Pitino (again)

[Michael Murray <michaelm@flex.com.au>]

Pitino meets with Kentucky players to discuss Celtics' situation

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 5, 1997 - 01:50 EST) -- Kentucky coach Rick Pitino met
with his players Sunday night, but didn't tell them whether he's going to
accept a lucrative offer from the Boston Celtics, according to several
reports.

Pitino told The Boston Globe that the meeting, which lasted more than an
hour, "was very emotional ... on both sides, emotional for me and emotional
for the kids."

Pitino said he told his players that he expected to make a decision Monday
or Tuesday. But Antoine Walker, a former Kentucky star who now plays for
the Celtics, said that after speaking with Pitino on Sunday he got the
impression the coach will take the Celtics' job.

"I got the feeling he's coming," said Walker, who was shooting baskets in
the Kentucky gym when Pitino arrived for the meeting with his players.

A Lexington television station, WKYT, said the Celtics' offer to Pitino has
been increased to more than $70 million -- $7 million a year for 10 seasons
and a 3 percent ownership in the team.

Previous reports estimated the offer at about $45 million.

Pitino, who played basketball at the University of Massachusetts and
coached at Boston University, told the Globe that if he returned to Boston
"it would be for the challenge and not for the money."

Pitino said his emotional connection with his Kentucky players has made the
decision difficult. He said if the Celtics' offer "had come up 10 years
ago, it would have been a no-brainer. I'd have been gone to the Celtics in
an instant."

Kentucky forward Scott Padgett called his parents in Louisville after
Sunday night's meeting.

"They don't know anything except coach (Pitino) is considering it," the
player's father, Wilbur, told the (Lexington) Herald-Leader. "The players
don't think they'll know anything before Tuesday or Wednesday."

Pitino, who coached the New York Knicks from 1987-89, was reportedly
impressed with Celtics chairman Paul Gaston.

A source told the Globe that Gaston "promised he wouldn't talk to another
coach until Rick made up his mind and Gaston has kept his word -- he hasn't
talked to anybody else. And that impressed Rick greatly."

Walker, who drove to Lexington after attending Saturday's Kentucky Derby,
said he would love to play for Pitino again. Walker played on Kentucky's
national championship team in 1996.

"It would be great having coach Pitino as coach again," Walker said. "It
wouldn't be great just for me, but for everybody."

C.M. Newton, Kentucky's athletic director, said Sunday night that he still
expects to meet with Pitino on Tuesday or Wednesday.

"I haven't talked with Rick since Thursday," Newton told the Globe. "There
hasn't been any reason to talk to him since then."

Pitino's contract at Kentucky runs through the 1999-2000 season. It pays
him a base salary of $150,000, but the total package is worth more than $2
million a year and includes a $1 million bonus for staying until 2000.

M.L. Carr resigned as Boston's coach last Wednesday after the worst season
in franchise history. The Celtics finished 15-67 this season and compiled a
48-116 record in Carr's two seasons as coach.