Contract story from Herald

["Ozersky, Joshua A" <OzerskyJA@corning.com>]

Pitino, Battie face tall order
Celtics Notebook/by Steve Bulpett 

Tuesday, May 4, 1999





NEW YORK - Tony Battie has been playing in the Rick Pitino press this
season. This summer he will feel what it's like to be the object of it.
Battie is eligible to sign a contract extension (like Ron Mercer, he has one
year left on his initial deal), and Pitino believes it is a very
black-and-white situation.

``I think, in all honesty, in the bracket that Tony is in, that if we don't
re-sign him we have to trade him,'' Pitino said after last night's 95-88
loss to the Knicks in which Battie had 14 points, 10 rebounds and three
blocks in 34 minutes. ``(If you don't do either), you're going to get
nothing for him. He's not in the highest bracket financially. You've got to
get him committed or you've got to move him.



``With Ron it's a different situation totally. Ron may fit or may not fit. I
don't know what Ron's going to ask for, but let's say he asks for a lot.
Then I probably can't sign Tony. I've got to do what's best for the Celtic
team in the end. We want to keep Ron certainly, but if we can't then we just
go in a different direction. But we've got to get quality back, and I won't
trade Ron unless I get quality. I want to sign him, but we've got to figure
out some way to do this.''



Clearly, Pitino wants to keep both. Battie is developing nicely after coming
from the Lakers (where he never played) in exchange for Travis Knight.



``We've taken him from a bad reputation with the Denver Nuggets,'' Pitino
said. ``He still has to play three out of four games rather than one out of
four games, but we've built him up. Now we've put so much work and time in -
and we're going to do it all summer long - we've got to sign him. If we
don't, then all the work that we've put in establishing his reputation and
him giving back to the Celtics is for naught, because he's a free agent next
year, and he's of the salary that a lot of teams could afford him.''



Battie would like to stay, too, but he's not counting on anything.



``I love playing here with these guys,'' he said. ``I love playing for the
pride and the tradition of the Celtics, and hopefully I can stick around.
But you know how things go. This is the NBA, and weird things do happen.''



Walker pitches Pierce



Before the game, Walker read a copy of Slam magazine with a cover story
proclaiming Celtic Paul Pierce should be the NBA's Rookie of the Year.



Walker wholeheartedly agreed and made the case for his teammate to defeat
Toronto's Vince Carter.



``If we win our last two games of the season, they'll have - what? - maybe
one or two more wins than us,'' said Walker of the Raptors. ``Paul does more
than (Carter) does. Paul rebounds, scores, defends, shoots the trey. He got
off to a great start, and then he hurt his ankle. And he came back and has
played great down to the end. If you're talking about from start to finish,
Paul's the guy you should vote for. Maybe it could be co-winners with Paul
and Vince. But no one else. Jason Williams is not even in the equation.''
Joshua Ozersky
Marketing Communications
Environmental Products Division
Corning Incorporated.
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