Ryan's column, today, explains a lot.

[STRAUSS@WCUVAX1.WCU.EDU]

        'Eric Williams just wasn't going to work out here. He wasn't
      committing himself to this organization from a time standpoint.'
                                      
    'That's a great trade, because I would have traded Eric Williams for
                           Chris Mills, even up.'
                                      
                                RICK PITINO
                                      
     _________________________________________________________________
                                      
   By Bob Ryan, Globe Columnist, 08/27/97
   
   [INLINE] hen the team is 15-67, just exactly who is valuable?
   
   Rick Pitino has already provided part of the answer. He has dispensed
   with the second-, third-, fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-leading scorers
   on the 1996-97 Celtics.
   
   There are now just five players left from the crew that gave you that
   wonderful 15-67 season, and before too long that list might be reduced
   even more. (In other words, if I were you, Pervis, I would keep that
   suitcase where I could lay my hands on it quickly.) So what exactly is
   going on? Is there a master plan? Or has Move A simply led to Move B,
   and so on?
   
   ''There is a master plan,'' reveals Pitino. ''With our moves, we were
   trying to accomplish three things.
   
   ''1. We wanted people with a great threshold for work.
   
   ''2. We wanted people with tremendous upside.
   
   ''3. We wanted to create flexibility. If something major were ever to
   come along, we wanted people here who could be part of a trade.''
   
   Rick Pitino RICK PITINO
   (Globe Staff Photo / Jim Davis)
   
   Pitino surprised some people by trading Eric Williams, all the more so
   because he really did give him away, accepting a pair of second-round
   picks from Denver in return. In the NBA, second-round picks are about
   as useful as goalie sticks.
   
   Personally, I felt that dumping Williams was a sign of Pitino's true
   sagacity. In fact, I had made that a litmus test. I figured that
   Pitino would really impress me if he saw through the 14 points a game
   and recognized Williams for the self-delusionary player, and person,
   he really was. So consider me impressed.
   
   ''Eric Williams just wasn't going to work out here,'' says Pitino.
   ''He wasn't committing himself to this organization from a time
   standpoint.''
   
   We found out all we needed to know about Williams and his approach to
   his job last year when he celebrated a reasonably successful rookie
   year by attempting to bulk up for the lead in ''The Refrigerator Perry
   Story'' during the offseason. What he did by gaining 30 pounds in
   between basketball gigs was reveal a lack of respect for his coach,
   his teammates, his profession, and even himself.
   
   Now, if that were the one and only blemish on his Boston record, and
   if he had demonstrated complete remorse for his actions, and if he had
   then done everything in his power to prove that he was truly serious
   about his job, he could easily be forgiven.
   
   But that was not the case. Without getting into specifics, Pitino says
   that Williams had multiple opportunities this summer to demonstrate a
   legitimate commitment to personal improvement, and shunned them all.
   Williams is clearly comfortable doing it his way. He is satisfied with
   his level in the NBA. He wasn't willing to be a Pitino ballplayer. And
   so he is better off elsewhere. Pitinoland is no place for the
   slothful.
   
   Anyway, says Pitino, he didn't trade Williams for two second-rounders.
   Not really. In his mind, he has traded Eric Williams for Chris Mills
   and Tyus Edney.
   
   ''That's a great trade,'' he maintains, ''because I would have traded
   Eric Williams for Chris Mills, even-up.''
   
   Pitino looks at the 27-year-old Mills and sees the kind of dedicated
   player he needs to improve the team.
   
   ''We sort of lucked into him because the salary cap has gone up,''
   Pitino says. ''His numbers are deceiving because he played for
   Cleveland in a possession game. He had 12 [points] and 6 [rebounds] in
   a low-possession game. He'll do better with us.''
   
   The mentor also regards the durable Cleveland expatriate as the
   precise kind of workaholic athlete he is lusting for.
   
   Edney, Pitino explains, is potentially valuable to the Celtics in both
   specific and general terms.
   
   ''With Dana Barros coming off [foot] surgery, Edney represents
   insurance at the point guard position,'' says Pitino. ''Dana might
   come back 100 percent, but right now we can't be sure. But I'm happy
   to have Edney. He's as good as there is on the break, where he can
   push it up with anyone and makes great decisions. He can really get
   deep into the lane. Defensively, he is a legitimate pest who gets up
   on people, and he should fit into our style of play.''
   
   The names Pitino has brought in do not excite the average fan. Travis
   Knight? Andrew DeClercq? Bruce Bowen? Chris Mills? Tyus Edney? Hardly
   a Scottie Pippen among 'em. Many's the time I've heard someone say
   during the past two months, ''Can you imagine if M.L. had done this?
   They'd be assembling the scaffold.''
   
   I don't doubt that for a second, and therein lies a major difference
   between M.L. Carr and Rick Pitino. We observed M.L. long enough to see
   that he had no legitimate long-range plan whatsoever. Even his one
   undeniably good move (the Montross deal with Dallas) we chalked up,
   rightly or wrongly, to beginner's luck. The eternal perception was
   that M.L. was a thorough amateur masquerading as both a GM and a
   coach. Contrast that with Pitino's image. He may be many things, but a
   basketball amateur he is not. Anyone who knows anything about the game
   is aware that he is a basketball scholar who commands respect at the
   highest levels of both the college and professional game.
   
   The Celtics were nothing but a six-month amateur hour last year, and
   it would actually have been nice for them to refund half the money to
   their season ticket-holders. Rick Pitino really promises only one
   thing, but it is very important. Effective immediately, the operation
   will now be professional.
   
   ''I plan on reading the definition from the dictionary to them the
   first day of practice,'' Pitino promises. ''I will stress to them that
   professional in this context means coming to play all the time.''
   
   In this regard he is already mightily impressed with what he has seen
   and heard from Dee Brown, who has set the tone for the entire team
   with his ceaseless offseason work.
   
   ''Dee has the most professional attitude I've seen in a long, long
   time,'' salutes Pitino.
   
   ''When you win just 15,'' Pitino points out, ''it's not just a matter
   of talent. It's also a matter of attitude.''
   
   Playing under M.L. Carr, Eric Williams never learned what
   professionalism means. Antoine Walker still doesn't know. He and the
   others are about to find out.
   
   Bob Ryan is a Globe columnist.
   
   This story ran on page F01 of the Boston Globe on 08/27/97.
   © 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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"Knowledge has an important property. When you give it away, you
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