Re: looked too easy

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

Joe writes: 
> [Pitino] also comes across as
> a natural born used-car salesman, and says a lot of revisionist tales after
> the fact that simply aren't true.
> 
> One minor example, I could have sworn I read a quote from Pitino prior to the
> 1996 lottery debacle saying that he had coached against Tim Duncan and that h
 e
> was not necessarily the answer to the Celtics problems (I believe Pitino did
> in fact successfully coach Kentucky to blowout wins over Wake Forest (Duncan)
> and U Mass (Camby) to get to the championship game). Anyway, I remember this
> quote because I actually thought it made sense at the time, based on Camby's
> disappointing rookie year and the fact that Duncan didn't seem much different
> from Camby in terms of size and college productivity.

I can't actually recall whether Pitino did in fact make his "year 3 playoffs,
year 5 contender" statement before or after the draft but I do remember that
he called Duncan "the real deal" even after he didn't win the lottery so
I think he did realize his potential. He also revealed early in the season 
that he "tried everything to get Van Horn".

I also don't agree with the assertion that Pitino would have drafted Billups
over Van Horn. In hindsight it looks like all the basketball people had
Van Horn as the consensus #2 pick; it was just the clueless sportswriters
(and therefore the public) who were in the dark about this. I think that
Pitino was aware of the talent dropoff after #2 because he practically begged
for Pierce and LaFrentz to enter the draft that year.

The revisionist history comment is on the mark though. He's made some recent
comments about how he trusted "his people" on Billups, thus deflecting the
blame for that bad pick. He also talks about how the Celtics were likely
to get both Duncan and Van Horn, which wasn't true; they were likely to
get only one of them. 

Anyways, that's ancient history now and we can look forward to the Pierce
and Walker era now =)

Alex