Peter May is a joke

[DJessen33@aol.com]

Peter May has now become an advocate of Mercer. Gee, I guess he likes this 
team the way it is now. Sure has never said that in any of his previous 
writings.  Man, it sure is easy to play the devil's advocate on every Celtic 
move and never have to responsible for any of your calls...

<Mercer in the middle

You have to wonder what is going on with the Celtics and Ron Mercer. 
This cannot be a money thing; the Celtics aren't the Florida Marlins. 
When Rick Pitino talks about his ''budget,'' he neglects to note that 
he's already far over it anyway. If he's so concerned about money and 
Mercer, why was he so quick to re-sign Walter McCarty for $2.8 million 
per year? There may be an honest difference of opinion about what Mercer 
is worth, which would hardly be an NBA first. That's what negotiations 
are all about. It can't be about Mercer's viability as a contributor; 
he's a very nice piece of the puzzle (to borrow a phrase from M.L. Carr
). But with the Celtics entertaining trade offers and Pitino saying he 
can't get in touch with Mercer's agent, well, you can see where this is 
all going. So can Tevester Scott, who represents Mercer. ''It's 
propaganda,'' he said. ''I've talked several times to [Boston general 
manager] Chris Wallace. You start feeding the media like that and I 
wonder, what's your reason?'' Scott is well aware that he and No Limit, 
the agency handling Mercer, are making their NBA debut and people are 
watching. He is aware of the rules that prevent negotiations before July 
1. That includes faxing contract proposals. ''I don't know what they 
expect me to do,'' Scott said. ''I mean, how far can you go? Not very 
far. We're new and people are waiting for us to slip up. I won't. I know 
the rules.'' Regarding Mercer, Scott said, ''Ron has no problem with the 
city of Boston or the fans. [He never mentioned Pitino.] I have to go 
for the best deal I can get. I can't base that on what the Celtics are 
saying. The only thing Ron's worried about is if Boston is willing to 
step up to the table. He wants the best situation for him.'' The real 
fear among the Celtics has to be that Mercer will leave. As Kevin McHale 
noted, that should only be a fear if there are three teams lined up to 
pay him what the Celtics won't. That doesn't seem to be the case, 
although Chicago GM Jerry Krause likes him a lot and could have a hefty 
stash to spend next summer. But this is not new; the Celtics have been 
discussing a Mercer trade for a while. They can't move him alone because 
his salary is artificially small (by NBA standards), which is why he's 
being coupled with Kenny Anderson. It's really something. Two years ago, 
Pitino stood at a podium at the FleetCenter and announced he had his 
backcourt of the future. Chauncey Billups lasted five months. It doesn't 
seem as though Mercer is going to stick around a whole lot longer>

DJessen33