Bird + Celtics columns from 3/26 Boston Globe. We gotta keep Bird!

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Boston GlobeGlobe Sports
On basketball: Bird is feeling caged

   By Peter May, 03/26/97
   
   Attention, NBA owners: There is an increasingly itchy, antsy
   fortysomething resident of Florida who might be able to help your
   team. More to the point, he may even want to help your team, whether
   you are in California, Texas, or Canada.
   
   Larry Bird is getting closer and closer to moving back to the NBA and
   he said in a wide-ranging phone interview yesterday from his Naples,
   Fla., home that he is not the least bit reticent to do so in a city
   other than Boston. That includes coaching, he said.
   
   ``I probably would take any coaching job in the league,'' he said,
   ``except the Boston Celtics. If I got to put together the team I
   wanted and the assistants, I would. I wouldn't do it if it were the
   Celtics.''
   
   Bird did not elaborate, but it was clear from his tone that his
   history as a player in Boston might in some way preclude him from
   coaching the team.
   
   ``I'd never coach the Celtics,'' he said. ``I just couldn't. But I'd
   do it for anyone else in the league.''
   
   Larry Bird calling the shots somewhere else? Larry Bird as coach of
   the, ahem, Clippers? Or Pacers? Can you imagine what marquee-conscious
   Clipper owner Donald Sterling would do if he felt he could get Bird on
   his payroll? Or Pat Riley with his bottomless pockets and enduring
   antipathy for the Celtics? Can you imagine the fallout in Boston if
   Paul Gaston is remembered as the owner who allowed Bird to fly away?
   
   ``Larry's a part of the Celtics and we value his input as we value the
   input of all the people in our basketball operation,'' Gaston said
   yesterday. ``I would hope he'd be a part of the Celtics for many years
   to come.''
   
   Gaston did not want to comment on the what-if proposition of Bird
   leaving.
   
   This is the second time in three days that Bird has addressed his
   growing impatience with semiretirement. He at times appears to
   contradict himself, but through his words comes the inescapable
   conclusion that he's up to something. He says nothing without thinking
   it through and evaluating every possible reaction. It may be a shot
   across the bow to Boston ownership to get its act together. It may be
   a message to M.L. Carr that there is work to be done and that the
   coach/basketball operations chief needs help. And it surely is a
   message that he has had enough time in the Florida sun.
   
   ``I couldn't put a percentage on it, but I am probably as close as
   I've ever been or ever will be'' to getting back into the game, Bird
   said. ``If it's not next year, then soon I will be doing something.
   Retirement is for people over 65. I'm too young for this.'' (Bird
   turned 40 last Dec. 7.)
   
   ``I'm getting edgy. Whether it's the front office, or coaching, or
   even assistant coaching, I want to get involved. I used to sleep eight
   or 10 hours a night when I played. Now I get by with five, which gives
   me five more hours with nothing to do. I've got a lot of free time.''
   
   Bird has served the Celtics as a ``special assistant'' since his 1992
   retirement, and there is nothing in his arrangement with the
   organization that would preclude him from going to another team. The
   inner workings of the organization have at times left him utterly
   frustrated. He often talks about the unending layers of
   decision-makers. He thinks there are too many yes men and wouldn't
   hesitate to do what he felt needed to be done.
   
   ``I am not afraid of making a decision like that,'' Bird said,
   referring to in-house changes. ``If I came there, or wherever I do go,
   I will make it. I would move them or get rid of them. Everyone has to
   be held accountable. With the Celtics, I wouldn't go in there and work
   with some of the people they have. There are people there who have to
   be held accountable for what they do.''
   
   He continued, ``Now people are going to read that and say, `Oh sure,
   he's coming to Boston,' and there's no question that the Celtics will
   always be my first choice. But I'm not going to step on anyone's toes
   or back-door anyone. Paul has told me I can have a role. And I think I
   can bring something to the table. At least I hope I can. But I don't
   know what the state of mind of the Celtics is.''
   
   Bird is especially hesitant to be viewed as the one-man cavalry in
   Boston. He and Carr were teammates for six years. Assistant coach
   Dennis Johnson was a teammate for seven. Regarding Gaston, he said,
   ``The Gaston family has been great to me. A lot of people don't know
   Paul. I just wouldn't want to sit near him during a game. And if I
   came there, I wouldn't.''
   
   As for Carr, Bird said he wants his former teammate to succeed.
   
   ``I know everybody is saying this and that, but I think M.L. deserves
   a chance to coach this team. And I will always feel that there is a
   place for him in the organization,'' Bird said. ``I have a lot of
   respect for him. But right now he's catching a lot of grief and I hate
   to see that. When I hear all that stuff, it makes me want to throw up.
   I want M.L. to be there and be a part of it when it does turn around
   and we win the championship. I want all of us to be there. Maybe
   there's a way. Right now I don't know.''
   
   If not Boston, then where? Well, as Bird said, he isn't picky. The one
   natural landing spot would seem to be Indiana. The Pacers have courted
   him in the past, but Bird said, ``I hear the Indiana stuff, too, but I
   don't know if they would be interested in me.''
   
   He said he greatly admires Pacers president Donnie Walsh - ``he's one
   of the best'' - and has similar feelings about the coach, Larry Brown.
   
   ``He's right up there with Pat Riley, Rick Pitino, Hubie Brown,'' said
   Bird. ``Them guys can coach. Bill Fitch. Them guys know what they're
   doing.''
   
   Bird is asked if he also has heard the rumors that no one expects
   Brown to return to Indiana after this season.
   
   ``I can't speculate on that,'' he said. ``All I know is that he's a
   great coach, one of the best I ever played against.''
   
   Bird also is an unabashed Pitino booster. He has heard the clamor to
   bring in the Kentucky coach. He also knows the Kentucky coach is not
   averse to making the jump.
   
   ``It's hard for me to say, `Bring in Rick Pitino,''' he said. ``It all
   depends on what M.L. wants to do. But I do think you can't do
   everything. I mean, you look in Miami and everyone says it's all Pat
   Riley. Well, Pat Riley has a team. They work together. Randy [Pfund],
   guys like that. M.L. don't have that team. He does everything.''
   
   Except, of course, at draft time. The next two months will be critical
   to the short- and long-term future of the Celtics, and Bird already
   knows what's in store. He has told Carr that he feels the team should
   start its usual meetings a week earlier than normal. But he said that
   with so many people involved in the decision-making process, it
   borders on the ludicrous.
   
   ``If I was there, I would hear from the scouts and then I'd tell them
   to leave,'' he said. ``Then I'd sit down with my coach and say, `Who
   do you want? Can you coach him?' That kind of stuff. And we'd make the
   decision.
   
   ``Now you have all these people and one of them leaves to make a phone
   call, and when he returns, we've already talked about three guys. It's
   crazy. A madhouse. People are going in and out all the time. M.L.
   tries to let everyone have his say, but I think some of the people
   want to say they like so-and-so just because he likes the guy. Last
   year, when we went around the room, I told him, `M.L., you shut up
   until everyone else has had his say.'''
   
   This year there's no debate over No. 1, if the Celtics get the pick -
   Tim Duncan. Beyond that, there will be plenty. There will be plenty of
   discussions, evaluations, reviews, arguments, and, eventually, a pick.
   
   It may be Bird's last draft with the Celtics. It may be his first in a
   new role.
   
   ``I'm going crazy sitting around here, and if Dinah brings any more of
   my kids' friends in, I'm going to go somewhere tomorrow,'' he cracked.
   ``I mean, it got so bad that I was arguing with a guy about a tee
   time. Can you imagine that? A tee time. And he called four times.
   Dinah said to me, `When you start doing that, it's time.'
   
   ``You know what? She's right.''
   
   This story ran on page f1 of the Boston Globe on 03/26/97.
Boston GlobeGlobe Sports
Celtics Notebook: Williams works on his defending - of Carr

   By Michael Holley, Globe Staff, 03/26/97
   
   WALTHAM - Eric Williams places his hands on his hips, looks ahead, and
   declares what he believes to be the obvious: He is a better player
   this year than he was last.
   
   Now in most cases, such a statement would not begin to reach
   controversial levels. You have a second-year pro who has learned to
   initiate contact in order to get to the free throw line more often;
   who has learned that good players become role players if they are not
   armed with a 15-foot jumper; who has learned that 37 excess pounds in
   the offseason are helpful only if you want a career in sumo wrestling.
   
   This is all standard. Except Williams is coached by M.L. Carr. And
   hasn't it been said repeatedly that Williams and his best friend,
   Antoine Walker, will not become better players under Carr? What will
   Carr be able to teach them and, possibly, Tim Duncan?
   
   ``Man, that's a bunch of [expletive],'' Williams said yesterday.
   ``Sometimes I sit there and watch TV and see all the stuff people are
   saying about Coach. They have no idea what he does for us and what he
   goes through. I'd go to war with that man. I respect him as a man.
   He's like a big brother to me.''
   
   That, say the legion of critics, is part of the problem. They see Carr
   joking with fans on the sideline. They hear his
   ``championship-driven'' comments and place those words underneath
   standings that show the Celtics are 13-57. They mock his prediction
   that at this time next year, the Celtics will be on their way to the
   playoffs.
   
   The opposition takes all that and wonders if this man is capable of
   guiding a young, talented team.
   
   ``I'm not going to get into that,'' Carr said. Some of the critics, he
   said, ``have deep-rooted problems. And those problems manifest
   themselves in different ways. I'm not going to play that petty game.''
   
   But Williams, the second first-round pick made under Carr's
   leadership, is bothered by the pleas of fans and media for a switch on
   the sideline and in the front office.
   
   ``I'm getting tired of it,'' Williams said. ``We're the ones doing a
   bad job on the court, not him. This is a guy who has taken the heat
   for the players and has always been supportive of the players. He's
   been a part of winners ever since he joined the Boston Celtics.''
   
   But is he a good coach?
   
   ``He's a good coach and a good teacher,'' Williams said. ``He makes
   sure we take care of business. Coming down on him doesn't make sense.
   It's coming from a lot of people who have never played the game.''
   
   In defense of those anonymous critics, it probably would not make a
   difference whether they played the game or not if they were speaking
   the truth. Williams, though, insists that he would like to play for
   Carr again next year. He also believes the team can be successful
   under him.
   
   There are players who have questioned Carr's decisions and coaching
   methods. One of those critics will not be with the team next season
   (but not because he criticized the boss). Another one acknowledges
   that he prefers Carr's style to that of ex-Celtics coach Chris Ford.
   
   As for Carr, he maintains that he will not fight back on criticism
   that one team official called ``character assassination.'' The coach
   points to Williams's 15-point average and knack of getting to the line
   (10 or more times in seven of the last 11 games). He points to
   Walker's 16-point, 9-rebound average. He lets others make judgments
   from there.
   
   Meanwhile, Williams, hands on hips, continues to say the current model
   is better than the one from 1996. He says he didn't get that way by
   himself.
   
   Zero precedent
   
   It is official: No team in NBA history has gone a season without
   winning a division game. In fact, no team in league history has ended
   a season with only one division win. The Celtics play their 20th
   Atlantic Division game tonight in Landover, Md., against the Bullets.
   Assuming they lose (they have won only three road games), their best
   chance for division wins will come Friday vs. the 76ers and April 18
   against the Sixers ... Rick Fox (arch) did not practice yesterday.
   Carr said he will play tonight ... Carr said he had ``no ill will''
   toward a local writer who called him an idiot. ``There's no place for
   that, and I'm not just talking about me,'' Carr said. ``I don't think
   name-calling is good in a day when people are prepared to pull out a
   .9mm to settle something. We should all be above that. We should not
   send that message to children that it's OK to get into name-calling,
   calling people idiots. I'll say a prayer for him tonight.''
   
   This story ran on page f5 of the Boston Globe on 03/26/97.

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Bob Strauss      "Duke of URL"                   Cataloger
Hunter Library                                   Western Carolina U.
strauss@wcu.edu
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"Sometimes the internet appears to be a gigantic book, and one which
has many pages glued together. At these times, "mere" paper is far
more preferable."
                                 --Bob Strauss, 1997
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