RE: Bird rumour - Boston Globe

[Charles Jowett <uscej@waters.com>]

>
>Prediction: Bird will be Boston GM within a few weeks.
> ----------
>

Bird, Pitino talked: Subject:
 Becoming a team with Celtics

 By Peter May, Globe Staff, 04/03/97 

 Larry Bird has talked to Kentucky coach Rick Pitino
 about coaching the Celtics and may have made other
 inquiries as well, sources told the Globe yesterday. 

 The conversation with Pitino took place before Kentucky
 advanced to last weekend's NCAA Final Four, it was
 learned. According to sources, it was a conversation
 predicated on the supposition that Bird and Pitino would
 be working for the Celtics as a joint management team.
 Efforts to reach Bird were unsuccessful last night, but he
 has been vocal in his admiration for Pitino. Pitino has long
 expressed a desire to coach the Celtics, although he
 would not do so under the current corporate structure. 

 According to sources, Bird was given the go-ahead to
 contact Pitino, as well as other prospective coaches, by
 Celtics chairman of the board Paul Gaston. Last night,
 reached at his Connecticut home, Gaston refused to
 comment. 

 The Celtics have remained mum about their management
 team for next season. M.L. Carr, the current coach and
 director of basketball operations, has not said whether he
 will return to either job. However, he has regularly
 dismissed the ongoing Pitino rumors - ``It isn't
 happening,'' he said at one point - and already has made
 plans for the Celtics' summer activities, indicating he may
 intend to stick around. 

 Carr was asked about the possible Bird-Pitino
 management team last night. He also was asked how he
 felt about Bird receiving Gaston's permission to search
 for other coaches. 

 ``We will not discuss personnel matters until the season
 winds down,'' he said. 

 When questioned again, he said, ``My comment is this:
 There will be no discussion of personnel matters until the
 end of the season.'' 

 Meanwhile, Sports Illustrated, which also made
 reference to the Bird-Pitino connection, is reporting this
 week that Bird sought permission from the Pacers to
 speak to Larry Brown, who has two years remaining on
 his contract. Yesterday Pacers president Donnie Walsh
 said, ``Larry Brown is our coach for the rest of this year
 and for the next two years. He has not asked to leave.''
 However, it is no secret around the NBA that Brown
 may bolt Indiana; he has been there four years, an
 eternity for him. Most people believe that if he leaves
 Indiana, he will return to Los Angeles to coach the
 Clippers. 

 Walsh did say he doubted the Pacers would stand in
 Brown's way if the oft-traveled coach expressed a desire
 to leave. 

 ``My owners are not the kind of men who want to keep
 people against their will,'' he said. 

 Walsh also said he has not had contact with Bird. Last
 week, in an interview with the Globe, Bird said he was
 eager to return to a more involved job, either with the
 Celtics or elsewhere. Indiana has courted him in the past
 and Bird was at the Final Four last weekend in
 Indianapolis. 

 ``If Larry showed interest, of course we would have
 interest,'' Walsh said. 

 Bird also said he would take any coaching job in the
 league, except that of the Celtics. That prompted more
 talk of a Bird-Pitino combine running the Celtics,
 especially since Pitino said he would not demand total
 power and Bird added that he could easily work with the
 Kentucky coach. 

 Bob Ryan and Michael Holley of the Globe staff
 contributed to this report. 

 This story ran on page c1 of the Boston Globe on
 04/03/97.