The Bandwagon's Gotten A Lot Lighter

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

Whoa, you people have turned cynical. Not me. I
predicted they finish out of the playoffs in sixth place
in the Atlantic, and whether I'm right or wrong, I'm sticking
to my belief.

As far as the Celtics go:

1) It will help if Herren is healthy. He penetrates unlike Kenny
and can hit the outside shot unlike Brown. I see possible
parallels between Flutie and him. Hope he can grab the
mantle as the starting PG. Great for the C's and the
local interest.

2) Because of the severity of his injury, you've gotta
cut Pierce some slack. Not sure if he wasn't running on
adrenaline during his first games back with the team,
and now he's back to a coping with a severe internal
trauma. Getting body slammed by the Z Man
didn't help, and Pierce has a bad history of returning
too early from injuries. it wouldn't surprise me, if his
funk continues, that he spends some recuperative
time back on IR.

3) If the Celtics are toast this year, it's not necessarily
a bad thing. No playoffs, great likelihood, no Pitino.
Ordway on the Big Snooze keeps advocating the
possibility that Pitino's contract is bought out and
he hooks on with another NBA club rather than
the Hoosiers.  Pitino has more money than
God (just sold his horsey for $15 million), so I don't
see why he couldn't head back to the colleges,
but maybe he's adjusted to an NBA lifestyle.

Whatever the case, it's doubly important that he
keep his paws off the Celtics upcoming draft choices
and there be a legitimate NBA general manager
supervising the Celtics next season. So far, Baby
Gaston is 0-2 in his choice of executives to run
the club. 3 strikes and the Celtics are out for this
decade....
Ray