# `Scary' what a more committed Vince could do



## Ph03NIX99 (Apr 29, 2003)

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Co...496&call_pageid=969907729483&col=970081562040

`Scary' what a more committed Vince could do
Ex-strength coach unable to push him


DAVE FESCHUK
BASKETBALL COLUMNIST

In his six-year tenure as the Toronto Raptors strength and conditioning coach, Ron De Angelo saw the scene many times: A chiselled power forward would be sweating for his money in the Air Canada Centre's weight room, grunting and straining to bench press 275 pounds.

And then Vince Carter would take his turn on the bench. A smaller man with a bigger name, he'd press the same big weight.

"Some big burly guy would be struggling to lift 275 on the bench, and then Vince, who hasn't even been working out as hard, he'd come over and lift it three or four times like it was nothing," says De Angelo. "Vince is what? Forty pounds lighter (than the power forward) and probably only had to work half as hard to do it.

"And that other guy was working all summer to get to that point.

"But with Vince, that was always the way it was. You'd just shake your head ..."

There is a laugh over the phone line from Pittsburgh, where De Angelo has been re-plotting his career course since he was fired by the Raptors in the spring.

"That's how natural an athlete Vince is. Vince is pretty deceiving. He's strong as hell, you'd be surprised.

"Everybody was always shaking their head, like, `This kid is unbelievable. What else can this kid do?'

"It's really scary to think what Vince might be able to do if he just took it to the highest level of intensity of conditioning."

Perhaps part of the reason that De Angelo won't be at the Air Canada Centre today when Carter meets the media in a prelude to his sixth NBA training camp, is that De Angelo, by his own admission, never managed to coax Carter to that elusive highest level.

Hired in 1997 by Butch Carter, the club's fitness-focused coach, De Angelo presided over the Raptors' training regimen during their compelling rise from 66-loss rejects to playoff-contending gems. And in the early years, when Vince Carter was a wide-eyed rookie and Carter his demanding mentor, De Angelo remembers the team's star player as a mostly willing pupil.

"He did whatever you asked him to do," says De Angelo. "I don't know if he always liked that, but at that point he wasn't in a situation to say yes or no."

But more recently, somewhere in the blur of Carter's emergence into an international star with a mega-dollar contract, De Angelo says his professional relationship with the marquee player deteriorated.

"On a professional level, we never clicked."

Carter, rehabilitating his 6-foot-7, 225-pound frame from recurring injuries, began to work closely with Chuck Mooney, who has been the team's head athletic trainer since 1996.

Mooney, says De Angelo, began to supervise both Carter's treatment and his workouts in and out of season. And so for the past few years, De Angelo was effectively the strength and conditioning coach to every Raptor but the most valuable one.

When a 58-loss season led to the firing of coach Lenny Wilkens and the hiring of rookie coach Kevin O'Neill, De Angelo was among the jettisoned.

"In Lenny's defence, he never had a healthy Vince. I don't know if anybody's going to have a healthy Vince for 82 games," says De Angelo, whose position has been filled by Shaun Brown, formerly of the Boston Celtics. "I don't think I was part of the problem, but maybe I wasn't part of the solution. I tried to make it work."

He has also tried, along with a handful of doctors and a befuddled brain trust, to understand why Carter's career has been stalled by injuries to both knees, to sprains and aches and pains. Carter played 43 of 82 games last year, his worst statistical campaign since he was a rookie. But De Angelo doesn't say what many have hypothesized: That Carter's lack of commitment to conditioning has led to his chronic ill health.

"I can just say that I've seen it happen with many other athletes. When they are stronger and more explosive and take their exercise to a higher level, most of the time they remain healthy and play better," he says. "But there are exceptions to the rule. And who knows — (Carter) could be an exception to the rule.

"I'm not saying he doesn't work out hard. Let's put it this way, and here's the problem: He's never had to struggle. Those guys who had to work out five days a week and really be on a regimented program the whole summer just to be able to play maybe at half the level Vince does. If Vince was challenged and worked to the nth degree it would be scary. It would be scary to see."

De Angelo says he still doesn't agree with the Raptors' decision to replace him, but he says the franchise has been amenable in their parting. Glen Grunwald, the general manager, has offered to be a reference, but De Angelo isn't actively pursuing an NBA job. His only previous experience in pro sports was working with athletes of all levels — most notably NFL receiver Cris Carter, Butch's brother — at Florida's Palm Beach Institute of Sports Medicine.

He's currently looking to start a sports-performance franchise in Pittsburgh, where he lives with his wife and two children. In that role, the athletes will come to him to be pushed, pay him to be their drill sergeant. Motivation won't be a problem.

"I enjoyed the whole Vince experience," he says. "I wish I could have worked with him closer but I didn't. I have no hard feelings, no negatives about it.

"It is what it is. He's a good person. I like him a lot. He's an individual. He's got to be allowed to be an individual.

"Someone has to really connect with him on the same level and then be able to challenge him on a daily basis.

"That's going to take a unique individual. I'm sorry I wasn't that person."


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## Goku (Aug 28, 2003)

Interesting article. Thanks.

I had no idea Vince was like that. He doesn't look strong at all.


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## trick (Aug 23, 2002)

wow, Vince has the tools, but isn't using all of em.

sounds familiar.

btw, good article.


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## SkywalkerAC (Sep 20, 2002)

don't forget that this guy has no idea at the amount of work that vince put in rehabbing and preparing for this season.


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