RE: On Bird & Pitino

["Niles, Shawn" <SNiles@vanderweil.com>]

Anyone who thinks Bird is a great coach probably just thinks that because of
the love affair with Bird of the eighties. Just because Bird was a great
player, some people feel that automatically makes him a great coach. Wrong. 

The Celtics would not be any better off right now if they had Bird instead
of Pitino. Pitino still has to, three years into his tenure here, try and
get rid of outrageous contracts. He still has guys like Ellison and Minor
who don't even play but have huge contracts. No one ever mentions the
extraordinary moves he made to get rid of the contracts of Radja or Dee
Brown. It is always focus on the negative. Larry's team is just now getting
old. They were not over the hill when he took over the team. Unathletic? Who
is unathletic besides Rik Smits(Stik Spits)? Certainly you can't call
Miller, Jackson, or Rose unathletic. 

The fact is Bird inherited a veteran, poised team that even M.L. Carr could
have coached to victory. Bird has done nothing special. He has never had to
deal with his guys being injured. That alone is a huge plus. Pitino has had
to go for extended period of times without a few of his best players. Where
is Birds championship ring as a coach? He has nothing more to show than
Pitino does. And now that he realizes his team is getting older, he is
quitting. If you ask me, he realizes that he is not a good enough coach to
rebuild a team. So he decides to run. I have never seen a more overrated
coach. Everyone needs to get over this fixation with Larry. And who said
Indy never did anything before Larry got there? They have been in the
playoffs almost every year in the 90's including the conference championship
a couple times. Bird has not helped them do anything they couldn't already
do before.

Only a fool would take Larry over Rick. Watch what happens when Rick can
finally get some salary cap relief and his hands are untied. Then all these
fair-weather fans will say how great a job Pitino did rebuilding the team.

One more quick side note while I am on a tirade: Larry reminds me of Phil
Jackson. Just another overrated coach who happens to have a good record
because of the teams he  coaches. Phil never would have won anything without
Michael and he would not be winning now without Shaq and Kobe. Phil will do
the same thing Larry is doing now. He will jump ship at the first sign of
trouble just to preserve his image as a good coach. Just like he did in
Chicago.


-----Original Message-----
From: Andy Shaw [mailto:shaw@transmeta.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 10, 2000 2:27 PM
To: celtics@igtc.com
Subject: Re: On Bird & Pitino


|   Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2000 13:11:17 -0600
|   From: "Gene Kirkpatrick" <gkir@tjc.tyler.cc.tx.us>
|   
|   I disagree that Bird is a better coach, etc.  He was able to start at
|   the top with a seasoned team.  That the players respected him helped
|   immensely, but he had a good 7'4" center, the best clutch shooter in
|   basketball, a very good point guard, two banger forwards plus Jalen
|   Rose, one of the better small forwards around.  Balance.  

Are you kidding?

Bird has brought a bunch of over-the-hill, unathletic, moderately
talented veterans, and made them the best team in the East.  Those
guys never did anything before Bird got there, and they've been vastly
over-achieving since he got there.

Bird has done more with less than any other coach in the league.  He
should get coach of the year, without a doubt.

-Andy