Re: Tim Duncan

["Jim Meninno" <jim_meninno@hotmail.com>]

Well, Paul, I have to say you come off sounding like a (perhaps former) 
Knick fan who thinks Pitino bailed on them.  Being a Celtics fan myself, 
I don't have much of an opinion on the matter.  What I do know is that 
Larry Bird felt that Pitino was the best man for the Celtics job.  That 
Pat Riley left New York for pretty much the same reasons that Pitino 
did, but you seem to praise Riley (both were pretty successful in their 
subsequent jobs).  That Pitino did a great job of coaching the Celtics 
last year.  That his personnel moves included some miracles as well as 
some that had to be done to extracate the team from the hole it had dug 
itself.  I'm thinking of Andrew DeClerq, who is a positive marvel, 
signed long term for low money.  I'm thinking of the smokescreen to 
draft Mercer.  That took balls, my friend, leaving him open to the 
fourth and fifth picks.  I'm thinking of Kenny Anderson, who, by the 
way, is a quality veteran who had no qualms about coming to Boston.  
Eric Williams?  He was looking for, and got, big money from the Nuggets, 
so the Celtics would have let hime go this year anyway.  

So, you did give me a pretty good idea of where your problems with 
Pitino come from.  You didn't, however, make one suggestion about what 
the Celtics should do next.  Let's start with Antoine.  How high would 
you go to sign him?  Do you think they should give him "franchise 
player" dollars, at this stage of his career, if that's what it takes to 
keep him?  I just think that if you are going to be highly critical of 
Pitino's performance, you should be ready to say what you would do 
differently.

Jim

>From: damekmo@teleport.com
>Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1998 05:49:52 -0900
>To: celtics@igtc.com
>Subject: Re: Tim Duncan
>
>Look...we could go back and forth on this all day long, but it's 
ancient
>history. You'll find Knick fans today who hate the guy because they 
think
>he bailed on them. There are fans like you who think the Knicks made a 
huge
>mistake and should've just given the Knicks over to Pitino. They
>didn't..and he did leave. I have no doubt that he went back to college 
to
>be in total control, something he couldn't get in New York. Because 
they
>didn't believe in the end it was going to work. The incompetent may 
have
>won the arguement, but their story was believed, and not Rick's.
>Now...we'll see what happens. 


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