re: My case against Obie and Chris Wallace

[bird <birdwl@earthlink.net>]

> From: Jim Hill <jahill@leasingservice.com>
>
> This must be why he [Gaston] paid Pitino more then any other basketball 
> executive in
> the NBA.  He was wrong about Pitino, so was I, but with input from Red,
> Larry etc... he went out and paid big money for what he thought was the 
> "New
> Red" and the head basketball man for what potentially was the next 40 
> years.

Yeah.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but you seem to be saying that Gaston is 
willing to shell out the big bucks in order to win.  That may be.  I 
hope so.  But I've got a feeling (I know...) that Gaston was willing to 
pay Pitino that much because he didn't want to be concerned with the 
basketball side of it.  Just get a Basketball Dictator-for-life, in 
other words, to run the show, while Gaston counts money.  Maybe he saw 
Pitino as the leader of the team, like the media did -- all focus was on 
Pitino, not the players.

> It was a brilliant and balls'y move.  It crashed and burned.  But 
> Pitino did
> build the training facility and taught Gaston a valuable lesson about 
> giving
> anyone complete control.

Yeah, that may be the problem.  Maybe now Gaston wants a different 
approach.  More hands-on.  More business-oriented.  Maybe he's decided 
that paying for talent is _always_ a bad idea (and thus won't pay for 
free agent, or the possible third maximum salary player, after Walker 
and Pierce, or whatever).  He's already stated publicly that he won't 
pay the luxury tax, ever.  That's a fine ideal to uphold, but if it gets 
in the way of winning games, then we've got a problem.  This is all 
pretty much conjecture right now, though.  I guess we'll see what 
happens in the off-season.

> I think he has tried hard to improve this team since he has taken over 
> with
> Pond.  [...] The NBA screwed
> the Celtics over Bias and Lewis, then they wasted three or four drafts
> before Paul G. took over.

He may have tried hard, but his track record stinks.  M(ore) L(osses)'s 
tanking job was horrendus (well, the "tanking" itself was pretty 
masterfully done, but you know what I mean).  Pitino was a good try, 
because RP did have a good track record for turning teams around.  Just 
didn't work out, as you said.  Good effort, though.  I'll give them 
that.  It's just that I hope ownership hasn't soured on paying for real 
basketball talent (whether that be players, coaches, or middle 
management).

> When over-spending will bring in a championship, Gaston will find it.
> Before then it's just a waste of money.  Walker and Pierce aren't near 
> to
> carrying this team to the finals.    It's just not time yet.

True, but isn't Pierce up for his extension in the off-season (or at 
least the team option, right?).  Pierce ought to get the maximum, and I 
hope I don't hear any "hemming" or "hawing" from management about laying 
down the moolah.

> (Imagine, If Pitino had been able to pull this off, with his friend$, he
> could have ended up buying control from the Gastons when they were 
> ready to
> sell.  Talk about a dream job for a basketball guy.  Be the Celtics 
> saviour,
> coach, president, then owner.  Talk about owning a city.)

(Would have been good.  I, personally, would have loved to see it.  If 
Pitino had had more success, we might have seen it.  I actually think 
that Pitino did a decent (not terrible, not good, either) job.  But, 
it's all about the wins.  He improved the team, but didn't win a lot of 
games.  And it _is_ all about the wins.)

Regards,

(The Celtic "Tird",
  Celticus "tirdius")
mailto:celtictird@yahoo.com