Jermaine O’Neal commits to Impact Basketball League
My four stages of following Jermaine O’Neal last season went something like this:
1) hopeful that he would provide a huge presence in the middle
2) ready to give up on him (and to throw a television set out the window)
3) completely content, or maybe thrilled is a better word, that O’Neal gave the Celtics anything — anything at all — during the playoffs
4) “he played like that in the playoffs EVEN WITH A BROKEN WRIST? LONG LIVE JERMAINE O’NEAL!!!”
But still, even when O’Neal won my heart, his body was busy failing him. The wrist broke. His knees couldn’t give him much lift. He persevered and made no excuses, but O’Neal’s body was held together by silly putty and as fragile as a piece of glass.
In an attempt to work that body back into top form, O’Neal has reportedly committed to join the Impact Basketball Competitive Training Series.
The Training Series will feature a competitive league with as many as eight teams, but the league is not the only draw for NBA players. Participants will also train and lift weights at Impact Basketball, a training facility directed by Joe Abunassar, who has become something of a training legend among NBA circles.
“This is an effort on our part to get these guys as ready for training camp as they can get, without going to training camp,” Abunassar said in a phone interview with the New York Times. “That’s the allure of it.”
The league, of course, is more interesting than drills and bench press reps. It will feature more than 40 players and as many as eight teams, including Chauncey Billups, John Wall and Zach Randolph.
The games will be open to the general public (about 500 tickets will be sold per day, with proceeds being donated to charity) and streamed online. The goal is for the games to be played with more intensity than average summer league games.
“The way we’re going to play — with all the N.B.A. guys, with a lot of intensity, with not making it a circus, so to speak,” Abunassar said. “These guys are here to get the best basketball they’ve gotten.”
And Jermaine O’Neal, presumably, is there to whip his body back into shape. As of now, he’s Boston’s only center.
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Celtics Blog, Featured, News & Notes | Jay King | September 4, 2011
Lerts see if JO has anything left in his broken down body. can’t believe the Celts gave up Semi Ehrden–an excelent possiblility for a starting center in favor of keeping JO and a broken down Shaquille O Neal.
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jtshoopblog…hindsight is worthless and makes everyone question moves that were good for the team at the time. Injuries were unseen in regards to those moves so to say SE would be a better option is ludicrous. Never, ever even with the injuries. JO will be fine and proved his commitment and worth. SE is years away from being good. Now losing Krstic is more of an issue as he could play and rebound as proven by his effort last year. Go Cs…
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Gotta say I agree with him though, Erden may not have been, or will be the next Hakeem, but he was a serviceable 7fter who could eat up minutes.
When you are only Center right now is Jermaine “Body made of glass” O’neal, Erden would be a huge insurance policy for this team next year.
I think Ainge expected to get Krstic back, whether or not he’d admit it, but you can’t blame Krstic for wanting to head back home with the lockout looming.
Now however, the loss of Erden was certainly a gamble Ainge seems to have lost, he’ll need to work some magic to address the front court depth problem facing this team.
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Who’s to say SE doesn’t bolt as well? How about we find an American center that can rebound? And I think JO will be better than expected. Go Cs…
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