RE: Bulpett on Walker and Pitino

[OzerskyJA <OzerskyJA@cmog.org>]

For example, just to continue in my response to Tom, Pitino
clearly didn't try to force his system down everyone's throats --
he wasted two whole seasons trying to be a halfcourt team. 
He tried going man to man, and that didn't work.  The team
was getting killed in down low, so he brought in Fortston
and Vitaly -- and then found running to be impossible..... I just
can't imagine what the best coach in the world does when he
can't get results no matter why adjustments he makes.  And in 
fact, every coach from John Wooden on down has had losing 
situations like this.  Is it inexplicable?  I've been closely analyzing 
it every day for the past ten years, and reading all the analysis by
all of you, and none of us is any closer to knowing the truth.  SETI
will detect alien life before we get it.  God knows the players don't.
Pitino doesn't understand it.  Maybe it's not arrogance but the Unknowable
Mystery of Celtic Badness.  All I know is -- bring back Larry!

Josh Ozersky	
Marketing Communications Specialist 
Corning Museum of Glass

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	OzerskyJA [SMTP:OzerskyJA@cmog.org]
> Sent:	Tuesday, January 09, 2001 2:59 PM
> To:	'Thomas Murphy'; Celtic list
> Subject:	RE: Bulpett on Walker and Pitino
> 
> A very enjoyable screed, thomas, and of course anyone that uses
> dollar signs for "success" deserves extra credit, and maybe even a 
> job at the New York Post.  But I'm still waiting to hear why Pitino
> was such a terrible coach.  I mean, I've read about his substition 
> patterns, his monkey outbreak defense, his sideline badgering --
> but he's a golden boy in the coaching fraternity, where they are 
> quick to smell a gimmick.  He may be all the things you say, but I
> really don't believe him when he says it's his fault that they didn't 
> pass, play defense, box out, reverse, etc. etc.  I still can't understand
> why the players, many of whom are marginal types struggling to succeed,
> would have such inexplicable stubbornness.  Yes, yes, I know, as Bob
> Ryan tells me every day, the game is different than it was in the 80s.  
> But the players were making huge guaranteed sums then; and if I'm not 
> mistaken, almost all of the teams not in Boston, Philadelphia, or Los
> Angeles were terrible.  I mean, we could count on wins anywhere almost
> every night!  So I am willing to believe it was because Pitino was such a
> bad coach, but I won't take it on faith.  What did he do that was so
> wrong?
> 
> Seriously.
> 
> Josh Ozersky	
> Marketing Communications Specialist 
> Corning Museum of Glass
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From:	Thomas Murphy [SMTP:tfmiii@worldnet.att.net]
> > Sent:	Tuesday, January 09, 2001 2:08 PM
> > To:	Celtic list
> > Subject:	Bulpett on Walker and Pitino
> > 
> > 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