Pitino on Pierce, Gaston, Laker's, on ESPN's Game Night show

[HMURDOCH@aol.com]

I just heard (on what may have been a repeat airing) Pitino on ESPN radio's
"Game Night", talking about Pierce, the new CBA, Gaston, and the new season.

Personally, I was very interested to hear what he would say about our new
players after all the trade rumors.

He had some brief (required) hopeful comments about Battie and Shintzius
(sp?).  But, having seen Pierce play in last summer's pro leagues, and being
one of many on the list that really doesn't want to see him traded away - I
wanted to hear Pitino's spin on Paul.

For what it's worth - he sounded really impressed.  He said he was skeptical
about Pierce after he slid down to 10th place in the draft, but said that
after he had seen him play in person, "We got the all time steal of the
draft".  And "This young man is as good as it gets .... he's powerful at 6'7
and 235lbs, he shoots well, he's got excellent hands, anticipation on defense,
he's a killer inside, and I'm really, really excited about him."  Pitino said
he would be a strong candidate for Rookie of the Year if he could get enough
playing time.

Granted, with Trader Rick, you never know whether this is for real, or for
boosting the value of a player to be traded.  But he did sound rather pleased.

My take is that Paul will surprise a lot of people with his readiness to play
on the pro level, and I just hope that we keep him in Green long enough to see
how far he can go.  (On the inside play, I understand from other reports that
he was able to post up and score inside on Antoine a couple of times in
practice.  And in a summer league game in Long Beach, I saw him strip the ball
from 'toine twice on the defensive end.  Of course, that may only mean that
he's better than Antoine ;-)  (joke for the humor challenged)

On the new CBA - Pitino credited it with helping the small market teams have a
chance to compete, and thought it was good for the Celtics (given that Gaston
wasn't Cablevision or Microsoft with their $), and would be good for the
league.  Asked whether there were any new dynasties on the horizon, he said,
"maybe the Lakers .... but I hope not".  Regarding the Celt's chances due to
the shortened season, he thought it might give an advantage to teams
emphasizing defense like the Celts.

After the interview, one of the show hosts said "He's a great salesman".  I
guess we all knew that ;-)

Hank M.