Well, Mr. Ricky Pitino finally came clean.
He told the Boston media on Thursday what was painfully obvious to everyone watching his Celtics stumble the last couple of years: this rebuilding stuff isn't so easy when the fix isn't in.
Had he known that he wasn't going to have Tim Duncan or Keith Van Horn to build around, he told the Boston press, he probably wouldn't have left the University of Kentucky coming off of a national championship. Had he known the ping pong balls that delivered TD from Wake Forest were going to wind up in Gregg Popovich's pocket, he probably wouldn't have put his substantial rep on the line for the substantial payday from Celtics boss Paul Gaston.
This is a little different from what he said a couple of months ago, when Adrian Griffin was the talk of the league and his Cs were in the playoff hunt.
"The first year," Mr. Ricky recalled, "all we tried to do was try to work hard, let the chips fall where they may ... I knew about 60 percent of the unit would not be intact. And then once we got below the salary cap, we made some moves, and we try to treat it, oh, almost like the way you treat your computer. You are always trying to upgrade it, and add to it, and that's the way we were looking at our team. Can we add to it? Can we add another piece to the puzzle, and Vitaly (Potapenko), getting a legitimate center helped."
But since then, Vitaly (Potapenko) has not exactly, uh, been lighting it up. Not like Duncan would have, anyway. Antoine Walker continues his up-and-down play, and even though Kenny Anderson's had a terrific season, Boston's progress has been fleeting. Which was the prologue for Mr. Ricky's blowup to the media Wednesday night after Vince Carter's improbable fadeaway three at the buzzer beat the Celtics at the Fleet Center.
"Larry Bird is not walking through that door, fans," he said. "Kevin McHale is not walking through that door, and Robert Parish is not walking through that door. What we are is young, exciting, hardworking and going to improve. People don't realize that. And as soon as they realize that those three guys are not coming through that door, the better this town will be for all of us. There are young guys in that room playing their ass off. I wish we had 90 million under the salary cap. I wish we could buy the world. We can't. The only thing we can do is work hard, and all this negativity that's in this town sucks."
It would be a little easier to believe that Mr. Ricky's solidly behind his squad, has inestimable patience and will defend the young'ns at every end, if he hadn't taken Chauncey Billups with the third pick overall in June 1997, and traded him to Toronto in Feb. 1998; if he hadn't drafted Ron Mercer with the sixth pick overall in June 1997, and traded him to Denver in Aug. 1999; if he hadn't given Travis Knight $22 million in July 1997 and traded to him to the Lakers in Jan. 1999; if he hadn't traded Eric Williams to Denver in Aug. 1997 and acquired Eric Williams in Aug. 1999; if he hadn't acquired Danny Fortson in Aug. 1999 and traded him in Feb. 2000. Only to get him back in Feb. 2000.
No, the truth is that with Duncan, Mr. Ricky's in the Eastern Finals last year. Without him...
"Five minutes after that (Duncan) lottery," Popovich recalled last year, "Rick Pitino called and said 'what do you want?'"
As he should have. The point isn't to pile on now that the Celtics have swooned, but to point out that while some of pro coaching is about systems and rules and motivation, most of pro coaching is about players. Period.
Phil Jackson, coming off six titles with MJ and Pip, didn't take the Nets' head job. They offered more money than the Lakers. They offered total control. But Mr. and Mrs. Jackson didn't raise a stupid Pentacostal in North Dakota. Jackson waited until the plum position opened up. Has his presence helped the performance of Shaq and Kobe? Sure. Has Shaq and Kobe's presence helped the performance of Phil? Same answer.
Most coaches don't have a choice. They take the job that's available. But some, like Jackson, like Mr. Ricky, like Riles, have the pick of the litter. (You surely noticed that once Riles took the Heat job, it took him about five seconds to bring Mr. Alejandro Mourning to South Beach.) They can puff up their résumés going from elite team to elite team, never having to sink into the morass of a Clippers.
And that makes guys like, say, Rudy Tomjanovich all the more admirable. After two titles in the mid-'90s, he could have wormed his way out of Houston for greener pastures once it became obvious the Rockets were on the downhill slope. But Tomjanovich never complains about the hand he's dealt. He didn't when the union pulled the top-shelf NBA players off the Olympic team just before the world championships in 1998, leaving him with the David Woods of the basketball world. He just coached the hell out of them.
And he's doing it again this season. Yes, he has the quite talented Steve Francis, but Francis is still a rookie, given to rookie slumps and rookie petulance. Tomjanovich is retooling the Rockets on the run, with Charles Barkley on the sidelines, Scottie Pippen frontrunning in Portland and Hakeem Olajuwon a copy of a copy of a copy of his former self. The Rockets won't make the playoffs this season, but they're going to soon.
No question, Mr. Ricky is on the short, short list of the best coaches in the business. The Celtics are better off now than they were three years ago. He's not going anywhere, not with $29 million still on the till. And if the Celtics ever add a killer center, they'll be in tall cotton again. (It has to be through the draft, because Boston's next real chance to be under the cap is in the 2002-03 season.) But coaching miracles are in short supply in the pro game, no matter how polished the sales pitch or how handsome a résumé the pitcher possesses.