Cincinnati Post: Pitino Still Happy With Struggling Celtics

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

                   C I N C I N N A T I   P O S T   S P O R T S


            Pitino still happy he chose to guide struggling Celtics
            By Janet Graham, Post staff reporter
            LEXINGTON, Ky. - Rick Pitino was back at Memorial Coliseum Thursday, 
            face to face with the national championship banners that remind him 
            of his University of Kentucky success.
            The Boston Celtics president and coach, however, still doesn't 
            harbor a trace of doubt that he made the right decision to leave 
            Lexington nearly two and a half years ago.
            ''I knew if I stayed here, we'd be a Final Four contender, and 
            that's what you want to do, leave the team at the top,'' said 
            Pitino, who was 219-50 at UK. ''But I think challenges keep you 
            forever young. I wanted to take on the Celtics. I thought it would 
            be a great challenge. I knew taking over a team with 15 wins (the 
            year before), you're supposed to struggle.
            ''But I took the job because I wanted to struggle. Now, a lot of 
            people probably think I made a mistake, but this is the greatest 
            move I've made in my career.''
            At UK, Pitino's teams made three Final Four appearances, winning a 
            national title in 1996 and finishing as runner-up in '97.
            Plenty of Celtics' banners hang in the FleetCenter, but none of them 
            have Pitino's imprint on them. But the man who brought the UK 
            program from the depths of probation to a national championship is 
            still optimistic he can do the same thing for the once-storied 
            Celtics, who are 55-77 in two seasons under Pitino.
            ''I want to see if I can get the Celtics their 17th world 
            championship,'' he said.
            Pitino and his Celtics, which include three former Wildcats - 
            Antoine Walker, Walter McCarty and Wayne Turner - are back in the 
            Bluegrass for the weekend. Boston will play the Utah Jazz in an 
            exhibition game at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Rupp Arena.
            But life is different now for Pitino and his former Wildcats, who 
            were used to winning and being adored by fans.
            Last season in Boston, the welcome mat began to wear thin for 
            Pitino, as his team finished 19-31 in the strike-shortened NBA 
            season. The fans began to express their frustration, yelling and 
            booing from the stands, and Pitino, for one, couldn't blame them.
            ''I think people loved the first season and did not like last 
            season, and neither did we,'' Pitino said. ''Our players were out of 
            shape. It was a shortened season, and there was no practice time. 
            Their frustrations were fair. Now, our players are back in great 
            shape. I think we'll make a strong improvement.''
            Ever the spin doctor, Pitino knows this year is going to require 
            production instead of pretty phrases. His sardonic humor rings 
            hollow when there's not enough victories.
            When Pitino left the New York Knicks after the 1988-89 NBA season, 
            the league went in a different direction from the high-scoring, 
            frenetic up-and-down pace that suited Pitino's style of play.
            Eight years later, he returned to a league that featured a slower, 
            two-man style that stymied his preference for an offense built 
            around reckless abandon. Pitino now sees the NBA's style of play 
            changing.
            ''We had a meeting this summer to try to change the game,'' he said. 
            ''It's the same thing that football did about 15 years ago to give 
            the advantage back to the offensive player and making the defense 
            stop the clutching and grabbing. It will be a much better product. 
            Even the college game needs to do something in terms of the holding, 
            the grabbing and the bumping.
            ''When I was the Knicks coach, we averaged 116.8 points per game. 
            Last year, the leading-scoring team averaged 100. But I think you're 
            already seeing the difference in the exhibition season - 120 points, 
            114, 129. It's going back to where it should be.''
            Although Pitino disputes the fact that he's mellowed, he does admit 
            he has to be a bit more laid-back in the pro game.
            ''I think if people think I've mellowed, it means I like the team a 
            lot,'' he said. ''When you don't like the team and they're out of 
            shape, you're not a mellow person. When they think pass before shot, 
            then you're mellow.
            ''I liked the ('96 UK) championship team an awful lot, but I 
            wouldn't say the first two years I was mellow with them. Actually, I 
            don't think I was mellow while I was here. But I think pro coaching 
            is much different. You have (82) games, every loss can't be 
            monumental and every win you can't get carried away. You just have 
            to keep an even keel and work hard all the time.''
            Publication date: 10-22-99

                

              Copyright 1999 The Cincinnati Post, an E.W. Scripps newspaper.