Another false Pitino trade put to bed

[DJessen33@aol.com]

The trading of D. Manning and D. Ellis to Milwaukee hopefully will do 
something for Celtic fans. It will put to bed a rumor of a trade of Battie 
and Bowen to the Clippers for Rodney Rodgers last season right before the 
trade deadline. Supposedly, the NBA killed the deal as it violated some rule 
in the new CBA where you could not trade a player (Battie) that had just been 
traded for 60 days. 

When the rumor was first started, I was an unbeliever. Battie, a favorite of 
mine since college, was just starting to blossom and I thought we were 
severely overpaying for a underachieving small forward who couldn't start for 
the woeful Clippers. However, when the major newspaper columnists, including 
one of the major Boston newspapers, started printing it as fact, and I 
remembered the Erik Williams for two no. 2 picks trade, I started to  think 
that maybe Pitino was trying to make a quick cut and run on Battie. 

I guess I forgot that in today's world, most journalists only copy what 
others have written. They take verbatim as to what anyone says or has written 
and don't bother to check it out to find out if there is any fact to the 
story. If they had to check out a story, they would actually have do some 
work. They also would probably lose half their storys in this age of tabloid 
journalism.

Pitino has been rumored to have attempted to have traded every player on the 
Celtics. He has been rumored to have offered lock, stock and barrel including 
his wife and kids to obtain one of his former college players, Jamal 
Mashburn. Now Pitino has had more than his share of trades since he arrived 
in Celticville two years ago. However, I think a person has to realize that 
other teams will leak rumors of offers they have made to the Celtics that 
have been rejected. This is done in hope of rekindling the trade by public 
outcry. In this case with it being lopsided in favor of the Clippers, I would 
think they started it or one of their fans (if there is such a thing <g>). 
Pitino has crucified more for trades that have rumored than for the ones he 
pulled off. In my opinion, the first Erik Williams trade is his only stinker. 

Now this should have nipped in the bud at the beginning. These columnists 
with their 6 figure incomes should could have done their job and read the 
CBA. I mean, do we have to do all the work? Now, the trade of Billy Owens to 
the 76ers and the further clincher of Manning and Ellis to the Bucks after 
all just being traded from the Sonics or Suns gives us the answer...

DJessen33