C's Clinch "First" Place/Ryan Article

["Robert Miller" <robert900@hotmail.com>]

With the Spurs winning last night, the Celtics have clinched the worst record 
among teams eligible to win the No. 1 pick in the lottery. Thus, they have the 
greatest chance at obtaining that pick 

**********
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. 



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