RE: Bremer makes his move

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Come on, Joe. Dikembe was a risk, but at least he had played very productive
basketball as recently as last season. Vin has been done for a while and
everyone knew it. A couple of years ago, Dikembe fetched Theo Ratliff, Toni
Kukoc and Nazr Mohammed. At the same point, Seattle couldn't dump Vin Baker.
And even if you want to say that's apples-for-apples, which I disagree with,
Rod Thorn at least made the Jordan pick and also had the Marbury-for-Kidd
trade and Richard Jefferson draft pick in the bank. All of those moves rank
ahead of anything Wallace has done.

Wallace took over at exactly the right time-with Pitino leaving. His one
good move, it seems, was to make Jim O'Brien the head coach. But the roster
that made the Eastern Conference Finals-Walker, Pierce, Battie, Eric
Williams and Kenny-was already in place. Wallace's only good personnel move
to this point was the Rodney Rogers-Tony Delk deal, and even that was a
result of the disastrous 2001 draft.

As for Bird's moves-he was the guy who was high on Croshere during Pitino's
first draft, and Croshere certainly was a good pick where he was selected
(after guys like Tariq Abdul-Wahad, Adonal Foyle and Danny Fortson. He was a
good, improving player until Isiah took over. I'd like to see what he could
do under another coach. As for Chris Mullin-I guarantee Indiana wouldn't
take back that Dampier-for-Mullin trade. Mullin was a valuable part of the
Pacers for a while. And Bender was part of the retooling of that team-they
went from a team that was in the Finals with Smits, Jackson, Dale Davis,
Reggie Miller and Antonio Davis, took a small step back, and now is a threat
again to reach the finals. Donnie Walsh was the architect, and if Bird
learned from Walsh, he learned from the best.

Anyway, you're right about one thing. Chris Wallace has been lucky. 

Mark

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	hironaka@nomade.fr [mailto:hironaka@nomade.fr] 
Sent:	Wednesday, December 18, 2002 11:13 AM
To:	berrym@BATTELLE.ORG
Cc:	Celtic4Hire@aol.com; celtics@igtc.com
Subject:	RE: Bremer makes his move

> ---------- Initial message -----------
>  I was rooting for him, because he
> obviously wanted it in Charlotte. But since it didn't 
happen, let's bring
> him home to wriggle us out of this mess Wallace has 
gotten us into.
> 

Not to defend him, but to put Chris Wallace in 
perspective, Sam Smith quotes Rod Thorn saying AFTER 
drafting Jordan with the No. 3 pick that "He's not the 
kind of player to turn a franchise around."

http://espn.go.com/nba/columns/smith_sam/1475855.html

Thorn is the reigning NBA GM of the Year, the guy who 
trade for Dikembe Mutombo, a guy nearly a decade older 
than Vin Baker and whose salary won't clear the cap until 
2005.  

There's got to be some perspective. The Celtics went to 
the conference championship the first year he took full 
control. Now they are in sole possession first place.  

Like it or not, this guy probably doesn't deserve to be 
called a failure. Call him "lucky" maybe, but I'm happy 
with lucky any day when it concerns the Boston Celtics.

Its really too bad CW added Vin Baker, but frankly its 
also too bad Larry Bird drafted and extended Austin 
Croshere to a Vin Baker length contract, or drafted 
Bender, or signed Chris Mullen etc. The whole 
organization has to be excellent in order to win, 
starting with the owners.



 




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