Celtic-Pride Talk Convincing to McDaniel

In the end, it was a heart-to-heart talk with the legendary Red Auerbach that convinced Xavier McDaniel to take his ferocious demeanor and capable scoring to the Boston Celtics Thursday.

McDaniel, speaking Friday from his home in Columbia, S.C., said he was prepared to turn down Boston’s offer of $6.3 million over three years when Auerbach stepped in and began imparting his Celtic Pride rhetoric.

“I was ready to turn it down,” said the X-Man. “And I think Red sensed it, because he started talking about the Celtics and their tradition, their family. He said, ‘We take care of our guys. Look around. You see former Celtics everywhere: coaches, scouts, on TV and radio. Everywhere.’

“And I started thinking. No one around the league has anything to say bad about Boston -- except maybe Boston Garden. Everyone knows the Celtics truly take care of their own. I talked to Chris Ford and Dave Gavitt and Jan Volk. But it was Red who really sold me on the deal. He made me to feel like there was already a little bond there that was going to get bigger. They wanted me.”

At the same time, McDaniel was thinking the Knicks did not really want him. He said the Knicks had ample time to come up with a credible offer after he bought out his contract Jan. 15. “But they didn’t,” he said. “Look, I don’t want anybody saying they’re mad at me because I left New York. I wanted to stay in New York. I never wanted to leave. I was very flexible with the Knicks to sign a contract. But it was just dragging on.

“I don’t like to take deferred money, but I was even willing to take deferred money to stay with the Knicks. But I wasn’t going to take 30 percent of my salary in deferred money. And they wanted to defer it for 20 years, with no interest. I may not be the smartest person in the world, but I’m not dumb.”

The Celtics aren’t deferring anything. If he plays a fourth season with Boston, McDaniel will get $3.38 million; he is guaranteed $2 million if he gets cut. He would earn $4.39 million in his fifth year, but that money is not guaranteed. McDaniel has the option of buying out his contract with the Celtics after the second year.

Knicks president Dave Checketts said he offered McDaniel, through agent David Falk, guaranteed deals of $2 million and $2.6 million for the first two years. He would have gotten $3.2 million for a third year, $1.8 million of which would have been deferred. “A lot of the deals they offered were no better than the one I gave up when I bought out my contract,” McDaniel said.

“See,” he added, “I took the gamble. I played since January 15 with no security. The only security I had was their word. They thought I was playing Russian roulette.”

The X-Man passed an intense Celtics physical Thursday, which only served as confirmation that he is healthy enough to play at a high level. He said the Knicks targeted the condition of his knees in the negotiations.

“They said, ‘X, your knees will be gone in two years.’ Hey, I played in all my games with the Knicks and all of Pat Riley’s tough practices. Since my surgery, I haven’t missed a game because of injury. That’s pretty damned durable.”

But it sounded as if he could not endure the waiting and the constant reports of the Knicks’ pursuit of other players who played his position, such as Harvey Grant, Charles Smith and Chuck Person. And so McDaniel instructed Falk to “get people interested in me,” McDaniel said.

“It was the first week of August and it was getting too close. I told David to go out and talk to teams, strike up some interest. The Knicks were not stepping to the plate and the Celtics did.”

Auerbach never increased the Celtics’ offer during their talk. He just played to McDaniel’s sensitivities. “Boston was concerned about my knees too,” McDaniel said. “But they still got it done. Hey, I’m the first to admit I had a bad year. I know it. But I showed in the playoffs that I can still play.

“I looked at the addition of Rolando Blackman and I thought once they signed me and one other player, we’d kick Chicago’s ... all year. Now it’ll just have to be five games of hell when we play New York.”