No Subject

The new Kentucky home 

By Peter May, Globe Staff, 10/24/97 

Rick Pitino went out on a limb yesterday and
said he was not interested in signing Anthony Epps. 

The Celtics coach, like everyone else, was having some fun with the
fan reaction to the acquisition of yet another one of his former players
from the University of Kentucky.  Before Wednesday, he had two
alums from the 1996 champs. Now he has three with the arrival of
Walter McCarty in the four-for-one deal with the Knicks for Chris Mills.
The other two ex-Wildcats are Antoine Walker and Ron Mercer. 

                  ''I think it's great,'' said Walker after yesterday's
workout at Brandeis. ''I
                  think you're going to be surprised at Walter. He's
active. He's energetic. He's
                  going to fit in well.''

                  It's rare that three players from the same college
team make the NBA, let
                  alone play together on the same professional club.
Celtics fans recall the
                  Brigham Young trio of Danny Ainge, Fred Roberts, and
Greg Kite in the late
                  1980s. 

                  But this has to be a first: three guys from the same
college team, an NCAA
                  championship team at that, joining their college coach
on the same pro team.
                  Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss. 

                  ''I have a lot of loyalty and respect for the
University of Kentucky, but I am
                  not taking these players because they played for
Kentucky,'' Pitino said.
                  ''These players can play, I know their games. They
happened to play for
                  Kentucky. These are three guys who were the focus of a
championship
                  team.''

                  You can already hear the guffaws around the NBA. Who's
next, Epps? Or
                  Mark Pope? Are the Celtics changing colors to blue and
white? Will they
                  play their home games in Lexington? Is the Vanderbilt
game this week or
                  next? 

                  Ex-Kentuckians have been occasional visitors to Celtic
land over the last 51
                  years. There was, of course, the great Frank Ramsey,
who popularized the
                  sixth man concept under Red Auerbach. There was center
Rick Robey,
                  whose 1983 trade to Phoenix probably extended Larry
Bird's career by
                  several years. (The two liked to have a good time.)
Dirk Minniefield came
                  aboard in the late 1980s and was the first winner of
SportsChannel's Sixth
                  Man Award in 1988. A few other ex-Wildcats passed
through, the best
                  known probably being Lou Tsioropoulos, who played on
two title teams in
                  the 1950s. 

                  Then there was the best Kentucky player in Celtics
history who never played
                  a game for the team. In 1956, the Celtics traded the
draft rights to Cliff
                  Hagan, whom they had picked as a junior eligible in
1953, to St. Louis in a
                  deal that enabled them to draft Bill Russell. Hagan
had to go into military
                  service for two years after leaving Kentucky - the
Celtics kept his rights -
                  and was traded before ever playing a game with Boston. 

                  Of the three Kentuckians on this year's team, all were
first-round picks.
                  McCarty probably knows Pitino the best, having played
four years at
                  Kentucky. Mercer and Walker both bailed out for the
NBA after two years.

                  ''We've always had a good relationship,'' McCarty
said, referring to Mercer
                  and Walker. ''We had a lot of fun in our time at
Kentucky. The opportunity
                  to be around each other again is even better.''

                  Asked if he thought it would be any different now that
it's the NBA and not
                  the NCAA, McCarty shook his head. No. The same noises
he used to hear
                  at Rupp Arena, he is hearing again in Shapiro Gym. 

                  ''We'll be doing the same things. Pressing. Trapping.
We're still young,'' he
                  said. ''It's not like we've been in the NBA for five
years or something. The
                  whole thing is still new to us. We have young legs. We
haven't been
                  transformed totally to slowdown, half-court
basketball.''

                  And he never will as long as Pitino is the man with
the whistle and the power.

                  This story ran on page D03 of the Boston Globe on
10/24/97. 
                  © Copyright 1997 Globe Newspaper Company.