Re: details on 4-way!

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

    Boy Josh, it sounds like you got the list worked up into a frenzy over this
news. ;-)  Strange how quiet the reaction is.

    If that's a real offer, the Celts probably ought to feel regret about
signing Randy Brown so hastily. I feel bad for Randy Brown. A three-year
contract to be a third stringer on a poultry outbreak team. Pack is a nice
veteran. 5.8 assists last year in less than 23 minutes. He has 5.2 career
assists. He once had a triple double in 1994. Also finished second in the slam
dunk competition that year.

    Since 1995, a Utah first rounder averages out as just the 25th pick overall
(Ostertag, Muursepp, Vaughn, Mohammed, Quincy Lewis, Kirilenko, Padgett,
Stevenson). But the Jazz won't be that deep at power forward or point guard
under this scenario and so an injury (God foribid, naturally) to one of the two
franchise players could even plunk the team into the 2001 lottery.

    Similarly, if the Utah pick were to come later (say 2002) it could well be
in a rebuilding year. That would be great for Boston, considering they give up
Dana Barros among players under contract who want to be on the team. Besides, up
to three first rounders next year may be more than we have room for so its
better to space things out.

    I would admire Pitino if he engineered this trade. It shows he still has the
longterm interests of the Celtics at heart, knowing odds are that he will be run
out of town if his team fails to make the playoffs (through the acquisition of
Brown, Pack and Moiso).

    Pitino may have to wrestle a bit with guilt  for hanging a veteran and
champion like Randy Brown out to dry, but that is life. No doubt Dee Brown and
Pervis Ellison (named first year co-captains) probably got a lot less out of
their Pitino experience than they had initially been led to believe.

-------

OzerskyJA wrote:

> OK, so it's Chasey Lain, Janine, Jenna Jameson... no, just kidding.
> According to a story
> in a SF newspaper (see the ESPN message board for the URL) two league
> sources have
> confirmed the trade, and it is "believed" that we will get Robert Pack, the
> talented Dallas point
> guard, and Utah's first-round pick next year, in return for Fortson and Dana
> Barros.  This would
> be a really good pickup for the Celtics.  When Pack isn't injured, he can be
> an impact player, and
> should Kenny Anderson miss a game, we will have a legitimate player to start
> in his place.  (He beat
> Steve Nash out for the Dallas starter's job last year.)  As for the Utah
> pick, it's always nice to have
> a late round pick in this age of schoolboy prodiges.  This year Utah got
> DeShawn Stevenson, who is
> already impressing out west.
>
> Josh Ozersky
> Marketing Communications Specialist
> Corning Museum of Glass