Re: Assessing Blame

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

> Sure, Pitino claims he had to move Mercer because of the budget, but he
> still claims that the Alvin Williams trade was rescinded on purely medical
> reasons - in other words, Pitino's word is virtually worthless.

Tom,

I find it strange that you use the Alvin Williams incident as "proof"
that Pitino's word is virtually worthless. I think it's very possible
that Williams' knee is worse than the Raptors initially let on, and
that he doesn't have any sort of long-term future in the league because
of it. And as a result, the trade SHOULD be rescinded. In fact, Pitino
said that the Raptors didn't send a crucial MRI, so finally the Celtics
doctor did it himself and concluded that he should be failed. Could it
be that the Raptors were trying to pull a fast one themselves and dump
damaged goods on us? The Raptors themselves forced Portland to compensate
them for Williams' damaged knee, so all their complaining about Williams
being fine is a bit hypocritical. And since the trade, the Raptors have
played him all of 6 minutes. Maybe now that the whole league knows that
Williams is damaged, they've given up on trying to play him because they
know that he has not future in the league because of the injury. 

But I do agree with you in not believing the "Mercer and the budget"
routine. I think he wanted to trade Mercer primarily for basketball
reasons, not budget reasons. And you're right that Gaston is not
cheap - though he clearly doesn't have infinite pockets. I don't think
you'll ever see us having one of the top 5 payrolls in the league
while he's the owner, and that does restrict us.

The point about assessing the coach - I think fundamentally the measure
is, how much does the team win vs. how much "inherent ability" the team
has. The number of wins is very concrete but the assessment of the 
"inherent ability" is very fuzzy. I won't say too much about specific
critiques of basketball decisions like timeouts, substitutions, defensive
schemes because it's a tired debate and pretty useless. But I'll say
that what I care about is wins over the course of a season, and that
Pitino has clearly not coached as well as he did in 97-98 in my mind,
when he had less talent.
 
> Who is more truly a member of the "fellowship of the miserable": the
> fan/heckler at the end of the game or the coach who takes his frustrations
> out on an entire town in consequence. Make no mistake about it, if Celtic
> fans were dogs Pitino would have gladly kicked each and every one.

I guess you're reading things differently than me. Personally I don't
associate myself with the guys who go to the Fleetcenter and boo when
they don't feel they got their $85 worth, or whatever, and I clearly
read that he was ripping the negative fans who boo the home team. 
People may feel that they are a paying customer, they're not getting
their money's worth, and they have a right to boo; but I agree with
Pitino, it sucks. I feel like I'm a fan, and not a customer, and I will
never boo the Celtics, ever. It doesn't help the team in any way. 

Let's say that you are in a high-stress situation where you are
performing for an audience - say you are giving an important speech.
You stumble a bit and the crowd starts booing you. How many of you
perform better? How about if the people you make eye contact with
in the crowd smile and nod? Doesn't that help you relax a bit, and
perform better? 

I heard Vitaly getting booed while missing some early free throws 
and I just had this feeling that it would come back to haunt us. 
You just know that when he walks up to the line with the game on 
the line, he's feeling awful, tons of pressure already from the
game situation, no confidence, and knowing that thousands of
fans will be ripping him if he doesn't make it. Good job, boobirds.

Alex