Ryan's Excellent Column on the Summer League, Pitino, Marc Blount, Coaches

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

They're scouting out NBA's summer stock


By Bob Ryan, Globe Columnist, 7/20/2000


 writer's dilemma: Do you just say hello, or do you genuflect and kiss
the ring?


I mean, we've got some basketball royalty hanging around the Clark
Athletic Center at UMass-Boston this week. There's Wes Unseld, who won a
title on the floor, as did Paul Westphal, whose fourth-quarter basket in
Game 7 against Milwaukee 26 years ago stopped a Bucks run and helped
ensure Celtic title No. 12. There's Gregg Popovich, who won the 1999
title as coach/GM of the Spurs. There's Donnie Walsh, of the Eastern
Conference champion Indiana Pacers. There's Rod Thorn, who drafted
Michael Jordan - hey, that's more than Houston and Portland did, so why
not give him some credit? - and who now has the task of legitimizing the
New Jersey Nets. There's, well, a lot of people with NBA clippings, and
that doesn't even include His Airness, His Nike-ness, His Majesty,
Himself, who is rumored to be planning an appearance later in the week
to check out the lads representing his Washington Wizards. Meanwhile, if
you absolutely, positively must see a Michael Jordan, the three-time
All-Ivy namesake out of Penn is here with the 76ers squad.


Whoa. Rick Pitino is also present and accounted for. We can't forget
him.


And for what?


''It's a waste of time,'' laughs one NBA guy, whose identity will be
protected, lest he suffer the wrath of both his ownership and his
comrades. ''Some of these players have been going to these leagues for
six or seven years. What don't we know about them?''


Dissing the Shaw's Pro Summer League? That's borderline NBA heresy. Next
thing you know, someone will swear off the knee-jerk double team of
everyone but the Underassistant West Coast Promotion Man. This is
serious stuff, you know. It's not summer pickup ball. Those days are
gone.


''We had a half-hour of film this morning and an hour and a half
walkthrough for our team,'' marvels Pitino, who, for the record, is here
in his capacity as Total Big Cheese, rather than Mentor. Associate coach
Jim O'Brien actually is coaching the team.


Back in simpler times, offseason meant, believe it or not, offseason.
Yeah, there was competition available, but it wasn't exactly monitored
very closely.


''I used to play in the LA Summer League,'' recalls Westphal, who
happens to be the Seattle coach, in case you've lost track of the
comings and goings in The World's Greatest Basketball League. ''The
Celtics didn't even know what I was doing. I'd come back here for camp,
and they'd say, `Hey, I hear you did pretty good in that league out
there.'''


OK, so what exactly are these hoop luminaries doing here, other than
stimulating the local economy with money spent on hotels, meals, rental
cars, cabs, and buses?


For openers, they might as well call this the Adrian Griffin Memorial
Tournament. For he has become the symbol of all the wannabes and
fall-through-the-cracks survivors who annually make their way from IBL
or CBA teams to this pro camp and that pro camp, then over to
France/Spain/Germany/Turkey/Israel/Venezuela/Uzbekistan and back again
in a repeat cycle, hoping to endear themselves to just one NBA honcho
the way Griffin did with Pitino last year.


''You're looking for a guy with what Stu Inman used to call
`stickability,''' says Celtics general manager Chris Wallace. ''That's
what Adrian has. Some guys just can't handle the rejection, and these
guys often get rejected, multiple times.''


Speaking of ''stickability,'' Pitino reports an immediate discovery.
''We've searched everywhere for a big man,'' he says, ''and we've found
one.''


He is speaking of Mark Blount, the peripatetic 7-footer whose
relationship with Pitino began when the latter was recruiting the former
to be a Kentucky Wildcat. That was a lot of a lot of things ago for
Blount, who has always been slobbered over far more for his potential
than his actual achievements. He now weighs an acceptable 220, and he
appears to have his head on reasonably straight, and so Pitino has laid
it on the line.


''I told him we would take him if he would promise not to go running off
somewhere, and that if he could make it through the first two weeks of
training camp he would make the team, and that there was no reason why
he wouldn't make it through the first two weeks of training camp unless
he didn't want to work hard enough,'' said Pitino.


Understand something. Mark Blount might be the only one of these free
agents walking out of here with a job.


Reason two for this league's existence is for teams to give some
valuable playing time either to rookies (e.g. Jerome Moiso, DerMarr
Johnson, Desmond Mason, Joel Pryzbilla, etc.), or to young players on
their current roster who didn't get much of a look last year. Hence the
presence of Indiana's Jonathan Bender, the 6-10 19-year-old the Pacers
drafted out of Picayune (Miss.) High School, who played all of 130
minutes as a rookie. Small wonder that team president Walsh and team GM
David Kahn, seated behind the basket, practically played Bender's
Tuesday game against the Atlanta squad along with him. ''Keep moving,
Jonathan,'' exhorted Walsh, maybe 10 or 43 times.


A third and rather intriguing argument for the existence of the Shaw's
Pro Summer League is to provide experience for rookie coaches. Byron
Scott (Nets) at least has an NBA pedigree (lotsa rings, too), but
neither Leonard Hamilton (Washington) nor Lon Kruger (Atlanta) have ever
spent a second in the employ of any NBA team. Oy vey, do they have a lot
to learn.


Cracked one NBA veteran exec, ''Lon will have to understand he won't be
outcoaching anyone in the Eastern Conference, and he won't be outworking
anyone, either. So he'd better make sure they give him some players.''
You can make a copy of that and stick it in Mr. Hamilton's mail box,
too.


It's all serious stuff, and if you don't believe it, look at the scores.
It's more of that dreary 75-68 business that nauseates us during the
regular season. That rollicking LA League would have given us 145-140.
Geez, guys, can't you lighten up? It's only July.


Glancing up at a ''27'' on the board at the end of one first period,
Westphal smiled. ''I might have had that much myself in the old LA
League.'' You kidding? Raymond Lewis probably averaged 50.


But these guys are all business, and if you don't believe that, you
should have seen Indiana coach Mel Daniels in action. The Pacers coach
was in full game-face mode, pacing the whole game, slamming down towels
and acting as if this was a Game 7. His team lost by 1, and when Mel
walked off the floor you fervently wished there was going to be a
cardiologist waiting for him in the locker room. Mel, Mel. It's only
July. And, anyway, Isiah already has the job. Isn't that right, Mr.
Walsh?


It is what it is, and if you need a hoop fix, go for it. You just have
to decide whether you think it's worth eight bucks. All I know is that's
what I paid for a front-row balcony seat to see Larry back in '79.
Depressing, huh?