After all the years I'm with the Celtics, I would hate to be remembered as the guy that didn't get the first pick in the draft. But the odds are that the Celtics are not gonna get one of the 1st two. Its like a 62% chance that the Celtics will get either the 4th or 5th pick and only a 38% chance that they would get one of the 1st two.


But I was used to shooting hooks from the corner to win a ball games and every once in a while, it went in. So, hopefully, if we take a shot its gonna go in and certainly everybody outta grab their Shamrocks, on the night of the lottery, and offer up a little prayer to St Patrick and talk to also talk to the Leprechaun. We gotta, we gotta talk to lucky here a little bit. Ah, to get everybody involved in pushing this forward so the Celtics come out with a good draft pick.


Well I haven't seen enough of either one of the players. I've seen some of the games but not nearly enough to evaluate them. Um, the best game Oden played was in the final game in which they lost, but he was sensational in that game. Every other time I, I tuned in the television just to watch him play, he was on the bench in foul trouble. And the other kid Durant is a bonafide potential star who could be the player of the decade! So, could oden they tell me.


So, if you got a 7 foot guy, that is an inside player, thats a rebounder, and a shot blocker, if he can really do all those things, thats the guy you go for. Thats what red would have done. Thats what he angled for to get ah, in that draft I was involved in. I was a terrific rebounder and Russell was a terrific rebounder and defender. So, he had an offense all ready to go with Cousy and Sharman. All he needed was for people to get the ball to that offense and off they could go. And I think that is what they're looking for in this draft. They believe that they have significa talent at all the positions. They have potentially a center, a forward, and a guard. A point guard, ah that would form the nucleus for the next 5 or 6 years.


I don't think you, you really go by position. Ah, I think you go by best player and, thats available. And what happens then, if you get the best player available and you have a player of quality that is beaten out, that becomes the guy you trade to get a better player.


An often missed element of picking players, Ah and everybody starts going like the football coaches used to go by. Times and by how fast they were in the forty and what have you. Been my experience that the players with the best character, the players that truly love to play, the so called gym rats, who may not quite have all the talent these other guys have, but that by the end of their careers they will work themselves in to be great contributers to a program. And I've seen many players like that help a basketball program. They are not the star, but end up being great contributers.


And so, the character guys, the guys that are willing to work, the guys that love to play the game, the guys that would pay ownership to play. Those are the kinda guys that you want to pick and that should be an important part of the mix. Like when they lost Lenny Bias to a drug situation, ah that is a typical example. Had they known Lenny Bias was on the cusp of doing drugs, I don't think they would have taken him. But those are the type of things now that they do investigate.


If you've been watching the playoffs, what the Celtics under Danny ainge have been attempting to do is to go back and to utilize what is the greatest asset in basketball, quickness and speed. 13 of the 16 titles were won using quickness and speed. Uptempo pressure type defenses. The 3 titles won by the Bird team were big people and we've been trying to play big man basketball with small people. Until Danny Ainge came on board and were trying to get back to playing uptempo basketball with quick people and we have talented people right now.


Well I thought the Celtics would be a playoff team last year. They were very very light on experience and that was the glaring weakness of last years team. They had Pierce, they had Szczerbiak, and they had Scalabrine. Those were the four really experience players and they all went down for long periods of time.


And as a consequence the very, very inexperienced young players, who have a world of talent, were thrown into the pool and said now you gotta to swim by yourself, which they did. So, what happened this year only enhanced the ability of the Celtics next season to come out and really have a whiz-bang season. Because they will have a young team with experienced players and the experienced players are going to be pushed by young players and the experienced players are gonna pull the young players through. So you have the perfect interaction of experience and youth.