Et tu, Robertus?

[Kestutis.Kveraga@Dartmouth.EDU (Kestutis Kveraga)]

In his latest piece, Bob Ryan renders his Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson-like opinion on Pitino, while still finding some column-inches to skewer that immature punk Walker.  He basically says all the same things about Pitino that have been stated on this list in the last 3 years. 

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Pitino can't be positive about this 


By Bob Ryan, Globe Staff, 4/13/2000 


Did you ever wonder what it's like to actually be Rick Pitino?


Is he really as optimistic as he says? Is it possible he really does mean all the things he says, at least at the time he says them? Did he really think Tyus Edney was his best point guard? Did he really think Bruce Bowen lacked only a more consistent jumper to become his generation's John Havlicek? Would he really have stayed at the University of Kentucky if he were absolutely certain he wouldn't be coaching Tim Duncan?


And did he really believe his current team was good enough to make the playoffs this year?


Or does he say things just to say them, reasoning that there is nothing he can say that can't be explained away, or overruled, if you will, at some future date? Does he say some of the things he does because, in his mind, a person should always be allowed to, you know, change his mind about anything, so what's the big deal?


If you're Rick Pitino, the words ''fail'' and ''failure'' are not in your vocabulary. You don't fail; things just don't work out. To talk in those terms is to be weak or, worse yet, ''negative,'' and Lord knows we would never want to be ''negative.'' Negativity is for fans and media, even though what's negative to Rick Pitino is simply realistic to the rest of us.


So if you're Rick Pitino it is always necessary to put the proper spin on things when faced with unfavorable circumstances. Hence, a 2-4 West Coast trip in which one of the wins came over a dreadful Vancouver team that declined to play and the other came as the result of an almost inexplicable 61/2-minute Kenny Anderson high school flashback. It was a trip that featured long, dreary stretches of embarrassing basketball, but it was not really so bad, according to the coach. Well, it was bad, and pointing out that at least the main competitors for a playoff spot hadn't gained much ground at the Celtics' expense didn't make it any better.


If you're Rick Pitino you must find a way to deal with the fact that your Celtics tenure has been a major disaster. This is the first time in a long coaching career in which Year 2 was not significantly better than Year 1. It is the first time in which the team will win fewer games in Year 3 than it did in Year 1.


Year 1 was the easy part. Going from complete chaos to mediocrity is not all that difficult. Taking the next step is the hard part. When the Celtics regressed last season, Pitino had a handy-dandy excuse - the lockout. Of course, the lockout. In Rickspeak the Celtics were more affected by the lockout than just about anyone else. You know, young team and all that. Next year, Rick had said, we'll make the playoffs.


Smart people paid no attention to that foolish pronouncement. In order for the 1999-2000 Boston Celtics to make the playoffs, one of the eight incumbents would have to drop out. There was only one obvious candidate, and, sure enough, the Atlanta Hawks, whose performance against the Knicks last spring stamped them as one of the most pitiful playoff participants in NBA history, collapsed. But anyone doing rudimentary homework had to know Charlotte was a playoff team in waiting.


Of course, no one saw Orlando coming, and there's another Pitino embarrassment. The Magic are everything the Celtics are not, which is to say consistently exciting, loaded with overachievers, located in a place that modern athletes deem attractive, and, best of all, way under the salary cap. They may or may not make the playoffs, but there is no question they are a franchise on the move. There is life, energy, and serious hope. Worst of all, they may wind up getting what Rick wanted most. The Magic are widely considered to be the Leader in the Clubhouse for the services of an impending free agent named Tim Duncan. Truly, that would be the Unkindest Cut.


The Magic are where they are because they have been expertly run by general manager John Gabriel. You might say they are the anti-Celtics, given that they have an old-fashioned separation of powers arrangement wherein the GM GMs and the coach, in this case Doc Rivers, coaches. In Boston, of course, one man has all the power - don't think for an instant that anyone else's opinion counts for anything - and that man is Rick Pitino.


The Celtics are Rick Pitino's mess, and no one else's. True, he didn't draft Antoine Walker, but he signed him to the whopper contract and then desecrated the memory of Bill Russell, Havlicek, and Larry Bird by anointing this thoroughly immature and clueless young man captain and declaring, ''Antoine Walker is the most important person in the organization.''


Who brought in Anderson and then complained because he's not a good defensive guard? Pitino. Who traded for Vitaly Potapenko, who is a nice backup and nothing more? Pitino. Who traded for Danny Fortson and then acted surprised when he turned out to be 6 feet 6 inches with a limited offensive game? Pitino.


Is Pitino ready to admit that having all the power might not be such a good idea? Is he ready to admit that he is not a good personnel man? Is he ready to admit that his best move, drafting Paul Pierce, came about because of the monumental good fortune of Pierce mysteriously slipping all the way to No. 10 in the draft?


In his idle moments, does Pitino think about the world he left behind? Does he not pine for the days when, given the vast resources available to him at Kentucky, he could woo an awesome collection of talented young athletes to the Lexington campus and then unleash them via his vaunted press against hapless opponents? Does he not say to himself, ''You know, I was really good at that. Maybe I should never have left?''


If you're Rick Pitino, and your entire professional career has had upward movement on the graph, you start feeling bulletproof. You have nothing but yes men around you, and so there is no one to tell you that entitling a book ''Success is a Choice'' is frighteningly arrogant and potentially embarrassing. Not even Bill Parcells, who lacketh not in self-esteem, would go that far. He settled for ''Finding a Way to Win,'' just as Pat Riley, another high-stepper, opted for ''The Winner Within.'' Unlike Rick, they were each smart enough to give themselves a little wiggle room. But not our Rick. He went for the deep three with the game on the line.


If you're Rick Pitino, you are incapable of self-censorship. You go from saying that you'll take a hard look at things at the end of next season before deciding about remaining or leaving, to stating flatly that you will leave if you don't make the playoffs, to saying that ''It won't have anything to do with the wins and losses,'' but whether you still feel you're ''having an effect on the lives of these young men.'' Come again?


If you're Rick Pitino, you are apparently capable of monumental self-delusion, all in the guise of remaining ''optimistic.'' In my next life, I might consider applying to be Rick Pitino, and not just for the $7 million per, either. I just wonder what it would be like to have such unlimited faith in my abilities.