Re: Bulpett on Walker and Pitino

["John Lyell" <johnlyell@hotmail.com>]

You would think that if O'Briens Father in-law was Ramsey that he could have
got Pitino to realize it would not owrk. Maybe his arrogance did do him in.



----- Original Message -----
From: "Thomas Murphy" <tfmiii@worldnet.att.net>
To: "Celtic list" <celtics@igtc.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2001 11:08 AM
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
>
>