Boston Management Article

["Dan Forant" <dforant1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Originally posted by Way Ray.

In the Sports world this article should get a Pulitzer Prize. Those of you
looking for another Banner, put your slide rules away for a few years. It's
the Holidays, we should be happy with what we have because with Boston you
don't know what you'll get besides coal.

DanF

> LA Times
> Mark Heisler:
> The NBA
> The Green Is Wearing Thin in Boston
>
> Talk about karma: One day you're blowing cigar smoke in the world's face
> and 40 years later, you're still inhaling it.
>
> These are weird days for the Boston Celtics, who have what is supposed
> to be a promising young team, with new ownership -- thankfully -- on its
> way in.
>
> Of course, it's taking a while for the new owners, venture capitalists
> Wycliffe Grousbeck and Steve Pagliuca, to round up the $360 million, so
> for another month or two, it's still Paul Gaston's team, and he's
> running it on a shoestring budget.
>
> The scouting staff has been pared down. NBA teams customarily stash
> extra players on the injured list -- even the Clippers have three spares
> for a total of 15 -- but the Celtics alone have 12. When Kedrick Brown
> was out the first five weeks, they had 11.
>
> In an irony anyone outside Boston would enjoy, the Celtics, who were
> once a model of organization, not to mention braggadocio, are a muddle.
> The operation Red Auerbach once ran with an iron hand, that took such
> pride in its purity of purpose and "mystique," now steams aimlessly in
> circles.
>
> Gaston's one real initiative in 10 years of uninterested, absentee
> tenure after his father, Don, handed him the team, was to hire Rick
> Pitino, which seemed like a good idea at the time but turned into a
> disaster.
>
> Pitino made his many, frantic moves according to the dictates of his
> pressing-style Ricky Ball, which meant he didn't need a big center, only
> a mobile one like ... Travis Knight ... he thought.
>
> On the bright side, after 3 1/2 seasons of looking more and more like
> the crew in "The Caine Mutiny," with everyone knowing the captain was
> unbalanced but unsure what to do about it, they were finally rid of
> Pitino.
>
> His successor was his assistant Jim O'Brien, who was personable, low-key
> and didn't flaunt his ego, which was a welcome change. Unfortunately for
> them, he was a Pitino disciple and, having gone so far down that road,
> saw no choice but to keep going.
>
> Worse, the Celtics had an amorphous, committee-style setup in which
> O'Brien seemed to have as much say in trades and drafting as the people
> in the front office, who were supposed to be in charge of the big
> picture.
>
> Still needing size, with three No. 1 picks in their first post-Pitino
> draft of 2001, they used No. 10 for Joe Johnson, a wing player, which
> was Paul Pierce's position ... No. 11 for another wing player, Brown ...
> and No. 21 for a third, Joe Forte.
>
> Then, during last season's swoop back to the top of the (lame) East,
> they traded Johnson to Phoenix for Rodney Rogers, an impending free
> agent, reportedly without a commitment from Gaston that he'd re-sign
> him.
>
> Of course, around that time, Gaston began talking to people who wanted
> to buy the team.
>
> Sure enough, come summer, the Celtics offered only $1 million a year and
> Rogers went to archrival New Jersey for a modest three-year, $8-million
> deal.
>
> Then came their coup, sending Kenny Anderson, who had one year left on
> his oversized contract, to Seattle for Vin Baker, who had four at an
> average of $14 million.
>
> An official on another team says that was a Gaston move, which he sold
> to his basketball people, to trim $1 million from his payroll
> immediately and increase the sale price, which would be set by a
> formula, which multiplied projected revenues.
>
> To the surprise of no one who'd seen Baker mope for the last three
> seasons, Vin soon found a new home on the Celtic bench, which he now
> leaves for 18 minutes a game, in which time he averages 5.4 points and
> 4.4 rebounds.
>
> "We heard all the spin when the Celtics made the trade," the Boston
> Herald's Gerry Callahan wrote, "and some of us, regrettably, swallowed
> it whole: THIS, the Celts assured us, was not going to be the same
> slacker who wore out of his welcome in Seattle. This Vinny was going to
> be different from that Vinny, they said, and on that count, they were
> right: This Vinny is worse....
>
> "Thank you, Paul Gaston, you greedy, gutless, money-grubbing slug. Have
> a nice life. Hope your new yacht sinks.
>
> "Give Vinny this: At least he has to show his face to get his millions.
> Gaston just sends his lawyers to collect his ill-gotten gains. If you're
> a loyal Celtic fan and you would like to hear an explanation of the
> Baker trade from His Highness, you're going to have to travel to Aspen
> and try to find him in a lift line."
>
> The Celtics remain contenders, but even if the new owners actually care,
> they will have no cap room for years, low draft picks, no players anyone
> wants, unless they break up their big two of Pierce and Antoine Walker.
>
> On the bright side for Celtic fans, just as soon as Gaston finishes
> selling off the parquet floor, the leprechaun, the retired jerseys and
> the championship banners, they can have their franchise back.