re: Holley is for real

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@BATTELLE.ORG>]

A few things that really bother me about this column:

1.	"Pitino traded away three lottery picks without a playoff berth to
show for it." No, he traded away two players and one lottery pick. He traded
Chauncey Billups for Kenny Anderson (an improvement). He traded Mercer for
Fortson (a disaster unless the pick pans out). He traded the No. 8 pick for
Vitaly Potapenko (would we be better off with Andre Miller than Vitaly? Or
Shawn Marion? We desperately needed a center, and now we have one.) It's
easy to criticize the choices of Billups and Mercer now, but who should we
have taken?

2.	He mentions "another terrible move" but outside of the Mercer trade
has he really made any "terrible" moves? He made some bad signings (Chris
Mills, Tony Massenburg and Travis Knight), but he corrected Massenburgh and
Knight. I'll say the Mills trade (McCarty, John Thomas, Dontae Jones, Scott
Brooks) was a bad one. A competent veteran like Mills will fetch better
value than that. But that trade hardly constitutes a disaster. Meanwhile,
he's brought in Anderson, Pierce, VP and Battie.

3.	"The players tune him out." Don't the players bear any
responsibility if this is true? Are these guys so good they don't need to
listen to a coach with Pitino's successful track record? If it is true, then
ship them out now, because if they aren't listening to Pitino they won't
listen to anyone else.

4.	Finally, Holley and the rest of us have completely underestimated
the difficulty faced in rebuilding the Celtics. It all goes back to the '97
lottery. If we get lucky, we have Duncan and we're championship contenders
now. Instead, we end up with Billups and Mercer. We made a drastic
improvement the following year to reach mediocrity. That was the worst thing
that could have happened. We're at the stage no NBA team ever wants to be.
Our talent is awful. We're weak at the two most important positions on the
floor (PG and C). We're just good enough to win 38 games and end up at the
bottom of the lottery. We won't be drafting any big-time talents and we
don't have the assets to acquire a big-time talent via trade. Decisions made
under the previous administration have tied up our salary cap (Minor,
Barros, Pervis, previously Dino). It's a mess, but it all goes back to that
day in Seacaucus, N.J. Reverse the outcome of that lottery. Put Duncan here
and Billups in San Antonio. Look at the rest of the Spurs' roster. Think
they'd be any better than we are? It's luck, something that seems to be in
short supply around here.

Why not identify the players who have tuned Pitino out, if that's really the
case. Holley is blindly loyal to the players, much like some of the people
on this list. I'll close with this: Pitino has accomplished a hell of a lot
more, at the college and pro levels, than any of his players. If I have to
cast my lot, I'll cast it with Pitino. I hope he blows this team up in the
offseason so all of our "stars" can go tune out someone else's coach. I
don't care if it's Walker, Pierce or anyone else. Who the hell do these guys
think they are?

Mark