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Michael Holley: Payment Due For Pitino
[The Boston Globe Online][Boston.com]
[Boston Globe Online / Sports]
Payment due
It's Pitino's third season - time for the
Celtics, their owner, and their fans to
get a significant return on a big
investment
By Michael Holley, Globe Staff, 11/02/99
He had been in his office for
nearly an hour, sitting next to a
window but talking as if he were watching
the world from a chair on his front porch.
He mentioned his love for his hero, Vince
Lombardi. He explained why he believes
Sports Illustrated is ''shallow'' and why
he will never talk to anyone from the
magazine again. He said the old TV show
''Hawaii Five-O'' made his first job, at
the University of Hawaii, even more
attractive. He spoke of losing Ron Mercer
and eventually said, ''It's very, very
difficult being an executive in this
organization.''
But the words that best define what Rick
Pitino now faces were spoken near the
bottom of the hour. He knows the Celtics
must make the playoffs this season. Must.
If they don't, something about the views
in this suburban office, perched above a
parquet floor, will change. Either Pitino
will not be able to look out the window
and see Antoine Walker working out, or
Walker will not be able to look up and see
the coach, inches away from a glittering
NCAA championship trophy, frantically
talking about basketball.
The team begins Pitino's third season and
Walker's fourth tonight in Toronto. The
coach knows it could be their last season
together. Walker isn't so sure. After a
strained summer, the men recently shared
some of their frustration with one
another.
Walker told the coach he didn't like
having his name linked to trade rumors or
weight problems. Pitino listened and then
had some comments of his own. He repeated
them as he sat at his office table.
''I told him, `You're going into your
fourth season. If we don't make the
playoffs, you think Paul Gaston is going
to be happy?''' Pitino said. ''And then I
told him: `Antoine, if I don't make the
playoffs in the following season - my
fourth - where do you think Rick Pitino is
going to be? So let's face reality. We're
both being paid a lot of money to produce.
If you don't produce as the highest-paid
player and I don't produce as the
high-paid coach, we both know we're going
to be out of jobs.'''
At this point the coach is interrupted.
Out of jobs? Does he want to say that? He
will have $29 million remaining on his
contract after this season. Walker's
contract averages $12 million a year over
the next six seasons. Even Pitino
acknowledged to Walker that he was
''nearly untradeable'' last summer because
of his contract. If Walker is untradeable,
does that not make Pitino unfireable?
''That urgency and pressure is necessary
for me to get this team ready,'' the coach
said. ''You have to think that way. You
have to think you're under the gun. If you
think, `My contract is too long, so they
won't ...,' you're a survivor, not a
winner.''
Walker was asked about that urgency. He
was asked if he thinks about things
changing if the team doesn't make the
playoffs.
''I'm young,'' he said. ''I'm 23 years
old, man. I'm not worried about that.''
Pitino wants to be the coach that his hero
was. He said his hero's mix of discipline
and compassion would be successful even
today. What he didn't say is that his hero
would have hated this. There are clear
differences of opinion between Pitino and
Walker.
Pitino on Walker's weight: ''By Dec. 1,
he'll be in the shape we need him to be
in.''
Walker on his weight: ''I'm not talking
about my weight. I play basketball. My
weight ain't never been a problem. What,
is that an excuse or something? I'm not
even going to answer that. That is
[Pitino's] own personal thing.''
They have to shorten the differences and
make things work on the court. More than
that, they must make it work. Must. If
they don't make the playoffs, somebody
will leave. Will it be Pitino?
''No, I would never walk away,'' he said.
''That's just not me. No, I would never
walk away.''
Pitino has coached for 26 seasons, making
his living as a man who is willing to
travel to the site of a basketball wreck,
piece the discarded parts together, and
drive it to the brink of a title. He got
Boston University to the NCAA tournament.
He took Providence College to the Final
Four. He took the New York Knicks to the
top of the Atlantic Division. He won a
title at the University of Kentucky. He
got the Celtics to ... play hard?
Everyone was paying attention when he
predicted the team would make the playoffs
this season. No team of his has ever
failed to make the playoffs in Year 2 and,
he said, ''In my estimation, this is my
second year. I'll take full responsibility
for last year, but I am not, in my mind,
going to consider that our second year.''
So what happens if this season does not
result in the playoffs? The coach smiles
before he gives this answer:
''Well, I guess you'll have to go back to
my track record because that has never
happened before.''
Bottom lines
Pitino also hasn't had a boss like Gaston
since the late 1980s. That is, he hasn't
had a boss who has constantly reminded him
of limitations. Gaston has done that with
the team's finances.
''We'd all like to be the New York Knicks,
or New Jersey Nets, or Miami Heat,'' said
Pitino. ''We would all like to have
millionaire owners where you just spend as
much as you want. Some teams have it and
some teams don't. That's a fact of life.''
The Celtics don't have it. That is part of
the reason Pitino said life is difficult
as a Celtics executive. Gaston could argue
that no one told Pitino to commit a
combined $56 million to marginal free
agents Travis Knight and Chris Mills. Or
to let David Wesley walk when he could
have been had for about $3 million.
Instead, Pitino drafted Chauncey Billups
and eventually replaced him with Kenny
Anderson, who is on the Celtics' books
until 2003 - for twice as much money as it
would have taken to sign Wesley.
''I totally understand where Paul Gaston
is coming from. Totally,'' said Pitino.
''He is not in this business to lose
money. If he was a billionaire, maybe he
would be in the business to lose. But he's
not, so he runs it like a business.''
Money also affected the makeup of this
season's team. Paul Pierce will be at
shooting guard, taking the place of
Mercer. Pitino said he is friendly with
the guard (now in Denver), and Mercer
agrees.
''I knew I wasn't going to be a Celtic as
early as May [3], when we were playing in
New York,'' Mercer said last week. ''We
had a talk about the budget and Coach said
what he had to offer me. I don't think it
was any secret that I was going to be
traded. I didn't know it was going to be
Denver, but I respect Coach for not
putting me in a position where I would be
shocked.''
These are surprising words coming from
Mercer, who seemed to be in the circle of
people who had problems with Pitino in the
offseason. The coach and Walker clashed.
Larry Bird said that Pitino asked him to
be an assistant coach before Bird left
town (Pitino denies this). Chauncey
Billups called him ''cold.'' Mercer's
former agent, Tevester Scott, accused him
of telling Mercer he had a contract
extension with the Nuggets, when in fact
the Nuggets hadn't planned such a deal
(Mercer is now represented by Edward
Hawkins of No Limit Sports).
''I never had a problem with Coach,''
Mercer said. ''The fact is that I respect
him.''
Maybe that is one of the elements in
Pitino's favor this year: He is always at
the center of something unpredictable. He
was surprised three years ago when an
illustration in Sports Illustrated, in his
opinion, ''was not only sexist in nature
but made me look like I was possessed from
the devil. They had an illustration of my
wife tied to a backboard, looking like
Joan of Arc. I was dragging her from job
to job. Tied to a backboard! I took that
as an affront to what I am all about.''
Pitino said he asked the magazine editors
to apologize, but no one did, ''and I
said, `Screw you. You'll never talk to me
again.' It would be easy to apologize, but
they are too shallow for that.''
Maybe Pitino's history of being close to
surprises will translate to the court;
perhaps his tragically soft defensive team
will suddenly be able to rebound and
defend at an exceptional level. Maybe he
and Walker will continue to get along.
Maybe he will talk to a reporter from SI.
Maybe he will be more like his hero, who
was so good that he has not only a trophy
named after him but also a street and
turnpike service area.
Recently, Pitino pulled his veterans aside
and asked them, ''Aren't you guys tired of
getting your ass kicked in?'' He was
talking about their absence from the
playoffs. If things go the way the coach
thinks, the question will be irrelevant.
This story ran on page E01 of the Boston
Globe on 11/02/99.
© Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.