My buddy has always been a huge Antoine Walker fan. So much so that his poster is absolutely covered with.......but that's besides the point...
Anyway, he's obviously elated that the Celtics got Walker back in a trade. He's been text messaging me expressing his elation. He even went so far as to say that the Celtics could "go further" than Detroit!
For the record, in addition to being a Red Sox, Marlins, and Bills fan, I'm also a Detroit Pistons fan, so this text message was definitely intended on getting a reaction out of me. How did I react, you ask? Here is my text message back to him, verbatim:
"You willing to back that up with more than just a silly claim? 20 bucks. You owe me 20 if the Stons (editor's note: short for "Pistons") go further. I owe you 20 if the C's (editor's note: short for "Celtics") go further. We got a bet?"
The big homer that he is, he replies back with "Sure."
Haha, I love it! I don't think he was expecting me to reply back with a "put your money where your mouth is" ultimatum. With my buddy being a prideful guy, I forced his hand. He would have looked utterly spineless and gutless had he declined. He had no choice but to take the bet, a bet in all likelihood he is going to lose.
I'd be very curious to know how many people outside of the Boston and Detroit areas, and how many non-Boston and non-Detroit fans would have taken that bet with me? I can't imagine it's something that the average neutral observer would have taken me up on.
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9 comments:
so, the celtics have sucked since the larry bird era came to an end. oh, and i do recall that the celtics sucked with antoine the last time he was on the club.
celts play in a shitty division and are just barely staying afloat - it's going to take a lot more than one average-talent to turn that franchise around.
by the way, ask him if i can get in on this bet... i wouldn't mind taking him for 20 bucks, either...
dude, I just forwarded him your comment, anonymously of course. I said in the e-mail, "Dude, you know you made a bad bet when your fellow fans want a piece of the action..."
Very interested to see his reply, which will be posted exclusively here in the lavinius and cooch diary...
His reply-- copied and pasted:
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Who cares about his opinion. I always said Twan was better than Pierce. He can take more heat and is willing to say Pierce is better to stroke his ego like Shaq did for Kobe. By the way how could the Celtics be shitty if they went to the conference finals with Walker and then almost missed the playoffs when they traded him. Walker averages 20 points and almost 10 boards per game yeah right he is average. Well if that is true then what does it say about 80 percent of the rest of the league. Most fans loved Twan but there were a lot of haters. But those haters are still living the Bird era and the big man era. There aren't many big men anymore. Hey if he wants to watch a big man follow Shaq. But Walker and Pierce were a great combo and we shall see that again.
Anybody can score points if they shoot enough. Twan's averaging 20 points a game, sure, but what's his shooting percentage? Think he's around .415 career??? That's what he's shooting now, right?
What's his free throw percentage? .537ish? Career of .645? Are you kiddddddding me? You're telling me this guy is better than average? Paaaahlease don't use his offensive production as your argument. Lavinius could score 20 if they let him shoot 50 times a night...
The big problem here isn't whether Walker can provide offense, because the Celts had that; I believe they are one of a handful of teams who are averaging 100+ ppg. But, is Walker going to be able to step in and make that much of a difference on defense?
I hardly think so. As I said, I'll put $20 behind that, too.
Walker's better than Pierce? Tough to compare since they play different positions, but Pierce has much better shooting and FT numbers.
Lastly, do you honestly think that Danny Ainge has finally pulled all the pieces together? Again, I'll put my $20 down and we'll just see how the opinions fall out...
"Lavinius could score 20 if they let him shoot 50 times a night..."
Damn strizzy! You saw my game at ESPN Zone dawg! I was straight schoolin' cats...
given the results of the ESPN Zone basketball clinic we put on, i'd say lavinius and cooch would make a pretty solid 2-on-2 half-court team... (in the 6' and under category, that is...)
We're reigning back to back to back Vermont league champs!
I only make bets between people I know because it is fun to brag over your friends who you trust and the rest of my bets go to sportsbooks.
As for Twan being better than Pierce. I meant. Pierce has trouble dribbling the ball. He is a pure shooter when you take the pressure off of him. But we saw what happens when he tries to do too much he gets stripped rather easily when driving. He also has trouble leading a team. He can't get the young guys to follow him. Twan is a leader and gets in your face to tell you what you are doing wrong even to Pierce. Twan also is a great dribbler for man his size which is why O'Brien used him as a point forward, but he won't be asked to play out of position under Doc and this will increase his lifetime FG%. If you have noticed since he has been back and for the Hawks he is taking less three pointers which is going to help him. Also Walker games when he has scored 33 points with a team he was unfamiliar with, he still didn't take a lot of bad shots he missed a few that were good looks and those will go down more often than not. Yeah his free throw shooting needs to improve, but that comes down to just practice. And who is practicing that on Atlanta.
As for the offense not needing to be increased I disagree. Yes they scored a lot of points, but not the first time. The small amount of rebounding they did have was offensively to get second looks. Twan has the ability to be a top 5 passer and get guys clean looks. And it is showing. Not only will they be able to fast break more, but pressure will come off of Pierce and guys like West will get wide open shots which we are seeing now when we watch them. Open shots won't always be there if they hit them which will cause defenses to cover all 5 men man to man. Makes everyones job easier.
Adding that to Twan's 10 extra boards a game that they weren't getting and being able to play young guys like Jefferson at center who is a pure center with rough talent and a better rebounder than Blount the game will change. Pierce was getting beat up on offense making him burned out on defense. THese guys just have a knack for playing together and this will be the first ime they have ever played ball with a true point guard in Payton who by the way has tons of experience for West and Banks to learn from.
Now compare this team to the old playoff team and wow what a diff. This team is young. ANd much more capable of running the ball which was the plan all along. that old team couldn't run. They got rid of guys like Rogers who was just another outside shooter and Anderson who was on and then way off. Tony Delk who was a nobody. Battie with bad knees. And look who they replaced them with. A young and athletic Ricky Davis who now has veterans to play around him and he can go back to the bench and be a threat when someone sits. We now have THREAT on the bench. We have Payton a true point with tons of playoff experience playing witha raw young West who will learn from him. We already know he can shoot. LaFrentz is playing good ball. Jefferson looks like something and is only 19. Since Twan left by the way did you ever see Pierce light it up for 45 in a night. NO!!!!!!! You will see him score easier though. ANd maybe not 45 but with a running offense they will score more points with everyone like the yes Lavinius, PISTONS do.
I could keep going on, but if you are not excited about these Boston Celtics and are still just a Twan hater you have no clue and don't really love Boston basketball. People ran Twan out of town and now they love him. Guy is the most mature guy on the floor who can take the heat and face the reporters when he makes a mistake unlike everyone else who ran from the media before he came back.
there are more holes in the last post than a hooker's panty hose...
first of all, saying that twan's going to increase his lifetime FG% under a different coach is a wild stretch - statistically, it will take twan hitting his next 2,175 shots in a row to bring his lifetime shooting % to .500... i mean, he's been in the league, what - 9 years now? he's not going to dramatically improve. i don't believe he's had a year in which he was above a .430 shooting % - correct me if i'm wrong.
and to imply that his free throw % woes can be cured, or even significantly improved, with extra practice? c'mon, his free throw % has consistently declined over the past 4 years - he'd have to hit about 575 CONSECUTIVE free throws (or, about two years' worth) just to bring his lifetime % to .700 - if he hasn't had enough practice in 9 years of pro experience, i'm not sure how he's going to turn that around... (by the way, even if his free throw percentage was .700, that would rank him about 120th in the league.)
twan doesn't even average 10 rebounds in a game, so i'm not sure how you can say the celts are getting 10 extra because he's there...
you wanna say that twan's making others better and he's a leader, i'll listen to that - but there's no argument that twan's a better-than-average player.
for players on pace of 300 FGs per year, twan is in 88th place in the league for FG %.
for those players on pace to hit 125 free throws, twan's not even in the top 130 or so (i got tired of looking). in fact, he's FAR from that list. the 129th guy in the list was at .667 on the season... twan's around, what, .537?
excuse me while i fucking vomit the pepperoni pizza i had earlier.
anyway, the original bet was that the celts would go further than the pistons this season, which was fueled by antoine walker's acquisition. antoine doesn't make a team that much more competitive - in fact, there are at least 88 other guys i'd want shooting the ball w/ under 2 minutes to play in the game, and at least 200 or so that i'd want at the free throw line in that situation.
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