| Wednesday, Aug. 11 5:27pm
ET Dismantling the Celtics  By Jeffrey Denberg Special to ESPN.com | |
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Funny how the Boston Celtics are quickly taking on the aura of a bygone era, how much they are beginning to resemble that green team that played its games in the old Boston Garden.
Not funny maybe, if you're a dyed-in-the-wool Celtics fan, because the uncanny resemblance is not to those great K.C. Jones teams or those indomitable Red Auerbach teams that made the Garden an arena to be feared.
No, these Celtics are taking us back to the days of M.L. Carr, when they were laughed at by opponents and spat upon by angry fans as they made the transition from the Garden to the Fleet Center, where the roster has required an annual enema.
Instead of building a winner, Rick Pitino appears to be inviting calamity. His first team won 44 percent of its games, the second 38 percent. His roster has been in turmoil, the result of poor drafting, bad trades and horrible free-agent signings.
Under the leadership of top executive Paul Gaston, the Celtics have been more interested in achieving fiscal responsibility than on-court success. The only reasonable excuse for dumping Ron Mercer in Denver for Danny Fortson and two guys named Eric (Washington and Williams) is rumor of an impending sale. Fortson is only 6-foot-6, and Pitino hated Williams' game before the forward had reconstructive knee surgery.
The Celtics, according to Pacers president Donnie Walsh, have been shopping Antoine Walker as well. Walker reacted with horror when Pitino followed him from Kentucky to Boston. He told other players he left school after his sophomore year to get away from the slick martinet.
But the Celtics appear to have had no real plan since going 15-67 and dumping Carr for Pitino, who buys and discards like a window shopper.
Remember Chauncey Billups as the third pick in 1997? Mercer as No. 6? Remember the signings of Travis Knight and Chris Mills?
Kenny Anderson may have wondered why the Celtics took him from Portland, and the answer may have been that Paul Allen was willing to pay Anderson's salary for a year and a half. But now it's the Celtics who will pay, and they have tried unsuccessfully to move the point guard who is ill-suited to Pitino's style.
For that matter, hulking forward/center Vitaly Potapenko is no greyhound, but the Celtics beat the trade deadline last winter to get him for their '99 first-round pick -- No. 8, Andre Miller, who would have been the ideal playmaker for Pitino.
Abe to exit?
There
may be hope for Washington's long-suffering basketball fans. The Washington Post
reports that Abe Pollin has offered buyouts to a number of long-term employees.
That's a sign he's close to relinquishing control of the team. There may be hope
for the Wizards after all, well into the next century.
Motown blues
Let's
see. The Pistons lost Joe Dumars to
retirement and were unable to unload Brian Williams, a.k.a. Bison Dele. But
they kept journeyman Jud Buechler and
lured non-scoring Michael Curry from
the Bucks. Looks like they're ready to contend, too, sometime in the next
century.
Bucks bolt
And how
about Dell
Curry, who gave his word, verbally, to the Bucks, then signed with the
Raptors for three times the money (three years, $6.6 million). With M. Curry and
D. Curry gone and the front line as soft as Wisconsin cheese, the Bucks may not
be ready to contend in the next century.
Wright stuff
Elgin
Baylor says he was not at all convinced that Lorenzen Wright
would take the Lakers' $2 million middle-class exemption and leave $30 million
from the Clippers on the table. Agent Robert Fayne was.
"They don't react quickly," said Fayne, who tried to a number of sign-and-trades only to see the Clippers yawn at him. "Once they realized we were serious, they were ready to do business," Fayne said.
Apparently, the Lakers were very ready, too. Jerry West loves Wright's athleticism and gave him a strong recommendation when Hawks GM Pete Babcock asked for an opinion a few weeks ago.
That the Lakers were ready to grab Wright shows they're tired of the game Charles Oakley is running on them. After saying he was all about winning a championship, Oakley has continued to drive up the price.
The Raptors, believing they are ready to make the playoffs, increased their offer to Oakley to three years and $18 million, and Oakley has pared his demand by $500,000 to $8 million a year.
"If he had his way, he'd sign with Toronto and be traded to Los Angeles, both for the desirable location and the team's closeness to being able to compete for a championship," Oakley's agent, Charles Grantham, said. "But he still has no problem staying in Toronto."
Toronto still has some sign-and-trade options. The Knicks want Oakley and can offer Chris Dudley. The Lakers would part with Robert Horry, but the Raptors could better use point guard Derek Fisher. Indiana was willing to send Travis Best to the Clippers for Wright. The Pacers, who have a $4.3 million trade exception, could do that deal with Toronto for the Oak. That would solve Toronto's desperate need for a point guard, enhanced when Haywoode Workman re-signed with Milwaukee.
Long wait hurts
While
teams wait for Oakley, free agency has blown up on power forward Grant Long, a
consummate pro on the court, but not much of a poker player.
The Hawks offered Long a three-year $6.6 million deal to return next season, but Long wanted to test the market. He procrastinated with Miami, and the Heat signed Otis Thorpe. He could not give the Knicks a ready answer, so they spent their $2 million exception on a three-year deal for John Wallace. While the Hawks were waiting, they engineered a seven-year deal for Wright. Long apparently waited too long to make a commitment, and now there is no roster space. Agent Charles Tucker said there are three teams still interested in Long, but would not name them.
Magic fans
disappearing
In completely making over their team, the Orlando
Magic have done more than create a fresh start for new coach Doc Rivers.
Apparently, they've driven away all but their most loyal fans.
Attendance and season-ticket sales dropped in each of the past two seasons, from an average of 17,772 during the 1996-97 season, to 17,113 in 1997-98 and to 16,444 in the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season.
Worse, season-tickets sales for next season, which were secured before the recent deconstruction, are at an all-time low of approximately 10,000.
Bulls market runs
out
Watch the drop in Chicago, too. The Bulls had a waiting list
of 15,000 for season tickets. Insiders say that cushion has been exhausted.
While the Bulls refuse to commit to a major free agent this summer, they are
hinting at the big crop next summer. OK. But Keith Van Horn is
taken, and Grant
Hill is not likely to move to Chicago. They can't really be waiting on Tim Duncan.
