Fox Chooses No. 17 With Extra Feeling

Turns out Rick Fox will keep the Boston Celtics close to his heart, after all.

Having been renounced early in the summer after six years in New England, clearing the way for him to sign a free-agent deal with the Lakers, Fox did not choose uniform No. 17 on a whim. Another emotion, maybe.

He wore 44 with the Celtics, but that’s retired at the Forum in honor of Jerry West. He thought about cutting that in half, but that’s also on the wall, to commemorate Elgin Baylor. He thought about cutting it in half another way, to a single 4, but decided against that out of respect to Byron Scott. He even thought about doubling it to 88, especially since Fox is a big fan of fellow Canadian Eric Lindros, before concluding it was too much like a football number.

So he settled on 17.

“Every year, I went to training camp with the goal of helping the Celtics win their 17th championship,” Fox said. “This has become my reminder. Now, the race is on in my mind, to see if they can get their championship before I get mine. A reminder.”

A grudge.

“I’m not sticking it to them,” he said by way of correction. “But I came in there every year striving for their 17th and my first. That chance can’t happen now for me in Boston. So we’ll see who gets their’s first.”

But he’s not sticking it to them.

*

All this time trying to convince people he can be one of the guys on a team filled with twenty-somethings--he has a tattoo, he has a young son--and now this. Del Harris is coaching two players . . . after he had coached their fathers.

Kobe Bryant was here last season, following in the NBA steps of Joe “Jellybean” Bryant. Now comes Jon Barry, son of Rick Barry.

“I’m proud of it, as a matter of fact,” Harris said, wearing it as another symbol of his sustained success. “I remember both of these kids when they were little boys, less than the age of my 7-year-old. It’s the way it should be. What the heck, coaches should stay around long enough.”

Said Jon Barry: “I was a ballboy with the Rockets when my dad played, so this is actually my second stint working under Del. But I think this one is a little more important.”