the state of the rivalry

[KK <6166kkver@umbsky.cc.umb.edu>]

The game tonight painfully reminded me why the Lakers are going to be contending
for the championship for years to come, while the Celts will be very pleased to
make the playoffs one of these years. The reason is simple: most of the
Celtics'draft picks of the last several years are, at best, humble role players
somewhere - the better ones, that is. Others are out of the league entirely. The
Lakers' picks, on the other hand, are either budding superstars, very, very
solid players, or else  have been traded for good players. The situation is even
sadder in the free agent acquisition game: our most heralded acquisition has
been a 7-foot boy, a slow shooting guard who, because of his height and his
team's deficiencies, has been forced to play center. He, like most of his
teammates, still hasn't figured out how to foul people so it doesn't become a
three-point play. The Lakers are so good that they didn't even need their #1 FA
to whip our butt. Or, maybe Shaq, true to the Celtics' Propaganda Minister
Heinsohn's prediction, didn't know "what he was going to do about Travis Knight"
and faked an injury?  (As an aside, Heinsohn declared tonight that Campbell was
way too fat and will be "huffin'n'puffin'" before the first timeout. Campbell
ended up abusing Boy Travis so much, he should've been arrested on child-abuse
charges. Oh well, that's our perspicacious Tommy).
Worst of all, our child prodigy, the kid who, as his cult members never tire of
reminding us, would've been freshman in high school (or was it college?) again
showed why he's being offered by Pitino to anyone willing to give up a pair of
old sneakers for him. Pitino made a mistake by drafting him and he knows it;
he's not gonna compound it by holding on to the kid,  if he can help it. The
Billups's cult members, being diehard Celtic fans, are making up clever excuses
for his, uh, somewhat pedestrian entrance into the NBA as  the #3 pick, hoping
to boost the team's chances of getting something of value in the trade.  That's
very crafty, guys, and I promise to keep hush-hush about it. However,  some,
more astute NBA observers might point out that, for example, Kobe Bryant and
Kevin Garnett (and Jermaine O'Neal and Tracy McGrady) never played a picosecond
in college, but seem to be doing just fine, that lots of draftees now are
underclassmen, and some of them are point guards, that unheralded guys like
Edney and Bowen had no trouble picking up that most complex system in the known
universe - Pitino's, and playing decently at point guard. Of course, Chauncey is
special, and the same standards can't be applied to him. Let us hope that some
naive GM will buy that theory, willing to provide those special needs for him
and giving us, say, cap relief and someone who knows how to foul properly  in
return. After all, the kid's a #3 pick, right?

K. Kveraga