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Steve Bulpett: Lockout Changes Pitino Mind About Coaching
Boston Herald
Lockout benches Pitino
for good
NBA Notes/by Steve
Bulpett
10/18/98
While the NBA labor
mess may help to drive
Michael Jordan out of
the game, it is acting
as a bench magnet for
Rick Pitino.
The Celtics'
coach-president-poster
child has had his
outlook rearranged by
the lockout. After
being prevented by rule
from yelling at his
players, he is not
longing for the quiet
life.
"I always said up until
this point that I'm
going to coach until
I'm about 52 or 53 and
then look at some front
office stuff," Pitino
said. "Now that I
realize what it's like
being out, I want to
coach until I'm about
62 or 65. Definitely."
The altered state of
his future is something
Pitino couldn't have
imagined while he was
in the middle of the
coaching forest. While
Pitino has dabbled in
other interests
including horse racing,
television and playing
bad golf, he has never
been without a bench to
call his own since
getting into the
profession.
When the NBA and its
players went into their
mainly silent summer of
alleged collective
bargaining
negotiations, the C's
coach learned the grass
is, indeed, not
necessarily greener on
the other side of the
employment hill.
"I always questioned
guys like Mike
Fratello," Pitino said.
"They have a great TV
job, so why did they
get back into coaching?
"And now I realize.
When you don't have it,
it kills you not to be
a part of it. So this
taught me a lot. For me
it's a great lesson.
"People say, 'Why don't
you go into TV
commentating some day?'
But coaching's my
niche, and I would miss
basketball too much to
be away from it. That's
what this has taught
me. I can't be away
from it. I can't live
without it."
Don't make me go The
Jordan issue will be
quite interesting as it
plays out. We told you
at the end of the NBA
Finals that Michael
wanted to keep on
playing and was looking
for the proper
situation to do so --
in Chicago or
elsewhere. And while
some people fairly
close to Jordan have
said in the last two
weeks that he is ready
to chuck the whole
thing, the Air Guy
knows full well that he
will harbor regrets if
he does not leave on
his own terms.
There may be too much
crow for him to eat if
he goes back to the
Bulls as currently
constructed (that is,
with Jerry Krause still
in power), but Jordan
very much wants to
hoist the championship
trophy next June.
If, of course, an NBA
championship is held
(see 1994 World
Series).
The power of gold The
fans are out of its
reach, and it's looking
now as if the players'
union is having trouble
convincing even
economists that a
demand for an
unfettered NBA market
makes sense.
Glenn Barry, a
second-year MBA student
at the Boston College
Graduate School of
Management, insists
he'd rather favor the
players in a battle vs.
ownership, but after
several fast breaks
through his
well-exercised brain,
his solutions still add
up to a hard cap.
Barry, a hoop fan,
submitted a proposal to
the Herald perhaps
hoping to get his sport
back to work. Either
that or he's sick of
basketball writers
covering hockey.
Anyway, his plan would
put all revenue on the
table (not just the
defined gross receipts)
and split the result
50-50 between the
players and owners. As
Barry puts it, "Hey,
Michael Jordan, do you
teach your kids how to
share?"
"If the NBA keeps
growing at a
double-digit pace, the
players will share in
its wealth," Barry
writes, adding that the
league should "phase
out the Bird Exception
because it has caused
disparity in the
league. Owners realize
how important their key
players are and have
bid up the stars'
salaries, which has
decreased all the other
players' salaries. This
has caused the middle
class of the NBA to
deteriorate, creating a
large upper and lower
class. Not only do
owners have to be
protected from
themselves, but, also,
players shouldn't be
allowed to make 150
times what a fellow NBA
player makes."
From here, the problem
seems to be that the
NBA players want a free
market, failing to
grasp that such a scene
puts the smaller and
less successful
companies out of
business -- which is
contrary to the union's
desire to maintain
jobs.
And while much is being
made of money the
players and owners can
lose, for the real
economic impact, check
out the waitstaff in
the restaurants and
bars around an NBA
arena. While the dollar
amounts at stake are
smaller, the effect of
a long lockout will be
far more damaging. . .
. Nobody wins unless
everybody wins. Really.