[Fwd: May On The Accountability of Wallace/Papile]

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

Can't like the deal, where they would have sent a first
and Walter McCarty for $3 million.... Stupid trade.

ON BASKETBALL
No question now: They will be answerable


By Peter May, 4/25/2001



The Celtics confirmed yesterday what a lot of us suspected over the last
four years: It was all Rick Pitino's fault.


How else to interpret owner Paul Gaston's decision to renew all the
major underlings whom Pitino brought into the organization? Pitino now
must be seen as an uncompromising ideologue who ignored all those around
him and went against their advice and counsel on just about every move
he made.


General manager Chris Wallace and player personnel boss Leo Papile were
here from Renunciation Day (nine players renounced to get Travis Knight)
to Draft Day 2000 (Jerome Moiso). In between, of course, were enough bad
moves to make the Celtics what they are: a thirty-something winner in an
increasingly weaker conference who finished closer to 10th place than to
eighth place. Papile and Wallace were there for those moves, too. All of
them.


''Some might say we were at the scene of the crimes,'' Papile said
yesterday. ''But there has been no grand jury indictment. We may have
been there for some of them. I'm going to have to take the fifth, but I
don't want immunity. Maybe in the end, like that Rosebud scene from
`Citizen Kane,' we'll know.''


Of course, neither will go into detail about just how much input they
had in any of Pitino's questionable deals or moves. Maybe the real story
will come out in a book, or, as Papile said, ''on my death-bed
confession.'' But the decision to keep them on board for the next few
years indicates either that ownership thinks the current roster is just
fine or that it is sympathetic to both men for being unsuccessful in
preventing Pitino from making the moves he did.


We could go back to the quotes from both men defending the moves, but
they would have looked silly (and suicidal) not to have publicly
supported the boss. We can't hold them to that.


What we would like to know is, did either one stand up when Knight was
signed and players like Rick Fox were let go - for nothing? Or when
Pitino traded for Kenny Anderson? Or for Vitaly Potapenko? Or re-signed
Walter McCarty? Or signed Chris Mills and then traded him three months
later? Or drafted Moiso? Or passed on Tracy McGrady? Or let David Wesley
go?


We do know this: There was a serious ''debate'' last year over Moiso vs.
Courtney Alexander. Pitino wanted Moiso and got his way. O'Brien clearly
had no use for the rookie; he didn't play him even after the team had
fallen out of the playoff race. O'Brien also sent Anderson to the bench.



Though both Wallace and Papile are seen by some as wet behind the ears,
Wallace has been in the NBA in some capacity for 14 years and was on
Seattle president Wally Walker's short list of people to be interviewed
for the Sonics' vacant general manager job. Papile, meanwhile, was
coaching in the CBA in the early 1980s, when George Karl and Phil
Jackson were there.


They may, in fact, be the two shrewdest judges of talent in the NBA. But
they also were participants in the revolving-door strategy since 1997.


''There is a little bit of history out there for all those doubting
Thomases,'' conceded Papile.


Added Wallace, ''I tend to look at this as the glass being half-full,
not half-empty. We all were involved in the deals. We did draft Paul
Pierce. [Pitino] signed off on the deals for the three draft picks. We
brought in guys like Tony [Battie], Adrian [Griffin], [Mark] Blount, and
[Milt] Palacio.''


Those aren't the players we're talking about. We're talking about the
likes of McCarty, Anderson, Potapenko, Moiso, and the many that already
have come and gone, like Chauncey Billups, Danny Fortson, Ron Mercer,
Shawn Marion (who would be here but for the Potapenko deal), Tony
Massenburg, Bruce Bowen, and Mills.


Jim O'Brien is not immune from this, either; he apparently had a say in
the moves as well (or so Pitino said). But his extension did make sense
because he has a concrete record to present: He took over a 12-22 team
(and admitted he had a big part in that) and then turned it around,
going 24-24 with essentially the same roster.


''The results were there. The players were there,'' Knicks coach Jeff
Van Gundy said yesterday. ''There are a lot of guys out there like Jim
O'Brien and Jeff Van Gundy who can do it. The hardest part is just
getting the opportunity. He got the opportunity and then he did the most
with it.''


Papile and Wallace will get their opportunity now. They already had one
deal aborted in February, one that would have sent Anderson and the
three No. 1 picks to Dallas for Christian Laettner. The Celtics backed
off that one twice. They also had a deal with the Bulls in which Chicago
would have paid them $3 million for a No. 1 pick and McCarty; the league
turned that down.


Their next test comes in June, when they have two No. 1s and a chance to
take a third, which, as of now, gives them the 10th, 11th, and 21st
picks in the draft. They don't need three rookies. They need a real
point guard, a dirty-work inside guy, and a reliable third scorer.
Wallace has the final say on matters, so his stamp is now on every move.



''We don't have any egos here,'' Papile said. ''We don't have guys who
want their name in bright lights on Broadway. Let's see what happens.
Look at our win-loss record three years from now. I think that's fair.''



This story ran on page F07 of the Boston Globe on 4/25/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.