FW: celtics center for September

["Ozersky, Joshua A" <OzerskyJA@corning.com>]

> ----------
> From: 	Ozersky, Joshua A
> Sent: 	Tuesday, August 31, 1999 4:35 PM
> To: 	'bskball@bskball.com'
> Subject: 	celtics center for September
> 
> Celtics Center 9/1
> The Great Pitino Pile-on
> 
> Sportswriters are a lazy bunch as a rule, even by the standards of journalism.  They love nothing better than something they can repeat without actually having to report, and they love better still repeating an opinion that is based on no report at all.  Perhaps this accounts for one of the most shameless free-for-alls of recent years, the Great Pitino Pile-On of 1999.
> 
> Basketball savants as diverse as the Sporting News' Dave D'Allsandro and The Fly, the Boston Globe's Dan Shaughnessy, and ESPN Atlanticologist Jeffrey Denberg have all joined noted crank and pinhead Peter May in an unreasoning assault on Celtics head coach and GM Rick Pitino.  For those of you fortunate enough to have avoided this orgy of facile editorializing, Pitino was not criticized as a GM who had made a mistake in trading Ron Mercer; nor was he taken to task for (say) tolerating Antoine Walker's insubordination last year, or waiting too long until turning on the press, both legitimate complaints.  No, Pitino was a tyrant, neurotic, an amateur, a poor man's Calipari, a step down from M.L. Carr.  No slight was too extreme for these unanswered and irresponsible attacks, and Celtics fans can rest assured that if the team plays well next year, every one of these writers will return to praising the charisma, coaching, and preparedness of Rick Pitino.
> 
> To some extent, Pitino inspires hatred in some circes because he is smart and funny and cynical in his public persona ("Pitino is spinning away"), and so does not invite either pity or ridicule, as (say) Jeff Van Gundy or Del Harris did.  Journalists are forced to present the claims of incoming coaches on more or less the terms the organizations ask, so they joy in bringing the coaches--  even the least of whom, by the way, know far more about baskeball than the writers do and, worse still, make far more money  --  down to earth.  Pitino, who has had uninterrupted success on every level and every place, and who makes more money than anybody, was thus earmarked for special abuse.
> 
> The fact that 
> a)  he had no chance to coach last year, except for what he could scream from the sidelines;
> 
> b)  He had an essentially limited talent base, including a core player in Ron Mercer who couldn't do anything but shoot jump shots off screens, and a point guard in the worst physical and mental condition of his life; and, lest we forget,
> 
> c)  A star who, under the best of circumstances, would have required all the motivational and disciplanary mastery of John Wooden, Red Auerbach, and Pat Riley rolled into one
> 
> bore but little with them.
> 
> The fact remains, and it will be to their great chagrin, that the team Rick Pitino has put together through his aggressive trading ("trader rick is at it again") is poised for the breakthrough season which each of the previous season's ends have hinted at.  When Kenny Anderson arrived at the end of the 98 season, he was a dervish who, in the words of Celtics TV analyst Tommy Heinsohn, "unleashed the speed" of the young team, and was leading them in blowout after blowout until his knee gave way.  ("Pitino gave away the 3rd pick overall for gimpy veteran Kenny Anderson.")  The following year, despite a horrific lockout and a number of well-chronicled crises, the late season saw a heroic charge featuring multiple victories over the Miami heat, an effective pressing game, and a matured Antoine Walker who was dominating under control, hitting his free throws, and seemed markedly less possewhipped than he had in the past.  Combined with Tony Battie's emergence as a shot blocking threat, the Celtics seems much m
> 
> Now we enter a new season, with a full training camp, a full exhibition season, and many, many days to practice > during the regular season.  We have replaced the uni-dimensional Ron Mercer with the multi-monstrous Paul Pierce>  at shooting guard; moved Antoine Walker to a position at which he should dominate far more offensively than he > did in the past, without giving much more up on D; added, miracle of miracles, the 4th best rebounder in basketb> all (if not the best), a tough young player who reminds many of a young Charles Oakley to play D, own the boards> , and facilitates the game of the Pierce and Walker by not requiring the ball to be effective.  We have a true c> enter, one whom no team in the NBA can play off of downlow, and who many teams will need to double team to keep > off the foul line.  We have Eric Williams, formerly hailed as the second coming of Cornbread Maxwell, coming off>  the bench, and Calbert Cheaney, a seasoned pro who could start for many teams, backing up pierce.  So that 
> 
> Our rebounding, with our new revamped lineup, with be a strength instead of a weakness.  Teams like NY and Miami (the top teams in the conference, as it happens) should a low percentage, as celtics observer Noah Evans has pointed out.  Those teams get a lot of their points on offensive rebounds.  That won't happen against the celtics.  And how will they cover us?  As Evans says, "I thinkWalker will eat other teams alive next year, even if he shows up at 300lbs, just because opposing teams won't be able to deal withhim. What else would they do?  They certainly couldn't move a pf off Fortson. That would be even worse. Fortson eats weaker players alive. I'm salivating at the thought. "
> 
> Indeed.  These and other thoughts are keeping celtics fans happy through these slow months, and it is a bitter thing indeed that the microcephalic sports press should choose this moment to ride Pitino for all they are worth.   Not one of them actually believes that Pitino should have signed David Wesley, et al. to long term contracts, nor that he made a mistake in any of his trades except possibly the Billups for Anderson one (and they weren't saying much when Kenny was lightening in a bottle.)  Yet they continue to pretend that Pitino has wrought devastation on the Celtics, which is like saying that the Red Cross has crushed the Turkish earthquake victims.  They are as perfidious and stupid as the kids who dance in front of the jumbotron, and boo Antoine Walker when he misses a free throw.   And these are the experts?  Give me a stick to throw at my local squeegee men, and I could find more knowledgable, and more honorable, commentators.   
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