Newspaper reports Baker being suspended two weeks -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ESPN.com news services Vin Baker will be suspended Thursday by the Boston Celtics so that he can deal with an alcohol problem, the Boston Globe reported. A meeting is planned Thursday morning between Baker, his teammates and the coaching staff. At the meeting, Baker will discuss his future with the team, the newspaper reported. Also, Baker will serve a two-week suspension as mandated by the team. The club is expected to announce it today in a release. Baker told the Globe he is not retiring or taking a buyout. "We're gonna talk about some things,'' Baker said. "Coach (Jim) O'Brien and I have some things we want to talk about. I haven't spoken to anybody yet. We're going to talk (today). Communication is good. There won't be anything negative. It will be full of positives. I'm going to talk about my role. I'm not retiring. I'm not leaving the team. I'm not getting bought out. None of that. There's no secret at all. Coach and I will talk about my role on the team and we'll talk about a few different things.'' Asked by the paper if he would be with the team for the remainder of the season, Baker said, "Yes.''
Vin Baker is a joke. He is lazy, and will do anything not to have to work hard and earn his pay. First he said he suffered from depression, then said he didn't play well in Seattle because he didn't live near his family, then claimed last week he had a heart murmur and had to miss a game, now he says he has an alcohol problem. The NBA needs to install a rule where guys like this can have their contract nullified. Baker is literally stealing from the league.
heck yeah he haad a murmer... when you drink as much as him you get all kinds of things murmering but wait a minute.. i thought baker was the missing piece to the boston puzzle???? whats up wit dat????
Such a waste of talent. I thought (as many did) being near his family would help him straighten out. Lets hope he gets help for his disease (alcoholism) and gets his life straightened out. Basketball is just a game.
Well, it's about time Vin started to address his off-court issues. IMHO, he's still a good player, but he needs to get his act together. There's still time for him to turn his career around, he still has a few good years left. If I'm not mistaken, Chris Mullin also had to deal with an alcohol problem, and it worked out well for him. It may be better for him to just sit out the remainder of the season, and really get the help he needs (rehab).
No. The Anderson for Baker swap was made because the Celtics wanted to drop $1 million off their 2002-2003 payroll and avoid the luxury tax. Sure it screwed up their salary cap position for the next few years (b/c Anderson is a free agent this summer while Baker makes $56.5 million over the next 4 years.) Why screw up the future for this season? Because then owner Paul Gaston was planning and DID sell the team for $360 million. To make the team attractive in a financial sense, he had to get under the salary cap THIS season, and this season alone.
One time I saw him on a cooking show talking about losing weight, and as he said that I literally watched him deep fry 18 cornish chickens with batter.
It seems to me that the Celtics make one bone-headed move after another. First, they let Rodney Rodgers go, which they got by trading away a possible future star in Joe Johnson. Then they trade Kenny Anderson and Potapenko for a never-has-been, 44 million dollar loser, Vin Baker. Just recently they traded a promising rookie Shimmond Williams for one never-has-been center(Mark Blount) and one washed up forward (Mark Bryant). I like the Celtics, but they play an ugly game. Relying on the three-pointer and having no inside-game will get you no where come playoff time. WHO is making these personnel decisions up there?
Granted letting Rodgers go was not good. But Kenny Anderson and Vitaly were not going to take the Celtics anywhere. Shammond is not a rookie, he played 2 years in Seattle before coming over to Boston. Blount and Bryant are not in the Celtics future either. Possibly the Celtics are trying to clear salary space to sign a Free Agent this off season.
UTweezer, can't disagree with you about some of the C's personnel decisions. The Baker trade has been a disaster, but that's all on Baker, if he were just solid the Cs could be the class of the East. Basically choosing Baker over Rogers has definitely hurt, but Anderson didn't give them much. But an even bigger mistake than the Baker trade has been their disastrous 2001 draft. Think Troy Murphy, would they could've drafted instead of Kedrick Brown, would look good in green & white right now? That's what happens when you reach, they could've gotten Brown with the pick they used on Forte if they really wanted Brown. If not Murphy, how about Radmanovic, or Randolph? Granted, hindsight is 20/20, but that draft ruined their team more than the Baker trade.
I guess I'm too light on the guy, but I just really feel sorry for him. Maybe that doesn't make sense. But it's like something sort of broke in his mind after the trade to Seattle. His game truly was nice with the Bucks -- it wasn't just a case of being on a bad team with few other options. He was fun to watch, energetic, smooth.
Another poster child for one year contracts. Suspended means no pay? Suspended means he still counts against cap.
Vin's got problems, but I don't think he can make up a heart murmur. The team doctors would be the ones to diagnose it.
It's not that he made up a heart murmur, it's the fact that he left the team and went to a doctor without telling the team, and when the team was looking for him he was nowhere to be found. And then when they pressed him on the matter he said he went to the doctor and had a heart murmur and then pulled himself from the game. It's just the entire way that Baker is handling the situation. The team doctors didn't diagnose it, they didn't know he had it until they forced him to tell them why he wasn't with the team. I agree with B-Bob, there was a time where Baker was one of the top PFs in the league, and still could be. He just doesn't have any heart anymore when it comes to basketball.
Baker's a bum in the true sense of the word. Can you believe someone actually signed him to an $86 million contract!
