Walker gives Celtics a heat shield

Danny Ainge admits it now. He didn't fully appreciate or understand how important Antoine Walker was to the Celtics in one critical category: the ability to take the heat.

"I did underestimate that," said Ainge last week, days after reacquiring Walker in a deal that gives the Celtics some cachet and heft for the remaining six weeks of the season and into the playoffs. "Either that, or I didn't place enough value in it at the time. It wasn't a priority in my team-building at the time."

But it should have been. This is not to say that Ainge never should have traded Walker in the first place. There was widespread support for the move within the organization, especially from the coaching staff. But in dealing Walker, Ainge removed a guy who not only faced the music, he made the music. Walker had been through it all and he was always an up-front personality. No one replaced that.

"It's his ability to shoulder the load and take the criticism that the team receives," Ainge said. "He's a lightning rod, and he's used to being that way. He's been through it."

That was one reason Paul Pierce looked so bloody miserable at times in the past 1 1/2 seasons (although he has been playing really well since the start of the new year). Everything fell on him and he didn't want it. He figured it was enough to do it on the court. But it wasn't.

One of the Ainge Era Celtics' biggest problems has been their difficulty -- some might say inability -- to deal with adversity. Part of that is attributable to youth. Part of that is attributable to the ongoing turnover in players and coaches. Part of that is attributable to not having players who have dealt with adversity, and that is where Walker provides a valuable service.

He takes the heat. I remember him absolutely killing the Celtics in the 2003 playoffs against the Nets, and he admitted it, took it and dealt with it. No one was playing particularly well in that series, the new owners were scheduling news conferences before a critical Game 3 and yet it was the Martin-Walker mismatch that drew the most attention. Walker knew what was going on and he owned up to it. He wasn't playing well.

As it turns out, those were the last games he played for the Celtics until nine days ago in Utah. Now he's back, and he doesn't want to leave again.

Who ever thought the Celtics would go from test-pattern numbers to national TV by virtue of this sole transaction? Even WEEI has discovered that there's an NBA team in town. Maybe the team's soon- to-be-available radio rights won't have to be auctioned off to some FM station in Lawrence.

This deal, on the surface, flies in the face of what Ainge is trying to do -- build for the future -- because Walker is unsigned after this year and the Celtics gave up a No. 1 to get him. But with no one watching, few people caring, and thousands of empty seats at the Whatever-It-Is-Called-Tonight Center, you have to think ownership pushed hard for this deal. Now, a nice four-game winning streak is at hand, the division title is within reach, and the Celtics might actually have a better record than the No. 6 seed when the dust settles.

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