Re: Give ML a break!

[Kim Malo <kmalo19@idt.net>]

At 03:14 PM 3/23/98 -0800, John Liang wrote:
>It is interesting to see some people are still bashing ML. Give him a
>break! with or without him, the Celtics were going nowhere last year. If
>you have to blame someone, why not say "why did Larry Legend not coach
>the Celts?" (boy, he should be hang as a criminal for "deserting" to the
>Pacers!!), or "why did Larry delay in getting Rick here?" Both questions
>are bull shit, and so is bashing ML.
>
>He may not be the best coach, or a great coach, but he has been with the
>organization ever since being traded here. Maybe many of you don't know,
>but he was very popular back in Larry's days. You have to love him,
>because he would be waving towers, yelling like carzy and oh, put in a
>bomb or two on the Lakers etc. Maybe you won't hate him so much if you
>had known him better as a player. He came to the Celtics to save the
>franchise, and he did his part -- amid the most ugly and unpleasing
>part.

Y'know, it's nice that ML has his defenders, but the problem I have with
this sort of thing is that it assumes that there is no valid reason for
criticising or being upset with him -we just do it because we don't 'like'
him. Puh-lease.

Bashing -yeah, some complaints about ML are just bashing, but most are valid. 
Larry Legend didn't coach the Cs because he wasn't asked to. As Jo Hironaka
pointed out a day or so ago, neither was Dave Cowens. Why? Must be the GM
that decieded ML was the proper party for the job.

Have no idea which left field you're coming out of with Larry delaying
Pitino's arrival. Your buddy ML was the one who called him the year defore
he came and said "you don't want to come here as coach, right? *click*
*buzz*'. That's a matter of public record -check the newspaper archives.

As for the Cs not going anywhere? they certainly weren't championship ready,
or even really 'championship drioven', but it was essentially the team that
won 35 games the year before, with a very talented rookie added. Reports
were that most of the injuries did not have to be season ending, but players
were encouraged to not rush back. And how much of the injury rash came from
undisciplined guys not being in shape, anyways. 

ML got his break when he was given an opportunity to show what he could do.
I know he was a popular player. Better than you, apparently, because I also
know that he contributed more with defense and rebounding than he did with
shooting. I liked him then. What I don't see is why that means I shouldn't
deeply resent the destruction he wrought on my beloved Cs since, just
because of that. Signing mediocre, oft-injured, and unproven talent to long
term overpaid contracts that we're still struggling to get out from under.
Holding up and actually reversing the development of the players we had, so
that we had a roster full of totally undisciplined and unprofessinal guys
who confused offense only energy with effort, couldn't run a play to save
their lives, and looked totally clueless note the difference between that
and simply making mistakes- most of their time on the court. It's not that
he wasn't the best coach ot a great coach, but he had no businees being even
referred to as a coach, once he had shown how poor he was at it. He showed
us that in what he turned out on the court, while continuing to force feed
us with a charming smile a pile of bullshit about being championship driven
and how proud we all should be about his guys and how he *never* makes
excuses, but.... And let me make this clear, in case it's not -it's not the
losses per se, so don't give me a pile of nonsense about only tanking it for
the benefit of the franshise (although I also happen to find the very
concept of doing so contemptible)- it's the way he screwed up the
development of the players, so that we have Walker playing effectively his
rookie year as a pro, Eric Williams turned into an apparnet attitude problem
who got dealt because he thought he could apply ML's 'don't worry (or work),
be happy' attitude to Pitino. Etc etc. ML didn't just lose games, he turned
the entire flanchise into a laughingstock and did his best to guarantee we'd
stay that way for a long time. The saddest part being that it was probably
done with the best of intentions. Although also with a great deal of blindness.

I cut ML some slack when he was made GM, because I knew he had been a
successful independant businessman, so there was reason to think he might be
able to handle the job. I cut him less slack, but some, when he named
himself coach, Less because I resented the way he played on his good guy
image while jerking around Chris Ford and Dave Cowens unnecessarily. My
present feelings about him, which I haven't begun to fully describe, are
ones he has thoroughly earned. He created most of the ugliness. Rebuilding
was needed, not creating even more of a mess that he was totally incapable
of cleaning up. We'll be paying for the results, to come degree, for a long,
long time.

-Kim
Kim Malo
kmalo19@idt.net