The Philadelphia Story

[JASPINDLER@aol.com]

I thought that the list would find this view from the other side of the fence
fascinating........

Thursday, June 26, 1997


         Sixers fuel war with Celts and get their man 

       The best thing to come out of this draft week is the explosive revival
of the Sixers-Celtics
       rivalry.

Larry Brown, the new Sixers coach, seems to delight in beating Rick Pitino.
Not just beating him,
but beating him bloody.

Brown and new vice president Billy King proved to be masterful draft
poker-players. All along, Tim
Thomas was a name high on their wish list. But it wasn't enough to just draft
the freshman out of
Villanova.

There was the Pitino factor.

Pitino wanted Keith Van Horn, and, hey, if the Sixers could get Thomas and
keep Pitino from
getting the guy he wanted, it would be pretty much a perfect night of
drafting.

Which it was.

Bad blood is now speeding through the northeast corridor between Philly and
Beantown.

The deception by Pitino in the Dino Radja affair just gave Brown and King
more motivation. All you
need to know about how Brown feels about Pitino is this:

When he referred to him last night, he didn't mention him by name but as
``this guy with the choir [
boy ] eyes.''

So once again there is war between the Celtics and the Sixers. Lovely. The
timing couldn't be
better. Both teams have been down and out for a million years, and now they
are at the beginning of
rebuilding programs led by ruthless coaches and deal makers.

Thomas, the guy with all-star talent, promises to be a centerpiece in the
battles on the court that are
sure to follow.

But not right away.

There is no doubt among any of the NBA experts that Thomas has the potential
to be one of the
best players in the league. You would not know this from watching him play
his one year in college
at Villanova.

At times he took over games, at other times he was a virtual ghost on the
court. And in the biggest
game of the season, against California in the NCAA tournament, his
disappearance in the second
half -- when his team needed him the most -- was conspicuous. He didn't have
a field goal in the
second half.

Thomas has always been the best player on every team since high school. What
is bothersome
about him is that he showed virtually no improvement as his only college
season progressed.

In fact, his most productive games came at the beginning of the season. Maybe
he decided early
that he was going pro and simply lost interest.

That is putting the best possible face on it.

A darker interpretation is that he simply doesn't work hard.

Brown will fix that. For the first time in Thomas' career, he will have a
coach who can and will teach
him how to play basketball. Brown will not tolerate Thomas' standing around
the three-point line,
waiting for the ball to come to him. 

Brown will have the luxury of bringing Thomas along slowly. Jim Jackson will
play shooting guard,
Allen Iverson the point and Jerry Stackhouse will move to small forward. That
means Thomas will
be the backup to Stackhouse.

Thomas will not be put in a position where he is rushed too soon. He will be
given time to allow his
skills to catch up with his potential. He will be given time to prove that he
is willing and able to play
defense, something he seldom did for the Wildcats.

When he was asked about his defense, Thomas always said that he was forced to
guard smaller,
quicker guards. He won't have that excuse in the NBA.

He is a half-inch short of 6-foot-10 -- a legitimate NBA body-type -- and can
run, shoot and
handle the ball. If he develops as Brown thinks he will, then Thomas will
give the Sixers a great
insurance policy at the end of next season if Stackhouse decides to test the
free-agent market when
his contract runs out.

It was a good pick, one the Sixers wanted all along.

What makes it even sweeter is how they got the guy they wanted and stuck it
to Pitino, too.

Everyone knew there would be resentment when the shark with the choirboy eyes
turned up his
nose at the Sixers to become the highest-paid coach in the league.

If Pitino sits on your bench, he's slick. If he's on the enemy bench, he's
sleazy.

Look what he did with Radja. He shipped him to Philly knowing that Radja
couldn't climb into a
little red wagon, never mind play an NBA season.

As recently as yesterday Pitino was still playing his game of deception.
``When Dino left us two
weeks ago he looked great,'' Pitino said. ``He was playing tennis, playing
one-on-one basketball.
He was excited, everything was great. Then we find out when he's in
Philadelphia he sees two other
doctors, and they found something totally different. Where the truth is, I'm
not sure on this one.''

The truth is not coming out of his mouth.

Yesterday morning Pitino assured the Sixers' brain trust that he would not
ask for arbitration on the
Radja deal.

Then he asked the league for arbitration.

So last night Brown and King and Pat Croce -- who couldn't talk about this
deal with Jersey --
were silently celebrating getting the guy they wanted all along in Thomas and
beating Pitino out of
Van Horn in the process.

Take this week as an official declaration that the Celtics-Sixers war is in
full swing again.