Boston's SportsGuy on the C's dated 3/26

[Kevin.Lok@outokumpu.com]

SPECIAL REPORT (3/26)
Thanks to an explosive story in today's Globe, the wheels have officially
come off for Rick Pitino & the Celtics. What's next for Gang Green?

When we last left the running soap opera "As the Celtics Turn" on Tuesday,
I had just completed a two-day feature about Rick Pitino's tenure as
President and head coach of the Boston Celtics. The final grade? B-minus.
As we painstakingly pointed out in the piece (a little TOO painstakingly,
given that the feature was about 290,000,000 words), shaky front office
maneuvering and inconsistent coaching has combined to yield an absymal
on-court product. In the end, we decided to cut Coach P some slack -- very
little slack -- because he's working with a young team and the Celtics were
severely crippled by their schedule (all the early games on the road).
The point of the piece? Not only was Coach P's honeymoon over in Beantown,
but he needed to take some accountability, start coaching, and stop making
so many damned excuses. Most importantly, he needed to figure out how to
motivate his young players -- especially Antoine Walker -- before he lost
them for good.
Anyway, Part Two of that piece was posted Tuesday night at 6:00. Since
then, all hell has broken loose:
1.
The Celtics quit that night in Cleveland, losing by 29 points as the Cavs
turned the second half of the game into a layup/dunk drill. After the game,
Pitino sounded as despondent and upset as he has during any point of his
Boston tenure, promising wholescale lineup changes and vowing to jettison
"any player who was humiliating the Celtics franchise."
2.
The following night, the Celtics pulled a full-scale tank job AT HOME
against Minnesota, capped off by Walker's bow-wow 1-for-14 shooting
performance (as the Fleet Center crowd lustily booed his every mistake).
Walker's credibility with the crowd certainly wasn't helped by Globe
columnist Dan Shaughnessy, who ripped Walker in a column on Tuesday and
mentioned that sources in the organization claim that Walker reported to
camp a startling 38 pounds overweight this winter.
Although Walker played poorly and appeared to quit rebounding and playing
defense in the second half of Wednesday's game, he still didn't look any
worse than Ron Mercer or Paul Pierce (a combined 9-for-31 from the field);
still, the Celtic Faithful have made up their mind: Walker is the problem
here and he MUST go. Sadly, the rough treatment from the crowd -- even if
it's probably deserved -- has completely knocked Cyber Twan off his game.
He's a shell of his former self; he has NO confidence; and his head is
hanging during every break and every timeout. It's becoming eminently clear
that he won't be here next season, because once you lose the fans in
Boston, you usually can't get them back. Ever.
3.
In Friday's Boston Globe, Celtics beat writer Michael Holley wrote an
explosive piece which blew the proverbial roof off the Fleet Center (CLICK
HERE IF YOU MISSED IT), the final nail in the coffin for Pitino's honeymoon
in town. After a week of radio/newspaper/Internet conjecture about his
performance, Holley's column represented the first concrete evidence that
the young Celtics have started to tune out their coach.
Among the tidbits in the column...
** For the first time, "unnamed players and sources" were saying that
Pitino's harsh style has worn down the players (he yells too much, he
swears too much, he doesn't respect them as people, he's too controlling,
and all the other stuff you hear when a team feels that its coach has
crossed the line). As I wrote in my two-part piece earlier in the week,
everything that has happened this year -- especially all the double-digit
losses --pointed to one overwhelming conclusion: The players were quitting
on their coach. Yet that seemed improbable given Coach P's impeccable
coaching record.
Well, Holley's column proved this point once and for all. The players have
tuned out the coach. Period.
** The Celtics are concerned that Ron Mercer -- tired of all the losing and
exhausted by Pitino's tactics -- will flee for greener pastures when his
three-year contract expires in June, 2000. With that in mind, it's probable
that the Celts will deal him after the season rather than watch him walk
away 15 months from now (like Tom Gugliotta in Minnesota). This goes in
hand with a report from Sports Illustrated's Jackie MacMullan on WEEI --
she claimed the Celts were shopping Mercer before the trading deadline two
weeks ago and talked with New Jersey about a Mercer-for-Kerry Kittles swap.
Amazingly, it's highly possible that the foundation of Pitino's young
Celtics dynasty in November of 1997 -- Mercer, Walker and Chauncey Billups
-- could all be playing in other cities by November of 1999. Who would have
ever imagined???
(As an aside... if Boston trades Ron Mercer, put me on a 24-hour suicide
watch, please).
** According to three of Holley's sources, Pitino railed into rookie Paul
Pierce after the heartbreaking two-point loss at home to New Jersey on
March 1st, blaming Pierce's two missed free throws for costing the team the
game. Although Pitino denied the story, Holley reports that his browbeating
of Pierce was so vicious that the rookie actually started crying and had to
be consoled by veteran Dana Barros.
This story certainly adds up -- I've written at least three times this
month that Pierce hasn't been the same player since he missed those free
throws against the Nets (I even mentioned it in yesterday's Ramblings).
Given that he went 0-for-11 the following night in Cleveland and given that
he hasn't played with the same enthusiasm and "Joie de vive" since that
Nets debacle, it's clear that something happened to change his demeanor.
He's not playing with the same passion as he once did.
And if you think rookies can't be that fragile, well... obviously you
haven't been following sports that closely over the years. Just in Boston
during the past decade, we watched Joe Thornton, Drew Bledsoe and Mo Vaughn
all struggle with their confidence during rookie seasons (Vaughn even got
sent to the minors in '92). Sometimes, one bad night can change the course
of a rookie season... and whatever happened during/after the Nets game
seems to have irrevocably damaged Pierce's "Rookie of the Year" bid.
** Finally, Pitino wouldn't tell Holley if there would be massive changes
this summer, but he did say the following: "I'm not going to give you
names, but there's only one guy on this team that I don't enjoy coaching...
I don't like people who are not passionate about the game of basketball.
And I don't like cowards."
Wow! Sweet Jesus! This is like a murder-mystery! Who is he talking about
here?
According to Holley, it isn't Walker. And we know Coach P loves Mercer,
Tony Battie and Vitaly Potapenko since he praised them all in Tuesday's
Boston Globe (saying, "We need to get more Mercers, more Potapenkos, more
Batties... guys who are willing to work on their game"). So who's left?
Hmmmm... smells like Kenny Anderson! Even though Dana Barros is a
possibility (especially if Pitino believes Dana leaked the "Pierce crying
after the Nets game" story), Kenny's the guy who has been driving everyone
crazy all year. He doesn't play defense, he refuses to distribute the ball
like a real point guard, he looks for his own offense, he takes dumb shots,
and he hasn't exhibited any leadership whatsoever. Also, Jackie MacMullan
mentioned the following in her "Inside the NBA" column this week: "Whispers
out of Boston are that point guard Kenny Anderson, who was initially
rejuvenated by his move to the Celtics, is the latest veteran to grow
disenchanted with president and coach Rock Pitino's my-way-or-the-highway
control of the team."
(Hmmmm... I wonder where THAT story came from. If this were "The
Godfather," Coach P would be Michael Corleone and Kenny Anderson would be
Carlo. Get into the limo with Clemenza, Kenny... you're going to Las
Vegas!)
***** ***** ***** ***** *****
Here are Pitino's biggest problems as he heads into the last half of the
season:
** Can he reach Walker? Can he motivate him? Can he salvage Cyber Twan's
relationship with the fans? Or is this thing beyond repair?
** Whatever happened with Pierce, is it fixable? Something tells me their
relationship isn't as bad as you might think -- remember, they made that
good-natured bet during the NCAA Tournament when Pierce had to wear
Kentucky shorts during a practice after Kentucky (Pitino's old school) beat
Kansas (Pierce's old school) in the NCAA's, and that happened after the
alleged crying incident. So the wounds can't be THAT deep. Regardless, they
need to get this guy back on track, pronto. He's the future of the team.
** How will Pitino handle Kenny Anderson if Kenny was/is the player he
"doesn't enjoy coaching"? Is Kenny truly on the downside of his career, as
it (painfully) seems? And if he IS done, how do you dump him when he has
four years and $30 million-plus left on his contract?
** Can the situation be turned around so Mercer doesn't give up on Boston
and refuse to sign a contract extension this summer, basically forcing the
team to trade him?
** One huge problem: How do you coach a young team without any veteran
influences in the locker room? For instance, wherever he coaches, Bill
Parcells plants pro-Tuna veteran players in his locker room -- guys who
know his system and lead by example (Steve DeOssie, Pepper Johnson, Corwin
Brown, etc.). Unfortunately for Coach P, he doesn't have any guys like that
in Boston (maybe that's why he was trying so hard to get Jamal Mashburn
last year?). Whatever the case, this team needs more veteran leadership
than (a crippled) Popeye Jones, Dwayne Schintzius and Dana "I've never
played on a .500 team in my life" Barros.
** One scenario to keep an eye on: Has this entire experience soured Pitino
and coaching in the NBA? Will he explore a return to the college ranks
after this season? What would happen if the UCLA job opened up? Or if Bobby
Knight suddenly retired at Indiana? What if Bill Guthridge retired at North
Carolina in May and UNC brought in Kansas coach Roy Williams to replace
him... would Pitino buy out his Celtics contract to shoot for the Kansas
job? And would Paul Gaston let him out of the contract? All interesting
questions.
The grand conclusion: All hell has broken loose. This saga contains
everything you could ever NOT hope for if you love the Celtics -- sobbing
rookies, stoolies, stars being booed, overpaid coaches being tuned out with
8 years and $35 million left on their contract, newspaper leaks and more!
Throw in a drug scandal and a sexual harassment case and this would
officially be Sports Hell.
Just think... did you ever imagine wishing that they never ended the
Lockout?