Re: Bad Mouthing Dino

[Adam A Suchocki <Twilight@world.std.com>]

For the record, I think Dino has screwed up by not going public and either
showing up for the physical or stating what exactly he is doing, but on
the other hand, his side of all of this is getting run over, and I'm a
little annoyed at Pitino's propaganda attacks and such...

First, the papers reported that Dino's wife was due to give birth to their
first child any day now (the expected date was in three days for what it's
worth).  Supposedly no one can find Dino - has anyone checked the local
hospitals to see if Zeljanna has checked in to one.

Second, in an interview several days before the trade, Dino went on record
as saying he had been told that the Celtics would not trade him.  He
stated that he appreciated them being up front with him and telling him
where he stands, because he has had serious problems with previous
organizations telling him he's part of the future and then constantly
dangling him on the trade blocks.  He seemed to truly have believed
Pitino's claim that he would not be traded this year.

Dino had also publicly claimed he only wanted to play for the Celtics,
because it was a personal challenge to rebuild after the last few years
and prove the team could win.  He said he might retire to Europe if
traded.  Pitino then comes out with "spin control" and starts throwing
around the "Club Med" joke, trying to make it look like DIno was making
unrealistic demands.  If you were suddenly told that the team was going to
trade you to one of four unknowned places, and they asked you where you
would like to go, 99% of the league would answer a contender first, then
somewhere warm, preferably both.  Dino didn't ask to be traded, or even to
be traded to a warm contender, he was asked for his preference of where to
play, because now the team that said it wouldn't trade him was definately
going to trade him.

Pitino's details of the "infamous" talk between Wallace and Radja the day
before the trade keep changing.  First he claimed that they asked Radja to
stay the summer, and his refusal lead to the trade.  Then he states that
Radja was told in the conversation that the Celtics had four trades
involving him on the table, and they wanted his input as to where he would
like to be moved to.  The first is pretty irrelavent if the second was
part of the conversation, but Pitino threw out the fact that Dino wouldn't
stay the summer the instant news of the trade surfaced (though somehow the
initial report was that Dino refused to stay the summer, and later reports
said Dino was going to go to Croatia for a few weeks, and would spend the
rest of the summer in Boston - and this seems in keeping with Antoine
Walker, who is spending part of the summer in Chicago).

Again, I feel Dino is screwing up big time by not at least contacting
Boston and Philly and talking.  At the same time, I feel Pitino has
handled this much worse than he should have.  First, if he told Dino he
would not be traded, he should have handled the dealings with Dino much
better (instead of publicly ridiculing the guy for being upset that Pitino
went back on his wod.  Second, he should have given Dino a chance to work
things out (and take the physical) before launching his media attack.  I
think he may have made it less likely for Dino to show up by attacking
him.  Dino is already set for life (he was before he ever entered the
NBA).  He has made it clear he was playing for pride, not money - and I
think if management had taken a different tack with Dino, all of this
could have been avoided - but I think Pitino went on the offensive from
the beginning, because he wasn't sure how the press would treat his
trading of his only legitiamte post player for an undersized powerforward.
If he had dealt with Dino more squarely, Dino would probably have gone to
Philly right away (assuming his wife isn't in labor) or made apublic
announcement that he was retiring.  Now all we have is two parties
unwilling to deal with eachother, who might be stuck with eachother for
another three years.  Although the specifics of the deal may have shown
good management sense, the handling of it was truly bush league.

Adam