Re: Bird and Patino

["David J. Boutte" <djboutte@dorsai.org>]

> 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.


I think mentioning M.L.'s race is valid because of who his possible 
replacement (Larry Bird) is. One has to ask, what credentials does 
Larry have that M.L. doesn't and what makes people think that Larry 
would do better? If a proven GM were to be brought in and he happens 
to be white, then mentioning the race of M.L. would not be warranted. 
Therefore, I believe that Mishra meant that the Celtics may be 
guarded against putting out the PERCEPTION that replacing a black man 
with a white one will automatically make everything right again. 

Whatever happens, I agree that it should be noted that M.L. was willing to 
take the heat when it was obvious that the team would not win many 
games. To his credit, there is no apparent dissension on the team and 
there's no team in the NBA that gives more effort. In addition, the 
team does appear to be in position to take some giant steps towards 
improving, partly because of good decision making and partly because 
of luck.  For a team that has such a terrible record, the situation 
is about as good as can be hoped for.

(Don't get me wrong, its still very hard to accept losing, even 
though I'd like to see Mr. Duncan in green)


David J. Boutte

BTW, I thought that Walker would be rookie of the month instead of 
Marbury.  Does anyone have their respective stats for the month of 
January?