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Home > Mark Bradley > Archives > 2008 > April > 23
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Bibby sounds off, then doesn’t show up
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Boston — Even if fans here are, as Mike Bibby indelicately phrased it, “bandwagon jumpers,” it’s a mighty snazzy wagon they’ve boarded. And if Bibby’s intent was, as Doc Rivers suggested, to brand himself “a villain,” it would be better for his team if he turned back into an actual player.
This is how bad it got: The crowd at TD Banknorth Garden was actually calling for the visiting point guard to be reinserted into the game with 11 minutes remaining. “Where is Bibby?” came the chant, and everyone knew the answer. He was seated on the bench, chased out of the game for the second time in four nights by young Rajon Rondo, deemed less essential by Mike Woodson for much of Game 2 than rookie Acie Law IV.
As expected, Bibby was panned in Boston. The way he’s playing, he might well get jeered by Hawks fans, assuming there are any left, at Philips Arena this weekend.
Bibby had two baskets and one assist in Game 1, two baskets and one assist in Game 2. If you’re going to challenge an entire opposing city on an off-day, you’d better be prepared to Step Up. Both figuratively and literally, Bibby sat down. He was spelled by the seldom-seen Law, who scored as many hoops in 21 minutes as Bibby has in the series.
“I’m not worried about [the Boston crowd],” Bibby said afterward. “I didn’t make anything happen for my team again.”
And maybe it doesn’t matter what Bibby does, or doesn’t do. Maybe the Celtics are going to sweep anyway. But the Hawks had no chance in two games here because their most seasoned player failed to light the way. He hasn’t been able to guard his counterpart — “Rondo’s better!” chanted the crowd Wednesday night — and he has given Boston no worries at the other end.
The pregame atmosphere had been comical. Asked to clarify his remarks, Bibby chose instead to respond to Celtics center Kendrick Perkins, who’d responded to Bibby by noting that the Hawks guard had missed eight of 10 shots in Game 1.
Said Bibby: “I don’t know where he got this tough streak from. His stat line was worse than mine. Anybody else, I might take a little [bit differently]. But for him not to show anything, it kind of upsets me.”
The assembled media dutifully rushed across the hall to the Celtics locker room, where Perkins was informed of Bibby’s latest salvo.
“I got no comment,” Perkins said. “I’m trying to win a game … I’m still going to go to sleep tonight. It doesn’t bother me either way … I’m not worried about him. Obviously he’s worried about what’s going on over here.”
After the game, Bibby spoke again of Perkins (who scored, it should be noted, as many Game 2 baskets as Bibby and shot a better percentage): “I thought he tried to hit me a couple of times, but I didn’t really feel it.”
In a series that promised little and has delivered less, this is what passes for drama. The Celtics have outscored the Hawks in all eight quarters and have looked every bit like the NBA’s best team. The Hawks, meanwhile, are making a case for themselves as the most underwhelming playoff qualifier ever.
“They hit us physically,” Woodson said. “They set us back tonight … We just didn’t move the ball again … If we call a play, we’ve got to attempt to execute it.”
That’s a failure of everyone, the point guard most of all. “I try to make things easy for my team,” said Bibby, who succeeded only in making things harder for everyone, himself most of all.
As for those bandwagon jumpers, he offered this: “They know who they are. If they took offense, they must be part of it.”
One Garden patron — perhaps a come-lately, perhaps not — seemed to offer the strongest rebuttal. He held up a sign that read: “Hey, Bibby! At least we have fans.”
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