Herald: Gee/Baker Carve Up Pitino

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

Lots of Pitino coverage at the Boston Herald....


      Rant merely a beginning to farewell speech
      by Michael Gee 
      Friday, March 3, 2000
      Rick Pitino finally told the truth about the Celtics. Too bad he was three 
      years too late. The things Pitino should've said his first day on the job 
      were the heart of the coach's concession speech. 
      Throw out the overwrought words about fan negativity and here's what 
      Pitino said after Wednesday's loss to the Raptors: ``I give up.''
      He can and will deny it, but we may now regard Pitino as the Celtics' lame 
      duck coach and president, marking time until he accepts yet another ``best 
      job in the country'' at North Carolina, UCLA, Georgetown, or some other 
      fallen college power.
      The pretense is over. The illusions are dead. Pitino isn't going to turn 
      the Celtics into contenders this year, next year, or ever. He has run out 
      of new beginnings. He has lost control of the audience he once mesmerized, 
      because he didn't really understand them.
      And despite some extenuating circumstances, Pitino's failure is his own 
      fault. The coach squandered the most precious item any rebuilding 
      franchise has - time. Pitino created a revolution of rising expectations 
      he never had a chance of meeting.
      Pitino oversold everything he's done to date. He's always been the 
      optimist when Celtics fans needed to hear some vigorous and forthright 
      pessimism. And that was never more true than on May 8, 1997, the day 
      Pitino was hired.
      THAT'S when Pitino should've told fans, ``Kevin McHale isn't going to walk 
      through that door. Larry Bird isn't going to walk through that door. 
      Robert Parish isn't going to walk through that door.'' Not now, so very 
      late to save the Pitino era.
      From the first, Pitino should have emphasized NBA reality. In a diluted, 
      overexpanded league, rebuilding is a long and difficult process. 
      Difference-making players are rare. Good as Allen Iverson and Vince Carter 
      are, the Raptors and 76ers aren't contenders, they're only mediocre.
      The Celtics aren't even that. Under Pitino, Boston has progressed from 
      totally horrid to merely weak. That isn't much progress. Pitino's erratic 
      and contradictory personnel moves undercut any chance he had to employ his 
      undeniable teaching skills on his young team.
      That flaw in Pitino's method, while serious, pales next to his biggest 
      blunder. Until he finally snapped, the coach never stopped saying Celtic 
      prosperity was just around the corner when it obviously wasn't. Pitino 
      didn't understand how much fans wanted to believe his ludicrous spin.
      Celtics fans live in a fantasyland of banners, leprechauns, and denial. 
      They overcommitted to Pitino because deep in their hearts, they saw him as 
      the team's last chance to return to glory.
      That desperate faith and Pitino's perpetual optimism set up a vicious 
      circle. Each time Pitino lurched in a different direction, fans cut him 
      slack. The more slack Pitino was handed, the faster he knotted it into a 
      noose around his neck.
      The longer the coaching honeymoon, the more hideous the break-up. With 
      their illusions shattered, those increasingly few Bostonians who still 
      care about the Celtics are more bitter than they should be. But Pitino 
      shouldn't complain about that anger. He created it with constant happy 
      talk about the Celts' unhappy situation.
      Pitino's a born salesman. It's part of the reason he's a good coach.
      But Pitino didn't realize salesmanship was the last thing Celtics fans 
      needed. They do a fine job of conning themselves. Pitino should've been a 
      psychic counterpoint to the fans' dreamy sense of entitlement.
      In anger and anguish at failure he can't spin, Pitino acknowledged 
      reality. The Celts are young and ungifted, and there's little he can do 
      about it.
      The Pitino Era is over. He won't suffer. There'll be a new Pitino Era 
      somewhere else.
      It's the Celtics who are stuck with the wreckage of illusions. No more 
      dreams, fans. Your team won't be a contender until a retired Vince Carter 
      buys a piece of the franchise.




      Pitino's ire backfires: No sympathy for Rick, C's 
      by Jim Baker 
      Friday, March 3, 2000
      The storm of controversy that Rick Pitino set off after his Celtics' 
      latest loss by beefing ``all this negativity that's in this town sucks'' 
      roared back at him full-force yesterday. 
      Pitino blew his stack at the media and, more importantly, at hooting fans 
      who pay grossly inflated prices to watch his fellow multimillionaires play 
      poorly.
      Ch. 7's Gene Lavanchy exhaled a particularly strong retort: ``It's hard to 
      feel sorry for multimillionaires. Those guys should be working their 
      (butts) off. You could boo me all night for that kind of money, $85 for a 
      courtside seat. I'd boo myself!''
      Lavanchy roared on: ``He (Pitino) can't talk about negativity. He's the 
      one who created this mess. People want more for their money. They have a 
      God-given right to be negative. They're paying through the nose and 
      there's nobody you'd want to see.''
      Even Bob Lobel, who said Pitino refused to back off from his blast during 
      yesterday's taping for his Sunday Ch. 4 show, broke from a broad 
      perception that he's the $7 million coach's media defender.
      ``I think this will polarize people and I don't think he knows the impact 
      of what he said,'' Lobel reacted. ``He asked me, `Was it really that bad?' 
      I don't think he realizes how people are looking at him (as a 
      conglomerate) and I don't think he cares.''
      Asked if Pitino is correct that too much negativity exists here, Lobel 
      admitted he's ``turned off by pro sports. And not just that team, the 
      whole league. I'd be hard-pressed to pay that kind of money, but I like to 
      expose my children to the things I loved when growing up.''
      Ch. 5's Mike Lynch said it's not the same game. ``The whole NBA is a 
      horrible league. The style is very selfish and reflects selfish 
      personalities, especially here. Just watch the old Celtics on ESPN Classic 
      and you see four or five passes after a rebound. Now one guy dribbles by 
      himself, shoots and hopes it goes in.''
      And if it doesn't, he's still a multimillionaire. But Pitino would call 
      that negativity.
      ``There's always been too much of it, but people are getting impatient,'' 
      Lynch said. ``Bill Parcells and Dan Duquette turned their teams around and 
      they expected the same from Pitino. I think trust is a big word. People 
      are waiting to see when he'll leave. They feel he's not one of us, that 
      he's an outsider.''
      Lobel said Pitino would be better off if he did exit.
      Ch. 25's Butch Stearns was on the scene when Pitino went ballistic after 
      Vince Carter's buzzer-beating 3-pointer made Toronto (tonight's FSNE foe 
      at 7) a 96-94 winner. He said Pitino's ``eyes were welling up like he was 
      about to cry.''
      ``It's obvious he hasn't lived up to the expectations he set - and it's a 
      bunch of bull when he says he doesn't listen to sports radio. I think his 
      players handle the negativity better than the coaches.
      ``People in New England grow up with an edge,'' Stearns said. ``I think 
      that's good. It builds character. Better that than a stab in the back. 
      It's a bad rap that people in this town are too negative. Pitino knows 
      better.''
      Ch. 7's Gary Gillis added: ``He should be more concerned when they stop 
      booing. This shows they care. Nobody's enjoying this. He's a proud man, he 
      had expectations of turning things around and it's not happening.''
      In other words, Pitino isn't living the title of his book - ``Success Is a 
      Choice'' - that he peddled along with his pasta, spaghetti sauce and 
      $40,000 motivational speeches (which his player-millionaires turn off for 
      free).
      Pitino's outburst brought clashes to shows on WEEI, the Celtic flagship 
      that he rips for ``the fellowship of the miserable.''
      Lobel noted Ted Sarandis was ``thrilled'' that Pitino lashed out. A caller 
      to the John Dennis-Gerry Callahan show claimed Pitino told his 9-year-old 
      son to ``drop dead.'' Lobel said Pitino told him, ``That's an out-and-out 
      lie!''
      But Eddie Andelman said, ``That kind of stuff (anonymous claims) shouldn't 
      go out over the air . . . Sports radio is becoming a lynch mob, but not 
      just here. I like Rick, but I think those two terrible losses got the 
      better of him.''
      But Dale Arnold said Pitino ``has gotten off pretty easily here,'' far 
      easier than fired Patriots coach Pete Carroll.
      Predictably, Glenn Ordway kept the negativity rolling.
      ``We're cynical,'' said Ordway. ``This is New England. Didn't he know what 
      he was getting into when he accepted that $7 million-a-year contract three 
      years ago? Did he think it was going to be Lexington, Ky? . . . I think it 
      will get ugly and he'll be out of here. . . . Has anyone seen Jersey 
Red?''
      And on the ``whiner line,'' an anonymous voice scolded Pitino: ``You ought 
      to be horse-whipped and run out of town on a rail, you big loser!''
      Negativity?