Ray of sunshine

["Jim Meninno" <jim_meninno@hotmail.com>]

Well, the article Ray promised appeared today as advertised.  I'll post it 
below for those who want to see the whole thing.  Kudos to Ray for tipping 
us off to it.  If this was tounge in cheek by Larry, it really was a cruel 
joke.  As far as I'm concerened it can't happen soon enough.

Jim

Bird buys this idea

He can see himself owning Celtics

By Peter May, Globe Staff, 2/20/2000

SEATTLE - Larry Bird has heard about all the back-to-Boston stories that 
have surfaced in the last week since he said he wasn't going to stick around 
Indiana. He gets a kick out of them.

But there's one scenario that hasn't been mentioned that Bird said would 
have him back in Boston in a nanosecond: as the owner.

''I could get people together to buy the team in a day,'' Bird said. ''I 
could get it done tomorrow. Let's get the ball rolling.''

OK, consider it done. (It is kind of strange to hear Bird talking in 
high-finance terms. This is, after all, the same person who didn't leave a 
tip after his first meal in New York because he thought it was overpriced.)

Bird does own a piece of the Pacers, but he said he would gladly sell if he 
were able to front a group to buy the Celtics. You can probably assume 
commissioner David Stern would love to have Bird involved in Boston 
ownership, and Bird made it clear that if it ever did happen, he would be 
more like Michael Jordan (active) than Magic Johnson (investor).

Indiana had hoped Bird would move into its front office next season, and the 
invitation still stands. But Bird surprised his bosses when he said last 
week in Boston he'd be going to Florida instead.

''I don't know,'' he said. ''I'm not really interested in [Indiana's front 
office] right now.''

He also said he won't return to Boston under the current ownership, which 
hardly comes as a shocker. He threw some darts at chairman of the board Paul 
Gaston in his last book, and he threw a few more last week.

''What kills me,'' he said, ''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 had a championship team in 1984, those 
owners [Gaston's father and two others] did only one thing over the next 
five years - they brought in DJ [Dennis Johnson]. They got [Bill] Walton, 
too, but he called them. They knew what was going on.''

Bird spent five unfulfilling years as a Celtic ''consultant'' under Dave 
Gavitt and Carr. Versions differ as to why he left the team in 1997 to coach 
the Pacers. Gaston, who became the Celtics' head honcho in 1992, said Bird 
always had an open invitation to run the show. Bird said if that was the 
case, he never knew about it. He also said his suggestions and advice were 
continually ignored.

Gaston was traveling over the weekend; efforts to reach him were 
unsuccessful. (He's also smart enough to know you don't get into a verbal 
skirmish in Boston with Larry Bird.) He has said in the past that while he 
fields many inquiries to sell the Celtics, the team is not for sale. Last 
week, he said his objective is to make the team competitive while running it 
like a business, adding, ''I know of no other way to do it.''

Bird laughed at that one.

''That sounds like the Clippers to me,'' he said. Gaston's Celtics, Bird 
said, 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 be competitive. Tell him I'm ready to buy.''
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