European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 7, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Sunday Juns 7,1987 the stars and stripes Page 23 commentary celts could come Bock As usual the Boston celtics Are Down 2-0 in then a finals but even before the series started i did t make hem any better than the fourth Best team in basketball. If thai. They have Larry Bird and not much else. They  Parish but nobody Ever mixed him up Wilh Bill Russell. They have Dennis Johnson but every team has a Dennis Johnson or two. They have Kevin Mihalc. Mihalc is Good bul we re not talking Michael Jordan Here either. They have Danny Ainge Greg Kile and Jerry Sichling. I mean Lei s face it Spear carriers. The Guy with the brooms following the elephants. Attic Atlanta Hawks Are belter. Milwaukee was Loo. I d have to guess the Detroit pistons Are. I know the lakers Are and i d have to figure the Dallas Mav Ericks might be. The celtics Hove no Bench. They re old. They re tired. They walk a lot. Sometimes their games look like a Marathon dance. All they do is win. Go figure. Is Bird thai Good or just that Lucky docs the bal always just happen to Bounce his Way or does he just know something about the game no one else docs is there this Little voice that whispers in his ear where nobody else can hear saying of five feet to your left on this and be a Caryl 7 these Guys win games that have been loss. They win games where they be been outrun Poulshot even out rebounded. But never out guessed. T Don l know How you explain it. Except to say the celtics seem to have acquired a style a bearing a Mien almost a supercilious attitude As if they were surveying the rest of the league through a monocle and find it terribly distasteful beneath them. They re almost like the British Rai in India expect ing to be addressed As your lordship and treated As royally or even deity. What i do know is How they got that Way. Every institution is the Shadow of a Man. The new York Yankees became the new York Yankees when the owner bought babe Ruth from the Boston red sox for j 125,000 and the game never was the same. Noire Dame became the fighting Irish and Symbol of 20th-Century sport when they hired a fighting norwegian with a broken nose and a fighter s eyes and he changed the Topography of Ameri can football. The easy answer is the celtics became the celtics traditional Hegemony its of professional basketball when they signed William Fenlon Russell in the fall of 56. Much is made of the fact that Ben Erncr owner of the St. Louis Hawks made a terrible mis take when he gave up the rights to Russell whose talents were not As Manifest in a Slat Sheet As the were on a parquet floor for easy de Macaulay and the draft rights to Cliff Hagan. Bul Khmer might have made an even bigger mis take four years earlier when he let a coach named Arnold red Auerbach go from his prehistoricn3a franchise in the Tri celtics area of Mol Ine and Rock Island iii., and Davenport Iowa. Aug Raeh was your prototypical new York City Street Wise Guy unsentimental combative abrasive. He saw life As a Street fight where you got the first punch in if you had any sense. He was Quick to anger pugnacious and slow to add the Grace Nolc. He Wes impatient with fools or those he consid Redlo be which included a Large body of Mankind and like Vince Lombard he cared Little for theolor of a Man s skin Only that of his Backbone Auerbach walked into Huston he quit jobs with out hesitation the minute he found out owners were not going to do it his Way Auerbach did t min failing for his own mistakes but he despised failing because of somebody else s and he immediately alienated the town the press and the ownership by refusing to draft Bob Cousy whom most people thought at the time should not Only be in a celtic uniform but maybe in a stained Glass window As Welt. Cousy wound on the celtics anyway playing 3 seasons with Boston red Auerbach built the celtics. His Way. He in fused the arrogant we re in charge Here celtics attitude. He recruited the mentally Tough like him self and Russell. Auerbach never tried to make a Friend in his life rival coach ale Hannum used to say. And if you became an enemy that was of  he had More of those than the German general staff. He thrived on Contention. So did he celtics. Their attitude of superiority implanted in the Auer Bach Russell Era persists to this Day. They Are a team that Needles in self and plays with the kind of impersonal unsentimental perfection that is a Hall Mart of celtic basketball. They Are a team Hist like the sex redhead who Pul his imprimatur on them May lose a Battle but never concede the War. They just know they re better than you. Sometimes it just takes them a Little longer to show it. The lakers better know that. Years under Riley Are the lakers Best  Inglewood Calif. Up Dis Cussion of los Angeles Lacre coach Pat Riley usually Center on hair or clothes As if his team s Success is such a coincidence it i inconsequential. It has been s Foj years since Riley left the broadcast Booth and a Job which re turned him to a sport that had crushed him with forced retirement As a National basketball association player. Coincidence or not the half decade has been the most rewarding in the fran Chise s 27 Yean of existence. When we started in is we had Noth ing to lose Riley Sid during a break in the Aba championship series betwee the Laken and the Boston celtics which los Angeles leads 2-0. "1 was an interim coach. The players had a Choice they could go South an be blamed for the removal of Paul West head or suck it up and play. People assume i m Here to Massage an ego to get these Guy to play i be never had a problem with a player Ever. They be been taught by the Woodens the Smiths the  Riley owns the highest winning percentage in Aba history both in the regular season and in playoffs. He re corded 300 victories faster than any other coach and five times he has been at the Helm of the West squad in the All Star game. He s working on his third Aba title which would surpass the lakers pre Vious total since they moved from Minneapolis in 1960. I Don l believe that the Aba is a players  said sixth Man Michael Cooper. If it was t for the coaches talented Guys would often be on losing  if coaches were measured by work Chic Riley might never lose. A m sort of a compulsive person and obsessive about a lol of things he said without a Blush. There were Days 1 used to just clean up the garage for 20 hours. My High school coach used to say if you want to impress your coaches gel there Early and work late " Riley who also impresses Wilh Slick hair and italian Cut suits sees a lot of himself in members of the la kens. The players Are not a product of the Hollywood environment he said. They re a product of what they do on the 90-foot Hardwood floor Only. This is the hardest working team i be Ever had and they Don l get the credit for it. I m disappointed that the misconception is that this team lives on Talent  the lakers work pays off As much on the defensive end As it does on the Offen Sive Side. Riley even has the substitute sin sync. He was a player and he knows How we re feeling what we re going through on the Bench Cooper said. He has us wanting lobe part of it coach Riley started out a Little bit Bird on us but you have to Lake  s different now but he still gels us to play whether by something verbal something physical or something mental. Sometimes it s just one  the league s Best transition team was in further transition last summer when Riley decided to take inc Load of it of sense from All time scoring Leader a Reera Abdul Jabbar. It was time in Riley s opinion for the younger Leas of magic Johnson an James worthy. We All seem to get along and we All have a unified purpose said Abdu lab lakers coach pit Riley. No problems with players bar 40. Magic s thing has always been to gel the Ball to everybody else so no body thought he would hog it. When you set that it s helping the team it s easy to do things. Our successes a team is easily More important than individual  the words could be been Riley a a coach who has Learned from his rare de feats. You can t win every year Riley said. You Vegol to Deal with All of the situations that revolve around this crazy sport we All have periods of our life thai Are turning Points. 3-po/nf shot invaluable for lakers by Mike Barnes Boston up1 the three poin Basket was once Worth Only a Dollar in practice to the los Angeles lakers. Now it has become an invaluable weapon in the Aba championship series against the Boston celtic. Game 3 lips off it 7 pm. Suday Onan radio and to during the 1982-83 season the lakers missed 42 straight attempts from Long Range and Sank Only 10 three pointers Over the entire year. Just to demonstrate How far they be come from far away Michael Cooper hit six thursday night to lift los Angeles to a 141-122 Victory and a 2-0 Lead in the Besl of seven series. Four years ago i detested the three Point shot and Byron Scott Coop and magic Johnson started a game on their own before practice where they played for a Dollar lakers coach pal Riley said then they started dropping them in games and it s became a big big weapon for us. I think it s second to the offensive rebound. It s the biggest psychological shot in the game especially at critical times when its going Down for  a couple of years ago three pointers would be a dead play for us but we started practising a couple of years ago and now coach lets us shoot Cooper said "1 know if Given the time i can  the celtics Are running out of time in their quest to become the first team since 1969 to capture consecutive Aba titles. The next three games Are scheduled Forgoston Garden but not even their Home court mystique May be enough to hold off the fast breaking Laken. Boston has lost just twice in its last 86 games at the Garden but one of those defeats came against the lakers