At last, Eddie is steadied

October 15, 2009|Bob Ryan, Globe Columnist

HARTFORD - Eddie has found a home.

I mean, really. It was getting ridiculous. After spending his first three years in Miami, Eddie House hit the road, playing for six teams in four years, always good enough to be wanted but never good enough to be considered indispensable.

And it would be an exaggeration to say that he is indispensable. But he is beginning his third year as a Boston Celtic for the very simple reason that he is a specialist who knows exactly who he is and who he isn’t, and that clearly appeals to Danny Ainge and Doc Rivers.

“Boy, he can shoot, and he scares the hell out of other teams,’’ declares Rivers. “He used to scare the hell out of me when I was coaching elsewhere. I kid him that he’s on the All-Scare Team.’’

There are no secrets with Eddie. Mr. House doesn’t enter the game seeking to assess the game temperature or flow or tempo, or any of that stuff. When Eddie comes into the game, the ball is going up.

“He knows his role,’’ says Rivers, “and his teammates know his role. They do whatever they can to free him up.’’

Eddie House is a proven jump shooter. Everyone in the league knows that. But there is a second reason that helps explain why Eddie House’s nationwide perambulations (Miami to Los Angeles (Clippers) to Charlotte to Milwaukee to Sacramento to Phoenix to New Jersey) finally ceased when he came to Boston.

Danny Ainge is a paid-up member of his fan club.

“First of all, I fell in love with Eddie when he was in college,’’ Ainge says. It seems that Eddie House was playing for Arizona State while Danny was playing and coaching in Phoenix. “I watched him play at Arizona State. He’s definitely a guy I’d pay to watch play. And I followed his NBA career closely.’’

“I knew he was at a lot of our games,’’ says House, who had 11 points and 4 assists in Boston’s 106-90 exhibition dispatch of the Toronto Raptors at the XL Center last night. “He used to sit courtside. I’d see him and it would inspire me. I’d say, ‘Man, if he’s here to see me, maybe I can play in the league.’ ’’

Eddie House is not a great player. He is a great shooter. He has never averaged 10 points a game, in part because he has never averaged 20 minutes a game. He’s a 6-foot-1-inch shooting guard masquerading, on occasion, as a point guard. His job is to enter the game and change it with long-range jumpers, almost every one of which is fired up from about 2 feet in front of the 3-point arc to 2 feet behind it.

He just happens to be very good at it. Last year, for example, he shot .444 from the 3-point line, or .001 lower than his overall average. The Celtics would gladly take that again.