Re: @@@ SAM SMITH: WALKER AND PITINO GONE FROM THE CELTICS@@@

[Kim Malo <kmalo19@idt.net>]

At 02:03 AM 11/7/98 -0900, Paul M wrote:
I wrote:
>>And while we may not agree with him all the time, he's not a stupid
>>man. Makes no business sense to lay out the bucks for RP and not give him
>>the talent. Bringing in RP isn't enough to keep the punters buying tickets.
>
>He may be a smart business guy, but his basketball IQ? Maybe he's convinced
>that Pitino's the guy to take mediocre/cheap talent and reach the promised
>land on Pitino-ball and intangibles. Maybe Pitino's also convinced. In any
>case, Gaston's not a stupid man yet the franchise he owns is a joke.

And maybe he's not. They're both equally likely until we see how things
really fall out.
As for joke? Nope. Under ML it was a joke. We've moved up to mid league
mediocrity. Not something to make the heart beat faster with excitement, but
a big step up for the first year, despite unreasonable expectations of
instant glory.

> He
>bears no responsibility for that? If he's not a stupid man, maybe he's just
>incompetent. I love Donald Ster...I mean, Paul Gaston.
>
>>At the same time, Smith's take on doubts about AW's ultimate maturity could
>>have validity and Gaston/RP might simply not believe it's worth the risk to
>>pay AW what he wants. No one with sense denies his talent, but do you really
>>think that, with a guaranteed $100MM+ contract showing that 'he's the man',
>>the guy who was pretty self righteous about what being an allstar (even
>>though not actually voted in) meant to what he should be asked to do and
>>where his development stood, is really going to believe he has room for
>>improvement?
>
>Kobe was voted in...that meant more than getting picked by coaches?
>Walker's said over and over again that he knows he has to get better.

And as I've pointed out before, with the almost sole exception of the Holley
interview, one of the ways AW's been most mature is in what he says in
public. Doesn't mean he really believes it vs saying the right thing.

> Maybe
>there's more to the "Hell no, I wont go," midsummer's mutiny than just his
>inflated image of himself. Maybe things between him and Pitino are pretty
>bad at this point. It could be that Walker has to go because of
>irreconcilable differences. In which case...the very mature, never self
>righteous, "Ricky the Demure" takes a bit of the responsibilty for the
>problem, along with the 22 year-old cancer.

No question any and all of that may be true. But doesn't change the fact
that he said he didn't come because he shouldn't be expected to because he's
now an allstar and they don't do things like that. Which shows an inflated
viewpoint of what his allstar 'status' says about him and is dead wrong
about what it should mean.

> But to answer your question,
>"Do I really think that with a $100M contract showing that he's the
>man.....(Antoine) is really going to believe he has room for improvement?"
>Perhaps he wouldn't be demanding that much cash if things between him and
>Pitino were better. Perhaps he's not demanding that much money or perhaps
>it's just an opening proposal which hasn't gotten a response. In any case,
>yes I do believe he realises he has room for development. Is there a summer
>camp where Pitino can go work on his talent evaluation skills?

Perhaps it'll be 100 degrees F here in Boston tomorrow. Perhaps you're
right. But all I'm doing is looking at what his one time, I got selected
mainly because Chris Webber was a bad boy, visit to the allstar game told
him about what he did and didn't have to do to improve, making it tough to
think that further public recognition of his pure wonderfulness is likely to
make him respond the opposite way. Hopefully you're right and I'm wrong.

-Kim
Kim Malo
kmalo19@idt.net