Boston Cries Out For Larry

Wherefore art thou, Larry? A generation or three clings to the New England past, suffers through the present and wishes for the future, the day that their beloved might reappear.
Because dreams are all they have right now -- as anyone who saw Warriors 100, Celtics 88 or Hawks 92, Celtics 81 or Bulls 104, Celtics 86 can attest.

But now comes an opening. Not as large as some of the cracks in the parquet floor but big enough to hold the promise of a new day, or the old one. Rick Pitino has resigned as coach and president. Hope has returned that Larry Bird will return. White horse optional.

Boston yearns for Larry Legend, and we don't just mean Boston the team. Maybe he could even bring another One Of Us to coach, Bird as personnel boss and someone like Rick Carlisle to run things on the sideline. Or another guy. Throw out some names. Everyone else has.

Could any of them get the job done? Who knows, since many of those being mentioned haven't tried it before. Bird was a successful coach in Indiana, but Donnie Walsh was the president. Danny Ainge, who said he would have interest in the front-office post, had the same situation in Phoenix, a profitable run as coach only.

Said one Former, Rick Fox, whose name has not come up for either job -- yet -- because he is is still playing: "They have a youthful system that obviously didn't lack discipline. Rick Pitino's all about discipline. I think what Larry would bring to that organization if he was to be there would be more of a return for the fans' sake, to what they are used to the Celtics being about.

"To them, he is the Leprechaun. I played there. They've all seen him do things, pull many rabbits out of a hat out there in Boston. From an energy and a total feel for that city they're in and their return to believing they're on the right track, Larry would represent something that would give them hope."

"I think it does," said Fox, now with the Lakers. "That's how they built it. They built it on Celtic tradition -- it's all about the tradition of the Celtics, the eras of Red Auerbach. The in-family is big. Keeping it in family for them would sell it a lot more to fans."

"Anyone who's ever been a part of the brilliance of the Celtics would have a hard time turning (a job) down without talking to them about it," said Bill Walton, the Hall of Fame center who played there.

Even these Celtics, who have Auerbach in the staff box but not in their souls? "Absolutely," Walton said. "Because the fans there are so special. Those fans have seen the best."

Those fans want Bird. Whether they get him is the source of much conjecture, because Bird is the kind of man who keeps his own council and rarely kicks around such topics in conversation with many friends to get their input. And besides that, Bird might only want to come back if he is part of an ownership group, and that's no sure thing. He may not want to coach the Celtics, and Paul Gaston may not want to sell the Celtics.

What we do know for sure is that Bird did not leave on good terms, feeling like window dressing when he worked in the front office before going to coach the Pacers in another hero's return, this time to his home state. So why would he take the chance that someone would still be in position to overrule him? He wrote in his 1999 book "Bird Watching" that he likes Gaston, but also that Gaston "always told me I could have any job I wanted in the organization, but the truth was I had very little input. I think Gaston has trouble looking at me as anything except a former superstar, like some kind of figurehead." And: "I think it was hard for Gaston to have me around sometimes, because it seemed like no matter what he did he took a beating in the press, while in their eyes I could do no wrong."

"Everybody who's close to Larry told him not to do the coaching thing in Indiana," said Walton, a Bird friend. "But when he hears somebody tell him not to do something, that's inspiration. So why do anything now when it can impact his reputation? He's a legend in Boston, and going back could only harm that because the team has so far to go, so from that legend's point of view, people will say not to do it. But then you come back to his personality. He's very stubborn, very set in his ways.

"It will always hold an intrigue for him. Whether it's enough to make a huge gamble, that's another question. ... But I will say that Larry is a person who feels tremendous responsibility for success. And nobody who's ever been a Celtic can not be happy with what's going on there."