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May: Pitino Disputes Bird Book
[The Boston Globe Online][Boston.com]
[Boston Globe Online / Sports]
Bird book disputed by Pitino
By Peter May, Globe Staff, 09/05/99
Before leaving the Celtics in 1997,
Larry Bird said he was offered one
final job opportunity with the only
professional organization he ever had
known: assistant to head coach Rick
Pitino.
Bird said ''no thanks'' and was soon on
his way to Indiana.
''I have never looked back,'' he says in a
just-released book, ''Bird Watching: On
Playing and Coaching the Game I Love,'' by
Sports Illustrated's Jackie MacMullan, a
former Globe beat writer.
That's his version, anyway. Pitino said no
such offer ever was made.
''In no way, shape, or form did I ever
offer him an assistant's job,'' Pitino
said yesterday. ''I'm shocked to hear
that. It's totally false. I would have
loved for him to be an assistant, but I
never thought he had any interest in
coaching.''
Bird also says in the book that he never
envisioned working for - or with - Pitino,
whom he initially sought out at the behest
of Celtics owner Paul Gaston.
''The one thing I did find unbelievable
was how Pitino kept telling the media the
only way he'd take the job is if I stayed
on with the Celtics,'' Bird says. ''He
knew that was never going to happen,
because I told him that. He made it sound
like he wanted me to be the general
manager or something, which I never would
have agreed to anyway.''
Said Pitino, ''I don't remember it being
that way at all. It wasn't between me and
him. It was between him and Paul Gaston
and what he wanted to do.''
In the book, Bird says he talked to Pitino
''two or three times'' during the 1996-97
season when he was asked by Gaston to come
up with some names to replace M.L. Carr as
head coach. He said each time he talked to
Pitino, the former Kentucky coach said he
was not interested. But, Bird says, Pitino
would ask Bird for information about the
organization. Bird says his first choice
to replace Carr was Kansas coach Roy
Williams, but Williams wanted to stay in
college.
Among Bird's other observations about his
last days in Boston:
He is uncertain about his present
relationship with Red Auerbach, going back
to a Globe story in the spring of 1997 in
which he said, jokingly, that he and
Auerbach never agree. ''I don't understand
what happened between me and Red, but I'm
just as stubborn as he is,'' Bird says. He
says if he had stayed in Boston, ''I would
have had Red there, right beside me. He
would have been president forever if I had
any say in it.'' Auerbach had to
relinquish his title as president when
Pitino took over.
Bird says Gaston never told Carr that he
(Gaston) had assigned Bird to inquire
about a new coach. When Carr found out, he
accused Bird of trying to go behind his
back. ''You better call up your boss,''
Bird says, ''because Gaston told me you
knew all about this. He told me you knew
everything. You're mad at the wrong guy.''
He says he and Carr then talked to Gaston
and Gaston apologized to Carr, saying he
forgot.
Bird says he never would work for the
Celtics as currently constituted. ''I
can't ever see going back to the Celtics
with the owners they have now,'' he says.
''I always liked Paul Gaston - I still do
- and he treated me well. But he made a
lot of bad basketball decisions.'' He was
particularly miffed at the way he says
Gaston left Larry Brown hanging. Brown had
interviewed for the Celtics job and then
told Bird he thought he had it. That was
fine with Bird, who is a Brown fan. Pitino
had said he was staying at Kentucky. Brown
said he was told Gaston would get back to
him, but instead, Pitino reentered the
picture and eventually was hired. (The
story goes that Brown and Pitino met at a
golf tournament and Brown mentioned he
thought he had the job. Pitino then got
back into the thick of things.) ''When I
heard that happened, I was sick,'' Bird
says. ''It really ticked me off. It was
done all wrong. I had no problem with Rick
Pitino being the coach - it was the way it
was handled that bothered me. Larry Brown
should have been treated with far more
respect throughout the process and Paul
Gaston should have been more
straightforward with me. But neither one
of those things happened.''
While in Boston, Bird would complain that
too many people were making decisions and
that his input often was disregarded. ''I
mean, why ask my opinion if you don't
really care what I think?'' he says.
''Paul Gaston always told me I could have
any job I wanted in the organization, but
the truth was I had very little input.''
He said a classic case of that was his
opposition to the signing of Dana Barros.
The Celtics already had Sherman Douglas
and Bird was a big Douglas fan, saying he
had told ownership that Douglas was the
team's most valuable player. He also
didn't think Barros was the right fit,
especially at the price (six years, $21
million). He says Carr and Gaston wanted
Barros because Barros was local and would
be a fan favorite. ''That's when I
realized the decision didn't have much to
do with basketball,'' he says. Douglas was
quickly traded to Milwaukee for Todd Day,
whom Bird doesn't like, and Alton Lister.
Bird says he was similarly opposed to the
signing of Dominique Wilkins, but was not
kept abreast and found out when he saw it
on television. Gaston said yesterday he
would not comment, adding, ''I don't see
anything worthy of responding to.''
It's going to be interesting to see if
Bird moves into the front office and has
any dealings with the Cavaliers' new
general manager, Jim Paxson. Bird clearly
does not like Paxson, whom he still blames
for fingering him as a disruptive force in
the 1989-90 season. ''Right away, he was a
guy I stayed away from because he was your
classic clubhouse lawyer, always talking
behind people's backs,'' Bird says. ''I
never trusted people like that.'' Bird
says Paxson and Kevin McHale were the
anonymous sources who ripped him and
McHale since has admitted as much. ''I
always thought the world of Kevin McHale -
I still do - but I was so hurt he would do
something cheap like that.'' As for
Paxson, Bird says, ''I made up my mind
that he was a guy I wouldn't deal with
anymore.'' He describes an incident when
he was working for a trading card company
and the company called him to say it was
sending a rep down to drop off some
memorabilia to sign. When Bird discovered
that the rep was Paxson, he told the
company to get someone else. ''I won't see
that guy,'' he says. And when Paxson
arrived, he turned around and left.
The chapter of Larry Bird's new book
(''Bird Watching: On Playing and Coaching
the Game I Love'') detailing his departure
from Boston will appear in the Sept. 19
edition of The Boston Globe Magazine.
This story ran on page C01 of the Boston
Globe on 09/05/99.
© Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.