2 Boston Globe columns from today (4/30)

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   Boston GlobeGlobe Sports
Carr won't coach; Pitino may: Auerbach confirms there will be change

   By Peter May and Bob Ryan, Globe Staff, 04/30/97
   
   Celtics president Red Auerbach said yesterday that M.L. Carr will not
   be back as the team's head coach, and three other sources indicated
   that University of Kentucky coach Rick Pitino has returned to the top
   of the Celtics' list to replace Carr.
   
   ``Yeah, we're gonna have a new coach,'' Auerbach said from his
   Washington home. ``That we're gonna do. It's because, although no one
   could have done much better, nevertheless, the record is there and you
   can't refute it.''
   
   Last night, when apprised of Auerbach's statement, Celtics chairman of
   the board Paul Gaston declined to comment. Efforts to reach Carr were
   unsuccessful, but all indications are that he will still have a
   position in the team hierarchy.
   
     * Bob Ryan: Bird may feel his work here is finished
       
   While it has been widely suspected that the Celtics would change
   coaches - Larry Bird has been interviewing people all year, and the
   Globe reported nine days ago that Carr would not be back - Auerbach's
   comments represented the first confirmation from a team executive.
   
   And sources told the Globe last night that Pitino is very much back in
   the picture. One of the sources even indicated that the Celtics'
   proposal to Pitino may include part ownership of the team, something
   he was offered last year by the New Jersey Nets that would represent a
   substantial addition to his coach's salary.
   
   Attempts to reach Pitino yesterday were unsuccessful, but a source
   familiar with the situation said there was a ``95 percent chance''
   that Pitino, who reportedly has rejected at least two $8
   million-a-year offers (Golden State and Orlando), would land in
   Boston.
   
   Another source said Bird mentioned that he would not be a part of the
   Celtics organization next season. Bird would not go that far when he
   spoke with the Globe, but did say he could envision himself somewhere
   else and wouldn't rule out the Indiana job.
   
   Since going public in the Globe last month with a request for more
   work, Bird has received calls from no fewer than six organizations,
   including Orlando and Indiana. Last night he again said he was
   uncertain of his future, although he could see himself working with
   Pitino. One source said the Pacers were prepared to offer substantial
   money - in the $3 million-a-year range - to lure Bird as their coach
   with the understanding that he would take over the basketball
   operation down the road.
   
   ``I'll say this - I'm really impressed with the guy and I'd like to
   have him,'' said Indiana president Donnie Walsh.
   
   Asked if Bird would move into the Indiana front office, Walsh, who
   turned 56 March 1, said, ``You have to understand one thing. I'm
   president of the Pacers. I can do what I want.''
   
   Present Indiana coach Larry Brown, whose name has circulated
   prominently in connection with the Boston job, is expected to resign
   from the Pacers today.
   
   Brown was due to arrive this morning in Indianapolis on a red-eye from
   Los Angeles and will meet with Walsh, who said he has heard from just
   about everyone in the NBA that Brown intends to resign. Everyone, that
   is, except Brown.
   
   ``He hasn't told me that's what he's going to do,'' Walsh said.
   
   Still, the move is considered a formality. After meeting with Walsh,
   Brown is scheduled to fly to Philadelphia to meet with Sixers
   president Pat Croce. The 76ers went hard after Pitino as well (one
   source mentioned that an airplane was involved in their offer). Brown
   is very much interested in the Celtics job, but the recent
   developments with Pitino may have pushed him to the back burner.
   Golden State also has asked for permission to speak with Brown, who
   has made it clear he wants a job with greater input over personnel
   decisions. The Sixers and the Warriors would likely agree to that.
   
   Meanwhile, former Spurs coach Bob Hill spoke with Bird for a fourth
   time Monday. Hill said he had no clearer idea about where things stood
   but felt Bird might be moving on. Hill was one of a handful of coaches
   Bird contacted at the request of Gaston.
   
   Auerbach said that whoever gets the job will face a true coaching
   challenge. The Celtics were 15-67 last season, by far the worst record
   in franchise history. They were the worst defensive team in the league
   and rank statistically as one of the poorest in NBA history.
   
   ``At the end of the season,'' Auerbach said, ``except for [David]
   Wesley, [Antoine] Walker, and maybe Todd Day, that was a CBA team and
   not even a very good one. [Walker] and [Eric] Williams have got to
   have someone coach them with a firm hand, someone they can respect.''
   
   Walker, of course, played for Pitino at Kentucky. Publicly, he has had
   nothing but flattering things to say about his former boss. Pitino
   recently said that Walker ``needs to be coached'' and that the
   rookie's fairly impressive statistics should be thrown out ``because
   they don't mean a thing when your team is losing like the Celtics.''
   
   Michael Holley of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
   This story ran on page e1 of the Boston Globe on 04/30/97.
                  © Copyright 1997 Globe Newspaper Company
                                      
   Boston GlobeGlobe Sports
Bird may feel his work here is finished

   By Bob Ryan, Globe Columnist, 04/30/97
   
   You think you're confused with what's going on upstairs in the
   Celtics' offices? Don't feel bad. I know somebody equally curious.
   
   ``Help me out,'' says Larry Bird. ``I'm not sure what's going on
   myself.''
   
   No. 33 was given a mission some time back. Paul Gaston told him to
   scour the fruited plains and the purple mountains' majesty, not to
   mention the highways and the byways, of this great land of ours to see
   if there might be a qualified man or two interested in coaching the
   Boston Celtics. ``Bring me back a short list of candidates you'd like
   to see handling our team,'' Gaston said to his special assistant.
   
   Larry did so. And now?
   
   ``In the next week or so,'' says Bird, ``somebody - not me - has got
   to make some decision to declare where we stand.''
   
   Of course, the last Larry heard, the Celtics still had a coach. Until
   someone tells him differently, Bird assumes his old teammate M.L. Carr
   is that man.
   
   ``I don't know what M.L. knows,'' Bird explains. ``I assume he and
   Paul talk. I know they're very close.''
   
   If they really are that close, perhaps it's time Mr. Gaston broke to
   Mr. Carr the obvious bad news, since we know M.L. isn't going to be
   the mentor much longer. Red Auerbach certainly doesn't seem confused.
   
   ``Yeah, we're gonna have a new coach,'' the esteemed team president
   said yesterday.
   
   So let's back up here. M.L. Carr is the coach, as well as the
   executive vice president and director of basketball operations.
   Meanwhile, the team's chairman of the board dispatches his special
   assistant to solicit candidates for the head coaching position,
   presumably with the knowledge of the aforementioned coach/exec
   VP/director, who continues to maintain publicly that he would not be
   making any career decisions until after the season. However, the
   living legend team president cheerfully acknowledges the past tense
   coaching status of the triple-title fellow, which comes as news to the
   special assistant, who certainly assumes there will be a new coach -
   why else would the chairman have sent him on the mission to start
   with? - but who has absolutely no idea where this would leave the
   triple-title guy. The special assistant was just doing what he was
   asked to do; no more, no less.
   
   Suddenly, it isn't at all difficult to understand how this team won
   just 15 games.
   
   There is one, and only one, thing we know for certain. If there is one
   thing we can wrap up and transport safely to the savings institution
   of our choice, it is this: Whoever the new coach turns out to be, it
   will most definitely not be Larry Bird himself.
   
   ``I said I would never coach the Boston Celtics, and I meant it,''
   Bird stresses. ``I want to be remembered here as a player. That number
   is up there because I played here. I'm not going to tamper with that.
   I don't care if the team had a Robert, a Kevin, a DJ, and a Jordan in
   their prime.''
   
   OK, so Larry Bird will never coach the Boston Celtics. But there are
   little birds, as it were, whispering in many ears saying it would not
   be shocking if he were to wind up coaching somewhere else.
   
   Larry Bird working for someone else?
   
   ``If I do,'' he says, ``I do.''
   
   Excuse us, Larry, but since when are you interested in coaching
   anywhere?
   
   ``Since my back started feeling better,'' he explains. ``I've been
   thinking about a lot of things.''
   
   The Celtics' decision-making process, if that's what you call it, has
   Bird understandably daydreaming about life in some other organization.
   Simply put, No. 33 wants this team to excrete or relocate.
   
   ``I was asked to get together a list of coaches I thought could come
   to Boston and get the job done,'' Bird explains. ``I was asked to see
   if these people would have any interest in coming to Boston. Most of
   them were interested. Some were not. I came back with the list. I
   said, `Now you take over.'''
   
   Bird has tried oh so hard to stay out of the M.L. Carr mess. He always
   liked M.L. He went on record long ago as saying that M.L. was a
   fabulous teammate and would always have a place on any team he was on.
   He has told his owner that he's not out to get any of M.L.'s jobs.
   He's operating on the assumption that he and M.L. will always be
   friends.
   
   But you have to assume that if every halfway intelligent fan can see
   the Celtics are a sadly rudderless team whose best young players are
   sadly delusionary on the subject of their true NBA status, an astute
   basketball observer such as Larry Bird can see it, too. And you have
   to assume that if every halfway intelligent fan knew that the signings
   of the likes of Pervis Ellison and Dana Barros to oppressive long-term
   contracts were mind-boggingly ludicrous executive acts, Larry Bird can
   see it, too.
   
   Do any of us really need for Bird to embarrass M.L. by saying the
   Celtics have essentially been uncoached these past two years when we
   can see it for ourselves? Whoever the new coach turns out to be will
   have the daunting task of informing both Eric Williams and Antoine
   Walker that their real NBA careers have yet to begin. The latter
   doesn't seem to have the slightest conception of what it will take to
   become a real player - as opposed to an accumulator of statistics -
   and the fault lies with his so-called coach, who should have ripped
   the stat sheets out of his prodigy's hands the first time he started
   drooling over the fraudulent numbers he was piling up on a pathetic
   team.
   
   All of this is startlingly self-evident to anyone with a rudimentary
   knowledge of the NBA. I would say Larry Bird falls into that category,
   wouldn't you?
   
   But these are the 1997 Boston Celtics. There is a chairman of the
   board. There is a president. There is a general manager (don't forget
   about him). There is a coach/executive vice president/director of
   basketball operations. And there is a special assistant who frankly
   admits he doesn't know how decisions are made.
   
   ``I put together the list,'' Bird says. ``Now all I want is for us to
   get someone who will get the fans excited and who will get these guys
   playing some basketball.''
   
   Wouldn't we all?
   
   Bob Ryan is a Globe columnist.
   
   This story ran on page e1 of the Boston Globe on 04/30/97.
                  © Copyright 1997 Globe Newspaper Company

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Bob Strauss      "Duke of URL"                   Cataloger
Hunter Library                                   Western Carolina U.
strauss@wcu.edu
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"Where Wigs with Wigs, with Sword-knots Sword-knots strive,
 Beaus banish Beaus, and Coaches Coaches drive."
                    Alexander Pope, writing perhaps the finest
                    rhymed couplet in the English language.
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