OT: Jim O'Brien talks about Chris Webber

[SuperDeluxe]

http://www.realgm.com/src_wiretap_archi ... in_philly/

"It became very apparent he wasn't going to give the 76ers everything we had hoped for," O'Brien said.

O'Brien added that Webber was never interested in practice or truly committed to the offensive scheme.

"Webber didn't practice at all that year prior to coming to us," O'Brien said. "He didn't practice at all the previous six weeks. I think he was just at the point where he didn't necessarily feel where he was in need of practice, or could practice, or couldn't practice and play at the same time."

"He said, 'Coach, I don't do the low-post thing anymore,"' O'Brien recalled. "We just made a major trade to bring in this 6-11 guy and he said, 'No.' I said, 'Yes, you do."'

And this is one of the most coveted free agents right now? Just wow.

[bruno sundov]

This is coming from a bitter ex coach who in all rights, shouldn't even be coaching in the L. He does this after every team he leaves. Just starts right in on how it was the players faults why they sucked. Not his poor coaching style.

O'B always preached you don't practice then you don't play. So he let Webber get away with this? Coming from the coach who would let people rot on the pine because they missed a week or two with an injury. he would say they are to far behind and can't get back in the flow fo things. He sucks.

[bill murray has game]

I hope we leave Webber alone. He is big and skilled but he is old, slow and has no motor. I don't see how he fits in with the team. Detroit can have him as far as I'm concerned. I really liked what he had to offer Sacramento back in his prime combined with Divac they were fun to watch.

[Tricky Ricky]

This is coming from a bitter ex coach who in all rights, shouldn't even be coaching in the L. He does this after every team he leaves. Just starts right in on how it was the players faults why they sucked. Not his poor coaching style.

O'B always preached you don't practice then you don't play. So he let Webber get away with this? Coming from the coach who would let people rot on the pine because they missed a week or two with an injury. he would say they are to far behind and can't get back in the flow fo things. He sucks.

When did he blame the Celtics players and not himself?

And how can you disagree with what he said about Webber? I thought they could make it out of the east with CWebb and AI but it was clearly visible when Webber got there he didnt try as hard and wasnt living up to his potential.

[aboubata]

CWebb wants the ball in his hands, he wants to create the offense, which he was given some of that in Detroit, since they have 5 guys with similar levels of talents.
I really don't want to take the ball out of KG or Paul or even Rondos hands.
As for the defensive end, since CWebb has to start, it will be KG defending the best big for most of the game and that is bad.

I don't see him fitting well with the second or first unit.

[UGA Hayes]

This of course goes on more than we hear about. Its why I'm a little leery of being too hard on coaches sometimes. We really have no idea what some of these guys are like behind the scenes and what there motivations are.

Marc Spears was on celticsstufflive a while back right when he started working for the Boston papers and he made some not so veiled comments about what a nightmare the Denver Nuggets lockerroom was and how happy he was not to be covering the players on that team. We have of course heard things about Ricky Davis among others.

[bruno sundov]

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When did he blame the Celtics players and not himself?

And how can you disagree with what he said about Webber? I thought they could make it out of the east with CWebb and AI but it was clearly visible when Webber got there he didnt try as hard and wasnt living up to his potential.

He said this about Fatoine as soon as he left. Went on and on about Paul and how he could be a primadona.


A broken down Cwebb was going to help get Philly back to the finals. Even at his best he couldn't do that. The team sucked, the coach sucked, the gm sucked giant donkey balls. So how was this going to happen?

[threrf23]

Was Jim O'brien really criticizing a player for not wanting to play in the low post? Chris Webber refused to play in the low post? I have trouble buying that at its face value

[theman]

Was Jim O'brien really criticizing a player for not wanting to play in the low post? Chris Webber refused to play in the low post? I have trouble buying that at its face value

I was thinking the same thing. When did O'Brien want anyone to do something other than shoot the three?

[Rocky5000]

I remember some guy on our team telling his coaches he didn't like to bang and play in the low post. Who was that...Oh wait a sec...I think it was KG. I don't see anyone jumping all over Kevin for that. Webber's game is based around passing out of the elbow postup. He's not a "banger" just like Garnett isn't a banger. If you think you're getting Dwight Howard, Shaq, or Yao Ming with Chris Webber than you'll always be disappointed.

[Rocky5000]

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I was thinking the same thing. When did O'Brien want anyone to do something other than shoot the three?

Isn't he the one who transformed the former low-post Antoine into a 3-pt chucker?

[ParticleMan]

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Isn't he the one who transformed the former low-post Antoine into a 3-pt chucker?

um, no, Antoine did that. he turned into a lardass who got his shot blocked every time he went down low so he drifted outside. Obie had to work with what he had.

I didn't like Obie's schemes but I liked Obie as a coach, he seemed straightforward and his players played hard for him. I tend to believe Obie. Webber has criticized Obie many times, Obie isn't really even criticizing Cwebb, he's just explaining what the deal was. Cwebb hasn't wanted to be a post player for a long time, he loves chucking 20 footers now.

[bruno sundov]

He allowed Fatoine to do that. He should have said this is what you do or you aten't playing as much. He would have gotten it. But instead he let him do whatever he wanted.

[PPAW4Life]

Those 3 years that Toine was the most prolific 3 point shooter in the NBA he shot a respectable 34.5% from 3 point stripe.

During that span Toine's FG% was a poor 39.9%, but his eFG% was 46%.

Pierce in that same time was 43.7% from the field, his eFG% was 48.7%

[Rondo_Fan]

I still think that CWebb would help us, even though I believe the O'Brien quote. I see CWebb playing more out by the foul line, and helping our offense with his passing.

O'Brien was a terrible coach here. He had no idea whatsoever of how to develop young players, and we had a lot of them. At the beginning of this year I thought that O'Brien might be an ideal coach for this year's team, since we are mostly vets now, but I'm not even sure about that anymore. I don't think that our team would play for him.

[PPAW4Life]

Name me our young players back then.....

[Rondo_Fan]

"back then"?

Didn't he leave in 2004?

During his last year, Al Jefferson, Kendrick Perkins, Tony Allen, and Delonte West were on the team, for starters.

We were one of the worst rebounding teams in the NBA (didn't check the stats, just going from memory), yet Kendrick Perkins never saw the light of day under JO'B, and I definitely remember Tommy mentioning more than once on broadcasts that Perk was the best rebounder on the team in practice that year.

Contrast that with Doc giving meaningful minutes to rookies and first-year players in roles. Not that I'm a big Doc fan either...

From JO'B's point of view, you say to yourself, "I'm no Red Auerbach. I'm the kind of guy who's going to bounce around the league and have to look for a new job every couple of years. So the hell with trying to develop young players. My next interview in a GM's office, I don't want to have to do a lot of arm-waving about my winning percentage, and how I was trying to develop young players. I just want my winning percentage to be as high as possible."

Understandable. <Shrugs>

[bruno sundov]

Those 3 years that Toine was the most prolific 3 point shooter in the NBA he shot a respectable 34.5% from 3 point stripe.

During that span Toine's FG% was a poor 39.9%, but his eFG% was 46%.

Pierce in that same time was 43.7% from the field, his eFG% was 48.7%

AHAHAHA.

Was that an argument for Fatoine being a good 3 point shooter. I know what my eye tell me. They say he was below average at best. He did it with volume. Just about anyone with an average jumper could do what he did. What he did was miss a ton of shots and bring the offense to a screaching hault.

[PPAW4Life]

"back then"?

Didn't he leave in 2004?

During his last year, Al Jefferson, Kendrick Perkins, Tony Allen, and Delonte West were on the team, for starters.

We were one of the worst rebounding teams in the NBA (didn't check the stats, just going from memory), yet Kendrick Perkins never saw the light of day under JO'B, and I definitely remember Tommy mentioning more than once on broadcasts that Perk was the best rebounder on the team in practice that year.

Contrast that with Doc giving meaningful minutes to rookies and first-year players in roles. Not that I'm a big Doc fan either...

From JO'B's point of view, you say to yourself, "I'm no Red Auerbach. I'm the kind of guy who's going to bounce around the league and have to look for a new job every couple of years. So the hell with trying to develop young players. My next interview in a GM's office, I don't want to have to do a lot of arm-waving about my winning percentage, and how I was trying to develop young players. I just want my winning percentage to be as high as possible."

Understandable. <Shrugs>

Obie was asked to resign in Jan. of 2004 and he did. In his span as Celtic head coach there may have been maybe 5 young players worth mentioning: Joe Johnson, Marcus Banks, Kendrick Perkins, Kedrick Brown and JR Bremer.

Again I ask, what young players did we have that stood out? Maybe just Joe Johnson. Maybe Kendrick Perkins (taken this kid 5 years to only be mediocre starting Center in this league).

Bottomline, we had no youngsters back then. We had a veteran squad who could adapt and learn the schemes of a coaching staff that wanted to win and wanted to get out of the shadow that Rick Pitino left behind.

[PPAW4Life]

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AHAHAHA.

Was that an argument for Fatoine being a good 3 point shooter. I know what my eye tell me. They say he was below average at best. He did it with volume. Just about anyone with an average jumper could do what he did. What he did was miss a ton of shots and bring the offense to a screaching hault.

Actually the argument is made for Toine shooting the 3 ball as opposed to getting his shot blocked all the time down low.

People need to face the facts about back then. We had no offense. We were devoid of talent. We had to employ that 3 point gimmick offense because we only had 2 guys and a bunch of second string veterans.

If you wanted the Celtics to play more traditionally then they had to acquire some talent to fit those roles.