Re: fans chumps

["Caleb J. McArthur" <cmcarthu@umich.edu>]

On Mon, 21 Apr 1997, Tim Nault wrote:

> I saw that and I don't know what to think about it.  On one hand it
> pisses me off, but then there is this small voice in the back of my head
> that says "what if they really did intentionally lose?"  The more

I am about 95% sure that management made a decision early in the season to
tank the season.  Does this mean that they told the players to throw
games?  Of course not.  That would be suicide in this day and age of
player movement:  someone would throw that back in the Cs faces down the
line.  What it means is that 1)  Carr put no emphasis on learning to play
defense/developing defensive strategy in practice or in game day coaching,
and 2)  injured players were encouraged to rest rather than come back as
soon as possible.  If this team had tried to win as many games as
possible, they would have won around 20 and if they hadn't had all the
injuries (some were legit) they would have won around 25.  I have to
believe that or I would conclude that our prospect are dim.  I think that
with Duncan, the 6th pick or whatever trade we come up with, with
Radja, Minor, and Barros back, and with a real coach who will teach these
kids defense and coach them to win every game possible, the Celts should
win half their games next year and fight for the last playoff spot.  In a
couple more years they will be contending for the conference title maybe
sooner if they can free up some cap room quickly.

Was it wrong for the organization to do this?  I know a lot of teams have
done it (Detroit definitely tanked that season to get Grant Hill), but I
am ambivalent.  It certainly speeds up our ascent, but I always took a
certain amount of pride in the fact that the Celtics were the epitome of
overachievers; they won they most games possible with the talent they had
every year.  That can no longer be said.  However, I also love the fact
that the Celtics built their great teams through drafts and trades and not
by buying a team through free agency (ahem jerry west).  That may be old
fashioned and maybe we will need to accept the new NBA order, but as of
now, we have a potentially good nucleus (if we get duncan) and we did it
through drafts and trades.  


Caleb