Sinking quickly ...

[peter delevett <pdelevett@amcity.com>]

I hateto post more negative stuff to this list, since that seems to be all
that's out there these days. But, here's what Dave D'Alessandro of The
Sporting News has to say. I find he generally seems to write good stuff.

Pitino isn't delivering on promise
                         APRIL 6, 1999     

                         Dave D'Alessandro
                         The Sporting News

                       

                         Rick Pitino promised a Celtics rebirth. He promised greatness,
                         restyled in the idiom of tradition. He promised a
team of which
                         all Boston could be proud, and one which all the rest
of the
                         NBA nation would despise. 

                         Instead he has delivered this: Ten wins, 22 losses.
And the
                         Celtics' season looks more and more like a long, tedious
                         audition on NBA amateur night. 

                         "To me, this is not a tragedy; this is adversity,"
Pitino said.
                         "You can overcome adversity. You're not going to
overcome it
                         with all-night meetings or things like that. The way
to overcome
                         it is through talent and wisdom. Believe it or not,
I'm enjoying a
                         lot of this." 

                         Masochists of the world, please explain. 

                         The wheels have come off in Boston, and it will take
a while to
                         fix this imperfect machine. Pitino is taking the heat
as best he
                         can by talking issues to death, Antoine Walker is
being booed as
                         soon as he jacks up his first ill-advised jumper,
Paul Pierce's
                         meteoric rise has been replaced by an abject free
fall, there are
                         whispers that Ron Mercer is starting to wonder what
it would be
                         like to play for another coach for a change, and Kenny
                         Anderson is still one of the most mistake-prone point
guards in
                         the league. 

                         But for the first time in his career, Pitino is being
targeted as a problem more than the potential
                         solution. And make no mistake, he is a large part of
the problem. 

                         He is still one of the great coaches on the planet,
the kind who can get the ordinary player to do the
                         extraordinary. But even with the eminently able
assistance of Chris Wallace, Pitino is still a few
                         quarts shy as a personnel expert, and his intense
nature as a coach does not serve him well as an
                         executive. The roster he built (then rebuilt, and
then rebuilt again) is still too young, too fragile
                         mentally, and he has clearly misjudged his young
players' ability to withstand criticism. 

                         <snip>       "Everyone is asking if the team quit on
me," Pitino said defiantly. "I can't wait to get it started toward next
season. ...  I knew our ass was going to be kicked when I took this job. I
knew it was the toughest job I ever encountered, but I will not wilt under any
stress at all. Pressure's a good thing." 

                         For him, anyway. He may have to rethink whether it's
good for his players.