For the first time in four years, the spotlight on the Boston Celtics is shining on the personnel instead of the head coach. That, of course, is how it should be in the NBA. That, of course, is just fine with Jim O'Brien.

	O'Brien has made the most of his first NBA coaching gig.

The 14th head coach in the storied history of the Celtics couldn't be any more different than his predecessor, Rick Pitino. Watching O'Brien for a short period of time makes you indeed wonder how the two could have sat together, side by side, for so many years, evidence of that old bromide: opposites attract. Their one common interest: coaching. That's it. For the Celtics, that's good.

O'Brien is Mother Teresa to Pitino's Princess Di. He doesn't have a flock of horses, a multi-million dollar townhouse in the Back Bay section of Boston, another home in an exclusive Florida enclave, a hefty appearance fee for motivational speaking, a multi-million dollar salary or his own personal chauffeur. What he does have is an insatiable desire to coach and teach and an Everyman demeanor which plays well with his staff and his players.

O'Brien shoots straight. While Pitino was accommodating and accessible in his spectacularly unsuccessful Boston incarnation, you always had the feeling that everything he said had the staying power of a fruit fly and the validity of Confederate currency. The players tired of his pronouncements, flip flops and transparent motivational ploys.

They also tired of the losing. A mini-insurrection finally forced Pitino into exile last January at 12-22 and the anti-Pitino took over. Under O'Brien, the Celtics played .500 ball over the final 48 games, which included the toughest part of their schedule. They flirted with a playoff berth for the first time since 1995. Paul Pierce emerged as an All-Star quality player. And the Celtics gave O'Brien an extension in April which was as timely as it was well deserved. Pierce and Antoine Walker had both gone to bat publicly for O'Brien and, on the Celtics, those are voices that matter.

	Pierce

O'Brien, the son-in-law of Hall of Fame coach Jack Ramsay, is a coach. Period. He is at his happiest sitting in front of a television breaking down film, running it back, looking for anything that might give him an edge. This is his third head coaching gig, but first in the NBA. His previous two were at Wheeling Jesuit College and Dayton University. He did serve under Pitino in New York for a season and had the usual stops along the way as a college assistant (Oregon, St. Joseph's, Maryland, Pembroke State and Wheeling Jesuit.) He's your proverbial lifer: since leaving college in 1974 (St. Joe's, where he played well enough to be a school and Big Five Hall of Famer), he has done nothing else (although he did find time in between plays to get an MBA from Maryland in 1981.)

He wasted no time putting his own stamp on the Celtics. His first hire was old pal Dick Harter, who is hailed by one and all as a defensive intellect. The Celtics were one of the worst defensive teams in the league last year, a fact which Pitino lamented endlessly but could do nothing to change. O'Brien also did something Pitino would never do: actually solicit the opinions of players and to have a give-and-take which, he feels, is a must in any successful business.

An example: Last June, on the night of the NBA draft, both Pierce and Walker were present at the Celtics draft war room. Neither had been anywhere near the place in the previous two years, including 2000, when Pitino overruled his staff and selected Jerome Moiso (since traded after being buried by O'Brien) with the 11th pick. This time, both players were there to talk to reporters and, more importantly, be in on the decisions during the draft.

"Before, with Coach Pitino, it was like, pretty much whatever he said," Pierce told the Boston Globe. "I know it was hard for guys to voice their opinion because he was kind of intimidating at times, and you didn't know what he was going to say next.

	Walker, along with Pierce, looked like a different player with O'Brien in charge.

I think that O'Brien and (General Manager) Chris Wallace have been more open. Guys can ask them anything they want. Whenever you've got something to say, you've got an opinion, guys are more willing to say it. Coach O'Brien urges that on because he feels he can learn from the players also."

Walker, for one, feels liberated and could be ready to harness his considerable talents into an All-Star season. More than anyone, he was Pitino's favorite whipping boy and he had to be leading the cheers when the coaching change came about. Walker was always being mentioned in trade talks and, contrary to what Pitino was saying, had, in fact, been offered in several trade scenarios.

While Walker can be maddeningly inconsistent and, at times, boorish, it was hard not to sympathize with his plight. After all, he was told on successive summers to come back looking like Karl Malone and then Scottie Pippen. Try that one on sometime. Pitino constantly harangued Walker about Walker's weight, to the point where it became ridiculous because the coach had to know he was getting no mileage there.

The mere absence of Pitino and his Sidewinder barbs prompted Walker to be more fitness conscious this summer, going so far as to work with Tim Grover, trainer to The Star. Pierce, too, has finally been able to resume lifting weights, something he could not do all last season due to scar tissue resulting from his September stabbing attack. They form a potent 1-2 scoring punch and O'Brien basically turned over the offense to the two and rode it as far as it could go.

The Celtics made few meaningful personnel changes over the summer and, in fact, are banking heavily on rookies to get them to the postseason. That has proven to be a difficult thing in the NBA, a league which eats its young.

But the big change this season is that the workplace is remarkably different and that can go a long way in sports. The players know that they are in the proverbial cross-hairs, and that is what they expect. The players know there is an atmosphere conducive to the exchange of ideas. That is all they really wanted anyway.

O'Brien was smart enough to recognize that, promote that and, to date, has had some modest success with that. The Celtics found out that high profile doesn't necessarily work and can, in fact, be high maintenance as well. They had their Louis XVI moment. Now it's time for Obie Wan Kenobi to do his thing.

Peter May, who covers the NBA for the Boston Globe, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.