Several articles on Pitino & Celtics, from today's Boston Globe

[STRAUSS@WCUVAX1.WCU.EDU]

   This story ran on page a1 of the Boston Globe on 05/07/97.
   The Boston Globe
   
   Today's Globe coverage:
   
   A deal . . . and a shuffle: Pitino to be cornerstone in the rebuilding
   of the Celtics (By Michael Madden, Globe Staff)
   
   On basketball: Under squeeze of salary cap, it'll be years before the
   payoff (By Peter May, Globe Staff)
   
   Out: Volk is first to go but not last (By Michael Holley, Globe Staff)
   
   In or Out?: Bird says he'll talk about it (By Bob Ryan, Globe Staff)
   
   Suddenly, for Brown, it's easier being green (By Peter May, Globe
   Staff)
   
   Kentucky is a little blue (By Michael Madden, Globe Staff)
   <more in Globe>

   Look of leadership for Celtics
   
   By Bob Ryan, Globe Staff, 05/07/97
   
   Rick Pitino
   
   Bill Parcells was in New England, but not of it.
   
   Rick Pitino, two months ago, on the feasibility of coaching the Boston
   Celtics, now or ever: ``Nobody will have to sell me on Boston. I love
   that city.''
   
   Bill Parcells came to create a winning tradition for the New England
   Patriots. Rick Pitino comes to restore one to the Boston Celtics.
   
   ``It's a franchise full of glory, full of tradition, and full of
   wonderful pride,'' he declared yesterday. ``I would like to take it
   back to a championship level.''
   
   Rick Pitino could have remained at the University of Kentucky for the
   rest of his life, becoming a combination Mr. Chips/Dean Smith. He
   conceivably could have presided over the opening of the mythical
   25,000-seat Rick Pitino Center on campus. He could have repeated
   himself many times over, and he could have been happy. But yesterday
   he delighted Boston and deflated Lexington by announcing that he had
   accepted the position as head coach and head of basketball operations
   of the Celtics.
   
   Boston represents the perfect package for Pitino, 44, at this stage of
   his life. His coaching and talent evaluation skills have never been
   better. He is truly at the top of his game. The Celtics have a
   tradition that he respects and they truly need him. He has been given
   both the time (10 years) and the power (virtually unlimited) he needs
   to get the job done.
   
   The combination of what the Celtics represent and where they are
   located proved irresistible. As W.C. Fields might have said, all
   things considered, Pitino feels he'd rather be here than in Lexington.
   Kentucky, that is.
   
   He downplayed the money yesterday, but of course, those people who are
   already making more money than the rest of us could ever imagine (in
   his case, close to $3 million a year) always downplay the money as an
   abstract in explaining their decisions. The guessing is that the
   package is worth $65 million-$70 million for the duration, so any
   Pitino family financial worries should be alleviated.
   
   What Pitino means for the organization is credibility. He is a great
   coach, but there are low-profile people out there who could coach the
   team in a professional manner. Pitino happens to be the one man not
   currently already in the employ of an NBA team who is both the steak
   and the sizzle. He is, his recent protestations to the contrary,
   totally comfortable in the spotlight. He will coach, and coach darn
   well, but he will also be the public face of the organization. Over
   the next 10 years, when you think ``Boston Celtics,'' you are going to
   think ``Rick Pitino.'' He will work awesomely hard, but he will not be
   a hermit. Sooner or later, he will have his picture taken with Keith
   Lockhart; count on it.
   
   The very name Rick Pitino carries clout in the athletic world.
   Consider the curious happenings on Wall Street. On Monday, when it had
   become quite clear that the job was his if he wanted it and that he
   was leaning toward taking it, publicly traded Celtics stock shot up
   very close to 3 full points on the staggering volume of 263,100
   shares.
   
   The volume had been heading upward since last Wednesday, or ever since
   it was revealed (in, ahem, these very pages) that the Celtics had
   renewed their contact with the 44-year-old team-fixer extraordinaire.
   Last Tuesday, the volume was a quite typical 3,600 shares. On
   Wednesday, with the fresh news that Pitino-to-Boston was very much
   alive, the volume escalated to 19,100. By Thursday, it was 41,600. And
   so on. This didn't take place because someone had looked at the box
   score from the penultimate Celtic game and noticed that Brett Szabo
   had 15 points and 13 rebounds against the 76ers. It happened because
   Rick Pitino is Rick Pitino.
   
   People who wouldn't know the Wall Street Journal from ``American
   Journal'' have their own frame of reference. They know that Pitino has
   made a career out of taking handyman-special teams and turning them
   into glittering mansions Bob Vila would be proud of. He did it as a
   26-year-old wunderkind with Boston University (a pre-Pitino 7-19 to
   17-9 in two years); he did it at Providence College (a pre-Pitino
   11-20 to 25-9 and the Final Four in two years); he did it with the New
   York Knicks (a pre-Pitino 24-58 to 52-30 and an Atlantic Division
   title in two years); and he did it with the University of Kentucky (a
   pre-Pitino 13-19 to 22-6 in two years and 29-7 and the Final Four in
   three).
   
   He now assumes control of an undercoached - some would go so far as to
   say non-coached - 15-67 team, and it could be argued that this is his
   biggest challenge yet, although it should be pointed out that the
   Pitino viewpoint on just how difficult it will be to rebuild in a
   29-team league is a bit different from most people's.
   
   ``In some ways,'' he said, ``it may be easier to win 45 games in this
   league than it was when I was in the NBA before. When we won 52, there
   were a lot of good teams. The division was very good. The Central
   Division was an absolute killer. The Texas trip was brutal. When we
   won 52 games, it was wholly legitimate.''
   
   He needn't finish the thought. The NBA is an expansion-ravaged league
   in which most teams have no bench strength whatsoever. If the Celtics
   are fortunate enough to win the draft lottery May 18, they would be in
   position to get a potential impact player in Tim Duncan, a
   shot-blocking/rebounding/passing center who, almost by definition,
   makes other players better. If they don't win it, well, they'll at
   least get two decent young players, and whatever group emerges from
   training camp next year will be professionally prepared to play an
   82-game NBA schedule.
   
   Rick Pitino represents that most precious of all human virtues - hope.
   Paul Gaston, the Celtics' frequently (and rightfully) maligned
   chairman of the board, has addressed the business needs of his team
   and the psychic need of the fans with this one hiring. He gets a
   highly qualified coach and chief executive who not only wants to
   succeed, but who wants to succeed here.
   
   The long local nightmare is over. Rick Pitino will make the Celtics
   relevant again.
   _______________________________________________
   
A deal . . . and a shuffle: Pitino to be cornerstone in the rebuilding of the
Celtics

   By Michael Madden, Globe Staff, 05/07/97
   
   LEXINGTON, Ky. - Hope returned to the storied Boston Celtics franchise
   yesterday after a decade of despair. And, new coach Rick Pitino
   promised, championships will follow.
   
   ``I am able now to take on what I think is one of the greatest
   traditions in professional sports,'' said Pitino, ``and be part of
   those magical banners that have been hanging in the FleetCenter.''
   
   The fact that those banners are in Boston - a city beloved by Pitino -
   and have been fraying through the 1990s as the Celtics spiraled into
   incompetence was the impetus for Pitino to leave what most consider
   the most prized position in college basketball: head coach of the
   University of Kentucky. But the challenge to revive Celtic basketball,
   as Pitino revived Kentucky basketball, proved too alluring to resist.
   
   Pitino confirmed that his contract with the Celtics is for 10 years,
   six years apparently as head coach and the remainder in the front
   office. The new Boston coach denied that it was worth the reported $70
   million, though. ``That's not true,'' he said. Still, he is expected
   to earn at least $6 million a year.
   
   Pitino will have control of the basketball operation as well. The
   Celtics announced yesterday evening that Jan Volk had stepped down as
   general manager, and according to Celtics sources, M.L. Carr will be
   removed as director of basketball operations but could stay in the
   front office on the business side.
   
   That leaves a gap on the basketball side, which is where some think
   Larry Bird could come in. Pitino said he would contact Bird, who had
   been expected to be named coach of the Indiana Pacers for some $4.5
   million a year, to see whether he had any interest in working with
   Pitino in the Celtics' front office.
   
   Asked if he wanted Bird on the new Celtic team, Pitino said, ``Very
   much so. Larry has got to find out himself if he wants to be coach or
   management.''
   
   When reached by the Globe yesterday, Bird said he was very interested
   in the Indiana job but would make no decision until he spoke with
   Pitino.
   
   Jim O'Brien, a longtime Pitino assistant (not the former Boston
   College coach), and Winston Bennett, another Kentucky assistant, will
   come to Boston with Pitino. Sources in Kentucky said Ralph Willard,
   the head coach at Pittsburgh, also might be considered by Pitino as an
   assistant.
   
   K.C. Jones, one of the three assistants under former coach Carr, said
   yesterday the assistant coaches had been dismissed, but the team did
   not officially address the status of Jones or the other two, Dennis
   Johnson and John Kuester.
   
   In deference to Kentucky, Pitino said, he would be more specific about
   the changes when he is reintroduced in Boston tomorrow.
   
   Eddie Jamiel, the Kentucky trainer, is also expected to come to
   Boston, as is strength and conditioning coach Shaun Brown.
   
   ``I'm looking forward to taking on this challenge and I know it's a
   monster challenge,'' said Pitino, who inherits a team that had the
   second-worst record in the NBA this season. ``I can't wait to get
   started. I believe it will be turned around. It will take a lot of
   hard work, but it's no different from Kentucky, the Knicks,
   Providence, Boston U. It's the same formula.''
   
   Hard work and defense are the main ingredients of that formula.
   
   ``We need to get that pride back,'' Pitino said. ``We are going to
   win. The Boston Celtics will play very hard and will play defense as
   hard as it's been played.'
   
   A sea of satellite TV trucks circled Memorial Coliseum on the Kentucky
   campus yesterday afternoon as Pitino, 44, gave the word that dashed
   the hopes of Kentucky, where he is an icon. College basketball analyst
   Dick Vitale had called yesterday, pleading for him not to leave, and
   even Pitino's assistant coaches were unsure what he was going to do
   until minutes before he signed a Celtics contract 10 minutes before
   the 3:30 p.m. press conference.
   
   ``Bob Cousy once made a statement on the air that he didn't think he'd
   live to see another Celtics championship,'' Pitino said of the former
   Boston great who is now the team's TV analyst. ``I hope Bob Cousy
   lives a long, long time certainly, but I do believe from the bottom of
   my heart Bob Cousy will see another championship.''
   
   Pitino seemed a changed man since the weekend, when he clearly was
   wracked by what he called ``the toughest decision of my life.'' His
   voice yesterday was firm and his face smiling - unlike the weekend,
   when Pitino wrestled with the dilemma of leaving the job he loved for
   the job he always wanted.
   
   ``I really did not know what Rick was going to do until today,'' said
   O'Brien. ``This was a very hard decision for him.''
   
   Pitino finally made the decision to take the position Monday night
   ``before going to bed. I was waffling back and forth the last few
   days,'' he said, a description confirmed by C.M. Newton, the Kentucky
   athletic director, his assistant coaches, and friends in Lexington.
   ``But I knew it was the thing I wanted to do. I knew it was the
   challenge I wanted to take.''
   
   In his half-hour press conference, Pitino was the master of the
   moment, balancing heartfelt words to Kentuckians about leaving the
   state with his excitement about taking over the Celtics.
   
   ``The Boston Celtics,'' said a Kentucky official, ``is the only job
   that Rick could take and not be crucified by Kentucky fans for
   leaving. There's tradition here and tradition up in Boston, and
   Kentuckians understand that.''
   
   Pitino said he had worked ``very hard to get into a comfort zone'' at
   Kentucky, ``and you get into that comfort zone only through hard work.
   But a lady across the street from me in Providence, R.I., named Gloria
   Duchin who runs a company told me, `You're too young to be
   comfortable. Take the challenge.' That's when I was thinking of
   leaving Providence'' for the Knicks, ``and I still feel I'm too young
   to be comfortable.''
   
   Pitino played at the University of Massachusetts for four years in the
   1970s, and for five years in the 1980s, he coached at BU. New England,
   Massachusetts, and Boston have been his loves since then, and he has
   said he will retire in New England. The opportunity to finish his
   career in Boston proved irresistible.
   
   The money was not the issue, insisted Pitino. The new Celtics coach
   then told an anecdote about talking last week with a good friend, Seth
   Hancock, owner of nearby Claiborne Farm and Pulpit, one of the star
   contenders in last Saturday's Kentucky Derby:
   
   ``Seth said to me, `You know, Coach, if it snows a foot, you can't get
   around, and if it snows 3 feet, you still can't get around, so what's
   the difference what you make?' And I agree with Seth wholeheartedly.
   It's not going to change me, it's not going to change my lifestyle.
   It's definitely a good contract, it's definitely a strong commitment
   from the Boston Celtics, and I'm very pleased with it.''
   
   For Celtics fans, yesterday was the first euphoric whiff of hope in
   years.
   
   ``We're going to win in Boston,'' said Pitino. ``The fans of Boston
   are going to be very excited. Fans pay a lot of money to see a
   professional basketball game, and when they leave, they should have a
   smile on their face. And I guarantee you - Boston fans will have a
   smile on their face.''
   
   This story ran on page c1 of the Boston Globe on 05/07/97.
   
On basketball: Under squeeze of salary cap, it'll be years before the payoff

   By Peter May, 05/07/97
   
   If Rick Pitino was at all misty-eyed about saying goodbye to Kentucky,
   wait till he sees the Celtics' payroll. Then he'll really have cause
   for a good cry.
   
   The new coach of the Celtics talked endlessly yesterday about
   challenges, and boy, does he have one in Boston. On the plus side, he
   has Antoine Walker, Eric Williams, and two upcoming lottery picks.
   That's about it.
   
   Pitino, of course, knows all this. He didn't sign on without knowing
   all the pluses and minuses. Yes, he has charisma, energy, enthusiasm,
   oodles of coaching experience, a track record of making something out
   of nothing, and considerable motivational skills.
   
   He also has Pervis Ellison for three more years.
   
   Pitino talked yesterday about the NBA being a players' league, about
   the need to have good players, because without them, you can coach
   your you-know-what off to no avail. Did you realize the sainted Phil
   Jackson was barely a .500 coach in his final two years in Albany in
   the CBA? Or that Larry Brown, with no David Robinson, won 21 games in
   his first year in San Antonio?
   
   The team Pitino inherits has seven players who account for 80 percent
   of the available cap money for next season. None of those seven is to
   be confused with Kevin McHale or possibly even Kevin Duckworth. They
   are Dana Barros, Dee Brown, Ellison, Greg Minor, Dino Radja, Walker,
   and Williams.
   
   Not only that, but five of those players - not Williams and Walker -
   have at least three years left on their contracts. In other words,
   Pitino is stuck with them unless he can move them, something M.L. Carr
   was unable or unwilling to do.
   
   Radja, for example, is the proverbial square peg in a round hole in a
   Pitino system, but he has three years left at $5.3 million a season.
   Ellison is on for another $7 million plus over three years. Minor has
   four years and more than $11 million, Barros four years and more than
   $14 million.
   
   The remaining 20 percent of available cap space will be eaten up in a
   hurry by the two lottery picks, who together could account for $3.5
   million of the $5 million, and by any re-signings, such as Rick Fox or
   David Wesley. The Celtics may have the $1 million exception available
   to them this season, but $1 million doesn't go very far in today's
   NBA.
   
   The reality is no different for Pitino than it was for Carr, although
   we suspect Pitino would describe it as daunting and challenging, maybe
   even frustrating, in a candid minute. If the Celtics do not re-sign
   Fox or Wesley, allow every other free agent to go (Marty Conlon and
   Todd Day are the main ones), are unable to move one of the Magnificent
   Seven for a draft pick, and fill the rest of the roster with
   minimum-wagers, Pitino still will have only $1.5 million to spend.
   
   The situation doesn't get any easier the following year. Williams will
   be up for renewal. Walker is eligible to reup at the same time. The
   cycle continues with the draft picks from this year in 1998 and 1999.
   It's a good thing they gave him 10 years. He may need every one of
   them.
   
   Unlike the NFL, the NBA is a league of guaranteed contracts. Pitino
   can, of course, cut Radja, Ellison, or anyone he so chooses. But while
   the player may leave, his contract remains on the Celtics' cap for the
   duration unless another team has cap room and absorbs the salary by
   claiming the player off waivers. That is highly, highly unlikely.
   
   Every year the Celtics say there is interest in all of the above
   players. But they don't pull the trigger. Pitino should have no such
   worries. No one will begrudge him for paring the roster any way he
   can, even if it's to free up cap money in the year 2003.
   
   And that is what he probably will have to do. He noted yesterday,
   ``These guys are going to play defense like it's never been played
   before.'' And we don't know if he's ever seen Radja try to defend a
   pick-and-roll. This year's team virtually ignored the entire concept.
   You can be sure next year's team, whatever its composition, will not
   do the same.
   
   This story ran on page c1 of the Boston Globe on 05/07/97.
   
   _______________________________________________
Out: Volk is first to go but not last

   By Michael Holley, Globe Staff, 05/07/97
   
   Many of those who drove, walked, or took the T to 151 Merrimac Street
   yesterday didn't want to be there. Many of them entered the building,
   boarded an elevator, and eventually stepped onto green carpet. They
   didn't want to do that, either.
   
   It wasn't the first time employees expressed ambivalence about a trip
   to the office. But this was an unusual day for Celtic workers. Those
   who arrived at 8:30 a.m. found satellite trucks parked near the front
   door. They knew the people controlling that equipment would wait and
   wait until they had heard from Jan Volk and/or M.L. Carr.
   
   That was certainly an inconvenience for Celtics employees, but not as
   much as this: Several wondered whether they would still be Celtics
   employees by sundown.
   
   On his way into the building yesterday, Volk, executive vice president
   and 13-year general manager, said he still had his job. When he left
   in the evening, zipping away in a Corvette, a statement had been
   released by the team concerning its 26-year employee:
   
   He resigned to make room for new coach Rick Pitino, who will have
   control of basketball operations.
   
   ``With a new basketball operations staff about to take the helm of the
   Celtics, I've concluded that it's time that I step down and clear the
   way for them to function freely,'' Volk said in the statement. ``I
   will remain available to help in the transition process, wherever I
   may be needed.''
   
   Before that, various rumors had raged. A television station reported
   that longtime trainer Ed Lacerte had been fired. Not true. Lacerte was
   given word by chairman of the board Paul Gaston yesterday that his job
   was intact. There was a rumor that Volk's executive assistant had lost
   her job; it was true. And, fittingly, there was confusion among the
   assistant coaches. One announced that the group had all been fired;
   two said they had not been told of that decision.
   
   ``The assistants are out,'' K.C. Jones said as he put a box of
   belongings in his car. His lips quivered as he spoke. Before driving
   away, he said, ``It ain't easy being green.''
   
   Dennis Johnson and John Kuester, the other assistants, watched
   Pitino's afternoon press conference away from Merrimac Street. As far
   as they know, they are still employed by the Celtics.
   
   ``No one has contacted me,'' Johnson said.
   
   The Golden State Warriors are interested in speaking with Johnson for
   their head coaching vacancy. Another team is known to be interested in
   him, too. But the Celtics haven't made his dismissal official.
   
   Kuester, who worked with Pitino at Boston University, said he had not
   been contacted, either.
   
   The man who coached the Celtics last season, Carr, didn't say much all
   day. As the cameras and microphones made their way to the fourth floor
   for the Pitino conference, a team spokesman was asked if Carr would
   speak. The answer was no. Instead, a two-paragraph statement was
   released, headlined ``Celtics welcome Coach Pitino.''
   
   Carr did not return phone calls. He walked out the front door, moved
   past the cameras, and left the Building of No Good News. He will not
   continue to be director of basketball operations, but his role is
   unclear.
   
   ``I've been calling there all day,'' a former employee said, ``and I
   can't get a straight answer from anybody.''
   
   It is true that Pitino is officially the 13th coach of the Celtics,
   and will be presented to Boston tomorrow. But the powerful Pitino was
   a North End reality as early as Monday. That was the day Dave Zuccaro,
   a public relations employee, walked out a front door and whispered,
   ``I've just been fired.'' It was the day Volk, still with both his
   jobs, proceeded slowly to his car, knowing he would soon separate from
   the organization he helped guide to three NBA titles in the 1980s. It
   was the day Wayne Lebeaux, director of team travel and services, and
   two marketing employees were fired, too.
   
   Indications are that the sweep of these offices is not complete. The
   scouting department will continue to be tense until after draft day,
   when it is expected to be revamped. Every department will be analyzed.
   
   This is the Rick Pitino Era. The coach has already been assured that
   he will have a new suburban practice facility (the team had used
   Brandeis University). He will analyze his team as thoroughly as he has
   analyzed these offices. More jobs will be lost. The building at 151
   Merrimac will not be the same.
   
   This story ran on page c1 of the Boston Globe on 05/07/97.
   
     _________________________________________________________________
In or Out?: Bird says he'll talk about it

   By Bob Ryan, Globe Staff, 05/07/97
   
   The world was in turmoil. Rick Pitino was saying goodbye to the
   Wildcats of Kentucky. Blood was flowing in the Celtic offices at 151
   Merrimac Street. The Indiana Pacers were dying to find out if they
   have a coach. And where was Larry Bird?
   
   On the golf course.
   
   ``I know I have to make a decision,'' said Bird after his round of 18.
   ``But I said all along I wasn't going to do anything until the Celtics
   had a coach in place. I set out to do a job and I did it. I'm very
   happy Rick Pitino is coming because I thought he was the best man all
   along.''
   
   Bird acknowledged that he is very interested in the position he's been
   offered with the Pacers, but he knew Pitino was trying to get in touch
   with him and said he wouldn't make any career decision until he talked
   with the new Boston mentor. However, a source to close to Bird
   yesterday indicated that he would accept Indiana's lucrative offer
   ($4.5 million a year to coach plus part ownership) but would delay the
   announcement until after Pitino's news conference tomorrow in Boston.
   
   Bird said he had no more idea how he could fit into a Pitino regime
   than anyone else and stressed that it certainly would not be easy for
   him to leave the Celtics.
   
   ``I'm a Celtic,'' he said. ``I'll always feel that I'm a Celtic.''
   
   The decision, he said, would not come today and might not come this
   week. The important thing right now, he said, was talking with Pitino.
   
   A blue day: In Kentucky, Pitino's departure is lamented - but
   understood. C5.
   
   Who's next? Wildcats begin scrambling to fill the void. C5.
   
   Nice move: Brown applauds hiring. C5.
   
   This story ran on page c1 of the Boston Globe on 05/07/97.
   
   _______________________________________________
Suddenly, for Brown, it's easier being green

   By Peter May, Globe Staff, 05/07/97
   
   Rick Pitino's ascension has at least one of his new players rethinking
   statements of the past. Suddenly, being a Boston Celtic doesn't sound
   so bad to Dee Brown.
   
   ``I can't wait,'' an enthused Brown said yesterday from his Florida
   home. ``Hopefully, I'll be there. I know he'll want his people, but
   the kind of game he coaches is the kind I like to play. So that's
   exciting to me.
   
   ``It's a fresh start for a lot of people, including me. The situation
   has changed for me, and it's time for everyone, me included, to put up
   or shut up. We got ourselves into this position for a reason, to get
   the picks and to get him. If I'm part of the turnaround, I'll be
   happy.''
   
   Brown has three years left on his contract and has been hoping for the
   last year and a half to be traded. One deal the Celtics are known to
   have rejected was a swap with Sacramento for Bobby Hurley.
   
   ``There's going to be a lot of changes,'' Brown said. ``But I think
   this was money well spent to get someone with his reputation. His
   track record speaks for itself. The best thing you can do is get
   someone who is respected by his peers. That's what we need.''
   
   One of Pitino's peers is his former assistant coach and New York
   Knicks successor, Stu Jackson, now the president and general manager
   of the Vancouver Grizzlies.
   
   ``The Celtics could not have made a better, more logical, or surer
   choice,'' said Jackson.
   
   Jackson worked under Pitino both in New York and at Providence
   College. Having just completed a lengthy season serving as coach and
   general manager/president, Jackson, who will not coach next season,
   had some words of advice for his former boss.
   
   ``Having done both jobs, I think he needs someone in the front
   office,'' Jackson said. ``It's hard enough doing one right.''
   
   This story ran on page c5 of the Boston Globe on 05/07/97.
   
   _______________________________________________
Kentucky is a little blue

   By Michael Madden, Globe Staff, 05/07/97
   
   LEXINGTON, Ky. - University of Kentucky athletic director C.M. Newton
   is like a 1990s Will Rogers with a homespun phrase, but this time,
   Newton said, he had to read from a prepared text. There was too much
   to say about Rick Pitino.
   
   ``I have a feeling of sadness that we're losing a great coach,'' said
   Newton, ``and a feeling of sadness that I am losing a friend. But I
   also have a feeling of happiness, that I have an understanding of
   Rick's excitement and happiness at this new challenge he's facing. If
   it's possible to be happy and sad at the same time ...''
   
   So it was throughout the commonwealth of Kentucky yesterday afternoon.
   An entire state paused to take in a televised press conference,
   mourned at the words that Pitino was leaving as Kentucky basketball
   coach, and tried to understand why.
   
   ``I never felt all those other offers Rick had that he was going to
   leave - until this Boston thing came up,'' said Newton. ``Rick's a
   traditionalist, and us traditionalists need to be involved in these
   kinds of programs, like the Celtics.''
   
   Here in central Kentucky, where bluegrass, bourbon, and the
   thoroughbred rank high, Kentucky basketball is king. And since Newton
   and Pitino arrived, it has been the best kind of basketball, a clean
   program that wins championships. Even Adolph Rupp, the Baron of the
   Bluegrass to whom Pitino is now second in Kentucky lore, could not
   make that twin boast.
   
   ``This is bigger than life here,'' Newton jested about the huge media
   throng. ``But only here; it could only happen here. But you know what
   Rick has done? He has got it back to where it's just a game again.''
   
   Joe B. Hall, the former Kentucky coach who had the near-impossible
   task of replacing Rupp, said he was ``very sad that Rick would choose
   this avenue. But I can understand his decision, for the same reason
   that I would never leave Kentucky, I can see why he might want to go
   back to the Boston area. That's his stomping ground. My stomping
   ground was in Kentucky, and I know how he feels.''
   
   ``I've got to say it dawned on me a bit that Coach Pitino is leaving
   for Boston, where I'm from,'' said Kentucky guard - and Dorchester,
   Mass., resident - Wayne Turner. ``I'm just so happy that he's going to
   Boston, seeing that I'm from Boston. Hopefully, when I go back home to
   Boston this summer and when Coach isn't that busy with the Celtics, he
   can give me some workouts. Maybe I can get into a couple of pickup
   games now with players on the Celtics.''
   
   On Sunday night, when Pitino gathered his players at Memorial Coliseum
   and gave them the word that he was deciding on the Celtics' job, he
   gave them a chance to speak back to him.
   
   ``I told Coach Pitino that I didn't want him to go, and that was truly
   coming from my heart, that I didn't want him to leave,'' said Turner.
   ``That's because I think he's the best coach in the world. But then I
   said to him that it was an opportunity for him that rarely comes
   around, and the job would be great, and I told him, `If I was in your
   situation, I'd probably take the job, too.'''
   
   Yesterday Turner talked of how much he owes to Pitino.
   
   ``When I came down here from Boston, I couldn't play a lick of
   defense,'' he said, ``and I never thought I had it in me to play
   defense until I got here. And what I'm going to miss the most about
   Coach Pitino is that he really gets the most out of you. And he taught
   me everything.''
   
   Turner paused and added, ``I'm happy for him. I'm happy to see him go
   on to the next level. I truly believe he can do a lot for the Celtics.
   In the next couple of years, they're going to be back in the playoffs
   all the time, like when they had Larry Bird, Robert Parish, and Kevin
   McHale.''
   
   This story ran on page c5 of the Boston Globe on 05/07/97.
   

                  © Copyright 1997 Globe Newspaper Company


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Bob Strauss      "Duke of URL"                   Cataloger
Hunter Library                                   Western Carolina U.
strauss@wcu.edu
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Bob Strauss' 4 levels of Fax machines:
Level 1: Able to fax black and white images on paper.
Level 2: Able to fax color images on paper.
Level 3: Able to fax small inanimate objects.
Level 4: Able to fax large animate objects (i.e., people).
                         --Bob Strauss, 4/23/97
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