A Bit of Controversy From Practice

Sunday's practice was mostly skeleton drills of the offensive and defensive sets.  Not a lot of contact.  But Doc is trying to get the newer players familiar with the offensive sets and had  Von Wafer and Luke Harangody square off against Delonte West and Semih Erden in some 2 on 2 work.

Chris Forsberg first alerted us to tempers flaring during this exercise with this quote from his article on ESPN Celtics Blog. 

Things got a bit heated when West, displaying his usual full-throttle style, abused Wafer for consecutive baskets. With Wafer agitated, West shouted twice, "Do something about it." West then went right back at Wafer, aggressively trying to back him down before assistant coach Lawrence Frank called a foul, attempting to prevent things from escalating further.

West again told Wafer to "do something about it," with a not-so complimentary description tagged on at the end. That's when Jermaine O'Neal stepped in, along with Frank, who reminded the players to cool it with the media present. Wafer ultimately retreated to the locker room.

 Von Wafer took exception to the verbiage in the article and posted this tweet
Chris Forsberg in that article u made it sound like dwest was jus killing me no sir we was goin at it stat the facts sir thank u


Wafer took some heat from a few Celtics fans for calling out one of their favorite beat writers. But a little later, Alex Kennedy posted that it wasn't the first time that Delonte has been confrontational with one of his new teammates. Then he posted this tweet.

West has gotten into skirmishes with multiple teammates in Boston. One player said that 'it's obvious when he hasn't taken his medicine.'

CSNNE posted a video of the 2 on 2 drills and it appears to me that Delonte was being overly aggressive. On his first drive he did get past Wafer with a good move. But on the second drive he was pushing, and dipping his shoulder into him and was being antagonistic to boot. He didn't just blow past Wafer he was pushing him and trying to bull his way through him. That's when Lawrence Frank stepped in and called the obvious foul and JO came over to try to smooth things out. Watch the video and see what you think. 




I think the best thing for Delonte was coming back to Boston and I feel that he can be a huge part of the battle for Banner 18, but this is also a bit concerning. I know that Delonte has to be frustrated that between the injury and the suspension he went from a key member of the rotation to somewhere behind Von Wafer in the depth chart. The shooting guard spot on the second unit is obviously between these two players and so there are bound to be some spirited battles between them for the spot. But, they are teammates. They are building chemistry. It has to be all about the team and what is best for the team, not any individual agendas. I have to say I liked Von Wafer's reply to the criticism he received on twitter.
chill my dude im all about team so chill ive been about team my whole life
Let's hope they both put this behind them... it IS all about team.