Ainge Days Indeed!

Written by Junky on November 29, 2004

I have this moderate addiction to Celtics basketball. Okay, so there's nothing moderate about it.

I come from the new city of champions (sorry Pittsburgh, but y'all know it's true), where the waves and the pages are quite literally gushing with Sox and Pats fellation. Now I am as big of a Sox/Pats fan as anyone from the Bean or elsewhere, but there is just one problem: I am green at heart. Ever since the day my Dad sat me beside him on the couch and explained the game to me, I have been mesmerized by the green and white. I still remember my first poster was a picture of Larry Legend havin' himself a 7-up and smile. Maybe that was Coke's slogan, oh well, who gives a shit? The point is I started watching the C's in their glory days (some of them anyways), and since the Big 3 left town the Celtics have been, well . . . a little inept.

On the floor they have ranged all the way from bad to total traveshamockery. The past two decades have been a bit of a nightmare for those of us fans who truly appreciate good basketball, or at least something that looks remotely like it. A combination of horrid team management (M.L. Carr, Rick Pitino both given free reign under Paul "don't call me Cito" Gaston), and gross misfortune (the untimely deaths of Len Bias, Reggie Lewis, and Tim Duncan, and yes I know he's not dead but he is to me!) have culminated to leave the once storied franchise as a laughingstock.

That is until now. Why are you laughing? I'm serious. Okay let's sort this out so you know who you are dealing with before I continue my blathering, and you can decide if you even want to humor me by reading the rest of the article. I told you before that I am a diehard, and a diehard I am. I probably watched 79 out of the 82 games during their 15-win season. That means one of two things: I am either a certifiable lunatic, or an intense student of the game. I guess it could mean both, but you get the picture. Hope springs eternal for me every October when the preseason rolls around, and I generally have broken something in my room due to frustration by halfway through November.

How Celtics fans came to settle for "respectable"

I can tell you that I believed that Vin Baker was going to be a big part of the Celtics attack when I saw that he had slimmed down and rededicated himself to hoops (apparently Ape and I were alone on that island). I'll take a mulligan on that one, as I didn't realize that he was a fierce alcoholic. I saw a 20-10 guy, coming to a vertically challenged Eastern Conference, to a team that has lacked a potent low post threat since McHale retired in the '90's. Sure he had some tough times, but he was still relatively young. He was coming to a team that went to the Eastern Conference Finals (granted an overachieving team) where he would need only to be the third option behind Pierce and Walker. I knew they wouldn't win it all, but hey just getting there would have been cool.

If you read that last sentence again you can see how far the expectations have fallen. The Celtics were once the Yankees of basketball. The team you knew would somehow find a way to pull it off, no matter how dire the circumstances that presented themselves. The point here is that as much as I loved these guys, the most I was ever hoping for was bragging rights over Pistons-loving Father Time, and Sixer-jockin' Tivo. I was desperate for a series victory over the New Jersey Nets. THE NETS FOR CHRISSAKE!

The brief success of the Jim O'Brien Celtics was enough to placate the punch-drunk delusionals here in Boston. We had gone the better part of a decade without seeing so much as sincere hustle and desire, let alone playoff level intensity. After suffering through egregious contract after egregious contract, losing season after losing season, Celtics fans could hardly be blamed for their rabid dedication to this group of overachieving castaways. So what if they were not going to win it all? At least they were marginally respectable. I mean that counts for something, right guyths? GUYTHS?

The fact is that it counts for less than squat. O'Brien had gotten the most out of these guys that could be had. After having their meal repeatedly force fed to them by the New Jersey Nets the Celtics had come to realize what Marcellus Wallace likes to call "a hard muthaphuckin' fact of life". They were simply overmatched. The Nets fast break style was just too potent an attack for their huck-a-three/get back on "D" strategy. They were yet again at a crossroads, and for most Celtics fans it came way too soon.

Ainge's presence is felt immediately

Usher in the Ainge era. A move that was wildly unpopular in the O'Brien camp, as it was announced in the midst of their drubbing at the hands of the vaunted New Jersey Nets. Particularly miffed was the grossly overpaid, marginally overweight, undoubtedly talented, questionably insane, enigmatic chucker of bad shots Antoine Walker. In Walker's World, it was believed that consistently falling short of expectations was somehow the means to landing a maximum contract extension. Ainge neither shared this theory nor Walker's inflated appreciation of his own game -- and Walker knew it.

It became clear from the first preseason game under the Ainge regime that Walker's days in Boston were numbered. He could be seen sulking on the floor and showed no signs of adapting his game to the new "fastbreak offense" that the coaching staff was trying to implement. Instead, he elected to walk the ball up court almost defiantly and take ill-advised shots without getting his teammates involved. It was despicable, and Ainge saw it all.

His first big transaction was to ship Walker out of town, along with Tony Delk, to net Raef Lafrentz, Jiri Welsh, Chris Mills, and a first round draft pick from what would surely be a top seeded Dallas Mavericks squad. The move was criticized throughout Boston as hasty by some and downright moronic by others (not by me, but more on this later).

Sure Ainge said all the right things to keep ticket holders in place. By year's end his "We're not rebuilding" tirades became slightly less credible than the Martians bellowing "We come in Peace!" in Mars Attacks. But that, my friends, is how the rebuilding needed to be handled in this city.

Ainge's team overhaul inspires panic

Not long after the Antoine blockbuster, the Celtics began to gel. They rattled off a five game winning streak against some quality teams. Ainge was far from done tinkering, however, and he packaged up a one legged undersized center in Battie, the passive yet talentless Kedrick Brown, and the fearlessly limited Mr. Eric Williams, in exchange for an incredibly talented (yet somewhat troubled) young player in Ricky Davis, a young developing center in Chris Mihm, and an invaluable expiring contract in Michael Stewart. Not a bad deal, when you look at it objectively. I liked it; most didn't. The trade not only sent shockwaves through the stands, but apparently right through Coach "I don't see the big picture" O'Brien's batcave. The devastating loss of his team leader Eric Williams proved too much for the coach and he resigned shortly thereafter, citing irreconcilable differences in philosophy.

It was now abundantly clear that Ainge was cleaning house and rebuilding, which was why his final trade was a big head-scratcher even for me at the time. Ainge helped facilitate the trading of Rasheed Wallace to the 2004 World Champion Detroit Pistons (you like that, old timer?), by sending Mike James and Chris Mills to them for Chucky "right this way" Atkins, a first round pick, and cash. Now if you are building for the future, and you already have some cap problems, why bring on a guy that is locked up for a couple seasons and is clearly not the answer? Especially if it makes you better in the short term, thus hurting your lottery chances. Ainge was beginning to look like a haphazard trader, who was getting taken for the proverbial ride by any GM that could get him on the horn, at least to the masses.

The ultimate result of the trade was the Celtics started winning some games. Just enough so that they could back their way into the playoffs and get embarrassed by the Pacers. The season left a bad taste in everybody's mouth, mine included. Though I saw Ainge through his deals, the on-court product was sickening. I had tickets to games that I loathed going to, and I found myself skipping the games on T.V. quite frequently. The season could almost be deemed a complete failure.

Almost.

Silencing the skeptics

Ainge's team was now younger and more talented than the one he was handed. He held in his possession 3 first round draft picks. The Atkins trade brought in a true PG to tutor Banks, but also gave them a first round draft pick in exchange for Mike James and Chris Mills expiring contract.

It worked out for the Pistons in the short term, but it was a steal for the Celtics. When Ainge said that Jiri Welsch was a big part of the Antoine trade, people thought he was blowing smoke. He wasn't. Dude can play. For those keeping score at home the Mavericks end up with Tony Delk (gone) and Antoine Walker (who ended up on their bench and they couldn't get rid of fast enough), while the Celtics end up with Lafrentz, Jiri, and two first rounders. Mihm, Atkins and Jumaine Jones get shipped off at the start of this year for Gary Payton, Rick Fox's expiring contract and another first round pick. He still holds the right to Michael Stewart's expiring contract, which I gather will probably be shipped along with someone for a pick as well. Picks are riskier these days perhaps, but if there is one thing that Ainge has proven to everyone in his tenure it is that he has a great eye for talent. His three picks in the 2004 draft are all extremely talented, and it's pretty clear to me that he hit a homerun on all three (provided that Delonte isn't made out of balsa wood . . . the jury is still deliberating on this one).

The Celtics are in good hands with Danny, and I am happy to watch it all come together at long last. It will be a couple years before they win it all, but at least I know they are finally headed in the right direction. The Rotogods keeper rotisserie basketball league is in its 4th year now, but it has always had one name: The Road to 17. Maybe when I'm going for my five-peat, the league will be called Road to 18. Holla!

Email the Junky: junky@rotogods.com

-- Written by Junky on November 29, 2004