Cowens lands Golden State job

[opi@unesco.org]

Looks like Boston has lost Dave Cowens. Excerpts from the Bulpett
article are below. I think Rick Barry may actually be right in his
criticisms: I wonder why Pitino doesn't hire at least one non-college
assistant who has experience as an NBA player and can relate to the
lives of professional athletes.

Joe

p.s. Over the weekend, Tony Battie shot 2-7 (4 points), made zero trips
to the line, commited 8 fouls, 8 rebounds and zero blocks to go with his
usual low-post defense. Meanwhile, Danny Fortson shot .500 from the
field, 15-22 from the line, scored 23 points and had 15 boards (7
offensive) in 36 minutes (8 fouls also).

To be fair, "Bat Girl" already knows he has beat out Fortson for the
job. He sees a chump who will definitely be long gone by the end of the
week, so why exert any energy? Sure DF single-handedly turned Battie
into "El Busto" last time when they were teammates in Denver, but now
the tables have turned (hello Coach Pitino) and look who's got the 24
million contract? Only in "Pitino land" would a Battie-Fortson
head-to-head competition end up being this rigged. The "system" -- just
a few more years from actually working -- depends on headless chickens
like McCarty and Battie. We're entering the "Great Leap Forward" or
"Cultural Revolution" stage of this Pitino cult of personality
experiment (to use Kestas' earlier excellent analogy comparing
Pitino-ball to life under socialism).


****
Cowens assists: Lands Golden State job
Celtics Notebook/by Steve Bulpett
Saturday, February 19, 2000

OAKLAND - There was no shortage of Celtics fans on the Golden State
bench last night. Of course, head coach and general manager Garry St.
Jean and assistant coach Dave Cowens were trying to plot a Celtics
demise for this particular evening.

``It's worked out well. My wife had been looking for me to get out of
the house. I'd been hanging around too much.''

Cowens left a head coaching job with Charlotte last March when he and
the club couldn't get their futures settled together. Since then, he did
a little tutoring with the Celtics, but mostly he has been waiting for
his next opportunity.

``You just don't know in this business. There's so many good coaches out
there. People are set, and they have their own people in place. Things
don't move that fast.''

`Garry was gracious enough to call, and I accepted,'' Cowens said.
``Right now I just want to work as hard as I can and help the Warriors
get better. After that we'll see what happens.''

 St. Jean is presently committed to doing both the coach and front
office jobs, but that could change, perhaps creating an opening in the
big chair for Cowens or Higgins.