Bird and Patino

[Jeremy Warren <jwarren@emerald.tufts.edu>]

	If Bird becomes GM at the end of the season that doesn't
automatically eliminate the possibility of Patino taking the coaching job
(without total control).  Last year Patino said he wanted total control as
a diplomatic way of saying he didn't have confidence in M.L.'s decision
making ability.
	And at the end of this season the Celtic's job will look a lot
more favorable than it did last year.  We'll have two lottery picks
(hopefully one will be the first overall), his former star player
(Antoine), and a team that did worse than it should have (partly due to
injuries).  Thus it will be easier for Patino to turn them around than a
team that was among the leagues worst while completely healthy.  This is
similar to Bill Parcell's interest in the NY Jets.  They have far more
talent than their 1-15 record indicates.  So he comes in, maybe they go
8-8 and he takes all of the credit.
	Anyways I think Patino would coach for Bird especially if he had
Duncan in the mix.  And yes bird is unproven as a GM, but he would at
least give us credibility with free agents (as would Patino).  Oh and one
other thing about the article Mishra posted.  I don't think not commenting
on ML's future status has anything to do with him being Black.  If Paul
Gaston were to come out and say "ML will be replaced at the end of the
year", he would be a complete @$$hole.  When you're the owner of the team,
you don't stab a guy in the back when he's holding down the fort during
the "deconstruction" period.
	We do owe M.L. some gratitude for his willingness to sacrifice his
own reputation by not making trades that would benefit the team this year
and hurt us in the long term.  He's a team player in that he's willing to
let his coaching record be abysmal even though he could theoretically add
some players into the mix this year and improve the team record wise.
	For this reason, I would love to see Gaston allow M.L. to hire
Patino himself (as his own replacement) before stepping aside to Larry.
Obviously behind the scenes Patino would know that Larry's on his way.
But publicly M.L. would be allowed to say,"I've done my part. Now I'm
doing what's best for the Celtic's family."

Jeremy