May: Mercer's Agent - Celtics Offer A Disgrace

[Way Of The Ray <wayray@ix.netcom.com>]

                                [The Boston Globe Online][Boston.com]
                                [Boston Globe Online / Sports]

                  

                                PRO BASKETBALL
                                Youth should not be served up exorbitant
                                salaries

                                By Peter May, Globe Staff, 07/11/99
                                <snips>
                         
                                Enough to go around?

                                So what to make of the Celtics and Ron
                                Mercer? Are they lowballing him, or does
                                Mercer have an inflated opinion of
                                himself? We know Rick Pitino didn't
                                hesitate to shell out more than $50
                                million for Travis Knight and Chris Mills.
                                We know he didn't hesitate to re-sign
                                Walter McCarty for $8.4 million. When he
                                acquired Kenny Anderson, Pitino said one
                                of the undeniable benefits was that
                                Anderson was locked in long-term. We know
                                only recently, Pitino said, ''I think,
                                possibly, we can make [Mercer] a real good
                                offer that he'll be happy with.'' Not. If
                                there is a budget crunch, as Pitino
                                insists, why should Mercer have to pay for
                                all the previous signings? ''I can tell
                                you this. Ron is disgusted with the way
                                management has handled this,'' said
                                Mercer's agent, Tevester Scott. ''You
                                can't punish him because of what you did
                                before. What they offered him is
                                embarrassing. We're not even in the same
                                state. When he called me and told me what
                                it was, we both fell out of our chairs
                                laughing.'' Well, whether the Celtics'
                                offer amounts to punishment or insult is,
                                of course, relative. ''We're at the
                                beginning of the process here,'' said
                                general manager Chris Wallace. ''I'll
                                leave it at that.'' But after Antoine
                                Walker ($9 million) and Anderson ($6.68
                                million), the next highest salary belongs
                                to Vitaly Potapenko ($3.81 million). In
                                other words, the Celtics may have cap
                                woes, but it's because of a lot of
                                ''average'' salaries doled out to the
                                likes of Greg Minor and Pervis Ellison
                                (both M.L. Carr signings), as well as
                                Popeye Jones, McCarty and, incredibly,
                                Dwayne Schintzius. (Why Schintzius was
                                given $2.8 million over two years should
                                warrant a Spotlight Team investigation.
                                It's not like he had any leverage.) The
                                Celtics can pay Mercer whatever they want
                                up to the $71 million limit that they
                                gladly and without hesitation gave Walker.
                                ''Seventy-one million? Well, that's not
                                close,'' Scott said. ''Let's just say if
                                $71 million is on one side of the
                                mountain, we're not to the point where we
                                can even see it from the other side.'' ...
                                
                                The Celtics open their
                                California Summer League schedule tonight
                                in Long Beach against Portland. An NBA
                                team can have three roster players, and
                                participating for Boston will be Tony
                                Battie, Pierce, and Potapenko. Also on the
                                roster are Eric Riley, Bruce Bowen, and
                                Marlon Garnett, all free agents, as well
                                as rookies Wayne Turner, Kevin Ollie, Kris
                                Clack and four others, the most notable
                                being CBA MVP Adrian Griffin. The team
                                will play eight games in nine days,
                                returning on the 19th.

                                Material from personal interviews, wire
                                service reports, other beat writers, and
                                league and team sources was used in
                                compiling this report.

                                This story ran on page E02 of the Boston
                                Globe on 07/11/99.
                                © Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.