a few quick things...

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@BATTELLE.ORG>]

The more I listen to Pitino, the more concerned I become that he doesn't see
the overwhelming personnel problems with this team. He says "we're young,
we're getting better..." but they're not getting better. This team doesn't
need one veteran, it needs a complete overhaul. I'm not sure Pitino realizes
that yet.

On Pitino's diatribe last night: He's right about the fans. We used to have
the greatest home-court advantage in basketball, and it wasn't because of
the Garden. Boston fans are still clinging to the Big Three. Everyone who
wants Pitino fired wants to bring in Bird or Cowens or Ainge or DJ or
(insert any former Celtic here). Look, we can wax poetic about the good old
days and Celtic pride and all that, but the cold, hard truths are the salary
cap, bad contracts and bad players. Bringing in someone from the "Celtic
family" isn't going to make a bit of difference.

Pitino said from Day 1 that he wasn't going to blow things up, tank a season
(thanks ML) and start from scratch. He wanted to win sooner than that, and
he was going to build with that in mind. Should he have scrapped the team,
lost big for two seasons, built with draft picks and planned to have cap
room this summer? In hindsight, sure. But none of us wanted that when he
took over. We wanted improvement right away. Well, we got it. Now we're in
the worst position you can be in the NBA - mediocrity. We are what
Cleveland, New Jersey, Atlanta and Detroit are. Bad enough to miss the
playoffs, but not bad enough to pick up real talent in the draft. Bad,
without cap room. That's where we are.

Finally, I've come to the conclusion that the best thing for everyone
involved would be for Pitino to negotiate a buyout after the season. It's
not because I think he's done a bad job or suddenly lost the ability that
made him widely recognized as one of the five best basketball coaches on the
planet. No, I just think the water here has been so polluted that it's
beyond repair. It's the same reason Toine must be traded. And, most
importantly, it seems Pitino's single-minded pursuit of a playoff berth is
blinding him to the big picture-namely, the fact that this team is terrible
and it's time to start from scratch. Pitino won't stand for that. It's the
reason he took Providence to the Final Four, the Knicks to 50 wins and
Kentucky to the national championship. And it's the reason he'll take
whatever team he coaches next to heights the Celtics won't see for years to
come.

Oh hell, I wanted this to be quick. The Celtics, another gut-wrenching loss,
and I just realized these pants are blue, not black, and my tie looks
ridiculous. What a day...

Mark