NBA has changed

I am an Italian long time Celtic fan, and I usually find the comments on this mailing list very interesting, but I think that lately we are missing some points. Especially when we pretend to judge Pitino's Celtics bearing in mind the great tradition of our team. Rick's task is quite diffcult: we must remember that our "Celtic Mystique" was based on the incredible charisma of Red Auerbach, a man who succeeded in permeating players, fans and even the walls of a building - the Garden - with the Pride of being Green. Now the times have changed, the salary cap and the high salaries are more important matters than the ones that built our dinasties, and we must cope with that. Not everybody has the luck to have Jerry West by his side, and surely there are franchises more appealing to the players than Boston... I don't think that Shaq - even with a fatter contract - would ever have come to Boston: no TV, no showbiz, no neon lights in the Beantown. Our Pride laid its foundation on humility, on sweat, on pain, on training one hour more than our opponents. Maybe Pitino in his second NBA wind has found a new league and is still learning and adjusting to it. But we must always remember that, after the Big Three left the Celtics, to talk about loyalty to the banners has become nonsense, and trading players before their contract expires is the rule. So, when we talk about the past (Auerbach's trades or draft picks, for instance) we have to consider the scenarios of THAT NBA, and obviously bear in mind that we haven't the edge on the rest of the league anymore.