RE: Pitino the Enabler

["Odegaard, Greg M." <GMOdegaa@rmc.com>]

This is without doubt the post of the week.  Now just because Joe and I are
good pals has nothing to do with it.

Any "old" time Celtic fan, and just to clarify (I love all Celtics fans 70
years old or 7, as is the case with my son) for my well being and to let you
know a little something about ol' Greg, "old" time Celtic fan implies that
you were at least alive during the Greatest Sports Dynasty of all time (all
due respect to the Canadians, Bruins, and Yankees) and might have actually
seen a game on TV where Mr. Russell was in uniform (not on tape).  I don't
remember this, but my dad assures me I did, as I was born in 1964.  Or
certainly caught the 1976 3OT thriller, or at minimum was wearing green
during the running of the Birds in the 80's, will tell you that the Celtics
got to the promise land as a TEAM.  For all you stats buffs out there; how
many times has a Celtic won a scoring title?  Easy one right, never!  But 16
titles means something, scoring titles don't mean crap, when you don't win
the prize, and as an "old" time Celtic fan, this continues to be the end
result I can virtually only live with.  Sure win some games, make the
playoffs, improve for sure, but if you are not taking us to the promise
land, and #17, then get the hell off the team and this list.  Call me
whatever you want, but this is the basics installed by Red and continued
with folks like Russ, Heinsohn, KC  and Bird, and hopefully the mantle
carried today by RP.  Lombardi spoke on the subject best, at length, but
that is another great green team, for another day.  If Walker and Kenny
can't or won't work together with the other 10 guys to win, then RP will
move them, even if AW is like a son to him. I have quoted many folks before,
but I want to repeat the most recent 2 here:


Auerbach (1990) "We're not interested in being competitive, We're interested
in winning"

Ford (1990) "In Boston we have sophisticated fans.  Their only concern is if
you hang a banner up at the end of the year"  

Anybody want to know something about me and why I am a Celtic fan, read
these quotes.  I expect the best in my everyday life, with my employees, to
put results to my companies bottom, while meeting 110% of our customers
expectations, externally and internally, and I expect the Celtics to win
everynight and win a 17th championship if not this season then very damn
soon, or heads should and will roll.  I am a Celtic fan because they are the
best at what they do over the history of the league, and noone should ever
have to apologize either for either being the best or being a fanatic of the
best.  Moses Malone does eat sh#*, the Fakers are pure evil personified
(Clank and Denny can wither away for all I care) and Atlanta sports fans
suck, because they haven't a clue in the world and they are proud of it.
Either get on board or get the hell out of the way.

Thank you and have a great weekend, it is supposed to be 70 tomorrow in
Portland, Spring has arrived people.  Go Gonzaga, and Duke, strive for the
top and you might just get it,
Greg Odegaard

-----Original Message-----
From: Joe Hironaka [mailto:j.hironaka@unesco.org]
Sent: Friday, March 19, 1999 10:37 AM
To: Jim Meninno; DJessen33@AOL.COM; Celtics@igtc.com
Subject: Re: Pitino the Enabler
Importance: High


> >From: DJessen33@aol.com
>
> If any of you have played with a player like that, you know what I mean.
> Why bust your hump when one of your players is going to take the ball as
> often as he can and shoot it regardless of circumstance?
> Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

In order to fill my required daily allowance of pro-Antoine Walker postings,
let me start by noting a "detail" that it was Ron "The Saint" Mercer who led
the team in shot attempts and bricks not only last night (6-19) but as a
trend (I guess "Master P" has been telling Ron to think hard about his
contract extension). The basic key to stealing a victory in last night's
game was our "future All Star" Ron Mercer's capacity to at least neutralize
Ray Allen. Unfortunately, Ray showed Ron who's got game on 9-12 shooting
with 7 assists and 1 turnover.

Meanwhile, Paul "The Pope" Pierce has gone from being an all-around
aggressive, won't-be-denied ROY into a timid, under-sized rookie forward
whose total contributions on offense amount to little  more than
"catch&shoot" from the three-point line. He's doing a nice Steve Kerr
imitation on a team that needs a lot more out of him.

Look, I'm only bashing Paul and Ron to balance the scales a bit. I believe
Mercer will accelerate his learning curve by being more aggressive this year
and that Pierce is doing the absolute best he can, despite not being able to
practice between games because of back spasms plus his knee and ankle
sprains.

But, frankly, the reason I think we take turns blaming EVERYTHING on
Pitino's point guard (Kenny) and/or his best player (Toine) is because they
are precisely the two guys that Pitino has (irritatingly) left the running
of the 1999 offense almost entirely in the hands of, while he focuses this
year's developmental program on mastering the Pitino defense. Some bright
guy on this list could probably convincingly argue that there are a dozen or
more experienced NBA coaches (plus the retired Phil Jackson) who could coach
our present talent level into the playoffs, merely by suggesting rudimentary
improvements in how we run our offense (Larry Bird, Chuck Daly, George Karl
come to mind). As some of you have said, the Celtics could and maybe should
be leading the league in scoring this season.

Well as Dorine would say, PATIENCE!! What we risk losing via a coaching
change is a team that has led the league in forced turnovers over the past
100 games and has steadily improved in every other defensive category since
last season. Next year, let's see if this school yard offense the Celtics
seem to have continues to flounder at key moments. That's when we should all
admit that Paul M. is our tortured list genius and that we might need to
bring Larry Legend (or even Dave Cowens) back home to where he belongs.

****