Re:

[Joe Hironaka <j.hironaka@unesco.org>]

I agree it's good news to see Derek Anderson apparently cares this much about
winning, and bad news for rivals. A playoff clash between Shaq and
Duncan/Robinson this Spring would be great to see.

I'm sure Anderson could have doubled his salary (at least) if that were his main
career objective. Sensing this, I wonder why Pitino didn't make a sales pitch
about the great winning seasons they shared together at UK and how the Celts
were just around the corner from the playoffs etc.

One thing that can be said about coaches making the transistion from college to
pro, I think owners need to completely factor out how much recruiting skills
contributed to a winning college program (say Bob Huggins or certainly even
Pitino) as opposed to game preparation and coaching talent. The power of
persuasion hasn't helped Pitino in Boston what with the cap and various other
obstacles.  In fairness, it really seems a lot tougher now than a decade ago to
build a competitve team. I wish Boston had drafted McGrady in 1997, but that's
about the only missed opportunity I can think of at least with regard to the
draft (unless Courtney Alexander turns into a major star). A lot of NBA teams
passed on McGrady or made boneheaded picks that year.

-----

CeltsSteve@aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 08/04/2000 4:08:17 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
> j.hironaka@unesco.org writes:
>
> << Whoa, Derek Anderson signed for one year at $2.25 million? What the heck
>  was Rick Pitino doing, sitting on his hands?  >>
>
> If you were Derek Anderson and had your choice between $2.25 million for one
> year with the C's or $2.25 million for one year starting in the backcourt
> with Tim Duncan and David Robinson as 2/3 of your front court, which would
> you select?