Bob Ryan says ML Carr should not coach

[STRAUSS@WCUVAX1.WCU.EDU]

   Boston GlobeGlobe Sports
    
Nothing personal - Carr just shouldn't coach

   By Bob Ryan, Globe Columnist, 04/09/97
   
   May we spend a minute or two talking about the Boston Celtics, absent
   the vitriol and name-calling that so frequently become part of the
   dialogue when the very topic of their sad organizational demise is
   entered into the conversation?
   
   To begin with, it would be extremely hypocritical of me, and many
   other people I know, to lament their current place in the standings.
   The Celtics are where many of us have wanted them to be for a number
   of years - indisputably at the bottom. Such a state of affairs does
   not guarantee that the No. 1 pick in the draft will come this way, but
   it definitely increases the chance.
   
   I have long maintained that savvy Celtics fans would accept a major
   step back in the belief that it would provide the best hope of taking
   any meaningful step forward. I am speaking of solid, serious, and
   thoughtful fans who are grateful for the 35-year run of thrills and
   memories the team gave them and who are neither foolish nor greedy
   enough to feel that the Boston Celtics have a divine right to 35 more
   years of comparable success. I am speaking of people who actually put
   up the money to attend the games. This constituency long has been
   willing to accept a few lean years if there was a sincere belief in
   their hearts and minds that the Celtics' management was worthy of
   trust.
   
   The essential problem now is that said trust does not exist.
   
   I note that there is an active sympathy campaign under way to save
   M.L. Carr's coaching job. If it's not someone saying he should be
   ``given a chance to finish the job,'' then it is Antoine Walker and
   Eric Williams weighing in with ringing endorsements of their coach, or
   else there is a reference to the team's well-documented injury
   situation as proof that ``M.L. never really had a chance.'' If someone
   were young, naive, and uneducated in the whys and wherefores of the
   NBA, someone might be persuaded that there was some validity to these
   arguments.
   
   There is none.
   
   In terms of day-in, day-out management of the basketball operation,
   the Boston Celtics are an embarrassment. In terms of practice habits,
   travel procedures, and game preparation, the Boston Celtics are the
   least professional team in the NBA. For the most part, the players who
   have remained healthy enough to play have tried their best. But they
   have been betrayed by their alleged leaders. It's not Carr who never
   had a chance. It's the players, because they have not been coached. If
   ever a team deserved to be 13-63, it is the 1996-97 Boston Celtics.
   
   What I fear now is that the injuries are going to be the great crutch.
   Yes, it is true that if Pervis Ellison, Dino Radja, Frank Brickowski,
   Dee Brown, Greg Minor, and Dana Barros had remained healthy, the team
   would have won more than 13 games. The depth factor alone has cost the
   team some games; I know that. But please don't be deceived. Fully
   healthy, the Celtics were a notch below mediocre. With Carr coaching,
   this was a 25-win team, and no more.
   
   I think it is possible to criticize M.L. without indulging in
   M.L.-bashing. How he ingratiated himself to Paul Gaston three years
   ago forever will remain a mystery, but I believe he is essentially a
   decent man who truly cares about the welfare of the Boston Celtics
   Inc. The Eric Montross trade indicated a true flair for deal-making,
   and he can take all the bows for that he wishes. I am not suggesting
   he should be swept out of the organization.
   
   He's just not a professional coach.
   
   I would expect Walker and Williams to endorse Carr. After all, each
   runs around the court with carte blanche. Each puts up his offensive
   numbers. Each has been allowed to think he's pretty hot stuff. M.L. is
   their only frame of reference. They can be forgiven their youthful
   ignorance. Neither has any idea what a real NBA coach is like.
   
   Williams demonstrated just how much he respected and feared his coach,
   and just how much he learned about what it takes to be a serious
   player in this league, by putting on 30 pounds during the offseason
   after his first year. Walker, an extremely talented and extremely
   cocky kid, no doubt feels that his numbers alone testify to his
   stature. He is almost exactly where the young Cedric Maxwell was B.F.
   (Before Fitch). That is to say, he is a stat-oriented player on a bad
   team who has no legitimate understanding of what it takes to win in
   the World's Greatest Basketball League. All you need to know about his
   state of mind is that he honestly thinks he should be Rookie of the
   Year.
   
   There are people around who know the truth. I'd be willing to bet that
   the likes of Alton Lister, Brickowski, Barros, Brown, Marty Conlon,
   and Ellison know a real coach when they see one, even if they're not
   about to bare their souls on the subject right now. It isn't necessary
   to denigrate Carr as a man in order to adopt the posture that he
   shouldn't be coaching this team.
   
   Of course, what can you expect from an owner who, when reminded of
   Carr's utter inexperience on the day he hired him, said, ``Maybe M.L.
   can't coach his way out of a paper bag, but aren't we all going to
   have fun watching him try?'' Well, no, Paul, we're not. We're not
   having any fun at all.
   
   Now if Tim Duncan comes, and the other first-rounder turns out to be
   pretty good, and if whoever's in charge makes a good move (such as
   trading Williams for a veteran stabilizing force kind of guy), the
   Celtics could become respectable - with the right man on the bench.
   Walker has the talent to be a star. Rick Fox, Williams, and David
   Wesley could be very useful complementary players on a good team.
   Depending on just how good Duncan becomes (and I happen to think he'll
   be a superstar), the Celtics could be, at the very least, interesting
   and competitive by '98-99, if not sooner.
   
   Where is Red? Where is Larry? Where is Jan Volk, who certainly knows
   better? Where is someone to inform Gaston that a coach truly matters
   and that he might as well set a match to a stack of thousand-dollar
   bills as allow a well-meaning amateur to be Duncan's guide to the NBA?
   
   To paraphrase Ellington, the Celtics is bad and that is good. But it
   will be good in the long run only if the owner understands how to
   maximize the current potential, and that means hiring a serious,
   professional coach. Keeping the incumbent insults the intelligence of
   the people Paul Gaston needs to survive in the long run. Please,
   someone, explain this to him in whatever terms it takes to make him
   understand.
   
   Bob Ryan is a Globe columnist.
   
   This story ran on page d1 of the Boston Globe on 04/09/97.

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Bob Strauss      "Duke of URL"                   Cataloger
Hunter Library                                   Western Carolina U.
strauss@wcu.edu
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