Steve Bulpett: Put Up Or Shut Up, Rick

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

      Boston Herald

      Put up and shut up, Rick
      by Steve Bulpett 
      Wednesday, May 5, 1999

      Rick Pitino is confident, even wistful, when he discusses next season. He 
      sees victories, he sees a cohesive team, he sees the playoffs. All of 
      this, however, is predicated upon the Celtics players changing their 
      bodies and their attitudes this summer.
      Pitino wants better conditioned players who are focused on the greater 
      good of the team.
      While those alterations are certainly warranted, it is also fact that the 
      Celtics will never realize their full potential unless Pitino changes, as 
      well. For this team to contend, Pitino has to become less visible as the 
      symbol of the franchise and less audible to the impressionable ears of 
      both his players and the potential free agents on the opposing teams.
      Perhaps the most maddening thing about the Celtics coach and president is 
      that just when you want to take him to the journalistic woodshed, he 
      essentially agrees. That still doesn't excuse an underachieving season. 
      When teams don't play up to their talent, you call the coach on speed 
      dial.

      Players deserve some blame
      Of all the issues that dogged the Celtics this season, the greatest was 
      the utter lack of self-reliance among those in uniform until the bench 
      brethren took their turn at the end of the year. When things went wrong, 
      the players never made the corrections from within, hence the mindblowing 
      specter of late-game collapses and insulting no-compete losses.
      Pitino can point with some truth to the age of his players, but it is also 
      the case that the team had no rudder in sneakers because Pitino had put 
      himself in that position. And while the jury is still out on whether a 
      team can trap successfully in a seven-game playoff series, it is a hard 
      and true NBA fact that no team wins big on this level unless the main 
      leadership comes from the players.
      The best a coach in this league can do is provide his players a battle 
      plan that works and plays to their strengths. Once in the trenches, the 
      troops have to lean on themselves. Whom do you think was more critical to 
      his team's leadership, Michael Jordan or Phil Jackson? Karl Malone or 
      Jerry Sloan? Magic Johnson or Pat Riley?
      In the Celtics' situation, some of this falls on Antoine Walker, who must 
      realize that his role calls for more than numbers (pushing to get back 
      from his injury was a large move in this direction). But Pitino has to set 
      the table and have the strength to remove himself from pulling the strings 
      all the time. He cannot continue to orchestrate everything.
      A lovely example this season came early during a game in Cleveland. As is 
      his habit, Pitino was directing nearly every movement from the sideline in 
      his stream of consciousness style, calling for screens and reversals of 
      the ball until it went to the wing. ``Drive!'' Pitino shouted, as the 
      player did. And when the player was fouled, Pitino called, ``Now make the 
      free throws.''
      The last sentence begs the questions of whether the player wouldn't have 
      tried to do so if not told and, maybe of greater importance, whether there 
      was a Cavalier in earshot who didn't think the Celtics coach a lunatic.
     
      A little quiet time
      The bottom line is that Rick Pitino is too smart not to recognize the need 
      for economy when passing information to his players and the need for 
      restraint when passing his image to the rest of the league. Pitino is not 
      the hardest coach in the NBA and he does offer more positive reinforcement 
      than others employing the leather-lung approach. But do potential free 
      agents know that?
      If I had a few bucks for every opposing player who brought up Pitino's 
      demeanor, I'd be golfing right now instead of writing.
      In a more technical sense, this team has to be allowed to play offense. 
      Pitino cannot coach the ball into the basket. As noted in this space 
      before, he has to empower his point guard - for better or worse - and let 
      the game flow. Kenny Anderson, Dana Barros, Damon Jones and/or whoever's 
      running the show has to have the juice to keep the players from looking to 
      the bench for a call. If Pitino is calling the plays, it's too late - a 
      point with which he agrees.
      ``Kenny's going to have the juice as soon as he learns what we're doing,'' 
      Pitino said. ``What he's got to adjust to is getting away from how he's 
      played before. Kenny's always passed the ball at the end after he's done 
      dribbling. But if four players are watching one, it kills your offense.
      ``In my two years with New York, Mark Jackson called 98 percent of the 
      plays. Now he has the mentality to take over a team and he understands. 
      Kenny, and Dana to a certain degree, don't know the plays yet. It's a 
      shortened season and Kenny didn't really have it last year. Next year 
      he'll have it down and be able to run things. We're supposed to run a play 
      based on what the point guard does. If he passes to the wing, we run one 
      thing. If he passes somewhere else, it's another play.
      ``The worst thing you can do in this league is call out the plays. If you 
      do, the other team relays it to the bench and the bench tells them where 
      the ball is going. That's why the NBA has come down in points, because 
      guys are too mechanical on offense. What I enjoy the most is coaching 
      offense in practice and letting them do their things, because then you 
      don't get the calls. Then you can play fast. By next year, we'll be able 
      to do that.''

      One step up
      By next year, the slings and arrows of this season should have healed and 
      hardened the resolve of the Celtics. They will still be young, even if 
      able to add a veteran through trade or free agent signing, but Pitino is 
      convinced the maturation process will produce better results on the floor 
      and within the players' hierarchy.
      ``I'll give you an example,'' Pitino said. ``My early Kentucky teams, when 
      they were young, they deflated easy. But when they were juniors and 
      seniors, they were the leaders of the team. Guys like (Derek) Anderson, 
      (Tony) Delk and (Walter) McCarty, they were the leaders of the team. You 
      didn't have to say a whole lot to those guys. They policed themselves. 
      They did it themselves.
      ``The older this team gets and the more it's together, the more you'll see 
      it. You never find self-reliant teams that are young. If they're scoring, 
      their enthusiasm for the rest of the game is high. If they're not scoring, 
      everything falls back. It's just a sign of youth.''
      The issue of a coach trying to prod his team into wisdom and confidence 
      was offered to Pitino here first by Red Auerbach. Prior to the 1997-98 
      season, Auerbach told his new coach to walk into the huddle on occasion 
      and ask the players for suggestions. Pitino laughed at the recollection.
      ``Last year,'' he said, ``I did that once in a crucial situation and 
      Antoine said, `How the hell do we know? You're the coach.' I told Red that 
      and he died laughing.
      ``But this year they came to the huddle seeing things and suggesting 
      things. Antoine will say, `Go to Ron, coach. He's hot and they can't guard 
      him.' Or Ron might say, `Get 'Toine the ball.' And I want that more than 
      anything because they're on the court, and when a player makes a 
      suggestion, they execute it better than a coach's play because it's their 
      suggestion.''

      Two steps back
      The suggestion that Pitino must de-emphasize himself should also take into 
      account that Ricky the Salesman is precisely what this franchise needed 
      when he arrived. But now that the bleeding has been stopped, it is time 
      for the Celtics players to take center stage. In other words, Pitino 
      should not make a return trip to the cover of the team's media guide next 
      season. As much as reasonable, he has to seek the shadows.
      ``Yeah, I think you have to do that,'' Pitino said. ``When I first went 
      into Kentucky, I was the focal point. At the end, I was the coach of the 
      team, but everybody knew every player's name. They were the reason we won 
      a championship. You de-emphasize as you come down.
      ``Once they know what you're trying to do, then it's their game. You 
      become a practice coach. You become smaller, smaller, smaller, and you're 
      more a manager of people because they know your system,'' he said.
      ``We're a ways away from that, but next year it is going to be the point 
      guard's show. And Antoine should be more vocal.''
      And if Pitino carries those plans to fruition, he could very well get the 
      chance to de-emphasize himself in the playoffs.