Jersey Red Sticks Up For Pitino

[Way Of The Ray <wayray@ix.netcom.com>]

      Wed, Feb 16, 2000 
      RED'S WORLD -- Jersey stands by his man 
      By Ken “Jersey Red” Ford 
      It's the middle of winter, yet here I am sweating bullets as I sit under a 
      green heat lamp. 
      The reason? My friend of 31 years, Rick Pitino, is being crucified 
      everywhere, including this paper (Eric Gongola's "Fair Game" column in 
      last Saturday's paper), and a lot of people have accused me of dodging the 
      subject.
      Many contend that I have no problem crushing the Red Sox and Patriots and 
      Harry Sinden's Bruins, so why not the Celtics and Pitino? Last week, when 
      I did my radio gig on 790 The Score, I was assailed by a number of callers 
      accusing me of being a Pitino shill and rump swab. It was mean and nasty 
      radio at its best and I loved every minute of it, as I jousted with the 
      fellowship of the miserable. But that's radio.
      This column is another story. Knowing full well that sooner or later 
      sports editor Mike Silva would order me to address the Celtics or lose my 
      job, I figured I better beat him to the punch and close ranks with the 
      Pitino bashers or I might just lose this job and the paycheck that goes 
      with it.
      Now, make no mistake about it, Ricky is my closest friend in life, to the 
      point that on Christmas Eve the Pitinos and the Fords spent the evening at 
      his new home in Boston. Just his wife and my wife. Just his kids and my 
      kids. Great food, a lot of laughs and talk about the memories of past 
      years.
      But damn it, I can't afford to lose this job and pay check. So, given the 
      choice, Pitino's got to go down and go down hard! The guy's a fraud! He 
      can't coach a lick! Never could! He's been doing it with smoke and mirrors 
      for 27 years! It was an accident when he brought Boston University to the 
      NCAA tournament for the first time in history.
      It's a myth that the then owner of the New Jersey Nets offered him a blank 
      check if he would coach his team. PC was nuts to hire him as head coach of 
      the Friars in '86. It was sheer luck that Pitino got them to the NIT in 
      his first year and then the Final Four in his second. 
      All of the credit for that has to go to those great players. 
      All of these things are true. Yeah, right! 
      How about the jerks at Gulf & Western who owned the New York Knicks? Did 
      Slick Rick pull the wool over their eyes or what as they offered him 
      everything but the Empire State Building to come to New York and coach 
      their team that had won only 15 games that year? 
      What ever made them think that he could coach in the pros? In his first 
      year: 38 wins and into the playoffs. Second year: 52 wins and playoffs, 
      all despite working under a GM who was hired after he was and didn't like 
      Pitino's system and only attended one practice all year, out of nowhere a 
      country gentleman named C.M. Newton came knocking on the door of Pitino's 
      New York home to offer him a job. 
      Newton had just been hired to clean up the mess at the scandal-ridden 
      University of Kentucky and the president and board of trustees gave him 
      his marching orders to go out and get the best coach in America and don't 
      come back to the bluegrass without him. 
      Seven years later -- not to mention six SEC championships, five sweet 
      sixteens, four elite eights, three Final Fours, a national championship 
      and an appearance in the championship game the following year -- the man 
      who can't coach a lick decided in what I call a moment of temporary 
      insanity to leave Kentucky and come to the town he has always had a love 
      affair with. Boston. 
      And what made him come to this decision? A call in January by a guy named 
      Larry Bird, a call in which Bird told the guy who can't coach that Paul 
      Gaston, the owner of the Celtics, asked him to go out and get him the best 
      coach he could find to turn this once proud franchise around. Bird's 
      choice was Pitino. 
      Remember who made the phone call -- Bird. 
      Shortly after the season, Paul Gaston flew to Kentucky in his private jet 
      and met with the Pitinos at their Lexington, Ky., home. I was there that 
      weekend, and just as soon as Gaston headed home, Pitino summoned me to his 
      home where we sat around the kitchen table to discuss the contract that 
      Gaston had left on the table.
      Attending the meeting were Pitino, his wife and teenage son, Richard, his 
      business agent and his friend Jersey Red. At the time, three other teams 
      were in hot pursuit of the man who couldn't coach, and I do mean hot 
      pursuit. But let's get back to the kitchen table and the contract. 
      It was staggering, as in $70 million for 10 years and language and control 
      that was jolting. We sat at that table for nearly five hours and discussed 
      the pros and cons and I implored him to rip it up. Friends don't lie to 
      friends. I told him that the Boston he used to know had changed. There was 
      nothing but anger and venom in this town of losers and cry babies.
      I told him that the NBA that he used to know had also changed and in my 
      opinion was only going to get worse. I told him of my disdain and lack of 
      trust in Gaston. I told him to stay in Kentucky, or if he was intent on 
      going to the NBA, to take the Golden State or Orlando job. 
      Now, remember, the FleetCenter is a one-hour drive from my home in Fall 
      River, so I would see my best friend a lot more than I would in 
      California, Orlando or Kentucky. But this wasn't about me, it was about 
      him. So, I had to tell the truth as I felt it and here we are 2-1/2 years 
      later and the wolves are knocking on his door because all of a sudden he 
      can't coach. 
      All of sudden, the X's on the chalk board are O's, and the O's are X's. He 
      is being second-guessed on every decision he makes, on and off the court, 
      and it's mean and it's angry and it's going to get worse. Most writers 
      have made it very personal because that's what they do. They call him 
      Teflon Rick, Slick Rick, Salvation Show Rick. They call him a liar. They 
      call him a failure. 
      All of this just 2-1/2 years into his 10-year contract. They make fun of 
      his spaghetti sauce, all of the proceeds from which go to fund the Daniel 
      Pitino Homeless Shelter in Kentucky. They take shots at him being one of 
      the highest paid motivational speakers in the country and the author of 
      several books. The latest, "Success is a Choice," landing on the New York 
      Times bestseller list. 
      They are mad at him because his Celtic Pride Racing Stable has produced 
      horses that have won the Champagne and Bluegrass Stakes and run in the 
      Kentucky Derby. They want you to believe that all of these things are 
      distractions, which is a lie. During the season, all he does in coach. 
      They would lead you to believe that he is a huckster, some sort of sports 
      criminal. That vowel at the end of his name might have something to do 
      with that. They rarely mention that recently he endowed nearly a million 
      dollars to Providence College in memory of his son, Daniel, or has also 
      been a major benefactor to UMass, where he played and coached.
      All they tell you is that he's a fraud, a liar, a cheat and even worse, a 
      man who can't coach. Well, I've got a bulletin for them and you -- not 
      only is he a wonderful, caring, sensitive and giving human being, but he 
      was born to coach. And his history proves that. Several weeks ago on his 
      weekly coach's show, he honestly admitted that for the first time in his 
      career he is having to deal with failure, but deal with it he would. 
      He did not mention that bad luck denied him getting Tim Duncan or Keith 
      Van Horn or that injuries to Paul Pierce, Adrian Griffin and Danny Fortson 
      have caused this very young team to go into a spiral. He has been totally 
      supportive of Antoine Walker, while everyone in Boston boos the kid 
      because he knows that Walker will mature.
      He remains unbelievably positive in the light of all of the accusations 
      being leveled at him. I also know he does not read the sports pages of the 
      local papers and he absolutely does not listen to talk radio. He's too 
      busy coaching and remaining positive. 
      As for me, I love all the hatred that is being directed at my friend for 
      several reasons: 
      1. "I get it!" I know that today's media is based on stirring up 
      controversy and will never allow the facts to get in the way of a good 
      slime-ball attack story. Most of their writing is what I call copy-cat 
      journalism. One guy with an agenda kills Pitino and the rest feed off that 
      story. It's called being "lazy." 
      2. I love it because the mark of a true friend is being there in good 
      times and bad, and right now my friend is going through the worst times of 
      his professional career. So, it's my duty to kick the friendship up a 
      notch.
      3. Finally, whether the media or the fans or you want to believe it, Rick 
      Pitino will ultimately go into the Basketball Hall of Fame. I just wish he 
      had not suffered that temporary moment of insanity when he took the job as 
      head coach of the Celtics in a town without pity that has the most vicious 
      writers in America and fans that have been living on memories for too 
      long.
      The last time I looked, this team hit chaos when they decided to keep 
      Bird, McHale and Parrish around for entirely too long. And in my opinion, 
      you could put Pat Riley, Phil Jackson, Red Auerbach, Larry Bird and Rick 
      Pitino into one person and they would have a tough time turning this 
      franchise around in 2-1/2 years. 
      So, there's my spin on the sins of Pitino. Did you really think for a 
      second that I would see it any other way? 
      Ken Ford, a.k.a. Jersey Red, writes a weekly column for The Herald News.
    
        © 2000 ,The Herald News