ESPN Article

[Adam Litchy <allitchy@cland.net>]

Snagged this from ESPN's site

WALTHAM, Mass. -- Rick Pitino, who spouts motivational slogans like a
                 late-night infomercial, apparently has settled on one
for this Boston Celtics
                 season.

                 "The most important thing is not the name on the back
of the jersey," the new
                 Celtics coach and president said repeatedly Friday.
"It's the name on the front of
                 the jersey."

                 It's a wise choice of motto for Pitino, who knows that
the names on the back of
                 his players' jerseys aren't exactly the kind that will
fill the FleetCenter when the
                 season opens Oct. 31.

                 But by getting them to play as a team, Pitino thinks he
can bring the Celtics out
                 of the doldrums that led to last season's 15-67 record
and an unprecedented
                 11th consecutive season without an NBA title.

                 "I want them to think pass before shoot," Pitino said.
"I want them to think of
                 their teammates before themselves. I want them to
understand the pride of the
                 Boston Celtics."

                 Celtics pride didn't mean much last year, when the team
appeared to play more
                 to improve its draft position than to win. Pitino said
his first objective is to instill a
                 "Championship, and nothing else" attitude that served
his teams well in
                 Kentucky.

                 "You're better off trying to raise the bar so high you
can't possibly reach it. ... It
                 will prove much more beneficial to us three or four
years down the road than if
                 we set the bar low," he said. "We're just going to talk
in terms of making the
                 playoffs, because there's only one way to win the
championship, and that's to
                 make the playoffs."

                 Asked for predictions on how many games his team would
win this season,
                 Pitino passed.

                 "I don't think anybody could put a number on this
team," Pitino said. "When you
                 look at the moves we've made, we haven't made our team
physically better.
                 What we have done is allowed our players to play their
positions. We won't
                 have Antoine Walker playing center."

                 So far, the fans are buying it. Executive vice
president of sales and marketing
                 Stuart Layne said the team is about 500 season tickets
short of their cap of
                 14,000; last year, it was a struggle to sell 11,200.