RE: McDonough: Keep Pitino, C's Bad, Not Improving For A Long While

[OzerskyJA <OzerskyJA@cmog.org>]

what crap.  This is no smarter a commentary nor any more likely to
happen than the kids on the ESPN boards who say that the next Celtic
dynasty is around the corner.  As far as free agents go, money talks and
bullshit walks, and when we can pay more than other teams instead of 
less, we will get a better caliber of free agents.  As for the draft, no man
can say what is going to happen there.  BTW, Cousy would never attack
the team like this anonymously, and I can't think of any other Celtic of his
stature who would either.  

Josh Ozersky	
Marketing Communications Specialist 
Corning Museum of Glass

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Way Of The Ray [SMTP:wayray@ix.netcom.com]
> Sent:	Saturday, September 16, 2000 10:23 AM
> To:	Celtics
> Subject:	McDonough: Keep Pitino, C's Bad, Not Improving For A Long
> While
> 
> (Who was McDonough talking to? Sounds like Bob Cousy maybe.)
> 
> http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/260/sports/In_praise_of_ailing_Armstrong
> +.shtml
> 
> Search for Green pastures
> 
> 
> One of the Celtics' greatest players ever had this perspective on the
> team's upcoming season and the future of Rick Pitino:
> 
> 
> ''Rick has not done the greatest job in the world as a general manager.
> He's made poor moves and hasn't done a good job evaluating talent. But
> he's a good coach. He can X and O with any coach in the league, and is
> better in this department than almost all of them. If the season goes
> bad, which it easily could, it wouldn't make any sense to fire him,
> because they couldn't bring in anyone who could coach the team better.
> 
> 
> ''What we have to understand around here, and try to deal with, is the
> Celtic mystique is a thing of the past. It's over. These kids nowadays
> don't give a damn about those 16 [championship] flags or what went on
> here in the past. All these kids think about is making money and leading
> a comfortable life. If they can play for a winner along the way, great.
> But the other two are more important. This is why the Celtics will
> never, ever get a shot at a great player in free agency. A Grant Hill or
> a Tim Duncan would never play here. They'll go to an Orlando or a Miami
> or a Los Angeles. Someplace where it's warm and nice to live and have a
> good time. The only way the Celtics are ever going to get back to the
> top is to have a terrible team and luck out with a guy like Duncan in
> the draft. That didn't happen for them a few years ago and it isn't
> going to happen to them for a long time. This situation they are in
> right now isn't going away for a long time. So if [Paul] Gaston thinks
> he is going to make things better by getting rid of Pitino, he's wrong.
> He's going to have to pay him all of that money and he won't end up with
> anyone nearly as good.''
> 
> 
> Pitino has four years left on a contract that averages $7 million a
> year.
> 
>