RED ALERT: BIRD BASHES GASTON, DEFENDS PITINO, WANTS TO BUY THE CELTS

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

In a very interesting column in tomorrow's Globe, Larry Bird professes
to Peter May, his interest in owning the Celtics. He 
could "'get people together to buy the team (Celtics) in a day,'" 
and  could "'get it done tomorrow." Bird further states: "'Let's get 
the ball rolling.'" He says he would have no problem selling off
his stake in the Pacers and sees himself as an active owner like
Jordan. 

Defending Pitino and Blasting Gaston:

Bird says: "'What kills me... is that (Rick) Pitino is taking all the 
hits there. yeah, he's made some moves that didn't work out. But the
reason they're in the state they're in is because of the owner. He's the
one who put M.L. (Carr) in there. When we has a championship team
in 1984, those owners {Gaston's father and two other} did only one thing
over the next five years - they brought in DJ... They got Bill Walton,
too, but he called them. They knew what was going on."

Bird says that Gaston "continually ignored" his advice and suggestions.
Bird also laughingly derides Gaston's approach at making the team
competetive while running it like a business:

"'That sounds like the Clippers to me...'" and that Gaston's Celtics
have "'been a cash cow there for years. He wants people to buy tickets,
get good crowds, and make $8 million - $10 million a year....

"'I always thought that the owner of the Celtics wanted to win a
championship, not just to be competitive. Tell him I'm ready to
buy.'"

Very very interesting. As Jean Luc Picard, would frequently say, 
while at the helm of the Enterprise: "Make it so."
Ray