McDonough: pitino Says They'll Make Playoffs; Pierce A Top Player

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

Red Auerbach stuff too...




                                [The Boston Globe Online][Boston.com]
                                [Boston Globe Online / Sports]


                                It didn't pay to overspend

                                By Will McDonough, Globe Columnist,
                                10/02/99  <Snips>

                   
                                Celtics coach Rick Pitino on second-year
                                man Paul Pierce: ''He is on his way to
                                being one of the best players in the
                                league. I have never seen anyone work as
                                hard as Paul has this offseason. Every day
                                he has been working out for five hours.
                                Five hours. His work ethic is fabulous. He
                                wants to be a great player, and because of
                                the way he works at the game, he will be a
                                great player.''

                                Pitino says the Lakers and San Antonio are
                                the two best teams in the league, but
                                feels the Eastern Conference is ''wide
                                open'' and that his team will make the
                                playoffs.

                                ''Our first year we overachieved. The
                                second year we were a bad team. This year
                                we will be better and more competitive.
                                People say we pressed too much last
                                season. In reality, we pressed about 10
                                percent of the time. We weren't in good
                                enough shape as a team to press more than
                                that. And this year, we will press, maybe
                                30 percent of the time.''

                              
                                It seems like yesterday, I was sitting in
                                the Celtic coaches' locker room, listening
                                to Bill Fitch relay a message from a
                                mutual friend. ''He said the big kid from
                                Minnesota is the best player on the team
                                and if we have a chance to get him, he's
                                the kid we should go after.'' Fitch was
                                telling Red Auerbach of a conversation he
                                had the night before with Indiana coach
                                Bob Knight. Knight had coached the United
                                States in the Pan-Am games that summer,
                                which had all of the top US college
                                players. At that point, Kevin McHale was
                                not one of the bigger names. Knight, who
                                has a close friendship with Auerbach,
                                passed it on, and the Celtics followed up
                                ... Speaking of Auerbach, who was 82 a
                                couple of weeks back, he told a group at
                                the annual Red Auerbach Youth Foundation
                                Golf Tourney this week, ''I've been down
                                to see my statue [in Quincy Market Place]
                                four or five times. Every time I see it, I
                                get scared. Only dead guys have statues.
                                But I got news for you. I'm not ready go
                                yet.''

                                Any sports fan with a brain knows by now
                                the ESPN top 100 athletes of the century
                                was picked by a bunch of clowns. How else
                                could you describe a group that picked
                                Bill Russell at 18. Here's Russell's
                                unmatched career of championships:
                                Thirteen NBA seasons, 11 championships.
                                His final two collegiate seasons at San
                                Francisco, two national championships and
                                a 56-game winning streak. Also, one gold
                                medal in the Olympics. So in 15 years of
                                top-level competition, he walked away with
                                14 championship medals. No one else can
                                match that.

                              

                                This story ran on page G01 of the Boston
                                Globe on 10/02/99.
                                © Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.