----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, January 07, 2001 7:30
AM
Subject: It's not Pitino's fault
Bottom line Pitino's system works. The problem
here is that he is surrounded by a bunch of over-payed stiffs. What can
Pitino do if Walker and Anderson WON'T PLAY DEFENSE? Pitino's biggest mistakes
were that he was counting on drafting Tim Duncan and he assumed that players
like Walker and Anderson would play up to their potential. Walker is having a
pretty good year, but he will never reach his potential if he doesn't start to
think about the team first.
If Pitino does leave, the team may turn around
for a month or a bit longer, just to prove that the problem was Pitino, and
not them. In the long run, these stiffs will continue to show up with their
attitudes, and big undeserving wallets ready to accept a loss.
When Pitino inherited the team, he had one player
who belonged in the NBA (Walker), and two draft picks in a somewhat weak and
unpredicatable draft, and no players to trade. He has brought players in who
SHOULD be winning more games than they are (this team should be in the top two
of it's division). Now we have four players of high talent, as well as three
draft picks next year. If Walker and Anderson weren't such stiffs, Pierce and
Battie would have motivated veteran players to look up to. But since they are
stiffs, Pierce and Battie are learning to be stiffs also. So Pitino has made
oves that should have made this team a playoff team, it's not his fault that
he believed in Walker and Anderson. When he is gone I wish that he would
publicly rip Anderson and Walker, but he has too much class to do
that.
If I were Gaston, I would tell Pitino to trade
Walker and Anderson for whatever he could get, but if there were no takers, I
would tell him to put them on the injured list and bring in some players who
will listen. I don't mind losing a gave if the players hustle, I can't stand
losing and watching a bunch of talented stiffs walk around the
court.
John