Bulpet today

[Jim Metz <JBMetzEA@AOL.com>]

Title: Bulpet today

Not so quick, Rick: Quitting on Celtics would be big mistake
The NBA/by Steve Bulpett 
Thursday, January 4, 2001
Cynics from Bar Harbor to Belchertown have scrambled to full alert. The people who encounter bad weather and figure someone in the government is on the take are prepared. There is a very real possibility that Rick Pitino could make them look like geniuses any day now.
If Pitino's suddenly apocalyptic meeting with Paul Gaston ends with the coach taking his bruised reputation and heading for the door, all those who fitted Pitino for carpetbagger's clothing will be proven correct. And if Rick Pitino possesses the character I've seen in him over the years, bowing out ungracefully will come back to haunt his hoop dreams.
Leaving now would be bad for the Celtics and worse for Pitino, though I'm not at all sure he sees either. The club can ill afford another reshuffling of the deck, particularly when there is no guarantee the next guy will make the right draft picks and get Antoine Walker to go to the basket. Pitino could argue that things don't appear to be improving. But hearing the nightly quotations after defeats, one has to wonder. The coach talks about the
players failing to commit to defense and to getting their bodies in the proper shape to play the NBA game - and he is absolutely right.
Pitino must stand on the other side of the looking glass, as well. He needs to make a commitment, too, and he hasn't done so since issuing his statement last year that he'd look to leave if the club doesn't improve. Might we be roasting Paul Pierce right now if he'd said, ``I want to play for a winner, so I'll see how we're doing by January and make a decision then. If we stink, I'll ask to be traded''?
To leave now would speak badly for Rick Pitino. The bottom line here is that he was brought in to do a job, and he was paid well enough so he could afford earplugs from the few, the loud, who bark at him when his club begins running around like a basketball team with its head cut off. Pitino said the money wasn't the important issue on a purely cash basis, but that the $50 million for 10 years would be enough to discourage Gaston from firing him if
things were going poorly. Now Pitino is questioning whether he might be better off elsewhere, but employment ethics say he belongs here.
The job description for the position he took here called for a complete rebuilding of the basketball operation, and Pitino knew once Tim Duncan wasn't walking through that door that the gestation period for a healthy title contender was at least five years, with luck. Leaving now would be the same as starting a construction job on one home and deciding halfway through that he'd be happier working on a different type of house in another neighborhood.
Yesterday, Pitino put his Boston home on the market, but in this case, he's looking for a smaller place in the same general neighborhood. He should find one and stay in it.
The Celtics never would have paid Rick Pitino $28 million for four years. The offer was designed to be results-specific, and it is interesting to note that Paul Gaston had these fears several years ago. A year before hiring Pitino, Gaston told associates he was afraid Pitino would come in, re-arrange the operation and then leave the franchise in the lurch.
That should not happen. For the first time in his coaching career, Rick Pitino isn't succeeding on his schedule and he should not walk away from the fight. He should respond by digging in and doing the job justice. If he were to tell his players tomorrow, ``Look, I'm not going anywhere. You're stuck with me, and we're stuck with each other. Deal with it. The only way you're going to get me to stop yelling at you is to do what I say,'' it would be a
positive step. If Pitino were to admit to the fans of New England that there have been times when he's opened his mouth only to change feet, they could begin to forgive him his trespasses.
There is talk that Pitino is only looking to be happy by gazing back fondly to the college game, but every parent whose child had a paper route has been through this moment and knows what to do. Sure, the child would rather be playing ball with his friends on the first warm day of spring instead of lugging papers around the neighborhood, but a commitment was made and must be kept. Happiness doesn't enter into the picture for Rick Pitino. He chose to
accept a great challenge, and as a measure of the task's difficulty he was given great rewards. By signing with the Celtics, he put himself into the crazed and pressurized world of the NBA - and he assured that, if he took care of the money, generations of Pitinos could afford to go to the college of their choice. I would dare say it's not a bad deal.
But in the last two years, Rick Pitino approached the Celtic situation with trepidation and without the perspective he needs. He is upset that his players don't do everything he tells them to. Congratulations, coach, you now have something in common with Phil Jackson, Mike Dunleavy, Gregg Popovich and Pat Riley - all of whom are running teams with far better talent than yours.
It's clear there is a major move or two that still needs to be made before the C's can break through, but one of those moves isn't Pitino leaving. When he sits across from Gaston, Pitino should advise the owner there may be another storm or two ahead. Then he should tell Gaston he has a paper route to finish. The cynics can get to work on Jimy Williams' batting order.

  
  
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