Billups - Pitino Trade Barbs

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

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


                                CELTICS NOTEBOOK
                                Billups, Pitino trade barbs over trades

                                By Peter May, Globe Staff, 10/07/99

                                WALTHAM - It's an article of faith
                                in sports. You get traded, and the
                                team you left suddenly looks a lot worse
                                than the team you joined.

                                The new Celtics who played for Denver
                                already have had their say about life as a
                                Nugget. (''People out there think it's a
                                hockey team,'' Danny Fortson said.) Now a
                                former Celtic in Denver has just weighed
                                in, specifically on coach Rick Pitino.

                                Chauncey Billups had this to say to Dave
                                Krieger of the Rocky Mountain News on the
                                deal that sent Ron Mercer to the Nuggets:

                                ''I thought Ron would be there for the
                                majority of his career. But as I thought
                                more and more, Pitino is a cold
                                individual, man. There really is not that
                                much loyalty in that Boston organization,
                                I don't feel like. I know there's a lot of
                                other guys that feel the same way I do.''

                                Pitino read the comments and agreed with
                                Billups - to a point.

                                ''It is a cold business,'' he said. ''It's
                                not college. I was extremely loyal to Ron
                                when I was his college coach. Now my
                                loyalty is to the Boston Celtics, and we
                                were not going to be able to re-sign him.
                                So yes, it's cold, but I have no problems,
                                like any other coach, making trades.

                                ''Trading Ron was a business decision. He
                                told us if we did not re-sign him [before
                                the season], he was not coming back. And
                                we were very far apart. Trading Chauncey
                                was a basketball decision. He couldn't
                                play the point. If trading him back home,
                                where he's making 2-3 million dollars a
                                year - if that's cold, well, I wish people
                                treated me coldly like that.''

                                Coach cache

                                It was Coaches Day yesterday. Pitino
                                invited college coaches who in some way
                                were affiliated with him to witness
                                practice. Showing up were Florida's Billy
                                Donovan, Bruiser Flint of UMass (Pitino's
                                alma mater), Manhattan's Bobby Gonzalez,
                                and Herb Sendek of North Carolina State.
                                Also, there was former Celtics basketball
                                boss Dave Gavitt... Pitino on this season
                                vs. last season: ''Last year was a
                                nightmare, a terrible, terrible existence.
                                And I screwed it up for them when I tried
                                to get the guys in shape and everyone got
                                hurt.'' ... Guard Paul Pierce on his
                                summer: ''It's always fun playing
                                basketball, and that's about all I did.''
                                Pitino said Pierce is, in his mind, one of
                                the few players who works hard and does so
                                because he enjoys it. ''If we didn't have
                                practice [last night], he'd still be over
                                working out and shooting baskets,'' the
                                coach said ... The 23d annual B'nai B'rith
                                Tap-off Dinner is scheduled for Tuesday,
                                Oct. 26, at the Sheraton Boston. For
                                information about tickets, call
                                617-796-8788.

                                This story ran on page F03 of the Boston
                                Globe on 10/07/99.
                                © Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.