Bulpett on Walker and Pitino

["Thomas Murphy" <tfmiii@worldnet.att.net>]

It is funny how some people want to place all the blame for the Pitino
fiasco on either the players (as is no other team in the leagues has to deal
with similarly situated players) or his skills as a GM. Don't get me wrong,
I think coaching players who make as much or more in salary can be a trying
profession (certainly more trying than bullying kids out of HS with the loss
of scholarships) and Rick's record as a GM sucks. For me, however, Rick's
greatest failure was as a coach - he is one of the worst coaches I've ever
witnessed. I'd also like to disagree with the thesis advanced by Bulpett:
that Pitino's 'one big mistake' was Walker. After all, no matter how
disagreeable one finds Walker's attitude to be, Pitino was still the coach -
not Walker. Also, Bulpett seems to forget that it was precisely Pitino's
handling of Walker made a bad situation worse. Beyond the question of
whether Pitino or his admirers will successfully scapegoat Walker and other
players for the actual regression of this team over the last three-plus
years, I'd like to point out that Pitino has several flaws that led him to
being THE most inflexible, obstinate 'coach' I have ever seen. Ironically
each of the flaws is something that Pitino himself attributes to the young
people he coaches:

Pitino was making way too much MONEY - hence he was less worried about the
final outcome (victories) than worried about achieving that final outcome
HIS way (via the trap/press/3-pt barrage etc.). Just a brief perusal of Jack
Ramsey's column shows there were plenty of options for the coach but he
refused to relent from his orthodoxy - at the very most substituting his
half-court trapping zone for his full-court pressing zone. Not much
imagination or creativity on display for $25 mil, eh? It was like three
years of watching the poor players running their heads into a brick wall
with Pitino ranting about how they have to WANT to break that wall with
their heads, the wall won't give until they BUY into the guru's 'teachings'.
No wonder most of the players act as if their confidence is shot.

Pitino was (and still is) EGOTISTICAL to a fault - nothing that happened
over the past three-plus years made him re-examine his own premises about
how to win B-ball at the pro level. With regards to personnel management, in
his Globe interview he says he thinks he wasn't dictatorial enough! The
problem wasn't him not being not harsh enough, it was that he - Rick
Pitino - changed the rules depending on the person, a hallmark of
dictatorship not fairness.

Pitino was (and is) SELFISH - he talks a great game (like Walker) but his
actions speak louder. He is not leaving the team for the good of the C's -
if that were the case he would have left last year when it was obvious that
he had run out of 'tricks'. After having coached  the creampuff part of the
team's schedule (and taking more $eltic green) he's leaving now to suit his
own schedule (i.e. recruiting schedule). No one else on this team has the
luxury of cutting and bolting (check note above on money). This episode in
C's history has always been about Rick's likes and dislikes and nothing
else.

Pitino also has enjoyed wealth and success TOO EARLY just like the folks he
coaches insofar as he was fortunate enough to have always enjoyed success
before Boston but too stupid to realize that luck plays a role in such
success. LOTS of people work hard every day without enjoying the kind of
$ucce$$ bestowed on Pitino and NBA players. $ucce$$ does not necessarily
follow from hard work. Pitino was so successful so early in his career that
he never realized that success may not simply be an individual choice. I
think this is why he shows such a fundamental disrespect to others -
particularly others who he views as losers. Rick's arrogance is why some
people are so gleeful now that his failure has been sealed - kind of like
the plot line from Orson Welles "The Magnificent Ambersons" - young arrogant
sh!thead (who BTW feels it is his right to preach to others how to improve
their pathetic miserable loser lives) finally gets his.

I say good riddance to the egotistical sh!thead who never had the patience
or time of day for the opinions or feelings of 'losers' - welcome to the
'fellowship of the miserable'. It is human to fail - the true mark of a
superior person is how they face up to adversity. In confronting adversity
apparently for the very first time late in life Pitino was exposed for the
type of person he is - 'me first, everyone else second - either win MY way
or else f*** everyone' -  just like his star pupil, Antoine Walker.

He leaves this team in a worse situation than he found it both on the court
and in business terms. And please, do not wave those three draft picks in my
face. It is not as if Pitino said to himself: 'gee we need to invest for the
future, wonder if I can trade for some picks'. Both the Denver pick and the
pick coming via Salt Lake were the results of desperation trades brought on
by Pitino's mercurial handling of personnel and represent the sugar used to
induce Boston to suck down a bitter trade pill (EW's contract, losing
Fortson for essentially nothing). Neither pick represented Pitino looking
out for the future as much as saving face in trade negotiations. The very
next thing Pitino does solely for the good of the team will be the first.
Not that he has to, no one is pretending that it isn't a business - except
for Pitino that is, with his pious flim-flam cant (worthy of a mountebank)
about leaving for the 'good of the team' and 'positioning the team for the
future'. Good riddance!

-TomM