Re: Celtic Turmoil

[damekmo@teleport.com]

>One side
>
>Owner Paul Gaston, Clueless N.Y.broker son of former owner, whose team has
>gotten worse each year.
>
>M.L. Carr - Coach/G.M. Middle aged, not very adept.
>
>Red Auerbach - Former coach/G.M behind the scenes advisor to Gaston,
>recommended Carr, may be propping him up now.

What?....Red Auerbach? Is he still around? Let me tell you guys a little
story about squeeling pigs and genetic defects. Do any of you remember the
last time the Celtics won the championship? Do any of you remember the
article about it in Sports Illustrated? The article began by calling the
Celtics an old team. Old?!?...in 1986?!?...After watching one of the
greatest teams I'd ever seen have one of the greatest seasons I'd ever
seen, SI calls them old and infers that changes would have to be made!?! I
laughed, filled the pick-up with all my worldly possessions and headed for
Tennessee where I "dun gut my gradeeate deegree." Have any of you ever been
to Tennessee? "Deliverance" is not fiction. Anyway...I spent the next three
years reading, painting, eating Middle Eastern food, drinking beer, and
watching the Celtics age, slip, and do nothing about it. There was a woman
in my department who was a Celtics fan (and God help her, it's obviously
not her fault, a Giants fan) who, like me, watched and waited those three
years and kept saying, "As Long as Red's still there, they'll win it
again." I waited...she waited (and kept on with those miserable paintings,
that should've been the first clue).Then in 1990 the Celtics were beaten by
the Knicks in the playoffs. As I remember, the first round! Red?!? What was
Red doing to this team? What was going on? Where were the imaginative gutsy
moves? Where were the trades, signings, draft choices? After that series an
article in the "Village Voice" called Auerbach an old fool whose time had
come and gone. They laughed...I didn't. I packed up the Toyota and headed
west...and waited. Nothing. Where's this story going? I'll tell you: Guys,
Auerbach no longer has a clue and hasn't had a clue for a while now. If
he's actually been the man behind the scenes, as the LA Times article
infers, then this franchise is living farther in the past than I thought,
is farther gone than I thought, is in bigger trouble than I thought,
and...God this pains me to say it....Opie's right. If ML is a result of the
union between Auerbach, his self-perception as a genius, and the decision
making processes and logic that gave us Gavitt and still believes in Red,
then as much as I like and admire ML, a break has to be made. Auerbach has
to be hustled out of there. All his friends and loyalists have to be
hustled out of there. They're all wrong and dangerous. I've actually spent
the last few years thinking that Auerbach was no longer an issue....that he
was living in a home somewhere waiting for his calls to be returned. Jesus,
does he actually have an office in the building! Is this all possible!
Forget the coffee. "Honey...where'd you put the heroin?"

Paul M