Re: Another reason to hate Pat Riley...

[Dan Parker <danp@town.ipswich.ma.us>]

On Wed, 17 Feb 1999, Mike Dynon wrote:

> ...and Tim Hardaway's a jerk, too.  This from the Sporting News:
> 
> 	The two best basketball coaches in the world are not very pleased with
> each other after what happened in Miami Arena last week. Rick Pitino
> called a timeout with 10 seconds left -- up five with the ball -- so he
> could do some situational teaching, and Pat Riley spent the two minutes
> glaring at him. 

The same Pat Riley who declared the 80s Celtics "thugs" and then proceeded
to turn the 90s Knicks into the ugliest basketball team the NBA has ever
seen.  His theory: The refs can't call everything.  And he was right -
they didn't.  If they had stuck by their guns and called the fouls when
they occured, the Knicks would have had to adjust.  It would have made for
a few awful games where the other team would be living at the foul line,
but the Knicks would adjust and the situation would have righted itself.
Instead we got several seasons of gawd-awful basketball, which was then
copied by nearly every other coach in the league.

Nothing Riley says publicly with worth paying attention to - he's just
trying to manipulate *someone* into giving his team a break.

> 	Tim Hardaway flung the ball at Pitino after the buzzer and told a few
> of the Celtics that he and his teammates would "shove that timeout" into
> an unspecified place in their next meeting (April 16 at FleetCenter). 

Whoopee.  And the Heat will lose in the first round of the playoffs again.

> 	Pitino's reaction: "The Boston Celtics are not here to please the Miami
> Heat."

'Nuff said.

Dan