the business and we knew something was going to happen -- it was a matter of time. Unfortunately for him, it was him. Fortunately for Dana and myself, it works out for us."

Barros, though, did not think three was a crowd at the point. "It seemed that there were too many guards," Barros said. "But the way things went, it seemed that that was the way it was going to be. After the first week, it left my mind. I was prepared to go through with my role, get used to it and make the best of it. "I will miss a lot of the things Sherman brought to the team -- leadership and direction on the floor. He picked things up when we lost our direction on the floor.

"We will have to get used to the new guys, get them involved as quickly as possible. It's a matter of making the best of the situation." Talking about Day, Barros said, "M.L. (Carr) kind of likes shooters, so he'll fit right in." Douglas has had image problems because of his unorthodox style and insistence on attempting to confront situations on his own terms. He is not an effective outside shooter, which makes his ability to attract defensive pressure and to penetrate even more amazing."I learned a lot from Sherman," Greg Minor said. "He would tell me the strengths of the players I would face night in and night out. And he would keep me humble, keeping me working. He made me play hard and he made everyone around him better."

CELTICS, DOUGLAS GIVE SPURS BOOT

2011-08-22T15:49:00.010-04:00

March 4, 1993

CELTICS, DOUGLAS GIVE SPURS BOOT POINT GUARD DIRECTS SHOW, PACES RUNAWAY

A new and intriguing twist has developed on this ever-unpredictable Boston Celtics basketball team: the most consistent (and most valuable?) player in the past couple of weeks has been Sherman Douglas. Can you believe it? The diminutive 5-foot-11-inch veteran, who briefly left the team in December after removing his shoes during a game in Minnesota, has breathed life back into a club that was headed for the scrap heap again after a dismal 1-3 road swing.

The latest act in the Douglas revival came last night, when he led the Celtics on a 132-91 rampage over the San Antonio Spurs. Douglas submitted a season high in points (23) on 10-for-13 shooting, came up one assist shy of his season's best (12) and totally dictated the tempo.You want ball distribution? The Celtics had seven players in double figures and 33 assists as a club. Conversely, the suddenly downtrodden Spurs had three players in doubles and just 18 assists as a team. Good shot selection? Boston 58.9 percent shooting, San Antonio 47.4.

Douglas was more than just a catalyst. He attacked San Antonio offensively with juking, twisting drives into the teeth of the defense. He pulled up off the dribble and knocked down 18-footers. He fired no-look passes. He stood in the paint and took charges against players 7 inches and 50 pounds bigger. In short, he made the crowd forget Reggie Lewis was at home, fighting back troubles. He overshadowed the return of Kevin McHale, who played limited minutes in his first outing back from an ankle injury.

And he totally negated San Antonio point guard Avery Johnson (9 points, 7 assists), who, like his team, is coming back to earth after an almost surreal start under coach John Lucas. "Everyone kicked Sherm Douglas when he was down, and justifiably so," said Robert Parish. "But even though the team hasn't played well the last couple months, Sherman has. I'm glad the people finally noticed." "This is the Sherm Douglas I remember from Miami," added McHale. "And this is the Sherm Douglas everyone here wanted to get."

With Lewis a late scratch because of his sore back, Douglas and Dee Brown were paired as starters in the backcourt. Together, they carved out a 31-26 lead after one. Yet the game was broken open at 5:54 of the second quarter -- when Douglas checked in for Brown. Immediately thereafter, the Celtics ripped off an 11-2 run. That streak was extended to 17-6 and a staggering 60-44 Boston lead. Douglas' accomplices were Xavier McDaniel (19 points), Parish (19 points, 11 boards) and Rick Fox (14 points), who thrive when transition basketball is played.

The Celtics were not only superior in that category, they also held a 14-2 margin in second-chance points at that juncture. San Antonio's last gasp at recovery was less than two minutes into the third quarter, when a J.R. Reid jumper and a Dale Ellis trey sliced Boston's lead to 13. The Celtics took a 20-second timeout. On the ensuing inbounds, they appeared poised to fritter away their opportunity with another one of those stagnant possessions, but instead, Kevin Gamble bailed them out with a big 3-point bomb. That pushed his club in front by 16 (67-51), and the Spurs folded the tents.

"It seemed to snowball from there," conceded San Antonio center David Robinson, who shot 4 for 11 from the floor and finished with 13 points, 8 rebounds and a very sore thumb. "I don't know what the answers are. "We have a lot of young and unproven guys on this team. You don't know if they go into a slump if it could last the rest of the year." In the duration, the Spurs continue their vigil for small forward Sean Elliott, a vital player who stayed home with back spasms.

Boston suddenly waits (or longs) for no one. The Celtics have Sherman Douglas, and somewhere along the way, that became very good news.

Douglas to Take Leave of Absence, Undergo Psych Eval

2011-08-22T15:47:00.003-04:00

December 28, 1992

Douglas to Take Leave of Absence, Undergo Psych Eval

Celtics guard Sherman Douglas has been granted an undetermined leave of absence but will be paid, according to team officials.

Douglas is expected to miss tonight's game against New York. He announced his intention to leave the team Wednesday morning and did not participate in the Celtics' 114-91 loss at Indiana that night.

However, Douglas accompanied the team to Boston after the game. He did not attend practice yesterday."Sherman is having problems with his role on the team," chief executive officer Dave Gavitt said. "They are emotional problems. He is going through things he hasn't gone through before.

"We need to be supportive of him at this time and let him work things out. Being an NBA player is not an easy thing. Like anyone who is playing with a sprained ankle or another problem, he needs help. That help depends on an evaluation of where he
is at."

Gavitt would not say whether Douglas would be receiving psychiatric evaluation.
Douglas, 26, had announced that he would leave the team after he received 20 minutes of playing time during the Celtics' 124-119 double-overtime victory at Minnesota Tuesday. Douglas had removed his shoes while on the bench after halftime.

However, Douglas decided to remain with the team and was counseled by Gavitt, Larry Bird, agent Eric Fleisher, coach Chris Ford and general manager Jan Volk. During the return flight, Celtic players were advised to support Douglas.

Gavitt said Douglas' confidence had been affected. Apparently, lack of playing time had been a factor.

"Our evaluation of Sherman in the Minnesota game was not negative," Gavitt said. "It was negative in his mind, but Sherman is his own worst critic. He is a far harsher critic than the coaching staff.

"He has high standards, and this is the first time in his life that he is struggling to meet them. He has to get his self-confidence back. At this level, he needs it. All players go through slumps in an 82-game season. This one is a little more
than that."

Douglas joined the Celtics Jan. 10, when he was acquired from Miami in a trade for Brian Shaw. The team apparently hoped that Douglas would become the starting point guard. However, Douglas sprained an ankle and John Bagley remained the starter
through the playoffs.

The Celtics did not offer Bagley a contract for this season, hoping to alleviate pressure on Douglas. However, Douglas lost the starting position after nine games. His replacement, Dee Brown, had only briefly played the position in the NBA. The Celtics have rallied after having won but two of their first 10 games and now have a 10-12 record. Brown has been the starting point guard, and Douglas has averaged about 16 minutes of playing time.

"We are behind him 100 percent," Brown said. "But I can't tell what is going on inside his head." Gavitt would not announce a contingency plan. The simplest scenario would be to sign Bagley as a replacement, but it is unlikely Bagley would be willing to rejoin the Celtics under such circumstances.

"It's the NBA and we have to play 82 games," Ford said. "We will be facing all sorts of problems. We'll have to see if this is short-term or long-term and then discuss the ramifications.

"Personally, I'm very concerned. I wish (Douglas) all the best and hope everything is resolved. We are taking this seriously, and the well-being of Sherman Douglas is most important."

Sherman and his Shoes

2011-08-22T15:45:00.010-04:00

December 23, 1992

Sherman and his Shoes

It was more than 20 years ago that Beatle Paul made news by removing his shoes for an album cover shot with teammates John, George and Ringo.The stunt sparked weeks of Paul-is-dead hysteria as rockologists looked for hidden meanings. Our Shoeless Sherman Douglas episode has been similarly overblown and tiresome, but last night Douglas was back, and he helped the Celtics beat the New Jersey Nets, 106-104.

This game was won when Dee Brown, Shoeless Sherm's replacement, drained a 20-footer with 1.4 seconds remaining. Douglas scored 6 points and handed out 5 assists in 17 minutes. He was on the floor when the Celts built their 16-point fourth-quarter lead, and his presence enabled coach Chris Ford to keep Brown fresh for the finish. Dee played 42 minutes against the Knicks last week and is beginning to look like Louis (Gandhi) Orr. This is one of the reasons the Celts need Douglas.

Shoeless Sherm took the charge from all opponents at Brendan Byrne Arena. He handled Kenny Anderson, Rumeal Robinson, the full-court (print and zone trap) press, and some fans hooting him from the baseline seats. "I take it as humor," Douglas said of the hecklers. "You can't take a lot of it personally. You'll drive yourself crazy, and I don't want to do that."

Bingo. The Celtics have led us to believe that Sherman is a man on the edge ever since last week in Minneapolis when he removed his shoes and socks during the third quarter of an overtime victory. It was the last we saw of him for five days. The disappearing act resulted in a week of "What's Really Wrong with Sherm" stories, and a subplot featuring the first disciplinary crisis of Ford's coaching career.

Ford finally met with Douglas yesterday. Their little chat was long overdue. Ford wasn't at the original meeting when Douglas went to the Celtics brass after going barefoot-in-the-Target Center and he didn't talk to the guard Sunday or Monday when Shoeless Sherm returned for practice. Ford was asked if Douglas has been disciplined, and answered, "It's an in-house situation right now. As of today, no. I don't think he's been fined for what he did."

Celtic general manager Jan Volk went into Ron Ziegler Overdrive when the question was asked and said, "That's a matter between Sherman and the Celtics and we will have no comment on it." What about you, Sherm? Any fines? "You'll have to ask them," Douglas said. "As far as I know, I don't think so. I can't discipline myself." Ford is the only member of the Celtic family who is saying what the fans are saying. "Encompassing all things, I didn't like what he did," said Ford. "I was not happy with the way it happened." Being a team guy, Ford said he approved of the way management handled the sticky situation.

But did the coach think the episode made him look bad? "Yeah," said Ford. "Because of things that came out about it -- not being able to communicate with players and losing control of the ship." The Celtics led by 4 last night when Ford turned to his right early in the second quarter and said, "Sherman." Douglas played eight minutes in the first half, scoring 2 points with 2 assists. He was back on the floor at the end of the third quarter and helped the Celtics build the big lead. He was in his usual rotation, the very role he's disturbed about. He came off with 7:23 left and watched from the bench as Brown won it.

"I thought he did a good job," said Ford. "He pushed the ball." "Everything was smooth," Douglas said. "I was just playing to have fun. It was a good feeling to get out with the guys and play." And how does he feel about not being fined? "That makes me feel good," he said. "It's like they stood behind me and stood by me through this." Celtic czar Dave Gavitt didn't make it to Exit 16W for the return of Shoeless Sherm. At this point, it's fair to say that Douglas has emerged as Gavitt's Matt Young . . . Sagging confidence. Can't throw to first base. Can't be traded because of his contract.

Sherm was spared this time. They didn't pound him with Maxwell's Silver Hammer. That would have been only for the benefit of Mr. Kite, or the bloodthirsty talk-show callers. Abbey Road. Causeway Street. Take a sad song and make it better. The Douglas problem won't go away, but for the time being, Celtic management has decided to let it be.

SHAW TRADED FOR HEAT'S DOUGLAS

2011-08-22T15:45:00.009-04:00

January 11, 1992

SHAW GETS TRADED FOR HEAT'S DOUGLAS

The Celtics' lineup is undergoing a major shakeup -- but this time it's by choice.

Following last night's numbing loss to Minnesota, Boston pulled off a blockbuster coup, trading slumping point guard Brian Shaw to the Miami Heat for Sherman Douglas. Shaw, who did not play a minute last night, thus ends a tumultuous, if brief, Boston career, having fled to Italy after his rookie NBA season and then taking the Celtics to court in a futile attempt to have his new contract with the club voided last season.

Shaw had struggled this year after injuries hampered him during the preseason. He was unable to establish himself even as Boston's so-called Big Three -- Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish -- went out with injuries. Veterans John Bagley and Rickey Green had been getting most of the minutes at the point. Douglas, a former Syracuse star who averaged 16 points and 8 assists a game in two seasons with the Heat, recently signed a seven-year, $17 million deal with Miami after sitting out the early part of the season in a contract dispute. While holding out, Douglas signed an offer sheet with the Los Angeles Lakers, but the Heat matched it.

SHAW IS FOUND IN CONTEMPT HE FACES $5,000 DAILY FINES UNTIL ITALY TIES ARE SEVERED

2011-08-22T15:42:00.005-04:00

July 20, 1990

SHAW IS FOUND IN CONTEMPT HE FACES $5,000 DAILY FINES UNTIL ITALY TIES ARE SEVERED

Unless he does an about-face in the next 24 hours, it will cost Brian Shaw $5,000 for every day he remains in defiance of a court order.

A federal judge yesterday found Shaw in contempt of court for refusing to obey a June 27 order to sever all ties with Il Messaggero. Shaw, whose behavior was termed "unacceptable" and "incomprehensible" by US District Court Judge A. David Mazzone, was given one day to terminate his Italian contract before the fines begin tomorrow. Thus far, Shaw has shown no inclination to obey the court, and Mazzone found that baffling and infuriating.

"This court will not, as an institution, tolerate his refusal because I consider it to be an affront and an insult to the legal process," Mazzone said. "He has insulted this court. He has done what we can not allow people to do. It is unacceptable and incomprehensible to me."

The fines will continue, Mazzone said, "until such time as he makes an application to this court in writing to be purged of this order." Asked to be more specific by Shaw's attorney, Mazzone said, "I can't help him. This is a blatant disregard of the court's order. I want him to obey my order and he knows what my order is."

Mazzone also granted permission to the Celtics to send a notification letter to Il Messaggero, terminating Shaw's contract with the club. The Celtics promised to do so by the end of the day. Officials representing Il Messaggero already have stated they will disregard such a letter because Shaw has not signed it, and because they believe Shaw has a valid, enforceable contract with them. That contract, in their opinion, remained in effect unless Shaw sent a termination letter between June 20
and July 20.

Shaw's Boston-based attorney, Laura Carroll, talked afterward with her client and said, "He's aware of the contempt decision and he's thinking about it. He knew it was coming, but it's always disheartening when it does come. And it's a lot of money. But he wasn't surprised. We'll talk again today."

Carroll said an appeal might be forthcoming, particularly since she saw no need for a contempt finding if the Celtics sent the termination letter. She termed the fine "middle of the road. It appears to be what one would expect in civil contempt, a daily fine."

In court, Carroll told Mazzone that Shaw was fully aware of the circumstances and had been briefed beforehand on the likely outcome."He is taking this seriously," she said. "He doesn't have a cavalier attitude about it. There is animosity towards the Celtics. He does not intend to play basketball for them."

Shaw's agent in Los Angeles, Jerome Stanley, refused to comment on the decision. Should Shaw remain in defiance of the court's rulings, Mazzone said he would entertain a motion from the Celtics that would prevent Shaw from leaving the court's jurisdiction.

Mazzone ruled June 27 that an NBA arbitrator had acted properly and legally in ruling that Shaw's Celtics contract, which runs through 1994, was valid and enforceable. The arbitrator also had ordered Shaw to sever all ties with Il Messaggero on June 20, and prohibited him from playing for anyone other than the Celtics through 1994.

Mazzone upheld those decisions as well, but put off ruling on any contempt motion until the matter went through the appeals process. On Monday, the 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the June 27 order and the Celtics immediately went back,
seeking a contempt charge.

The Celtics also had asked Mazzone to give them permission to send the termination letter. Mazzone at first said he was not interested in granting that motion because he thought it would lack enforcement in Italy. However, Section 8 of Shaw's Il Messaggero deal states that the agreement "shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia."

Mazzone granted that request and then sought advice on how he should deal with the contempt motion. Celtics attorney Neil Jacobs initially came up with no monetary figure, but said Shaw should not be allowed to benefit financially by continuing to defy the order. Jacobs then suggested a figure of $1.35 million, which he arrived at by adding Shaw's signing bonus ($450,000) to his 1990-91 salary with Il Messaggero ($900,000.)

The judge bashed Shaw some more -- "my priority is this court and that its order not be insulted. That's what Mr. Shaw is doing" -- and then did some quick arithmetic on the bench before announcing his fine: $5,000 a day beginning tomorrow. Jacobs also said the Celtics, who have sued Il Messaggero for trying to induce Shaw to break the Boston contract, would notify the team to stop its attempts to get Shaw on its roster for next season. Any further attempt to get Shaw to play in Italy would constitute continued interference, Jacobs said.

While Shaw was getting hammered in the United States, he received better news from Italy, however meaningful that may be. According to Enzo di Chiara, the American-based foreign relations counsel for Gruppo Ferruzzi, which owns Il Messaggero, the Italian Basketball Federation has approved Shaw's contract with the Rome team. The notification came after FIBA, the sport's international governing body, had sided with the Celtics and the NBA in the Shaw dispute and told the Italians that Shaw was ineligible to play for Il Messaggero in 1990-91.

"The issue is ended," di Chiara said. "There is no treaty between FIBA and the Italian federation on these grounds. FIBA can't tell us what to do. Once Brian is enrolled, and he is enrolled, FIBA has no jurisdiction. They cannot penalize us or punish us."

Di Chiara said the Italian federation ruling was so decisive and carried such clout that Il Messaggero decided to stop trying to get the country's courts to approve the agreement.

CELTICS SUE FOR CONTEMPT SHAW IGNORES COURT ORDER

2011-08-22T15:41:00.019-04:00

July 18, 1990

CELTICS SUE FOR CONTEMPT SHAW IGNORES COURT ORDER

Fresh from their latest courtroom victory, the Celtics wasted no time yesterday and initiated civil contempt proceedings against Brian Shaw. The move came after the team was convinced that not even a directive from the 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals would change Shaw's mind and compel him to terminate his contract with Il Messaggero. It is the second time in three weeks the Celtics have submitted such a request; the first was denied pending the appeals court decision.

Asked about Shaw's determination to ignore the court order, his Boston-based counsel, Laura Carroll, said, "He's pretty resolute. We talked to him and his current leaning is not to send the termination letter." Carroll added she planned further conversations with Shaw, but detected no difference in his position. Shaw has refused to return phone calls.

The latest contempt filing came less than 24 hours after the appeals court upheld a federal court decision ordering Shaw to immediately terminate the Il Messaggero contract. The Celtics also have filed a motion seeking court approval to have a designated stand-in be authorized to send the termination letter to Il Messaggero if Shaw continues to refuse. Attorneys for the NBA team said they hoped to have a hearing on both motions this week.

Shaw's two-year, $1.7 million contract with Il Messaggero contains a one-month period in which he must notify the Italian team only if he plans to play in the NBA in the 1990-91 season. If no notification occurs, the second year automatically kicks in. The final day for such notification is Friday.

The Celtics set no specific request for damages in the contempt motion, which was filed with US District Court Judge A. David Mazzone. In many civil contempt cases, the violator is fined a daily amount until he complies.

"It's the court's order, so we're leaving it to them," Celtics attorney Neil Jacobs said. "There is an order being violated, purposely. We're leaving it to the judge to fashion such a remedy as he deems appropriate."

The contempt motion also asks that Shaw appear in court, although such a provision could be satisfied by the appearance of Shaw's attorneys. The appeals court decision was the third ruling in favor of the Celtics, who are trying to prevent Shaw from returning to Italy. On June 14, an NBA arbitrator ruled Shaw's Celtics contract, which runs through 1994, is valid and enforceable. He ordered Shaw to terminate the Il Messaggero contract June 20. Shaw has since asked that the arbitration award be vacated.

When Shaw refused to comply by the June 20 date, the Celtics went before Mazzone, seeking additional support. On June 27, Mazzone backed the arbitration decision, ordering Shaw to comply immediately. Shaw then appealed Mazzone's ruling.

NBA LENDS SUPPORT TO CELTICS IN SHAW SUIT

2011-08-22T15:41:00.018-04:00

July 10, 1990

NBA LENDS SUPPORT TO CELTICS IN SHAW SUIT

The National Basketball Association joined the Celtics yesterday in asking an appeals court to uphold a decision validating Brian Shaw's NBA contract. In a "friend of the court" brief filed with the 1st US Circuit Court, the NBA termed Shaw's position "an unprecedented assault upon the legitimacy and efficacy" of the league's arbitration system. The arbitration system mediates disputes, and its decisions are accepted as NBA law by both the league and the players. At least they have been until now. The league said it has yet to find a case in more than 20 years in which a team had to go to court to get an arbitration decision enforced.

But that is what has happened here -- and even court backing hasn't deterred Shaw. He refused to abide by arbitrator Daniel Collins' June 14 decision to terminate his contract with Il Messaggero. That decision, which also prevented Shaw from playing anywhere but Boston, was upheld in a June 27 order by US District Court Judge A. David Mazzone. Shaw is appealing Mazzone's order and has refused to terminate his Il Messaggero contract. He also has stated he intends to play out the Il Messaggero deal, which has a year to run. "Such utter disregard of the arbitration decision, if permitted to continue, will threaten the very structure of the operations of the league," the NBA said in its brief.

It added, "This matter involved nothing more than the desire of one player to disregard a binding, contractural obligation." A footnote in the brief referred to Shaw's "recalcitrance" in refusing to obey the arbitration decision "particularly remarkable" in that the NBA Players Association also initially accepted the verdict. The players association since has argued that the part of Shaw's NBA contract in which he agreed to terminate the Il Messaggero deal was "not allowable" under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. That argument is one of many made by Shaw in his appeal brief, which was filed last Friday. A hearing has been scheduled for tomorrow.

Shaw's contract with Il Messaggero contains a 30-day window for him to notify the team that he is not returning. That period ends July 20. Il Messaggero contends its contract supercedes the Boston deal, because it came five months earlier.The Celtics, however, believe their deal with Shaw, which runs through 1994 and is worth more than $5 million, should be honored. In a statement neither side would contest, the Celtics noted in their 49-page brief that "Shaw, at age 24, is one of the few young players of prominence upon whom the Celtics depend for a revitalized team in the 1990-91 season and beyond."

In addition, the team argued that Mazzone's decision was correct and that Shaw's additional arguments in the appeal are without merit. In his appeal, Shaw argued he was the one being victimized, rather than the Celtics. And he further contended that since the draft and the July 1 free-agent signing date had come and gone, the Celtics' now were less damaged than they thought they might be by his refusal to return. "Shaw's argument that he should benefit before this court from his repeated contempt for both the arbitration and federal court decisions should not be countenanced," the Celtics' brief said. "Moreover, Shaw ignores the fact that the Celtics will suffer further irreparable harm if Shaw fails to rescind the Il Messaggero contract by July 20."

As for Shaw's argument that he is now the one hurt by all this, the brief noted, "If Shaw performs his agreement with the Celtics, he will be paid at least $1.1 million during each of the next four seasons, in addition to the $450,000 signing bonus he already has received." Shaw has offered to return the $450,000. The Celtics also found little credence in Shaw's argument that his case and that of Dino Radja are similar. Radja wanted to play for the Celtics, but had a valid contract with Jugoplastika, his club team in Split. A federal court ruled the Jugopastika contract enforceable. In the case of Radja, the Celtics said, it was a matter of playing with Boston for around $450,000, or for Jugoplastika for about $11,500. Shaw stands to earn $900,000 plus amenities if he plays next season for Il Messaggero. His Celtics' contract calls for a $1.1 million salary.

As for Shaw's contention that the amendment to his contract was not allowable, the Celtics argued otherwise. They noted that league rules stipulate any contract dispute must be raised within 20 days of the signing; Shaw re-upped with Boston in January. Further, the team said, "Shaw's position . . . makes little sense because Shaw's promise to exercise his right of rescission is simply the necessary prerequisite for him to receive compensation upon playing for the Celtics."

SHAW BIDS TO STAY IN ITALY; CELTICS FIGHT IT

2011-08-22T15:41:00.017-04:00

June 16, 1990

SHAW BIDS TO STAY IN ITALY; CELTICS FIGHT IT

The Brian Shaw saga took another bizarre twist when the Celtics revealed yesterday they went before an NBA arbitrator to enforce their five-year deal with the prodigal point guard. The move was necessitated after Shaw, through his attorney, sought to renege on the deal and return for another season with Il Messaggero in Italy.

Arbitrator Daniel G. Collins, in a seven-page decision handed down Thursday, ruled Shaw's $6.2 million contract with the Celtics, signed in January, was legal and binding. The arbitrator also forbade Shaw from playing elsewhere over those five years, found him in violation of the contract for notifying the Celtics that he wanted to do just that, and ordered Shaw to inform Il Messaggero next Wednesday that the Italian team would no longer have his services.

The Celtics, as an enforcement vehicle, also filed an action in US District Court yesterday. A legal source familiar with NBA matters said arbitrators' rulings cannot be overturned unless there was some egregious violation, such as abuse of power or lack of jurisdiction. "It can happen," he conceded. "But it's very, very, very, very, very rare."

The question on everyone's mind, most notably the Celtics', was why? What was Shaw doing? Was he serious about returning to Italy or was there some hidden agenda? They have not heard from Shaw for more than two weeks and have been unable to talk to him since learning of this new wrinkle.

It was learned that Shaw's attorney, Jerome Stanley, also was representing Il Messaggero at the recent Orlando Classic, an all-star game involving potential college draftees held in April. Stanley was accompanied by the son of the owner of the team. Was he trying to redeliver Shaw for a fee? He would not get into the specifics of the case when reached at his California office.

"I cannot talk about it now," said Stanley. "It's much too sensitive and complex. Very complex. Brian thoroughly enjoys the city of Boston and has great friends and acquaintances there."

How about the Celtics?

"I can't get into that," he said. "But Brian's side hasn't come out yet. He hasn't had a chance to present his side of the story."

Shaw did have an opportunity at the hearing -- it even was adjourned several hours so that he might make it -- but did not appear. He instead was represented by Stanley and two of Stanley's associates.

"The hearing was on 23-hour notice," Stanley said. "There wasn't enough time for Brian to gather the information necessary to support what we are asserting." There was no evidence on Shaw's behalf produced at the hearing, and the arbitrator denied a request by Stanley for a delay to assemble data.

Shaw was unavailable for comment. "He has gone fishing," Stanley said, half in jest. Reggie Lewis, his closest friend on the Celtics, said he was unaware of the latest development. So did former coach Jimmy Rodgers, with whom Shaw was close. Calls to Shaw's home in California met with an answering machine. His mother, Barbara, was said to be out of town. There was no answer at Shaw's former address in Rome.

The Celtics, meanwhile, are as mystified as everyone else. Coach Chris Ford, three days on the job, called the matter "troublesome and perplexing" and added he wants to have a chat with the player. Operations chief Dave Gavitt termed it "a very big surprise to us. I'm not going to prejudge Brian Shaw or his thoughts until I have an opportunity to speak to him, which at this point has been denied to us."

After a fine rookie season with the Celtics, Shaw stunned everyone by signing a two-year deal with Il Messaggero on Aug. 10, 1989. The contract contained an escape clause after one season. On Jan. 26, a month after his former agent, Leonard Armato, met with Celtics officials in Los Angeles, Shaw fired Armato and re-signed with Boston, a deal commencing in the 1990-91
season.

The first hint that anything was amiss came in a June 6 letter from Stanley to Celtics vice chairman of the board Alan Cohen. In the letter, which was printed in the arbitration decision, Stanley said Shaw would not exercise his right of termination with Il Messaggero and planned to return there for another season.

Under the terms of his Il Messaggero contract, Shaw had the right to rescind the deal only by returning to play in the NBA. All he had to do was notify the Italian team of his intentions between June 20 and July 20.Stanley's letter to Cohen said Shaw's decision to re-sign with the Celtics -- a signing that was accompanied by a $450,000 bonus -- was "made in an atmosphere clearly ill suited for decision-making on his part. He was at the time only 23 years old, impressionable, legally unsophisticated, living in a foreign country and isolated from his family and friends."

In addition, Stanley asserted, "He was frustrated and overly sensitive to the adverse, misplaced and undeserved Italian press he was receiving . . . I was quite surprised to learn that no Celtics representative suggested, let alone required, that Brian have counsel during the negotiations."

According to sources, the Celtics are under no obligation to insist that Shaw has counsel or representation. That is the player's decision. According to the decision, Shaw read the contract carefully and signed it (in Rome) in the presence of a notary public and a US counsel. Further, the decision noted Shaw understood exactly what he was doing.

Stanley's letter added Shaw felt "ethically and morally bound to remain with Il Messaggero as an indication of the gratitude he feels for the affection, generosity, confidence and trust displayed towards him." It concluded with a request that the matter be resolved "quietly and amicably . . . that you will share our interest in keeping this matter from the press, media and other third parties."

After receiving the letter, the Celtics told Stanley they expected Shaw to honor the Boston contract. They then called for a swift arbitration hearing, which was held Wednesday and Thursday in New York.

SHAW GOING TO ITALY?

2011-08-22T15:40:00.004-04:00

August 10, 1989

SHAW GOING TO ITALY?

Brian Shaw, the guard the Celtics drafted No. 1 in 1988, reportedly has agreed to a two-year, $2 million contract to play in Italy this season. Both ESPN and Channel 4, quoting unnamed sources, reported last night that Shaw had committed to Messaggero, the Rome-based team that last week signed Los Angeles Clippers' No. 1 pick Danny Ferry. The Globe reached Shaw's mother, Barbara Shaw, by telephone at her home in Richmond, Calif., last night, and, while she could not confirm the deal, she said, "It appears as though it's happened.

"The Italian team has been very persistent," she added. "They seemed willing to give him whatever he needed. I think he very much wanted to stay with Boston." As of yesterday, there appeared to be no progress in negotiations between Shaw and the Celtics. Shaw's agent, Leonard Armato, remained in Los Angeles at his Century City office while Celtics general manager Jan Volk met with team owners in New York yesterday.

Meanwhile, Shaw is working at a basketball camp in Saco, Maine."Boston is my No. 1 choice," Shaw said earlier yesterday. "It is one of the best organizations. And the fans and the people I was able to meet were great. I'd like to stay there. That's all I can say." The pressure for Shaw to decide has been increasing because Messaggero opens training camp soon. Messaggero had also made overtures to Minnesota rookie Jerome (Pooh) Richardson and Dallas veteran Brad Davis, both of whom signed with their NBA teams yesterday. "You have to understand," said Andy Brandt, a player agent at Pro Serv Inc. of Arlington, Va. "Gardini's firm is worth $55 billion. To them it is nothing to throw away $1 million."

Previously, the highest-paid American in Italy was Bob McAdoo, who earned about $450,000 last year with a Milan team. But Ferry's contract is worth "more like three times that much," according to Brandt."If Danny hadn't signed with them," Brandt said, "they were going after Sean Elliott. And they have the money to do it." Ferry is an exception to the usual Italian league prospect since he was the No. 2 pick in the NBA draft. Ferry is considering his time in Italy an educational experience (and a profitable one, at that) similar to the Rhodes Scholarship year Maryland congressman Tom McMillen spent in Europe, according to Pro Serv's David Falk. However, neither Shaw nor Richardson have expressed a similar interest. The league is still considered fit only for fringe NBA players and over-the-hill types such as McAdoo. This image could change should the Italian teams continue to disbelieve in a salary cap.

MINNIFIELD, ROBERTS EXPOSED

2011-08-22T13:35:00.006-04:00

June 17, 1988

MINNIFIELD, ROBERTS EXPOSED

Contrary to the "exclusive" report of another local publication, Jim Paxson was protected by the Celtics. Dennis Johnson wasn't. However, DJ isn't going anywhere, since the Celtics have covered themselves. Charlotte would reportedly like Fred Roberts, while Miami will be given a choice between an exhibition game and a second-round draft pick if its turn comes up.

The NBA has declined to release the names of the unprotected players in the June 23 expansion draft for the Charlotte Hornets and Miami Heat. However, the Charlotte Observer said it confirmed the names through league sources on Wednesday and a copy of the list was made available.

Gary Bettman, NBA vice president and general counsel, declined to confirm the names when contacted at his New York office.

"I'm the only one who knows who is on the unprotected list and I'm not telling anyone," he said. "No one will ever know all the names on the list, only the players who are chosen."

Bettman, however, did say the Heat will draft 12 players and the Hornets 11 -- Charlotte has one less pick because it won the coin flip and elected to take the No. 8 pick in the June 28 regular draft.

The following players were left unprotected according to the report:

ATLANTA -- Scott Hastings, Chris Washburn, Randy Wittman, Leon Wood.

BOSTON -- Dirk Minnifield, Fred Roberts (Dennis Johnson is also unprotected, but will not be taken through a trade for draft choice with Charlotte and Miami).

MINNIEFIELD QB ON COURT FOOTBALL FAN HAS BEEN SPEEDING UP THE CELTICS' OFFENSE

2011-08-22T13:35:00.005-04:00

January 15, 1988

MINNIEFIELD QB ON COURT FOOTBALL FAN HAS BEEN SPEEDING UP THE CELTICS' OFFENSE

If Dirk Minniefield could be an NFL quarterback, whom do you suppose he would aspire to emulate?

Dan Marino? John Elway? Joe Montana?

"Bernie Kosar," said Minniefield. "I've met him before. He's a great guy."

Bernie Kosar? Why aspire to be a family station wagon when you could be a Ferrari?

"I was a quarterback once before, and I used to sling it just like he does -- sidearm," Minniefield said. "But one of the reasons I like him is because he's so smart and that's what a quarterback has to be. He knows where everybody is on that field because he's smart."

In a sense, Minniefield has become a quarterback for the Celtics, providing an up-tempo brand of offense not seen in these parts for some time.

"Dirk has been a catalyst for us," said coach K.C. Jones. "He's always running out there, pushing the ball up court. He stirs everything up. He quarterbacks."

During the offseason, Minniefield becomes a wide receiver. Using his quickness to impersonate the most dangerous of NFL wide receivers, Minniefield has run pass route after pass route to help cousin Frank Minnifield, a fourth-year cornerback for the Cleveland Browns, prepare for the grind of the NFL season.

In turn, Frank becomes the slickest NBA guard for Dirk -- playing in-your-shirt defense, forcing the outside jumper and making him work for every bit of the court.

"He would envision me as being someone like John Stallworth," Minniefield said, "and I would imagine him to be someone like Vinnie Johnson, Joe Dumars or Isiah Thomas."

Whatever roles they would assume, it was always cousin against cousin. One-on-one. Minniefield vs. Minnifield.

By now you may have noticed that Minniefield spells his last name differently than his cousin.

"Basically, his mother changed it to avoid confusion," Minniefield said. "I had a brother, Kenny, and he had a brother, too. There were four of us playing (high school) sports at the same time in Lexington, Ky. So when you picked up the paper and read about the Minniefields, you didn't know if it was the Lafayette (High) Minniefields or the Henry Clay (High) Minnifields."

It went a long way to help avoid confusion after the cousins were reunited in Cleveland in 1985, when the Cavaliers signed Minniefield as a free agent guard.

"There was never any confusion there," he said. "Everyone knew that he was the football player and I was the basketball player."

The following year, Cleveland became a one-Minnifield town when the Cavs traded Minniefield to Houston for a 1989 draft choice. He spent a trying year under Bill Fitch, who demanded the world of him, but wound up getting only 7.7 points per game in the 52 games he started. He was shipped to Golden State last season and was waived by the Warriors Nov. 25.

"It was tough," he said, "because many of the coaches I had were very demanding. They wanted me to make a great offensive play on every play. But when I came here, I knew that I would fit in well because I knew I wouldn't have to worry about doing all the scoring. I knew the other guys here would help me play better."

Since his acquisition as a free agent Dec. 17, Minniefield has helped the Celtics become a better transition team and has flourished as an integral component in the offensive scheme.

"I feel like I fit in here because of K.C.'s approach to the game," Minniefield said. "He's a player's coach. He's been in the league before and he knows what it takes to be a player in this league. He doesn't put a lot of pressure on you to go out and do what you can't do. He just says to take what they give you, take what's there."

When Dennis Johnson was unable to play against Chicago Tuesday because of an ailing shoulder, Jones thrust Minniefield into the starting lineup. The guard had played only 10 games as a Celtic, averaging 8.3 minutes and 1.2 points.

Minniefield responded by setting six personal highs as a Celtic, including minutes (37), points (10) and assists (9), in a 104-97 victory.

"When we saw him at Golden State and at Houston, he was a very busy, busy person -- running, penetrating and dishing off," Jones said. "But our guys recognize the contribution he makes. They recognize what Dirk can do for us out there."

More important is what he brings to the Celtics -- a new deep threat.

Celtics Acquire Minnifield

2011-08-22T13:34:00.001-04:00

December 19, 1987

Celtics Acquire Minnifield

Dirk Minnifield's acquisition appears to be a concerted effort to help bolster the Celtics' sputtering transition game.

"We've been trying to do that since the year started," Jones said. "We haven't really run the ball with any type of consistency whatsoever. We've had many spurts, but right now we're just going to get him in condition and see what he can do when we give him a couple of minutes in a ballgame."

What are Minniefield's odds of hanging around? Consider that the last Celtic to wear No. 11 was Andre Turner, who was signed Nov. 6, 1986. After he played three games, Turner was waived Nov. 22.

"It has nothing to do with odds," Jones said. "It's a look-see type situation. If it looks good, then we have something to talk about. If not, then we have nothing to talk about. We'll see what happens when he has a chance to play in the games."

What transpires in those precious minutes of playing time is entirely up to Minniefield. Perhaps he will be another Conner Henry, who was signed to a 10- day contract Jan. 1 and wound up sticking for the season. Or perhaps he'll be like Turner, a quick departee.

"He's a little bit out of shape," Jones said. "We just have to get him up and down the court and get him into game condition."

UPSHAW MOVES ALONG

2011-08-22T08:32:00.004-04:00

2/28/90

The travels of former Celtic guard Kelvin Upshaw continued yesterday when he departed Italy for the Golden State Warriors.

"Kelvin is a good player for the Warriors' style," said Warren Legarie, Upshaw's agent. "And Don Nelson is the perfect coach for him."

Upshaw, who has played for four CBA teams and three NBA teams, replaced injured Darwin Cook for a month on the Italian league-leading Scavolini Pesaro team.

UPSHAW WAIVED; SMITHS ON ROSTER

2011-08-22T08:31:00.004-04:00

November 18, 1989

When Kelvin Upshaw began hearing a couple of weeks ago that his days as a Celtic were numbered, he begged to differ. The second-year guard was confident that his spot on the team was secure. He figured that either (a) he was naive or (b) those saying he was a goner didn't know what they were talking about.

Now it appears the correct answer is (a).

"I guess I was a little naive, maybe too confident," said Upshaw, who was waived yesterday morning. With the move, the Celtics activated first-round draft pick Michael Smith off the injured list. The move also solidifies the position of rookie guard Charles Smith, who was in a battle with Upshaw for the final spot on the roster before Michael Smith was placed on the injured list.

"I'll go on," said Upshaw. "I don't feel bad; I feel good. It's just something you run into. It's not always fun, but it's reality."

Upshaw joined the team last season, signing back-to-back 10-day contracts (March 9 and March 19), then signing for the rest of the season on March 28. Upshaw, who played for three Continental Basketball Association teams and the Miami Heat before joining the Celtics, did not appear in six of Boston's first eight regular-season games this year. He said coach Jimmy Rodgers informed him of the decision.

Asked how Upshaw took the information, Rodgers said, "How does anyone take a thing like that? It's difficult for both sides. Hopefully, things will work out for Kelvin."

"Rodgers just said that the team was going in a different direction, and I didn't ask for any other reason," said Upshaw. "I took that for what it's worth. It's one of those things you have no control over."

But it was one of those things he didn't think would happen. Although the Celtics brought in several guards this year, Upshaw felt confident he would land a spot. Early on, when his playing time tapered off, he remained confident.

"When people were saying, 'Kelvin's days are numbered,' I didn't believe it," he said. "But when I didn't get to play, I started to wonder."

Then came the game Wednesday night against New Jersey. The Celtics led by as many as 20 before halftime, 30 before the third quarter expired, but Upshaw didn't get off the bench. Some fans, many of whom were behind the Celtics bench, began yelling things like, "Upshaw, Upshaw," and "Play Kelvin -- he deserves it." He saw a little action in the fourth period, but he knew then something wasn't quite right.

"After the other night, I guess I did expect it," said Upshaw. "I said to myself, 'Maybe something is going on.'

"I've never been in the situation before as on the other night. That was embarrassing. It would have been different if I didn't have the skills. After that, I said to myself, 'Maybe it's time to go on. Maybe the Lord is telling me to do something else.' "

But Upshaw isn't angry.

"The fact that I didn't get a chance to play much and show what I can do this season is why I feel good about myself," said Upshaw. "I didn't get to play much in the regular season. I don't feel bad because I know I did the best I could."

UPSHAW BOUNCES BACK

2011-08-22T08:31:00.003-04:00

December 2, 1989

Kelvin Upshaw's world is forever changing. One moment he's coming off the bench to give his team a lift. The next he's coming off a plane, set to make yet another city his home. One moment he's in the National; the next he's in the Continental. One moment his team hands him the pink slip; the next they roll out the red carpet.

If his life were a movie, it would be entitled, "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World." And there would be no guarantee of a sequel.

In fact, perhaps the only constant in Kelvin Upshaw's scenario is Upshaw himself. Cut him. Trade him. Yank him off the waiver wire. Let him collect dust on the bench. Put him in with seconds to go after the outcome of a game has been decided -- he'll still give 100 percent effort. He'll still give opposing point guards Excedrin headaches with his defense.

And even when the twists in his career lack perfect sense, he'll keep a positive attitude.

"I want to be prepared for all situations," said Upshaw, who had a Boy Scout-type game in the Celtics' 102-89 win over Cleveland last night. He dished out a team-high 8 assists, grabbed 4 rebounds and scored 7 points -- including a right-side 3-pointer at the buzzer to end the third period. Most important, Upshaw played 19 minutes -- 7 more than his previous high this season.

"I didn't expect to stay in that long," he said. "But in this game, you never know what happens. I was prepared."

At least for now. John Bagley's shoulder injury brought Upshaw back to the team (he was waived on Nov. 11), and he is probably assured of a spot until Bagley gets back. After that, who knows?

"This was an opportunity to show what I can do," said Upshaw, who has played for three Contintental Basketball Association teams and two National Basketball Association teams. "I just wanted to come in and play aggressive defense. I knew Jimmy Rodgers wanted the tempo turned up because when we get the tempo turned up, our break starts working, and that helps."

Last night Upshaw was most valuable defensively. He frustrated Cleveland guard Steve Kerr, forcing the latter to throw bad passes. Even when the Cavs guards dribbled past Upshaw, he'd alter or block a pull-up attempt from behind.

"I liked the way Kelvin responded," said Rodgers. "He played some sticky defense and hit some shots that were an all-around catalyst."

"I think that one of the strengths of my game is defense," said Upshaw. "It takes a special kind of player to want to go out and play defense. I give my best to contribute to the team."

He contributed two big buckets last night. One came with 9:20 left in the third period: an off-balance bank shot, giving the Celtics an 80-73 lead, after the defense shut down the desired play. The other came on his 3-point buzzer-beater; it brought the crowd and the Celtics bench to its feet. But Upshaw simply trotted back to the bench, allowing that orange piece of chewed gum to hang from his lip, and huddled up with the team. No jumping or hand-raising. No clapping. No need.

"I don't want to make a big deal out of this game," he said. "The next game, I might not play."

That's a cold, cruel reality. But it is the truth. And although Upshaw won't allow it to sneak up on him, he won't let it worry him, either.

Asked what he believes will happen when Bagley comes back, he said, "I don't even think about things like that. I always like to think about positive things. Things like that are out of my control.

"My mom always told me that you can't worry about things you don't control. You'll only make things worse."

Last night he made things bright for himself. At least for a moment. Later on, he could be packing his bags and leaving Boston again. Kelvin Upshaw's world changes like New England weather. But he won't allow it to change him.

CREDIT CELTICS WITH A STEAL SIGNING UPSHAW A TIMELY MANEUVER

2011-08-22T08:30:00.001-04:00

April 2, 1989

The two questions most frequently asked regarding the hobbled Celtics:

(1) Is Larry Bird coming back this season? (No official word yet, but the gut feeling here is, mark it down as a big NO.)

(2) How did everyone else miss out on Kelvin Upshaw?

Upshaw is 26 years old, a player who was perilously close to being a Continental Basketball Association lifer. In fact, he nearly called it quits before the 1988-89 season.

"I was fed up," said Upshaw. "I was getting behind financially in my life. But my mom said I was too close to give up."

She was right. Upshaw has brought to Boston instant up-tempo offense along with tough, chest-to-chest defense against some of the league's best (Isiah Thomas, Mo Cheeks), as well as a certain sang froid in delivering the big jumper.

The temptation at first was to compare No. 7's quick start to that of former flash-in-the-pan guard Conner Henry. But the difference is that, when Henry had a bad shooting night, he had a bad night, period. Upshaw can go 3 for 8 and still contribute.

So how did he slip through the cracks? After averaging nearly 20 points a game his junior year at the University of Utah, Upshaw was replaced in the starting lineup by sophomore Gale Gondrezick, who had been promised the spot by coach Lynn Archibald when he was recruited.

Upshaw averaged 11.7 points off the pine. In a game against San Diego State, he injured his knee, went to the hospital for X-rays, returned to the game with seconds to play, checked in at the scorer's table and nailed the winning basket.

The scouts never caught wind of the story. He was ignored in the NBA draft (you just don't pick backup point guards on mediocre teams), then spent two years in the CBA trying to pass as an off guard while more famous names (Quintin Dailey, for one) got time at the point, Upshaw's natural position. Through it all, Upshaw had no agent.

It has all finally turned around. Upshaw was traded to the Albany Patroons and introduced to former NBA renegade coach George Karl, who put him back at the point and showed him how to run an NBA-style offense. Upshaw hooked up with agent Warren Legarie, who got on the phone and started promoting him.

In the meantime, the NBA changed, leaning more toward pressing and trapping and pushing the ball. Suddenly, the Celtics, who had made a living for decades out of pounding the ball inside, needed someone just like Kelvin Upshaw.

"I never have been the type of player that jumps out at you right away," said Upshaw. "You have to really sit down and watch me to appreciate what I can do. I will always be grateful the Celtics took the time to do that."

Evidently, the Miami Heat -- who signed Upshaw to two 10-day contracts, then released him -- didn't take the time.

GOING SOMEWHERE?

Want more evidence of Upshaw's value? If the Celtics had to decide tomorrow, he would likely be one of the eight players protected in the expansion draft.

Montross Stays on the Move

2011-08-19T13:49:00.003-04:00

March 14, 1998

It wasn't too long ago that center Eric Montross was a promising piece in M.L. Carr's Celtic puzzle. But last night, when he came to town as a Detroit Piston, Montross was a man with luggage tags falling out of his pocket.

Detroit is his fourth team since the start of last season. After two years with the Celtics, he has been traded to Dallas, New Jersey, Philadelphia and his present home.

"It's about time for me to get traded again," he said in a deadpan. "There are trading deadline for everyone else (Feb.19), and there are trading deadlines for me.

"I'd like to be able to stay here a while, but we're probably going to get ransacked at the end of the season."

With Doug Collins having been fired as coach, he's probably correct. Collins was also in charge of personnel, so the new regime will have to make some major calls.

As for his own travels, Montross said, "Leaving (Boston) was tough because I had so many positive experiences and met so many good friends. But after that you just realize it's a business."

MONTROSS SHIPPED TO DALLAS FOR THE NO. 6 PICK

2011-08-19T13:48:00.006-04:00

June 22, 1996

MONTROSS SHIPPED TO DALLAS FOR THE NO. 6 PICK

WALTHAM -- M.L. Carr's enthusiasm was unrestrained. With one deal, he said, the Celtics are now better off financially and, more important, have added flexibility. And they may not be through.

It remains to be seen whether they are a better basketball team.

Yesterday, in a move that was waiting to happen, Carr finally unloaded Eric Montross, the team's first-round pick in 1994. Montross is headed to Dallas for the Mavericks' first pick this year, No. 6 overall, and their own No. 1 next year. Dallas also receives the Celtics' first-round pick this year, ninth overall.

As of now, the Celtics will be drafting sixth next Wednesday, but Carr said, ``This pick is available, too. We now have flexibility we did not have before. This is an incredible deal for this organization. People should be happy about it.''

Montross told the Globe from North Carolina last night, ``The bottom line is that everyone wants to develop as a player to his full potential and M.L. realized that I wasn't going to be a part of that team that he wanted, a smaller, quicker team. I will be a better player in the end for all of this. Dallas has done a very good job of building. I'm anxious to be a part of that.''

Montross will look out of the post in Dallas and see three players the caliber of which he never saw in Boston: Jimmy Jackson, Jason Kidd and Jamal Mashburn. And they will see a bona fide center who can bang, rebound and get his share of garbage points, something they've never seen. Montross is exactly what Dallas needs, but he does have an opt-out clause in his contract which kicks in at the end of the 1996-97 season.

Montross feels Mav-elous Dallas delights ex-Celt

2011-08-19T13:48:00.005-04:00

November 24, 1996

Eric Montross looks pretty much the same these days. He hasn't grown a ponytail or anything, and with his large body and deep-set eyes he hasn't given up his membership in the Scare Club for Men. And, yeah, he was 0-for-5 from the line in Dallas' first 10 games.

But Montross as a Maverick is happier than during his Celtic incarnation last season. And that happiness will be on display tonightwhen Dallas arrives at the FleetCenter (SportsChannel, 7:05).

Montross, a center never accused of being fleet, was prime material for the trade market in large part because of his apparent displeasure with the state of the Celts. He had an out clause in his contract for next summer, and his agent (his father Scott) didn't calm the Celtic fears he would use it as a way out. So Montross and the No.9 draft pick were sent to Dallas for the No.6 overall pick last June and the Mavs' first-rounder in '97.

Montross was simply excited to be away from the confusion.

"I think the entire team last year -- the players, the entire organization _was kind of astray," he said. "As a Celtic unit, we didn't know what was going to happen. A lot of things were up in the air - personnel, whatever.

"These were things I really wondered about. I'd had a good first year, but in my second year I needed to be developed, and I wasn't developed.

"I think my dad was concerned that they had a young center with a good work ethic and an attitude that was focused on winning. But the development wasn't there. The direction wasn't there. My standpoint was that the team would still jell somehow and that we'd move on in the right direction. But for whatever reason, they wanted to be a small team, a running team. And they didn't need a center. I never came out and said to them that I wanted to be traded, but I think there was a situation where they felt that."

Asked point-blank whether he would have exercised the option to sever his contract, Montross was noncommittal even though the deal was set up so he could get out and get a better market value from the Celts.

It is clear he believes the Mavericks are on a positive path that the Celts have not yet mapped out.

"Things are great," he said. "I think the adjustment to Dallas has been very positive. If there had to be a trade made, and obviously the Celtics felt one did need to be made, this is an excellent place to come.

"The team is championship driven by the coaches and by the organization. You can't learn to win overnight, but this team will learn to win and will be a championship team at some point."

One might easily take the use of the phrase "championship driven," M.L. Carr's pet slogan, as a verbal elbow under the boards. But Montross isn't looking to be on the undercard of tonight's battle.

"I'm excited about the game," he said, "but maybe more because it's another chance for our team to improve itself. I'm not thinking about it so much as Boston, but that might be different when I get there and see a lot of familiar people.

"I really enjoyed my experiences in Boston. I had a lot of good times there, and the people I met were very positive to me. I enjoyed the town, and I enjoyed the people."

MONTROSS HAS BEEN THROWN OFF

2011-08-19T13:47:00.012-04:00

December 31, 1995

MONTROSS HAS BEEN THROWN OFF

When he was in high school, Eric Montross used to score his points with short jump shots. His coach wanted him to develop a hook shot so badly that he promised a steak dinner if Montross ever took one.

Now, that's all Montross takes. (Pass the A-1 Sauce.) That might be all he ever needs to take. Right now, however, the hook shot is not his problem. He needs to take something quite different: a crash course in Getting Back to Basics.

There are times when he looks completely lost out there, the proverbial square peg in the round hole. He doesn't seek out the offense and it ignores him. There are times when he'll play 20-odd minutes and do absolutely nothing. There are times when he'll get into foul trouble and get the quick hook. Even worse, there are times when he'll get fouled. More on that later.

Last year, of course, we all were marveling at Montross' play. Arguably, until Sherman Douglas took the team over, Montross was the club MVP, especially since the alternative was Acie (Mr. October) Earl. He did hit the wall in March, but most rookies do. The good ones recover, and he was a good one.

This year he seemingly has hit the wall, the chairs, the sofa and the radiator. It almost seems that he has taken Backward Pills or started emulating Rigor Artis Gilmore. Mechanical. Wooden. Those are the words we now hear.

Much of this is hard to accept because he was such a pleasant surprise last season. And a lot has not changed. He still works his rear end off. He still doesn't complain about anything. He would be a unanimous selection to the All-Good Guy first team.

But he is clearly not the same aggressive player he was a year ago. What happened?

According to Montross, nothing.

"There's an easy answer to all of this," he said. "My field goal percentage is up. My rebounds are up. The one (bad) area is the free throws. I also haven't been playing as much. But I don't see any problem. I'm not worried. If I was worried, anyone who's a fan should be concerned because when a player loses confidence, that's when he's in trouble. I'm still confident."

Other than the free throws, the uneven playing time has probably most affected Montross. Last year, Chris Ford didn't turn to the bench quickly. This year, M.L. Carr will call Pervis Ellison's number if, for instance, Montross picks up two quick fouls.

Montross is a minutes guy. He needs to get a feel for the game. He isn't a Microwave. He's more like a wood stove. And his minutes are down from 29 to 25 this year. He has averaged only 20 since coming off the injured list Dec. 4, much of it disjointed.

"I need to be in the flow of the game," he said. "When I get a couple fouls, most of the time, it's my fault for even putting myself into a position like that. It takes me out of the game and puts a damper on my flow."

He's also forgotten in the offense, except, it seems, on the first possession of each half. The Celtics' offense is now geared to their perimeter shooters.

"Frankly, I think, in this offense, he is considered an afterthought, and when you don't get a lot of opportunities, it puts a lot of pressure on the opportunities you do get," said Scott Montross, Eric's father and agent.

Then there are the free throws. Entering the weekend, he was shooting 39.7 percent from the line. Mothers protect their children when he goes to the stripe. No one is disputing that this is a major headache.

Has the free throw problem spilled over to the other parts of his game? Dee Brown thinks that might be the case.

"He's thinking so much about the free throws that it's taking away from the rest of his game," Brown said. "Everyone has a suggestion for him. It's putting a lot of pressure on him. He's not playing as loose as he did last year. And it's not like there's a guy behind him. But we are going with a lot of different lineups."

Asked about the free throws, Montross said, "It's a simple item of confidence. Once I knock down a few, it will turn around. I think a lot of professionals will tell you that if one aspect of your job is not going well, you don't want it to spill over. You have to isolate that thing and that's what I'm trying to do."

Too many fouls. Not enough time. More emphasis on the perimeter. A running game that, at times, doesn't seem to suit him. Free throw angst. Sophomore slump. Montross said he is concerned about none of the above.

MONTROSS HAS THE FLOOR TO HIMSELF

2011-08-19T13:47:00.011-04:00

February 12, 1995

MONTROSS HAS THE FLOOR TO HIMSELF LONE CELTIC STAR SCORING POINTS

All-Star Weekend traditionally means a basketball venue teeming with Celtics. This year is no different, but Bob Cousy, John Havlicek, Bill Russell and Jo Jo White can't help Boston now.

Eric Montross can. He is the lone representative of the current Celtics team in Phoenix, an invited guest of the Rookie All-Star Game, and with each passing day, the young center -- who was told he was Greg Dreiling before he took his first NBA step -- is more and more identified as the hope of this franchise.

No one is expecting Montross to vault past Shaquille O'Neal, Alonzo Mourning or Patrick Ewing as a vote-getter in the East, but with his continual improvement, his obvious maturity and his willingness to learn, he has proven to be a valuable asset, the most desirable Celtic when trades are discussed.

BIRD KNEW MONTROSS HAD GAME

2011-08-19T13:47:00.008-04:00

December 23, 1994

BIRD KNEW MONTROSS HAD GAME

Don Casey doesn't have enough problems coaching somebody else's team, and now he's got to listen to Larry Bird giving him a hearty "I-Told-Ya-So."

"I said to Bird, 'You know, Eric has a game,' " related the Celtics' interim coach, "and he said, 'What? He always had a game.' Well, I didn't know that from looking at the tapes."

To say that someone "has a game" is not, in NBA parlance, a casual throwaway line. If someone "has a game," then that someone has a clue. He may also look forward to a long and fruitful NBA career.

People who rolled their eyes when the Celtics drafted Eric Montross with the ninth pick of this year's NBA draft had better refocus. A quarter of the way through the season, it is obvious the Celtics made an intelligent decision.

"Hey, Eric is a player," beamed M.L. Carr, "He's a throwback. He listens, he learns, he wants to improve. He never stops working. That's why he's been, probably, more than anyone ever expected."

Not everyone was enamored with Eric Montross after watching him play at North Carolina. Too slow laterally. Too mechanical. Too -- there is no other way to put this -- white. Some very well-intentioned people believed he was destined to wind up on the NBA discard pile marked "BWS." In other words, Big White Stiff.

Bird was not among those people. He had played against Montross when the kid was on the pre-Olympic development squad in the summer of '92. He scouted Montross last season. No. 33 believed Montross had a chance to be a decent player in the NBA.

Anyway, here is Montross, some 25 games into his professional career, proving Bird and other backers to be correct. Montross may never play in the All-Star Game, but he is establishing on a nightly basis that he has, yes, a game to be respected.

Who, for example, could have predicted the events of Saturday last, when Montross was a 48-minute man while playing evenly with league MVP Hakeem Olajuwon during a Celtic victory?

"Eric's coming-out party," declared Carr.

"If someone had told me before the season there'd be a night this early in the season where I'd be in a position to do something like that, I'd have been very excited," said Montross. "I'd have been excited about the coach wanting me in there that much, and I'd have been excited about making that kind of contribution."

His 14 points and 12 rebounds were helpful enough, but that truly impressive feat came at the other end, where he harassed Hakeem into 10-for-25 shooting and a 4-point second half. "That was as a good a job as I've seen on Olajuwon, going back to my days in the Western Conference," lauded Casey.

It was the kind of effort the Celtic brass would have been pleased to see next year, or the year after that. Everyone was prepared to be patient with this aggressive, likable kid from Indianapolis.

It wasn't supposed to be this way. If you recall, Acie Earl did begin the season at center, largely because he abused the rookie daily during the first few weeks of practice. But the 7-footer kept his mouth shut and did his homework. When Acie reverted to form, the Celtics turned to Montross in semi-desperation. The grateful Tar Heel proved he had learned from his earlier mistakes and began making the most of his OJT.

"I suppose it would have been nice to have played behind The Chief for a year," Montross said, "but practical experience is the only way you're going to learn a whole lot. You can't learn all the moves people have, and the little tricks, unless you're out there."

With the presence of Eric Montross we were once again confronted with the Carolina Conundrum: That is to say, some Carolina players are smothered by The System, and some Carolina players are protected by The System, and it's impossible to know which are which until you get them into your training camp. I didn't see it on the tapes. The Dean Smith system so stresses offensive conformity that its more conscientious practitioners become frighteningly self-limiting. And they don't come any more conscientious than Montross.

So Montross was clearly in the smotheree category, which is not to say he didn't benefit from the basic Dean Smith regimen. When it comes to establishing the kind of game foundation professionals love, the experts will tell you that Smith is their man among the college set.

"It's easy to pick on them," said Casey. "You know, apple pie and all that stuff. But Dean sets up an atmosphere of respect for the game and what's gone on before. I think the whole thing down there (Chapel Hill) is for real. They learn all about work habits and what coaching can do for a team. I think it's genuine."

"You really have to know the game in order to play up here," said Montross, "and Dean Smith teaches a clear philosophy of basketball. You learn how to set a solid screen, how to move without the ball, how and when to cut . . . "

Montross is building his offensive game in a precise, orderly fashion. What we are seeing now are right and lefthand jump hooks, simple drop-step moves and putbacks. "He isn't trying to do too much," explained Casey. "He has modified his game."

He can shoot from the outside, but he will introduce that into his repertoire gradually. He is determined to walk expertly before he starts running.

Defensively, he will never be quick afoot, and thus must learn to make maximum use of his sturdy body and his agile mind. He already has proven to Olajuwon that he knows something about the art of positioning. He will learn even more.

Montross is a happy young man. He's young, he's healthy, he's a newlywed, he's wealthy beyond measure, and he's a starting center in the NBA at age 23. "I wouldn't trade this situation for anything," he said. "I'm learning so much more than I ever could if I were over on the sidelines."

P.S.: Bird's other pick to click at No. 9 was Temple's Eddie Jones. The guy appears to know something about basketball.

"We are pleased to have Eric in the fold," said Celtics basketball head M.L. Carr. "We signed him to a lengthy pact because we feel he will be an integral part of the team's immediate future.

"With eager anticipation, we look forward to the opening of camp and seeing Eric's talents as part of the Celtics. Eric was a winner in college (at North Carolina), and we anticipate the same at the professional level."

One of the minor details to be worked out reportedly was an agreement on when the termination clause would take effect.

Carr would not confirm this but said, "There were a couple of issues. One of them was that we wanted to make sure that everything was taken care of from a medical standpoint." He would not elaborate.

CELTICS MAKE IT OFFICIAL: MONTROSS IN THE FOLD

2011-08-19T13:46:00.003-04:00

August 27, 1994

CELTICS MAKE IT OFFICIAL: MONTROSS IN THE FOLD

The Eric Montross deal is officially done. The Celtics announced yesterday they have signed the first-round draft pick to a multiyear contract.

Terms were not disclosed, but the 7-foot center is believed to have signed an 11-year deal worth $17 million to $20 million, with a third-year termination clause. He is expected to earn $800,000 the first year.

The signing ends several days of intensified negotiating and speculation as to when Montross would sign. Montross and his father, agent W. Scott Montross, came to Boston Tuesday to iron out the deal, and in fact, sources indicated that it had been signed and notarized then but that "minor verbiage" remained to be worked out. Apparently, that was accomplished yesterday.

WILKINS' GREEK TRAGEDY

2011-08-19T08:29:00.008-04:00

August 1995

WILKINS' GREEK TRAGEDY

Graceful exits are rare gems. Few professional athletes walk off the court with their game, their following, and their dignity intact.

Future Hall-of-Famer Dominique Wilkins knows. He has been rudely stripped of his place among the NBA stars. Once a synonym for style, Wilkins has become the symbol of everything that's wrong with the Boston Celtics.

'Nique arrived in Boston to a hero's welcome, but now everyone from here to Pittsfield would love to give him the bum's rush.

It has been a humbling crash landing for a man who has scored 25,389 career points, eighth all-time in the NBA.

But out of nowhere, there appeared to be a way out.

An American tragedy suddenly showed signs of becoming a Greek revival, depending entirely on the credibility of blustery owner Paul Giannakopoulos, who talks a big game and carries a big wallet.

While Wilkins was vacationing in Athens, he saw Giannakopoulos, who tried unsuccessfully last summer to lure 'Nique overseas to play for his team, Panathianakos. In the most recent encounter, the owner re-professed his love for the Human Highlight Film, either oblivious or uninterested in the fact that the film must be spliced these days to edit the nasty floor-bound footage.

After Wilkins went home, Giannakopoulos announced to Greek reporters Wilkins was "miserable" in Boston, and that he had offered him a lucrative contract to play for his team.

The fact no such offer was ever made was beside the point. With a new arena to fill, Giannakopoulos needed to generate excitement, and, it's hoped, some new season ticket-holders (an aside: this scenario should sound vaguely familiar to Boston fans). Wilkins was a tantalizing draw, even in the abstract.

But there were two things Giannakopoulos didn't count on: No. 1, that Wilkins might be interested; and No. 2, because of the NBA lockout, it also might be possible.

League sources said earlier this week the Celtics would be powerless to stop Wilkins from flying to Greece tomorrow while the lockout is in effect. When and if the lockout ends, it would be a different story. Of course, with the Celtics clearly disappointed in Wilkins' performance last season (see the unprotected list for the expansion teams), how hard would they press to have him come back?

Meanwhile, Wilkins' agent, Steve Kauffman, has been talking about suing for breach of contract, since, because of the lockout, Boston will not advance Wilkins an $8.4 million loan stipulated in his contract.

Perfect. Wilkins uses a legal loophole to slip out of town under the guise of an opportunity he could not refuse, and the Celtics wave goodbye with the appropriate "we wish him well" rhetoric.

Too bad it's not going to happen.

John Tarkas places Kauffman's clients for him in Greece and has been handling communication with Giannakopolous. After Giannakopolous said he had made 'Nique an offer, Tarkas fired off a fax asking for clarification of his interest in Wilkins.

The silence has been deafening.

"Paul enjoys taking up space in the newspapers," Tarkas said yesterday. "He has everyone all worked up about Dominique. But is he serious enough to pay the money? We still do not have a formal offer."

Tarkas, who spent time with Wilkins on his recent vacation in Greece, is certain of one thing: 'Nique wants a change of scenery.

"I know he's unhappy in Boston," Tarkas said. "I was there last year at his worst time, during the Clipper game, and I saw how they treated him. How they booed him. The impression he gave me is he'd welcome a change."

The change in Greece would have enabled Wilkins to be treated like a future Hall-of-Famer again. It would have meant playing 50-55 games at the most, having weekends at home, and road trips that are usually not more than a 40-minute plane ride.

However, the change also would have meant landing at another venue where loyalties are fickle, and heroes fade quickly, where unhappy fans who feel betrayed throw coins, batteries, even chunks of the kitchen sink.

Could 'Nique absorb porcelain chips better than Beantown boos? Alas, say our overseas spies, it is a moot point.

A Panathianakos team official, who wished to remain anonymous, said yesterday his club will not pursue Wilkins. "It was all talk," said the source. "Nothing more."

That means your fading Hall-of-Famer will be wearing No. 12 in your Boston program next season, working to fend off negative public opinion of his disappointing Celtic tenure.

That's too bad. What Dominique Wilkins should be doing is winding down his illustrious career in Atlanta, where they remember and appreciate his days of glory, and gently accept the faults of age, and time.

Boston fans have already done that -- too many times. DJ, then Larry, then Kevin limped to retirement as imperfect mortals, but they were immortal in green once, with the championship rings to prove it.

Wilkins has no titles; only a fat contract that has made him miserable, and a blustery owner an ocean away who talks only in dreams, not in reality.

WILKINS LANDS IN GREECE

2011-08-19T08:29:00.006-04:00

August 13, 1995

WILKINS LANDS IN GREECE

Dominique Wilkins is leaving town. Permanently.

The future Hall of Famer, whose one season as a Celtic was the worst of his NBA career, signed a two-year, $7 million contract with the Greek team Panathinaikos yesterday.

According to a team official in Athens, who asked to remain anonymous, Panathinaikos is in the process of filing a letter of clearance with FIBA, the international basketball federation, which is standard procedure whenever a player wants to sign overseas. Under normal conditions, if the American club, in most cases a Continental Basketball Association team, opposes the change of venue for its player, it notifies FIBA.

However, because there is an NBA lockout in effect, the Celtics and the league cannot have any contact with its players. Therefore, FIBA's letter of clearance will likely be met with silence. According to sources, FIBA has a two-week period for a reply. If none is forthcoming, it considers the player free to sign overseas, even though Wilkins has two years remaining on his contract with Boston.

"We are not anticipating any problems," said John Tarkas, who handled negotiations for Wilkins in Greece. "Everybody here is pretty confident. We do not expect the NBA to reply to the letter of clearance. And even if they do, and oppose the Greek contract, they will, in effect, be acknowledging Dominique's contract with Boston. If they do that, then we'll simply sue them for breach of contract, since they did not live up to its stipulations."

Tarkas was referring to a clause in Wilkins' contract that allowed him to take out a loan of up to $8.4 million from the club. When the lockout was imposed, Wilkins was denied the loan. His American-based agent, Steve Kauffman, maintained that the loan should not have been affected by the lockout.

Celtic officials are not allowed to comment on Wilkins, but sources close to the team yesterday said they are unlikely to stand in his way. The Celtics left Wilkins unprotected in the expansion draft last spring and could use the removal of his $8.4 million salary. In many respects, Wilkins' good fortune is also their own.

When the Celtics signed Wilkins two summers ago as a free agent, the front office tabbed it as a "major coup." But Wilkins clashed with coach Chris Ford, averaging just 17.8 points and shooting a career-low 42 percent. The lowlight of his tenure was when he was booed lustily by Garden fans in the midst of a loss to the lowly Clippers.

Asked if Wilkins' unhappiness in Boston was the major component in driving him overseas, Kauffman said, "Not necessarily. On a scale of 1 to 10 of being happy, if 'Nique had been at a 9 or a 10, it might have been more difficult, but even if he was at a 7 or 8, it would have been hard to turn down this opportunity.

"He's going to receive a great deal of money, and he'll have a tremendous impact on Greek basketball and international basketball. He could speed up the growth of international basketball by a few years. Once his friends in the NBA see it worked out well for him, they may follow."

Efforts to reach Wilkins were unsuccessful, but Tarkas said he believes the criticism Wilkins received in Boston had "a lot to do with this decision."

"He was under a lot of pressure there," said Tarkas. "And it seemed as though the fans did not appreciate him.

"Here he will be coming to a new stadium where fans will be excited to watch him play. When he visited here (earlier in the summer), the average fan walked up to him on the street and asked him to come here.

"This is a beautiful place with a nice pace. It also might have something to do with (wife) Nicole's pregnancy. There will be less stress, less pressure here."

Both Kauffman and Tarkas said Wilkins ran into Julius Erving at the airport Friday afternoon and asked him his advice.

"Julius told him it was a good decision," said Tarkas. "I'm sure that helped him feel more comfortable about doing it."

Tarkas would not comment on the conditions of the contract, but sources confirmed the numbers, with a buyout option the third year. Wilkins also has many bonuses built into the deal, including a major reward if he leads Panathinaikos to a European Championship. The team finished third last season.

"That is something that could rejuvenate him," said Tarkas. "Aside from the financial motivation, it is a major honor in Europe."

Kauffman said Wilkins will leave town with no ill feelings toward Boston.

"If there are any guilty feelings, they should be on the part of the Atlanta Hawks," said Kauffman. "No matter how hard Dominique tried to put it behind him, he planned on ending his career in Atlanta, and I'm sure he's never forgiven the Hawks for trading him. I know he feels that way. I still feel that way myself."

Although Wilkins will be playing a far less strenuous schedule, both in terms of travel and number of games, Greek fans are notorious for their unforgiving ways if the team is not successful.

Asked if they understand Wilkins is no longer at the peak of his game, Tarkas answered, "Maybe he used to be one or two steps quicker. Now he might only be a half-step quicker, but that's good enough over here. I'm confident he will be a star."

IT'S A BIT EARLY TO BE TAKING SHOTS AT WILKINS

2011-08-19T08:28:00.006-04:00

November 5, 1994

IT'S A BIT EARLY TO BE TAKING SHOTS AT WILKINS

They are already whispering about it. One game, one loss, and the whispers are here, because it happened just the way the naysayers said it would: Dominique Wilkins would take 20 shots, and score 20 points, and the Celtics would lose. Every night.

Every night? No, the coach has a problem with that theory. Chris Ford watched his team get thumped by the New York Knicks, 120-107, in the season opener, but he was a lot more concerned about the absence of interior defense than the fact Wilkins shot 7 for 20 from the floor.

Yet the whispers have surfaced already, albeit ever so softly, because this town is thirsty for success, parched from the dismal showing last year, and the fans were certain that Wilkins was a superstar who would pull them out of this drought, and would do it immediately, in the very first game of his Boston career.

Seven for 20 wasn't what they had in mind.

"Listen," said Ford, "we got Dominique to take shots. He had a lot of opportunities that were near misses. I don't think he should worry about that, and I don't think we should worry about that. I want Dominique to shoot because I know Dominique can score."

Wilkins walked off with a game-high 25 points. He shot 9 for 11 from the line, adding 6 assists and 6 boards. He also added a technical when his frustration boiled over in the final quarter as he recognized that his debut in Celtics green was not going to pan out the way he had planned.

"I was up at 7 o'clock this morning," Wilkins said. "I mean, I was jacked up. I was waiting all week for this game. Unfortunately, this wasn't what I had in mind."

He has never opened a season anywhere except in the blood-red uniform of the Atlanta Hawks. He is adjusting to the shamrock, to the number 12, to the creaky Garden, to a fleet of new teammates, but nobody wants to hear of the difficulties of those changes.

When Celtics fans woke up this morning, they wanted to know two things: Did the team win, and how did Dominique do?

"Maybe I was too hyped up," he said. "I missed three layups tonight, which I can't even believe, because that's not me. And some of those shots, I was wide open, but I just rushed it . . . "

There were some vintage offensive moves, moves that were so fluid and so silky smooth they forced you to recognize that this is a man with a knack for scoring. There was 'Nique in the post, receiving the pass, hesitating and waiting, then turning quickly into three defenders. What did it matter? He shot over them all.

Looking for high-percentage shooting? Try somewhere else. Dominique Wilkins' career mark from the floor is .467. That's reality. Boston will live with that and, on occasion, die with it.

"You can't expect me to come in here, take 10-12 shots a night and win every game," Wilkins said. "That's not going to happen. We have a lot of young guys on this team. Once they learn what needs to go on, it will be easier on me."

In preseason, Ford took exception to Wilkins' comments that he was a slow starter and publicly challenged his prize forward to accelerate his agenda. The message was clear: We need you now. Ford also called for Wilkins to be a more assertive team leader.

"I think he's responded since then," Ford said. "He's an old veteran, and I didn't want him to sit back and wait. I know he's still got it. He got on one of those rolls tonight, and it gets you excited about what he can do for us this year."

One game means nothing in the big picture. Numbers, good or bad, are meaningless if you win a basketball game. Wilkins understands. They will applaud him here for 20 shots and 20 points if the Celtics come out on top. They will whisper about him if he does the same thing and they lose.

That is, and always will be, the curse of the Boston superstar.

"This is put-up-or-shut-up time," Wilkins said. "I'm ready to accept that challenge. I love the game and I love to play.

"My game is here. You will see that."

They are whispering that it better be here. They are whispering that it better be here soon.

'NIQUE HASN'T LOOKED LIKE A WORLD-CLASS PLAYER SO FAR

2011-08-19T08:28:00.005-04:00

August 7, 1994

WILKINS HASN'T LOOKED LIKE A WORLD-CLASS PLAYER SO FAR

First there was a heavy-handed 20-foot clunker. Then an excursion into the lane led to a 12-foot airball.

Soon thereafter, a back-in attempt materializing into an obvious offensive foul led to an act of total frustration in which the aggravated American simply grabbed Spaniard Jordi Villacampa and threw him to the ground, which did not escape the official's notice.

Thus did Dominique Wilkins burst into the world of international basketball.

Three years, for how much money? Is this what Celtic brass and fans have to look forward to?

Impossible. Dominique Wilkins can't be this bad.

And he's not. The aforementioned took place in Thursday's opening night game. A bit of matador defense aside, Dominique played better Friday, when he scored 15 points in 15 minutes of action as the USA squad scorched China, 132-77.

"Yeah, I certainly had a lot more fun tonight," smiled Wilkins after the China rout was in the books. "We all had more fun. We did what we are supposed to do tonight."

That's true, but within the whole, Mr. Wilkins has become a mildly controversial side issue. Many an American eyebrow veered sharply northward as the opening game progressed and coach Don Nelson continued to call upon substitutes not named Dominique. Wilkins didn't enter the game until the clock had but 6:47 showing in the game and Dream Team II was (finally) cruising along with a 96-72 lead. The message appeared to be that it was now safe to insert Dominique, that he wouldn't be able to harm the situation too much.

The fact is that he did. His dismal efforts helped set the tone for a desultory USA performance in the final six minutes. When he entered, the game could have gone either way. The Americans could have downshifted and won by 35, thus satisfying everyone. Instead, they played sloppy, uninspired basketball, and Spain was able to get it down to a respectable 15 (115-100) before the whole ugly mess was over.

Dominique Wilkins has never before been an afterthought player. An acclaimed high school and collegiate star, he has since enjoyed a distinguished NBA career that includes a scoring championship, a first-team All-NBA selection (1986) and nine appearances in the All-Star Game.

At 34, he is the elder statesman of Dream Team II. But unlike Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, the patriarchs of Dream Team I, Dominique is clearly an adjunct member of this outfit.

Moreover, he just doesn't get it.

"I haven't spoken to Nellie about it," he said following the China game. "I just went with the flow. I'm ready to go, no matter what. It was good to get in there early, to get it going." (Nellie summoned him 10 minutes into the first half of the second game.)

All right, 'Nique, were you embarrassed about making such a garbage-time appearance against Spain?

"I don't know what you'd call it," he said. "Everyone deserved to be here, and everyone has a right to play. That's the way I look at it."

But that, apparently, is not the way Don Nelson looks at it. He spelled it out quite clearly after the Spain game.

"There were 10 players who basically played better than the others (in practice)," Nellie explained. "I'm planning on staying with that rotation. I like that rotation very much. It's not that the others won't be a part of it, because they will be. But they will stay in a reserve role."

(The "other" in question is guard Steve Smith of the Miami Heat.)

There has been no direct communication between coach and player on this matter. Nelson is acting out his boss role and Dominique is expected to be man enough to take the appropriate orders. Nelson appears to assume that Dominique should be able to deduce the reasoning behind Nellie's decision. 'Tain't so. Wilkins is a bit bewildered by his back-burner status.

So what's going on here?

It's nothing complicated. Nelson feels that Shawn Kemp, Derrick Coleman and Larry Johnson are all significantly ahead of 'Nique at the present time.

"What you saw against Spain is what we've seen in practice every day," confides one Dream Team insider. "He's making no real attempt to get back on defense, either."

Wilkins did report some back soreness earlier in the week, but that is not the issue. He just isn't playing well.

No one is saying that Dominique is finished, simply that he's a notch below the other big men here this first week of August. They say he arrived in Chicago way out of shape, very likely because he was without a team and not yet properly motivated. He may also have arrived with the wrong attitude, figuring that as the team's oldest player, he would be accorded some sort of Magic-Larry deference. If so, that was a bad guess. The young players on this team don't have much respect for anybody.

The inference is that anyone being totally honest and realistic with himself would admit that he has messed up by not coming here adequately prepared. But Dominique continues to insist he doesn't understand why Nelson has subjugated him.

"I'm a competitor," he pleads. "Everyone has a right to be here and play as many minutes as the next guy."

Be assured that Nelson's decision is not in any way based on personality. "I like 'Nique very much," Nellie insists. "I think he's a nice guy."

As for his new NBA club, Wilkins says, "It feels great to be a Celtic; I can't wait for the season to start. It's a very good fit for me. They need a guy to come in and show some leadership and do some scoring. I think we're going to be a very surprising team."

Just don't expect him to pay any dues to the Clippers Alumni Association.

"The who?" he inquires. "As far as I'm concerned, the Celtics are my second team. I'm trying to forget the Clippers. Going there wasn't my choice. It was a frustrating three or four months."

Now it looks like he's in for a frustrating week. Perhaps the end of '94 will be better for 'Nique than the beginning and the middle.

CELTICS GET THEIR MAN -- DOMINIQUE WILKINS

2011-08-19T08:27:00.007-04:00

July 23, 1994

CELTICS GET THEIR MAN -- WILKINS

The "big piece to the puzzle" that Celtics basketball operations head M.L. Carr alluded to just two days ago fell into place yesterday afternoon, and his name is Dominique Wilkins.

Wilkins signed a three-year contract with Boston, with a termination clause that will enable him to become a free agent after next season. Because he was signed in Robert Parish's slot, the money was predetermined: $2.8 million next season, with 30 percent increases the following two seasons for a total of nearly $11 million ($10.998 million, to be precise).

In order to sign Wilkins, Boston renounced Parish, the team captain who played 14 seasons for the Celtics and helped them win three NBA championships.

Agent Steve Kaufmann, who had said all along Boston was in the driver's seat of the Wilkins negotiations, said his client was both excited and relieved to be returning to the East Coast.

Carr, reached last night, declined comment on his high-profile roster addition.

But Celtics president Red Auerbach said Wilkins is "just what this ballclub needs.

"I had a long talk with Dominique on the phone last night," Auerbach said. "What I didn't realize is he's a lot like Parish. He doesn't drink, he doesn't smoke, none of that. He takes care of himself. I think for him to go a few more years won't be a problem at all.

"I know what some people will say: 'Why would you want a 34-year-old guy?' Well this isn't a 34-year-old guy. He's a star. He's a franchise player." Wilkins played the first 11 1/2 years of his career in Atlanta but was traded last February to the Los Angeles Clippers for Danny Manning.

Kaufmann said Wilkins verbally became a Celtic about 1 p.m. yesterday and the papers were signed roughly 3 1/2 hours later. He said it was not a matter of Boston putting an offer on the table, then demanding a yes or no before the end of the day.

"The Celtics had far too much respect for Dominique to handle it that way," Kaufmann said. "Besides, it wasn't necessary. We've had a good feeling about Boston from the beginning."

Kaufmann said the Lakers also showed interest in Wilkins, but "in their situation, it appealed to them to sign two players, and it made more sense to have the other player in place before Dominique."

The other team Wilkins had hoped to investigate was Indiana, said Kaufmann, but it did not have a viable salary cap slot available.

Not only did Boston have the cash, it also actively pursued Wilkins from the beginning. Carr and Volk flew to Chicago last night, where Wilkins was working out with Dream Team II, and ultimately became the first and only club that negotiated face-to-face with the veteran they call the Human Highlight Film.

"I am very impressed with the way M.L. Carr conducts business," said Kaufmann. "We started talking at my hotel (Thursday) night around seven o'clock, and went straight through until midnight. Then we got back right at it again."

Wilkins averaged 17.5 points a game as a rookie for the Hawks in 1982-83 and has never averaged fewer than 20 points a game in a season since. He won the NBA scoring title in 1986 with a 30.3 average.

"I'm feeling as good as I've felt in my career and now I think I'll end my career with the Celtics," Wilkins told the Associated Press. His career appeared to be in jeopardy when he ruptured his Achilles' tendon halfway through the 1991-92 season. Wilkins embarked on a rigorous rehabilitation program and returned to old form.

Although he is one of the most exciting players in the league, Wilkins has been criticized for not concentrating enough on the defensive end.

"I don't believe that," Auerbach declared. "I've seen him take over games on both ends."

Auerbach said one of the other big pluses Wilkins will bring to the team is leadership.

"It's something this team had needed," Auerbach said. "A guy who will take charge by application. I can't wait for next season to get started."

CELTICS TALKING WITH NIQUE'S AGENT

2011-08-19T08:27:00.006-04:00

July 6, 1994

CELTICS TALKING WITH WILKINS AGENT SAYS HE'S 'VERY INTERESTED' IN PLAYING IN BOSTON

The Celtics have begun their assault on the free agent market, and forward Dominique Wilkins is one of the players they are considering.

Agent Steve Kauffman, who represents Wilkins, confirmed yesterday that he talked with the Celtics about his client's services.

"When Dominique and I went over who he'd like to play for, they were all contenders with two exceptions -- the Celtics and the Lakers," said Kauffman. "Dominique is from the old school in that respect. Tradition means a lot to him. As I told M.L. (Carr), because it's Boston, he's very interested."

Carr sounded less enthusiastic about the Human Highlight Film wearing a Celtics uniform next season.

"We've had conversations, but I don't like people saying what my interest level is," said Carr. "I won't say absolutely no on Dominique, because, quite frankly, I don't want to hurt negotiations."

Interest in Wilkins comes with a high price tag. He is looking for a three-year contract, and Kauffman termed it unlikely that he would settle for less. Wilkins will turn 34 in January.

Carr said Wilkins is only one of many players the Celtics are investigating.

"We've had conversations with several people, but to categorize any of them as serious conversations would be incorrect," Carr said. "We're not in that position with any player at this point. It's more an exploratory process to see what's out there."

Wilkins was traded by the Atlanta Hawks to the Los Angeles Clippers for Danny Manning last February, and he has all but ruled out remaining with his new club, which balked at offering him three years.

"We feel like they've taken themselves out of it," Kauffman said.

The Lakers also have shown interest in Wilkins. The Knicks would like to find a way to make room for him, but at present they have only a slot of $1.2 million. The only way the Celtics can get Wilkins is to use Robert Parish's slot of $2.8 million.

Wilkins is not the only player who has entered into discussions with Boston. Bill Strickland, who represents Pervis Ellison, confirmed he had entered "preliminary discussions" with the Celtics.

"Pervis is only 27 years old, and if he is healthy, which we think he will be, he will be a big asset to any team," said Strickland. "And he is someone willing to fit any system. He is not looking to be the man."

Scott Williams, the forward/center from Chicago, is also a possibility. His agent, Arn Tellem, did not return phone calls yesterday, but Celtics president Red Auerbach said on the night of the draft that Williams was one of the players the team was investigating. Seattle forward/center Michael Cage also is on Boston's list.

Manning has long been the coveted free agent prize on Merrimac Street, but his agent, Ron Grinker, confirmed what has been reported for months: There is no chance of Manning become a Celtic.

"Danny has a long list and a short list, and Boston is not on either of them," Grinker said.

Bulls forward Horace Grant has said he will listen to everyone except Dallas and Sacramento, but with Scottie Pippen still on the trading block, Grant's financial situation in Chicago could become far more attractive if Pippen is dealt. Sources in Chicago said yesterday Boston was one of 12 teams that called to express interest in the power forward. Miami, Phoenix, Detroit and Orlando were also among those clubs.

MCDANIEL'S BUSINESS UNFINISHED

2011-08-18T13:21:00.003-04:00

May 1995

Xavier McDaniel may well have played his last game as a Boston Celtic on Friday night. He still feels the fans here haven't seen the real X.

The Celtics have until July 1 to terminate McDaniel's contract. He would get a buyout figure (roughly $600,000) and leave the Celtics with a slot of around $2.6 million. There's every indication the Celtics are planning to do just that, despite the words of one executive who said, "We need more guys like X, not less." McDaniel would agree.

"It has been a rocky three years here, playingwise," McDaniel said. "For me, it was frustrating at times, but it was great at times, too. I don't know what's going to happen. You never know what's going to happen. But I think it's going to be a long offseason."

This last year was a roller coaster for McDaniel, starting with his ejection in the season opener. His iron-man streak ended at 350 when he missed a game against Washington Nov. 19 to attend the birth of his daughter.

He then went through the month of January as a persona non grata, registering seven DNPs in eight games. On the night of Jan. 17, the Garden crowd chanted, "We want X, we want X," as McDaniel remained glued to the bench. He played 25 minutes the next game and missed only two the rest of the year, both with a sore knee.

"I think the only reason I survived is that I'm a fighter," he said. "If I'm here, or somewhere else, I've got to slim down next year. But I do know this: I'm a much better player than I've shown here. I just never got the steady minutes that you need."

TO BEAT THE HEAT, X WAS THE NECESSARY FACTOR

2011-08-18T13:17:00.004-04:00

April 2, 1995

As the careers of NBA veterans progress, the opposition seems to get younger. This has been the case for Xavier McDaniel, who has survived by using his experience, instincts and old-fashioned determination.

On Friday night, McDaniel was matched against Glen Rice during a 100-99 win over Miami. Today, against Dallas, he might be going against Popeye Jones or Jamal Mashburn.

McDaniel, 32, not only survived against Rice and Miami, he helped inspire the Celtics in a first-half run during which they took control of the game, and he was on the court for the final shot, chasing Rice as the clock expired.

Neither McDaniel nor his teammates could stifle Rice, who scored 26 points. But over the course of nearly 2 1/2 hours, they prevented him from converting a 3-pointer -- he averages nearly one-third of his 21 points per game on them -- and that might have been enough to put him off when he missed the last shot.

"They set a pick for him and I kind of ran right by him a little bit," McDaniel said. "I'm just glad he missed it. When you have to rush it, it's a little tougher shot.

"But I thought I played some pretty good defense. He hit a lot of tough shots."

There were feelings of accomplishment and relief after the victory. Had Rice converted, though, the atmosphere would have been quite different.

"That's the way we have been playing all year," McDaniel said. "People would have said, 'Oh, yeah, they let another one get away.' "

And McDaniel would have been among the scapegoats. He had sparked the team early, joining Pervis Ellison and Dino Radja in an effective combination that rallied the Celtics from a 26-17 deficit to a 5-point lead. McDaniel had scored a 3-point play on a third-chance follow that was a credit to his guile and persistence.

Ellison and Radja also were effectively aggressive underneath, but the most remarkable aspect of this front line's play was its inside passing. McDaniel started the trend by assisting Radja for a dunk, Radja's first of 10 field goals and the one that seemed to bolster Radja's confidence.

McDaniel scored 12 points, surpassing his season average of 9, though far below the standards he set earlier in his career. But on a night when leading scorer Dominique Wilkins was off his game, McDaniel played the complementary role perfectly.

"I was surprised to be in there so much," McDaniel said. "It depends on how 'Nique is doing and how well I am doing. If he is doing well, he will get the majority of minutes and if I am doing well, I will get the majority of minutes.

"I understand that he needs to be on the floor more than me sometimes and he has to understand when I need to be on the floor. It's been up and down for both of us. One minute we will have a nice little high, then a terrible low.

"Chris (Ford) has had a tough time finding time for both of us."

Ford probably chose the right small forward Friday. McDaniel's best contributions were not quantifiable. But in the final three minutes, he was the only Celtic to score from the field until Radja's game-winning dunk in the final two seconds.

"We needed that win if we want to get the eighth spot for the playoffs," McDaniel said. "Jersey, Miami, whoever gets on a streak is going to get it. Hopefully, it will be us."

The Celtics will conduct a clinic sponsored by the Globe at noon today at the Garden.

MCDANIEL STILL PINING FOR MINUTES

2011-08-18T13:17:00.003-04:00

February 20, 1995

The trading deadline is Thursday. The Celtics' Xavier McDaniel wants it known that nothing has changed. He wants more time -- or he wants out.

In the last two games, McDaniel has been rewarded with more minutes, temporarily satisfying him. He played 28 minutes Friday against the Clippers and 35 Saturday against the Jazz. After both games, he was singled out by coach Chris Ford for working and playing hard.

"You would hope it would rub off on some of his teammates, but it hasn't," Ford said.

And that is precisely why McDaniel is still in a stew, well past the middle of the season.

"I see guys on this team out there who are not busting their butts," he said yesterday. "And I wonder why it is that I'm not playing. Over the last six or seven games (prior to Utah), I've played about 12 minutes a game (actually 17). I think I'm a better player than that and I deserve more playing time."

McDaniel is not making any new declarations; he has been on the record for some time that he was told he'd either play or be traded. But with the deadline approaching, and his time still not to his liking, the whole issue is worth revisiting.

The Celtics and Bullets discussed a McDaniel-for-Kevin Duckworth deal, but Boston decided against it. There also was mention of McDaniel in a three-way deal involving Duckworth and Reggie Williams, but M.L. Carr said that was not even discussed and would not work under the salary cap. Carr always has been a big McDaniel supporter, liking his work ethic and the fact that McDaniel is popular with his teammates. Carr also knows that the Celtics can buy McDaniel out at the end of the season for $1.3 million, thereby opening a salary cap slot of $2.66 million.

McDaniel was asked if he would demand a deal. He shook his head.

"I can only sit back and see what happens," he said. "My agent (David Falk) told me there are some possibilities, but who knows? There's nothing I can do about it. I always tell kids, 'Don't worry about things you cannot control.' I'm not in control of whether I stay or go. Or if I play or don't play.

"If I stay here, I'll keep doing what I've always been doing, which is to work hard every day. If another team would like to have me, I hope they give me the opportunity. When I've gotten minutes, I've done a pretty good job in my time out there."

McDaniel had 14 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists against the Jazz. He has played 25 or more minutes in 12 games, and in those games he is averaging 14.2 points and 5.8 rebounds, significantly higher than his overall averages of 8.4 points and 4.1 rebounds.

McDaniel said he cannot understand why lately his minutes haven't increased now that two small forwards have been removed from the mix (Blue Edwards via trade and Rick Fox via injury). In addition, Dino Radja has struggled defensively on this trip, to the point where Radja played only 22 minutes against the Jazz.

WARMUP A HEATED SESSION

2011-08-18T13:16:00.001-04:00

February 4, 1995

Xavier McDaniel likes to think he has to make his case for playing time in practice. Yesterday he almost made a case for prison time as well.

McDaniel was at his animated best -- as were several of his teammates -- during a loud and intense workout. McDaniel's main target was Celtics assistant coach Dennis Johnson, with whom he verbally sparred over lack of foul calls.

"If you guys want to bitch," Johnson told a tangled McDaniel and Dino Radja, "bitch at each other. Don't bitch at me." When McDaniel refused to get back on defense and complained he was held three times without a call, assistant coach Don Casey looked at him and said, "So what?"

At one point, just before an inbounds play, Johnson and McDaniel engaged in X-rated repartee that brought back memories of the schoolyard. Each man challenged the other to repeat the offending words next to him. Each declined.

That was indicative of the tenor. Sherman Douglas and David Wesley traded a few blows before Pervis Ellison separated them. And Ellison, normally a stoic type, was also vocal.

"We haven't had a practice like this in quite a while," Dee Brown said. "Sherman. X. Those guys get pumped up by talking. Everyone was intense. Even Pervis. Usually, he never says anything. But he was out there yelling, too, so you know it had to be different."

Asked about the scrape with Wesley, Douglas shrugged it off. "We're all frustrated," he said. "I don't know what we need."

"Those things happen," Brown said. "There's just a little mental tension and then something happens. That's all. It's over with."

He was asked why the same attitude didn't carry over into games.

"It's expensive," he said, referring to the NBA crackdown on fighting and trash talking. "They put a lot of restraints on talking. But here no one is trying to hurt anyone. You get caught up in the heat of the battle, that's all."

MCDANIEL HAS A LOT IN RESERVE

2011-08-18T13:14:00.002-04:00

January 23, 1995

Lost in all the commotion the last few days has been the work of Xavier McDaniel. The X-humed forward has been a key reserve the last three games after sitting out five straight games and seven of eight.

McDaniel played 33 minutes against the Hawks Saturday night, his third-longest stint of the season. He had 13 points and was a key player in Boston's second-quarter surge.

In the last three games, McDaniel has averaged 13.7 points in just less than 26 minutes a game. Before that, he had fallen out of the rotation and urged the Celtics to trade him.

McDaniel's return, however, has coincided with a Celtic losing streak. Boston has dropped four in a row, matching its longest streak of the year. It plays Orlando tomorrow night.

"I don't know what it's going to take to get us going," McDaniel said. "I don't know if it takes benching guys until they get the point or what. We definitely need everybody to play and help each other out."

HE'S STILL MR. MEAN MCDANIEL READY TO ANSWER ALL CHALLENGES -- AND CRITICS -- IN A FORCEFUL STYLE

2011-08-18T13:13:00.001-04:00

September 30, 1992

"Ree-lax," said the X Man. "C'mon baby, ree-lax."

He was dribbling the ball between his legs. Was that supposed to make Carey Rich relax? How do you relax when you are trying to stop the X Man? How do you relax when the X Man is playing you with a toothpick in his mouth?

"I don't know why I played him," Rich muttered. "He's too damn mean."

They were dueling at the University of South Carolina, where Carey Rich will play his home games this season.

Yet it's Xavier McDaniel who owns this arena. After his morning workout across town, he saunters up to campus and challenges the boys to some one-on-one. He taunts them, tests them, goads them, beats them.

"C'mon baby," said the X Man, grinning. "Take some of this."

He spots up for the jumper. Bang. He spots up again. Bang. The third time he drives the lane. Slam.

"C'mon baby," said the X Man, his smile widening. "Ree-lax."

Now, Carey Rich has pride, and though he's young, he's not a bad player. So while the X Man has his head turned, talking trash to the next victim on the sidelines, Rich lines up and buries a 15-footer.

The swish of the ball snaps the X Man's head around. The smile is gone. The toothpick soon follows.

Suddenly, the X Man is so close that Carey Rich can count his fillings. Suddenly, the X Man is bumping him and poking him and talking real fast.

"Put it up, baby," said the X Man. "I dare you. Put it up again."

The shot is rushed, frantic. The X Man rips down the board and heads for the hoop.

"Try and stop me," he growls.

He is like a runaway locomotive, huffing and puffing and snorting, charging ahead at breakneck speed until . . . whoa! He screeches on the brakes. Stop and pop.

"You hit me," the X Man screamed. "You did. That's three. Three-point play!"

The smile is back.

Carey Rich does not score another basket the rest of the afternoon.

They say Xavier McDaniel has a temper.

"Sometimes I play better when I'm mad," he acknowledged.

How do you get the X Man mad?

"Just score on him," said his childhood friend, Larry Lane. "That usually does it."

McDaniel was angry for most of the Eastern Conference Finals last season. Chicago's Scottie Pippen was getting too much ink, and the X Man could feel smoke collecting in his nostrils.

"Scottie Pippen," he said. "If I came out and played like he did, he'd kick my butt. But if I come out and play him physical, then he's thinking about me. He's thinking about me instead of thinking about the game."

The Bulls won the series, beating McDaniel's Knicks, but the X Man held his own. Aside from harassing Pippen, he averaged 18.8 points a game and redeemed himself from a late regular-season slide.

Before McDaniel exercised his contract option last Jan. 15, he was averaging 16.8 points and 6.5 rebounds and shooting 49.2 percent from the floor. After, his numbers dipped to 11.5 points, 4.9 rebounds and 46.4 percent. His playing time dropped from 32.9 minutes a game to 25.5. The critics carved the X Man up, but Knicks coach Pat Riley said the decline in minutes was not from dissatisfaction.

"I knew X wouldn't score for us the way he did in Seattle and Phoenix, because we were looking for more balance," said Riley. "But the reasons I didn't play him down the stretch were not because he wasn't playing well.

"I never had any doubts about X. When others were critical of him, I didn't see that. I loved him as a leader.

"But when we got to the final month of the season, the whole team slumped, the Celtics caught us, and that compounded a whole bunch of things."

With one regular-season game left, Riley decided it was time for him and the X Man to talk.

Riley said he considered McDaniel a vital part of the team, but he wanted more. In issuing that challenge, he struck a nerve.

"I never coast in a game," said McDaniel. "I take that personally. Pat Riley told me he didn't think I was playing hard. He was the first coach ever to tell me that."

The X Man said Riley didn't know him well enough to make that judgment. Riley countered: Show me I'm wrong.

That made the X Man mad. Scottie Pippen paid the price.

"For a while, I couldn't understand why Pat wasn't using X in the fourth quarter," said David Falk, who negotiated McDaniel's new deal. "But then I realized he was just being smart. He kept X out so he was pent up like a caged animal. Then he released him for the playoffs."

You want to get the X Man mad? Ask him about his knees.

"Everyone has concerns about my knees," he said. "That's another thing I took personally with the Knicks. I practiced every day except two. I didn't miss a single game.

"It's not like I had a Ron Harper injury (torn anterior cruciate ligament). I had cartilage damage.

"Charles Smith had knee problems. When they sit down and renegotiate with him, do you think it will come up?"

The X Man is sensitive about a few things. Don't talk to him about Charles Smith, the player the Knicks traded for last week. Don't talk to him about Harvey Grant, the forward the Knicks offered a lucrative contract to before Washington matched it.

It bothers X that these players were offered a place in New York before his deal was settled. It rankles him further to think his knees might have anything to do with that.

In seven years, he has missed a total of 18 games. In the last two seasons, he has missed one game.

"I'll play hurt," McDaniel said. "I played a whole season (1989-90) with torn cartilage. After a while it was so bad it locked up on me in the middle of games. I'd jiggle it around, get it moving again and stay in the game. I didn't stop until finally it locked up five times in one half."

His critics say he's lost his best asset -- the ability to leap above everyone to snare rebounds. The X Man is reminded of a post-surgery press conference three years ago when he candidly told those assembled he could jump only half as high as before the operation.

"Any time you have surgery, it takes a little out of you," he said. "But I'm still a fairly good jumper. I can still dunk on you. Try me."

Xavier McDaniel is not a model citizen spewing the party line. His teammates love him for his brutal honesty, but it tends to make management squeamish.

"We took a long, hard look at X as a person," said Celtics CEO Dave Gavitt. "Would he fit? We talked to an awful lot of people, and what kept coming back was that, while on the court he could give you the impression of being a thug, he was a really good guy in the locker room, a good teammate."

McDaniel rarely criticizes those playing alongside him, but he didn't hesitate to take a swipe at the Seattle front office upon his departure for not sticking with a nucleus of players. When he left Phoenix, he ripped the Suns for blaming him for their playoff woes. And, after leaving New York, he charged general manager Dave Checketts with being dishonest.

Can the conservative Celtics live with a guy whose stream-of-consciousness approach reminds some of Charles Barkley?

"The problem with Charles," said Gavitt, "is while he's very entertaining, he ultimately can wear at the fabric of a team.

"We don't see X in the same way. We see a guy who brings feistiness to the team. We need an intimidator, not a retaliator. So once in a while he speaks his mind. We can live with that. We don't need all our guys to be vanilla."

The X Man promises to be as tough on himself as anyone else.

"If I stink up the joint, I'll be the first to say so," he said. "In New York, I'd tell the reporters, 'I played like a $2 player tonight. I don't deserve to get paid.' I ripped myself. I did their work for them."

The X Man is admittedly not well versed in Celtic history, yet he is intrigued by his new franchise.

"When I visited Boston, I was thinking I wasn't going to sign," he said. "But then Red (Auerbach) started telling me how he keeps in touch with his old players. He told me how he just had dinner with John Thompson a few nights before. Hell, Thompson played 20 years ago and he wasn't even that good."

The New York brain trust feared the X Man would be swayed by the "Celtic family" party line. Riley admits he was "shell shocked" by news of McDaniel's signing with Boston.

"I told him right after the season that if (negotiations) ever got bad to call me," said Riley. "I said that back in May, and he probably forgot.

"I have great confidence in Dave (Checketts). He's done tremendous things for us. But the worst thing that happened was somehow this all became personal to X.

"I do know this: if I had known how bothered he was, and I had the chance to talk with him, X would not be in Boston. I'll never let a situation like this ever happen again. I thought everything was fine, and it wasn't.

"I thought we had made it clear we'd try to enhance the team with him on it, but to do that we needed to keep him on the shelf for a while.

"I can understand why he did what he did. I don't blame him. But I'll tell you what -- the Celtics got themselves a prize."

McDaniel hopes his newest team will serve as a permanent home. He has a deal that could keep him in Boston for five seasons, providing both parties want it that way.

"I look at this the same way it was for DJ when he got traded from Phoenix to Boston," McDaniel said. "He had been on a roller coaster until that point.

"So have I. I keep getting on, getting thrown off again. This time I want to stay on."

He promises to bring enthusiasm to the parquet. He promises to find his own niche in the Celtic history books.

"Boston Garden has been hell to me," he said. "Everyone knows it's a terrible floor. When I was a young player, they used to tell me, 'Don't worry about what's going on in Boston Garden, or you'll be lost.'

"Now I'll be at the Garden, and I'll be in the good locker room. And maybe one of the guys can point out all the dead spots for me."

Troy McKoy stands before the X Man, tapping his sneaker nervously. No wonder. Before McDaniel arrived at the South Carolina arena, McKoy was boasting he had burned the X Man the day before, and how McDaniel was a guy with bad knees who can't jump.

Naturally, as soon as the X Man arrived, the other guys repeated every word.

So the X Man doesn't even bother to tell Troy McKoy to ree-lax. He just flips him the ball and stares him down.

McKoy can't shoot, so he backs his way in, bumping closer and closer to the hole, until he sees an opening . . .

Swat! The X Man lets out a shrill laugh as he sends the ball into the stands, "Get that (expletive) out of here!

"He says I can't jump. Did you hear him? He says I can't jump.

"Seven (expletive) years in the NBA and he's telling me I can't jump.

"Well, brother, you got zero (expletive) years in the NBA and you can't jump, either."

The smile was intact, the swagger in place. And, as the next victim shuffled forward, the X Man went searching for a new toothpick.

MCDANIEL GIVING RIVALS PHYSICALS

2011-08-18T13:12:00.003-04:00

October 22, 1992

MCDANIEL GIVING RIVALS PHYSICALS

Xavier McDaniel appears to have resumed where he left off last season; he has been leading with his elbows and forearms during the Celtics' exhibition games. Are fists next?

"I'm not going to back down from anyone," McDaniel said. "What would you do if someone was going to hit you? I'm going to fight back."

McDaniel tangled with Charles Barkley in Phoenix and Karl Malone in Salt Lake City, despite being at a 50-pound weight disadvantage. Among other things, the matchups raise the question of whether a 205-pounder such as McDaniel should be expected to compete with the elite power forwards of basketball. McDaniel has said he is willing to fill the power forward role, but not permanently. Apparently, he will attempt to do so on his terms.

"I said I was going to play hard for 82 games," McDaniel said. "I can't guarantee anything else. I can't guarantee there won't be a shooting slump; all shooters go through slumps. But I can guarantee I will play hard all the time."

McDaniel's definition of extra effort apparently includes pushing opponents to the brink of fisticuffs and antagonizing referees.

"I'm not afraid to go to war with Karl Malone," McDaniel said. "I'm not afraid of any of them. It's all about playing hard, playing physical.

"That's the type of person I am. I'm not going to back down from Charles Barkley or anyone else. It's not personal. It's about respecting me as a player. Karl almost took it personal, but he held back."

And if Malone had not controlled himself?

"They would have sent me to the Utah jail," McDaniel said. "I'm not going to just let someone hit me. I have a right to defend myself."

McDaniel, 29, said he also cursed at official Eddie Rush, but that the expletive was uttered in the heat of battle.

"He took it personal and called four fouls on me," McDaniel said. "All I told him was to respect me as a man.

"I just have to stop fouling people and play better defense. We've got officials in the game and we have rules, so if you go over the limit, you're out. I just want to make sure we win, and I'll score points, rebound and do everything it takes to win. That is why athletes are so high-paid, because every organization wants to win the championship."

Professional franchise owners also want their highly paid players to avoid injuring themselves. The downside of a punchup is that both parties are at risk; the most graphic example in the NBA is probably the 1977 Rudy Tomjanovich-Kermit Washington brawl.

"He will play hard and I expect that some guys are not going to like being pounded by the X-Man," Celtics coach Chris Ford said. "He might force our guys to play physically as well.

"Once the regular season begins, X will know how far to push. He knows the officials and what they will call. Every night the game is officiated differently. The officials have been told to clean up the post play, and I'd like to see that for our sake.

"But I don't think red flags are going up in the NBA for the officials to look out for X. He'll adjust. It won't do anyone any good for him to get thrown out of games."

X-Man on Celtics Radar

2011-08-18T13:11:00.001-04:00

September 9, 1992

Training camp opens in 30 days. Their end-of-season roster has undergone one dramatic change and, possibly, two others. Their top draft pick is unsigned.

The Celtics have some work to do in the next month. Yesterday, Frank Catapano, who represents unrestricted free agent John Bagley, met with the Boston brass to gauge the team's interest in re-signing the Bag Man.

"The talks were pleasant, but we didn't accomplish a heck of a lot," Catapano said. "They seem to be interested in signing John. We're talking, not battling."

Celtics general manager Jan Volk said, "We're still talking and we'll continue to talk."

Bagley was offered a deal in Zaragoza, Spain, but it was not sufficient enough to warrant serious consideration, Catapano said. He also said he has talked with virtually every team that has a point-guard need (San Antonio comes to mind immediately) but no one has submitted anything substantial.

Meanwhile, the Celtics' greater need is to replenish their frontcourt, a task made doubly urgent by Larry Bird's retirement. In addition to Bird, the team does not expect Stojko Vrankovic to return; he has reportedly landed a job in Greece. That leaves them with Robert Parish, Kevin McHale, Ed Pinckney and Joe Kleine in the so-called power positions.

The Celtics have inquired about Tom Gugliotta, the No. 6 pick in the draft who hasn't signed with the Bullets. But their offer of Kevin Gamble, even-up, was rejected in a nanosecond. Gugliotta has been investigating offers overseas since turning down a $10.7 million offer from Washington in mid-July.

As for Xavier McDaniel, an unrestricted free agent, the Celtics have talked with David Falk, who represents the 6-foot-7-inch forward. CEO Dave Gavitt has termed the Celtics interest "moderate" and McDaniel is looking for much more than the $1.65 million Boston has to offer. He gave up $4.1 million for the next two years to become an unrestricted free agent.

"They would have to sign McDaniel for six years to get him the average he wants," said one league executive. "I hope they do. That would use up all their cap money."

Reached yesterday, Falk said, "There have been some discussions. Whenever you are an unrestricted free agent, you want to reconfirm your market value. Xavier wants to look at everything."

Falk said he has talked to teams about one-year deals and six-year deals. McDaniel, who turned 29 last June, may be the best of the unrestricted free agents, but he is coming off two mediocre seasons (he did, however, play well in the playoffs) and has well-documented knee woes. The Knicks haven't given up on him either; they talked to Falk last Thursday.

Another possibility is Charles Smith of the Clippers. He was headed to New York in a three-way deal that included Orlando, but Stanley Roberts nixed it (he has a one-year, no-trade clause.) Smith is somewhat of a risk; he becomes an unrestricted free agent after the 1992-93 season.

There were rumors yesterday that Walter Berry had signed with Paok in Greece. Although Berry's agent denied it, the Celtics are operating under that premise. The Celtics also have been told that Joe Wolf has decided to play overseas as well.

And Jon Barry, the No. 1 pick? There has been no movement there, either. Volk and agent Richard Howell haven't spoken in more than a week.

Morningstar Starts for Mavs

2011-08-18T13:08:00.005-04:00

November 14, 1993

Darren Morningstar, Boston's second-round pick in 1992 who sported Elvis-like sideburns and showed more promise as a stand-up comic than an NBA player, is, in fact, the starting center for Dallas. No wonder they say Quinn Buckner is uptight . . .

CELTICS CUT TO THE CHASE MORNINGSTAR, REESE WAIVED; TWO SPOTS REMAIN AS OPENER LOOMS

2011-08-18T13:08:00.004-04:00

November 3, 1992

WALTHAM

The Celtics bowed to the inevitable yesterday when they waived second-round draft choice Darren Morningstar and free agent Jason Reese. Morningstar, 6 feet 10 inches, 235 pounds, had seldom been a factor in exhibition games, totaling 8 points and 11 rebounds in 55 minutes of playing time.

As the Celtics prepared for their regular-season opener Friday against Minnesota, they had neither of their draft choices in camp yesterday. First-rounder Jon Barry remains a holdout.

Coach Chris Ford approached the franchise's apparently unproductive draft diplomatically.

"These things happen," Ford said. "What about the teams who pick real high in the draft and find out that that pick was wasted? But, yes, I would have liked to have seen the kid (Barry) in camp."

Morningstar is the latest on the Celtics' recent second- and third-round failure list, following Dino Radja (1989) and Gerald Paddio (1988). Only Dee Brown, Rick Fox and Reggie Lewis remain of the franchise's 67 draft choices since 1981.

The waiving of Morningstar was anticipated since draft day, when the Celtics stated that no "big men" were worthy of selection at the 21st pick of the first round, when they selected the 6-5 Barry. They chose Morningstar 26 places later.

"Darren has an awful lot to learn in terms of offensive skills and how to defend the low post," Ford said. "He can get those lessons playing in Europe or the CBA."

The Celtics will next have to choose two players among Kenny Battle, Bart Kofoed, Marcus Webb and Joe Wolf for the final roster spots. Final roster cuts are due Thursday night.

"It depends on what we feel is best," Ford said. "We are not going to rush into it. You never know what could happen; an injury could occur."

The franchise clearly is desperate for big rebounders. The Celtics were willing to take a chance with Reese, a 6-9, 255-pound refugee of the Australian League, but allowed him to play only 5 minutes of one game.

There is hope that either Webb, 6-9, 255 pounds, or Wolf, 6-11, 230 pounds, will fill that role. Webb has been inconsistent during exhibition games and Wolf has never produced more than 7.6 points and 5.4 rebounds per game in five NBA seasons.

"I'm going to continue to hustle," said Webb, 22. "I have a lot to learn and I am going to make my mistakes but I am going to give 110 percent. If I get cut, I will get cut giving my best."

Wolf, 24, was a first-round draft choice of the Los Angeles Clippers in 1987. He signed as a free agent after two seasons with Denver.

"I've been in the league five years and I've seen a lot of guys come and go," Wolf said. "It's part of the business. All I can do is work hard and give it my best."

Ainge Squares Off Against Morningstar . . . Almost

2011-08-18T13:07:00.006-04:00

10/31/92

Darren Morningstar, who was suffering from unilateral groin strains, was not available . . . Ainge was in the starting lineup for the Suns but suffered through a 1-for-7 shooting night . . . The Celtics complete their exhibition schedule tonight in Indiana.

NO. 2 PICK DARREN MORNINGSTAR WANTS TO SHOW THE CELTICS HE WAS . . .WORTH THE WAIT

2011-08-18T13:07:00.004-04:00

July 10, 1992

He promises one thing: unswerving, unflagging commitment. No one, not even the lowliest, down-on-his-luck, last-chance CBAer chasing an improbable dream is happier to be participating at the Celtics' rookie-free agent camp this weekend than Darren Morningstar, the club's second-round draft pick out of the University of Pittsburgh.

He's a long shot, he knows that. He also knows he's 6 feet 11 inches, that there is a demonstrative need for size, and that he will set records for floor burns and overturned chairs and tables at Brandeis this weekend.

"I'm just going to do the best I possibly can," Morningstar said recently from Pittsburgh, between breaks from a variety of workouts, including weightlifting, swimming and running the stairs at Pitt Stadium. "For Darren Morningstar, that's going 120 percent. It's the only speed I know."

What he lacks in ability or talent -- and he went 47th in the draft for a reason -- he more than makes up for in confidence and derring-do. His best games in grade school, high school and college were against the best teams.

He also was an all-tournament selection at both the Portsmouth and Orlando Classics, albeit against less than top-flight competition (the top collegians stayed away from Orlando as if it had been quarantined).

He was rated among the middle-level power forwards, but there was no consensus on where he'd go in the draft. One team, the Pistons, had him in for a workout. Another, Utah, had expressed interest. Morningstar figured either the Pistons (19th) or the Jazz (23d) would be potential takers. Both then pulled draft day deals and he slid. And slid. And slid some more.

"Avalanched" is the way he put it.

Making things worse, he was there, in Portland, Ore., to see it all unfold before him. He had made the short drive from his home in Stevenson, Wash., to be on hand, and by the time the TNT folks got him on TV, he was talking like some wondrous amalgam of Kevin McHale, Oil Can Boyd and the guy who did the old Federal Express ads.

As he chatted nonstop, there also was an unforgettable picture emerging. Here was a guy with long sideburns, which have been "out" since, when? Nehru suits?

"I've trimmed them a bit since then," he said. "It was something I had fun with the last year. I spoke to a lot of banquets and girls used to come up to me and tell me I looked like Harry Connick Jr. That's why I did it."

As they watched the rambling interview from Boston Garden, smiles adorned the faces of the Celtics' heirarchy. Dave Gavitt remarked that Morningstar had instantly transformed himself into a worthy talkmaster successor to the garrulous McHale. Chris Ford was instructed by every media member to not even contemplate cutting the kid.

"I think it was the Lord's doing, my going to Boston," Morningstar said. "My ego had been hurt by not getting picked, and the only team that could have snapped me out of my funk was the Boston Celtics. I was just real excited getting drafted by the Boston Celtics. I was just hurt that it took so long."

Morningstar was at a loss to explain his free fall, although thinking he'd go 19th or 23d may have been on the optimistic, or even unrealistic, side. He thinks he may have suffered by not playing at the Chicago pre-draft camp, despite his fine outings at Portsmouth and Orlando. Like the Bulls' Scott Williams two years before, he sat and watched others getting taken ahead of him and wondered what was happening.

"I felt like I had been blackballed," he said. "I mean, these were guys I had just played against and beaten out a lot of them. It was a judgment call. If I had to do it over again, I'd have played. I guess I'll just have to beat out those same guys again."

Confidence has never been a problem for Morningstar. Part of his shoot-first, ask-questions-later mentality comes from an almost blissful ignorance of the real world, although he was raised by two elementary school teachers.

Stevenson is small, maybe 1,000 people, he said. It's depressed now, thanks in part to a huge reliance on the slumping timber industry.

"In some ways, getting out of Stevenson was like getting out of the ghetto," he said.

Basketball was his way out. Morningstar's father, Gary, hung up a basket in the driveway and had his son shooting hoops at age 3. Morningstar has a younger brother, 19, who also can play. His father is 6-4, his late mother 5-8. Morningstar says that somewhere in the family tree is a native American link. He doesn't know where.

"I think I'm part Swedish and part German with a little bit of everything else," he said. "Basically, I'm a real nice guy who likes life. I don't know what else I am."

In high school, he was a hoop terror. He averaged 35 points and 17 rebounds a game, twice being named an all-state center. He also compiled a 3.96 grade point average, one B ruining an otherwise straight A list.

While he was exploring college opportunities, and still only 6-8, David Robinson was leading the US Naval Academy to unimaginable basketball prominence. Morningstar watched from afar and liked what he saw.

"I wanted to mold myself after him as a player and a person," Morningstar said. "He was an All-American class act. But, basically, I was pretty naive. I wanted to combine basketball and academics, like Robinson did. And I saw Tom Cruise and Richard Gere (in the movies 'Top Gun' and 'An Officer And A Gentleman'), and they looked awful good in dress whites.

"I mean, I knew I could handle the regimentation and pay the price to be an officer and a gentleman," he went on. "But I was in no way, shape or form going to give them five years of my life after college."

He lasted six months at Annapolis. He played in five basketball games. In one of them, against an Iowa team that featured B.J. Armstrong and Roy Marble, he had 20 points. In his stint with the Middies, a long-held career goal quickly became a career objective: get to the NBA.

The Naval Academy coaching staff steered him to Pitt, and to former Navy coach Paul Evans. Morningstar had considered Virginia and Vanderbilt, both of which better suited his academic inclinations (he graduated after three years from Pitt with a degree in economics and is working on a master's in marketing and finance).

"After that Iowa game, it started to hit me that if you wanted to play on TV, play against the best, I felt, at the time, it was the Big East," he said. "I mean, I see Adam Keefe destroying everyone in the Pac-10 and he's only 6-8 1/2. I say to myself, that could have been me, maybe. But I don't have any regrets."

He improved each year at Pitt, topping off with a 12.3-point scoring average his senior year, including a big game (27 points, 10 rebounds) against Kentucky. He was third-team All-Big East (as well as the conference's scholar/athlete), and then came the successes at Orlando and Portsmouth.

Now, he hopes, the next step is the NBA, with the team he said he has wanted to play for all along. The last player to make the Celtics as a second-round pick was Brad Lohaus in 1987.

"I'm just looking forward to playing for the greatest organization in the history of basketball," said Morningstar. "I've never heard anyone say a bad word about them."

We could refer him to Boston Celtics vs. Brian Shaw or Boston Celtics vs. Dino Radja, or countless general managers who revel when the Celtics slip. But chances are, he wouldn't listen.

"I'm coming up there with the attitude that I'm a Boston Celtic and that I'm going to be a Boston Celtic for life," he said. "I pleaded with them when I was here to draft me. I would just love to play for them."

SMITH ON INJURED LIST, POPSON ON TEAM

2011-08-18T08:48:00.002-04:00

November 2, 1990

They kept everyone in suspense as long as they could. And when the Celtics couldn't squeeze 13 players onto a 12-man roster, they tried to find a way to keep most everyone happy. At least for now.

On the eve of their season opener against the Cavaliers, the Celtics yesterday reduced their active roster to 12. The biggest surprise? Dave Popson, in his second stab at the Celtics, earned a berth. "I am really excited," he said. "It is what I've been working toward. I can't wait for the first game."

The second biggest surprise? Charles Smith was placed on the injured list with a partial dislocation of the left shoulder. He didn't trip over the foul line yesterday; the injury occurred Oct. 13. But it wasn't deemed that serious and Smith played in five exhibition games and missed only one practice. He will have to miss at least five games.

"You buy time and you wait and see," said Celtics boss Dave Gavitt. "The Charles Smith-Pop thing was not an easy one. But Charles was playing with a bad shoulder because he wanted to make the team. He clearly hasn't been himself."

"This will give me a chance to get healthier," Smith said. "It's still a little sore and now I have some time to get to 100 percent. That's really all I can say."

Joining Smith on the injured list was John Bagley, who has been bothered by tendinitis in his right knee since camp opened and hasn't practiced a minute. Jim Paxson, who is still under contract but did not attend training camp in a move that had the club's approval, was placed on the suspended list.

Yugoslavian guard Sasha Dordevic was released.

The team announced the Dordevic and Bagley moves at the conclusion of a morning workout at Hellenic College. They delayed making the Smith/Popson announcement until 5 p.m., one hour before the 6 p.m. deadline.

It was no secret that Bagley, Paxson, Michael Smith and Ed Pinckney were available. They still are.

"We talked with a lot of teams, as did most everyone," Gavitt said. "But at this stage, I don't feel like anything is about to pop."

The 6-foot-10-inch Popson made the most of his time in the exhibition season. In five games, he played a total of 36 minutes and scored 24 points. He was 10 for 18 from the field.

"I'm really happy," he said. "It was hard to describe the feeling waiting for the call."

Popson, 26, was a late cut last year, along with Scooter Barry. He then joined the Albany Patroons in the Continental Basketball Association, where he played nine games. He finished up in Spain. He does have NBA experience, playing 17 games for the Clippers and the Heat in the 1988-89 season.

"I knew I was going to play ball somewhere," he said. "I'm just excited it's the NBA."

As for the 23-year-old Dordevic, he plans to return to Yugoslavia and play for his club team, Partizan Belgrade. He appeared in four of the eight exhibition games and played just 33 minutes. He scored 6 points, going 1 for 6 from the field.

He said yesterday that a sprained right ankle bothered him all through training camp and that "no one here really saw how I can play." When he received the bad news, he told Gavitt, "You never were able to see me dunk because of my ankle."

Gavitt said, "He really was an intelligent player. But he tried to make the NBA at a tough time. He spent last year in the army and really hadn't played in a year."

Ford concurred. "He's an interesting player. He worked hard and helped us, especially with Stojko Vrankovic. We were proud to have him."

The Celtics used Dordevic at both backcourt positions and thought him better suited for the shooting slot. But Reggie Lewis and Kevin Gamble were there.

"It's hard to say something smart right now. I didn't do my best, I know that for sure," Dordevic said. "I'll be back here next year, not with the Celtics, but someone else. But I'll still be a Celtics fan. Everybody was great to me."

PADDIO, WHATLEY GET AXED

2011-08-18T08:47:00.006-04:00

November 1, 1988

The team gathered in the usual manner, yawning and stretching, then plunking themselves down in a semicircle to hear the Celtic news of the day from coach Jimmy Rodgers.

The news? All they needed to do was look around them. Ramon Rivas was to their left, Ronnie Grandison to their right, and Gerald Paddio and Ennis Whatley were nowhere to be found.

"What it comes down to is feeling comfortable with the players you put on the floor," said Rodgers, shortly after announcing Paddio and Whatley were cut from the squad, bringing Boston to the required roster limit of 12. "We kept the people we felt comfortable with."

The departure of Whatley was expected. He is a journeyman point guard who was never considered a serious candidate once Brian Shaw proved he was a poised, legitimate first-round draft choice. As for the release of Paddio, it was anticipated, particularly in light of the past week.

Early in preseason, when Paddio was lighting up the veteran backcourt with long-range bombs, he was considered a definite keeper. But Paddio could not hit the jumpers during the exhibition games, and appeared confused whenever the team ran one of its set plays. Paddio shot 35 percent in the preseason (13 for 37) and committed 15 turnovers in 74 minutes.

At the same time, Grandison caught the staff's eye with transition skills, scrappy defense and cleverness off the offensive glass. When it came down to the final days, he stole the job from Paddio by outplaying and outhustling him when it mattered most.

Thus, while Grandison went through the weave drill at Hellenic College, Paddio hastily packed his belongings at the Howard Johnson's on Boylston Street and checked the airlines for the first flight home to Payne, La.

"I thought I did well," said Paddio. "But I also had to look at the team and realize there were three other people who played my position. I was fighting for a job in the 3 spot, and they have Larry Bird, Reggie Lewis and Brad Lohaus there.

"It hurts. It hurts a lot. But there's nothing I can do."

Paddio learned he was no longer a Celtic yesterday morning before practice. He returned to the hotel and called his mother, who "was hurting almost as much as me," he said.

He then left his room, where the phone seemed to ring every few minutes, and finished his packing down the hall where Shaw was staying.

"I just called my agent, Bob Woolf, and he's on his way back from New York," said Paddio. "His office wants me to stick around. But all I really want to do right now is go home."

He admitted there were days he felt like he was in a daze, and that he struggled the few times he was asked to handle the ball.

"I never thought of myself bringing the ball up the court," Paddio said. "I wasn't expecting to be a ballhandler. I expected to be a scorer.

"I don't think I hurt myself that much. My shots were there, they just didn't go down. When you go out and play well, they make the decision. It's out of your hands."

Paddio was popular with his temporary teammates, who poked fun at his naive comments and spacy personality. Yet they, too, took note of his inability to learn the system.

"I thought Gerald was a lock to make the team originally," said Danny Ainge, who spent extra time working with the No. 3 pick out of Nevada-Las Vegas. "Then we started running plays, and slowing things down at times, and he seemed to have trouble adjusting more than the other guys. I don't know why.

"Gerald can play in this league. He needs to make up his mind to go out and do it instead of saying, 'Well, I'm not very good at that.'

"I'm sure this is tough, but it could turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to him. A lot of guys have had long NBA careers after starting out like this."

Whatley, whose NBA career seems to be floundering, said he probably will return to the CBA.

"I kind of expected this," he said. "The odds were pretty stacked against me beforehand. I got a fair chance, but I've been around long enough to know the situation."

For Paddio, this was the first time around. That left him frustrated, yet not bitter yesterday.

"Jimmy Rodgers said I should be playing for someone," said Paddio. "He said I shouldn't give up, that I should keep on playing. I appreciated that.

"But there are no guarantees, and that's why I'm hurting. I want to play, and it doesn't matter now where it is. If someone wants me, I'm ready. And if not . . . well, maybe I'll go back and finish school. I only need nine more hours to graduate. Why not finish?"

"Gerald is a guy who needs to go someplace and play," said Rodgers. "He showed some offensive skills, but he needs some experience under his belt to round out his game."

For Rivas and Grandison, who had been nervously awaiting their fate, yesterday was a new beginning that each discussed cautiously.

"I still have two months before I really make it," said the 6-foot-8-inch Grandison. "And what I have to do in that time is develop some confidence in the coach. I have to convince him that he can take Larry out or Kevin out and I can do the job. And I have to stay ready."

Rivas, the 6-10, 260-pound center who earned his spot by playing mistake-free basketball, crashing the offensive boards and refusing to back down from physical play (are you listening, Randy Breuer?), said he is still "a little nervous."

"The battle doesn't end here," said Rivas, who will become a hero in his native Puerto Rico now that he's a Celtic. "They could still find someone to replace me."

Rivas credited coach John Chaney and his displined program at Temple as the reason he was able to make the squad.

"To come to a team like the Celtics, you've got to follow some rules," he said. "If you can't, you are out of place. Temple was a great place for me to learn those rules."

CELTICS '88-89 CAST NOT ETCHED IN STONE

2011-08-18T08:47:00.005-04:00

October 2, 1988

You look at the roster and you say, "Gerald Paddio's gotta make this team." You also look at the roster and you say that just about anyone in America who owns a pair of basketball shoes could become the 12th man.

The 1988-89 Celtics team that will convene at Hellenic College next Friday morning has 10 spots set. You've got a first unit of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, Dennis Johnson and Danny Ainge. You've got a second unit of Jim Paxson, Brad Lohaus, Mark Acres, Reggie Lewis and Brian Shaw. And then, well, who knows? We still don't even know who they're inviting to camp from the realm of free agency.

We may learn those names tomorrow or Tuesday, according to general manager Jan Volk. Yes, Ramon Rivas will be here. He is a 6-foot-10-inch widebody supreme who played for John Chaney at Temple, and who, frankly, was never considered NBA material. But such is the Celtics' need for an additional big man that they are in no mood to be excessively choosy. No other invitees have been confirmed. Volk says he's been reluctant to disclose the names of those people the Celtics are interested in because sometimes there is a time gap between the agreement to terms and a signing, and in the interim, funny things can happen.

"When the word leaked out that Rivas was coming here, he had not yet signed," Volk says. "Right away, there was a lot of interest shown on the part of other ballclubs."

The Celtics are still trying to get a handle on the Stojan Vrankovic situation. Volk dispatched his own Lewis and Clark in the form of K.C. Jones and Forddy Anderson to Seoul in the hopes of establishing contact with the Yugoslavian center, who is under contract to them. Whether the 7-2 kid will come here is known only to himself, the Yugoslav officials and perhaps the Hoop God, who generally keeps track of all these matters.

LONG RANGER PADDIO IMPRESSES CELTICS WITH SHOT

2011-08-18T08:46:00.005-04:00

August 3, 1988

Gerald Paddio blew into town, along with several other young prospects, hoping to make a good impression during the Celtics' four-day audition for free agents and rookies at Brandeis.

Paddio, the team's third-round draft choice, brought some impressive credentials as a shooter. His fancy for the three-point stripe saw him convert 118 of 282 trifectas in his senior season at Nevada-Las Vegas.

"Any time a guy gets drafted, a particular facet of his game always catches your eye," said Celtics coach Jimmy Rodgers. "There's something that he does that makes you take note, and, in Paddio's case, it was his shooting and range."

There was no denying his scoring ability. Paddio averaged 19.4 points per game with the Runnin' Rebels. Last season he tallied 34 points against Iowa (a UNLV single-game high), connecting on 8 of 19 three-pointers.

Soon after his selection, pundits began wondering about Paddio's skills on the defensive end. Questions lingered about the 6-foot-7-inch, 197-pound forward -- questions such as, "Can he play defense?"

Which was probably why the brass was anxious to see him at Brandeis, and why Paddio was so eager to attend the camp.

"I think I had to come here and prove that I can handle the ball," he said, "and to show that I can work within the team concept.

"I came here to give it everything I got, and I did," he added. "I felt like I played hard every day, on every play. And if there were people who didn't think I was playing hard, then they weren't watching the same game."

If there were any lingering questions about that, they were resolved after Paddio concluded his bid with a strong effort yesterday, the finale of the four-day camp.

"I think it's gone really well for Gerald," Rodgers said. "He's done just about everything we expected him to do from our scouting reports. He's had some good scrimmages. He's shot the ball well. He's shown good work habits. He even showed us some versatility with his defense, passing and ballhandling ability."

It seemed an invitation to the veteran camp was imminent when Rodgers added, "Overall, I'd say we'd have to give him high grades in camp."

Paddio, a 23-year-old native of Rayne, La., certainly won high marks from the crowds who attended the public practice sessions at sultry Shapiro Athletic Center.

"It was probably because I gave them what they wanted," he said. "They wanted to see hard play and hard work. They wanted to know that the ball's yours, no matter where it is on the court."

Now, it seems, the only question he'll have to answer is: "How'd it go?"

"It went OK," he mused. "I gave it my all. Did the best I could. Still, I'll be a little nervous when I go back home."

To Louisiana?

"No, back home to Vegas," he said. "I'll take a break, and then at the end of the week, I'll start working out again. By then, they said they would get back with the ones they'd like to see in camp."

Paddio paused, smiled and exhaled a sigh of relief.

"I hope I'll be one of the ones they get back with."

PADDIO'S WORK ETHIC STARTS TO PAY DIVIDENDS

2011-08-18T08:46:00.003-04:00

June 29, 1988

Gerald Paddio tried to restrain himself when he heard the news. He didn't want to get too excited about being selected by the Celtics in the third round of yesterday's NBA draft.

After all, he said, he still has to make the team.

"Right now," he said, "that's my main goal."

As is the case for any rookie trying to break into the lineup, an uphill fight looms for Paddio, a 6-foot-7-inch, 197-pound forward/guard from Nevada-Las Vegas who was the next-to-last (74th) player taken.

"I'm just thankful that I got drafted," he said. "But I can fit in. I'll do whatever it takes to fit in."

He faced a similar situation as a senior at Rayne (La.) High School, where he harbored hopes of making his district's all-star baseball team.

"I played first base and center field," he said. "I wanted to make the team really bad. So I put everything on the line and worked so hard that I would make the team. I did everything from getting to practice on time to staying late after practice to work on the little things like hitting and fielding. The hard work paid off, because I made the team at first base."

Paddio's work ethic carried him through stints at Kilgore (Texas) Junior College and Seminole (Okla.) JC, which earned him a scholarship to UNLV. There he became one of the nation's premier three-point shooters, connecting on 118 of 282 attempts.

In his junior year (13.1 points per game), he helped guide the Runnin' Rebels to an appearance in the NCAA Final Four, where UNLV lost to national champion Indiana.

In his senior year, Paddio boosted his scoring average to 19.4 points and added 4.9 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game.

"There won't be anybody in camp who will outwork Gerald," said UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian. "His greatest asset is the intensity which he brings to the game."

After a poor showing in an Orlando tournament, Paddio used the same intensity to improve his stock among NBA scouts at a tournament in Chicago.

"I was sick in Orlando, so I didn't do very well there," he said. "But when I came to Chicago, I knew it was the end of the line for me, and that I would have to put everything on the line if I was going to get drafted."

Apparently, the Celtics noticed his efforts.

"I'm glad they did," he said. "I'm encouraged because if they didn't think I was a good player, they wouldn't have picked me."

Asked if there were any NBA players he likened himself to, Paddio said, "No one. Just Gerald Paddio.

"I don't want to be anyone else," he added. "I just want to be Gerald Paddio. I've worked all this time to get in the NBA so I could make a name for myself."

Acie Earl Drops 40 on C's

2011-08-18T08:23:00.002-04:00

April 13, 1996

Soon after last night's epic battle between lottery dwellers began, the task for the Celtics crystallized: Hold Acie Earl below triple figures, and this one was theirs.

Though the C's quest was noble, it was far from easy. The last time the Celts effectively stopped Earl was when they pawned him off on these Raptors in last June's expansion dispersal.

This time the C's had to weather Acie's 40-point storm before they could claim a 136-108 victory over the Toronto neophytes.

"It was Acie's revenge," said Rick Fox of the man the Celtics chose No. 19 overall in the 1993 draft. "The Raptors didn't win, but Acie got his revenge."

Earl blew away his previous career-high of 16 points and equaled the franchise's one-game record (set by Tracy Murray), while pulling in 12 rebounds in 44 minutes.

Putting it in even better perspective, Acie came within 26 points of his 1994-95 season total.

As M.L. Carr walked by in the hallway, Dino Radja held a final box score in his hand and asked his coach, "Why we can't get someone like this No. 55."

Carr took it all in good humor, saying of the player (and the contract) he gladly jettisoned, "Boy do I know talent."

The Celtics, led by Dana Barros (24 points), Fox (22) and Greg Minor (21) pulled away with a 19-2 run early in the third quarter that turned a nine-point game into a rout.

Both clubs are dogged by injuries, with Eric Williams (sore left knee) joining Radja and Eric Montross on the Celtic sideline.

But Toronto, missing rookie phenom Damon Stoudamire, Sharone Wright, Zan Tabak and Carlos Rogers, was far less equipped to deal with the decimation.

As Celtic guard Dee Brown put it, "That was an ugly game and Acie's got an ugly game, so this was his type of game."

Even Earl admitted things were atypical.

"It definitely felt strange," he said. "That's not really me. But it's only one game."

CELTIC NOTES: Williams said before the game he suffered his injury Tuesday against the Knicks on a missed dunk attempt. That means he could sit with Radja (sprained left ankle) in civilian clothing on the C's bench and discuss the merit of slamming.

Radja was injured while executing a fast-break jam over Charlotte's Pete Myers.

Despite being hurt in New York, Williams played 18 minutes against Washington the next night. He had four points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals. Last night he left the arena and went to a hospital for tests.

Earl still has two years left on the contract he signed when still a Celtic.

The Joe Johnson Trade Paid Short-Term Dividends

2011-08-18T07:05:00.000-04:00

Chances are you never saw Antoine Walker smile after the Nets eliminated the Celtics from the playoffs Friday night. But he did. Honest. As he prepared for his final press conference of the postseason, there was a moment when Walker shook his head and grinned. It was a look of bemusement more than anything.

What Walker could not completely process at that moment was all the Celtics had accomplished since October. It seemed that 98 games passed in a whirlwind of ups and downs, surprises and milestones.

The wild, unexpected ride to the Eastern Conference finals for a team that had not made the playoffs since 1995. The biggest fourth-quarter comeback in playoff history in Game 3 against New Jersey. The elimination of the always troublesome 76ers in Round 1 with an offensive performance in Game 5 that set a standard never again equaled by the Celtics. The dismissal of Detroit in Game 5 of the conference semifinals on the road, with Paul Pierce and Walker forced to the bench for much of the fourth quarter with foul trouble.

The commitment that made Boston the third-ranked defensive team in the NBA during the regular season. The game-winning, bank-shot 3-pointer by Walker that defeated the Lakers at Staples Center in February. The buzzer-beating layup by Pierce that beat Miami and snapped an early-season four-game losing streak. The win at Philadelphia March 4 that ended the Celtics' only other four-game skid. The 22-19 record on the road, the first time the team was above .500 away from Boston in more than a decade.

The emergence of Pierce as one of the league's top scorers and go-to guys. The awe-inspiring 48-point performance by Pierce Dec. 1 against the Nets, when he scored all but 2 points in the second half and overtime. The continuing maturation of Walker, who with one stirring postseason speech showed what type of leader he is. The steady-handed, egoless guidance of Jim O'Brien, who did one of the best (probably the best) coaching jobs in the NBA this season, regardless of what a group of voters thought.

But the 2001-02 season was just the beginning, a little more than a hint at what's to come. Or so the Celtics believe.

"We have nothing to hang our heads for," said Pierce. "We had a great year. This is nothing that is going to linger, not with me.

"I think this is just the beginning of a young team just taking steps for something that is going to be special for us down the line.

"We've got a lot, me and Antoine are going to be here for the next four to five years, so the foundation is there for us. This is something special we have to build on. We really got the experience with getting to the Eastern Conference championship. Nobody really expected us to get here. With time we are going to get better. We have the potential to be a championship team one day."

Not only did O'Brien realize his vision of a team built on strong halfcourt defense and bring out the best in All-Stars Walker and Pierce, he also understood the psyche of the team he inherited. He helped foster a special chemistry by recognizing how members of the supporting cast could make meaningful contributions, convincing anyone who wasn't a star how important his role was.

Kenny Anderson made passing a priority and accepted his place as a third offensive option. Eric Williams prided himself on defense, earning the unwavering loyalty of O'Brien and respect of his teammates. On many occasions, a healthy Tony Battie quieted the criticism that Boston does not have a true center, using his long arms and athleticism to block shots. He also proved a dependable midrange jump shooter.

Then, there were the bench players. Former Sixth Man of the Year Rodney Rogers became a valuable addition after being acquired from Phoenix in February. Rogers played some center and gave O'Brien the option of fielding five 3-point shooters at one time. Tony Delk - acquired with Rogers from the Suns - never became the consistent third scorer many expected and the Celtics needed, though he filled in at both backcourt positions and gave O'Brien an extra body to place on tough-to-guard Allen Iverson and Jason Kidd.

Erick Strickland, a master at taking charges and an unexpected offensive spark in the conference finals, and Walter McCarty, a dangerous 3-point shooter and effective, lanky defender, became fan favorites. Centers Vitaly Potapenko and Mark Blount had their moments, too. Rookie Kedrick Brown, well, we will just have to wait and see.

Over the course of the regular season, this collection of players became a tightly knit group, gathering momentum and confidence as the playoffs approached. They developed an identity as a team that never gave up, making the phrase "fight like wolves" a rallying cry. The Celtics thrilled with late-game heroics and 20 fourth-quarter comebacks. Quarter to quarter, game to game, Boston continually showed its resiliency.

"It was a great season, but we're not satisfied with what we ended with this year," said Battie. "We've got a lot more work to do now that we have a taste of what's going on. We've got a real season behind us and under our belts and something to look forward to next year."

Still, during March, April, and May, the Celtics checked off one milestone after another, accomplishing some feats for the first time since the early 1990s. By winning the final game of the regular season, they posted a 49-33 rec ord, their best since 1992. By defeating Memphis with a thrilling comeback win, Boston claimed a seven-game winning streak, its longest since 1994. The Celtics swept the Lakers for the first time in a decade, the Knicks for the first time in 11 years. Two Celtics (Pierce and Walker) played in the All-Star Game for the first time since 1991. That was after the cocaptains were named Eastern Conference co-Players of the Month for December.

But perhaps the most impressive aspect of the Celtics' season was the way they earned the respect of a city starved for a team that would resurrect the Green Glory Days. They turned a franchise that only a year and a half ago seemed fatally flawed into something special, winning over fans in the process. They played with a pride, toughness, and heart that brought back the best kind of memories.

"We've just got to try again next year," said Walker. "We've got some pieces of the puzzle to fill. We got a great start to, hopefully, having (title) No. 17.

"It's nothing to hang our heads about. Obviously, we are upset, we expect the best for each other and our team. But you've got to take the good and the bad. And this was a good run."

Celtics End Game with Lineup of Eric Fernsten, M.L. Carr, Don Chaney, Gerald Henderson and Jeff Judkins

2011-08-16T19:23:00.001-04:00

January 26, 1980

It took the Celtics three and a half periods to discover they just weren't supposed to win this game.

Trailing, 92-90, with 7:57 remaining, and having benefitted enormously from a bold gamble by coach Bill Fitch, who substituted five players late in the third quarter, they crumbled down the stretch, failing to score a field goal for the next 5:32 as the Washington Bullets regrouped to walk off with a 118-107 victory last night at the Garden.

The Bullets had gone ahead by a 23-21 score back in the first period, and they were in control of the game until there were 3:24 left in the third period, when Fitch removed his starting five, then trailing by an 82-70 score, and inserted Eric Fernsten, M.L. Carr, Don Chaney, Gerald Henderson and Jeff Judkins.

This group pressed and hustled, and before they turned the game back over to the starters, they had caused three five-second inbounds violations, had, in fact, caused four Washington turnovers in the final 1:14 of the third period, and had reduced the margin to eight (92-84) while psyching up what had been an aggravated and bored crowd.

The first group succeeded in getting the deficit down to two, but after Tiny Archibald dropped in a pair of fast-break free throws to make it 92-90, they fell apart. Roger Phegley (16 points), twice a killer in this game, initiated what would become a 15-2 spurt with a sneakaway, the first two of eight quickies he would score. It wasn't until Judkins (14) deposited an off- balance banked, conventional three-pointer at the 2:25 mark that the Celtics scored another basket, and by then it was too late.

All things considered, the Celtics would definitely rather have been where they were than where they could have been at the half. They were trailing by 12 at 61-49. They could have been minus 20 or more had they not pulled themselves together in the final minute of the period.

The Celtics had begun auspiciously enough, parlaying a combination of fast-breaking and board-pounding to fashion an early 14-6 lead. They still led, 17-10, as the Bullets were living up to their new reputation, which is that of a very dead team. They had, after all, lost their last six games.

But the visitors turned the game around with a phenomenal display of outside shooting in the final six minutes of the opening period. They outscored the Celtics, 24-6, in the first 6:14, and of those 24 points, 18 came on nine field goals from distances of at least 17 feet. The other six points were contributed by Westley Unseld, who rumbled in for a pair of inside three-point plays.

This sensational shooting binge gave the Bullets a 34-23 one-period edge, and enabled them to play loose and easy in the second period, even without Elvin Hayes, who went to the locker room with some foot/leg ailment early in the period, taking his 11 points with him. The Bullets were able to maintain their margin, however, getting unlikely board help from swingman Phegley, who picked up six of his eight second-quarter points on the offensive boards. Washington's major moment of crisis came when a brief flurry by Gerald Henderson cut the lead to eight at 39-31 with 7:36 to play. Phegley sneaked in for a followup and Larry Wright got away for a 2-on-1 fast break basket, and the Bullets were off on another spurt which eventually gave them an 18-point lead at 59-41 with 1:10 remaining in the half.

It was at this point that the Celtics saved themselves from extinction, forcing a couple of bad Bullet possessions and scoring eight of the last ten points in the half, the last six Boston points coming on four fast break free throws by Tiny Archibald and a long M.L. Carr jumper with three seconds to play.

As badly as the Celtics played in spots, and there were long stretches in which they were offensively impotent, they still would have had a hard time combating the Washington shooting. The Bullets shot a dazzling 76 percent (16 for 21) in the first period, and they were essentially doing it from long range.

The chief bombers were Hayes, Bob Dandridge and Kevin Grevey, with Dandridge leading all first-half scorers with 16.

Rick Robey had a miserable time against the Washington front line. He and sub Eric Fernsten really weren't able to keep Unseld from doing what he wanted underneath, and it was very predictable that when the slender Fernsten entered the game, Washington would attempt to exploit him. Fernsten came in to give Robey a rest at the 2:47 mark of the first period, and exactly 18 seconds later Unseld was posting up on the left baseline and powering in for his second three-pointer. At one point, an exasperated Bill Fitch went without a center, briefly employing a Larry Bird-Cedric Maxwell-Carr front line.

The primary Boston offensive force in the first half was Bird, who scored 11 points, but once the Celtics stopped running - and they went 13 minutes without a fast-break point in one stretch - they were in trouble.