McDonough: Pitino Staying And May Trade The Pick

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

My day is ruined....

Boston Globe
4/8/00
Will McDonough

All this stuff about Rick Pitino not coaching the Celtics next year, or
returning to college coaching, is foolish. Pitino is a basketball lifer.
There is no coach who works harder. He knows the game inside and out.
There isn't anyone who could do a better job coaching this team, and
Paul Gaston knows that.


So, if you are going to coach basketball, are you going to do it here
for $7 million a year, live in a beautiful home in the greatest city in
the country, with your kids all happy?


Or do you go to some college campus, take your kids out of school again,
to coach a loser for $1 million a year? Winning college basketball
programs aren't looking for new coaches. There are no lucrative jobs
open. Tubby Smith is on a seven-year contract at Kentucky. Bill
Guthridge says he's coaching again at North Carolina, and as the
handpicked choice of Dean Smith, he isn't going anywhere.


Dean Smith is revered in Carolina. As long as he is on the right side of
the grass he's going to call the shots on the basketball program, and if
Guthridge is to leave some day soon, the next guy in will also be a Dean
Smith guy - not Pitino.


As for the future, Pitino knows, somehow, somewhere, he has to come up
with a defensive stopper, a shot-blocker who can compensate for the lack
of defensive skills of Antoine Walker, Paul Pierce, and Kenny Anderson.
In the fourth period, with the game on the line, these guys can put it
in the basket but they can't stop the other team, and this has killed
them in the fourth period of many games this year.


If the season were to end today, the Celtics would probably end up with
the ninth or 10th pick in the draft. If the Celtics can't find a player
who can make a difference, they will most likely trade those choices for
veteran players who have a chance to improve their team defense.