Jim O'Brien takes potshot at Paul Gaston

["James A. Hill" <jahill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

After the crap Gaston has taken from the media, "Thanks Dad" (jealousy is so
ugly.), fans and the insubordination of OB this past summer,  why would
Gaston waste a nickel to help out OB?  If OB thinks that Walta is worth
$800K, then play him.  Maybe OB should drop one of his assistants to pay for
another player or is his old college coach really teaching someone how to
play in the post?

The fans and media wanted Gaston gone, so he left. He's gone, let the new
guys step up with their cash.

I'll bet hell freezes over first before the new guys (who initially wanted a
baseball team but couldn't afford one) invest as much money and gumption as
Gaston did in this team over the years.  I believe they are going to play
with their new toy themselves, not sit back quietly and be "just" owners.
Have you seen any of them offering to pay Gaston the tax if he would bring
in more players and the sale falls through?

Not one of them was a season ticket holder that I'm aware of.  We are not
talking Bob Kraft here sitting in the cold of Foxboro year after year.  (And
by the way he bought the team after he took over his father-in-laws
business.  Should he be called "Thanks Dad-in-law"?)

Even as it turned out to be a disaster, do you think the new guys would bet
the kind of out-of-his-pocket money that Gaston did to bring in Pitino or
pay a Max contract to an underachieving Walker and take on Anderson?  To
build Healthpoint out of his profits?

Some people act like it was Gaston who drafted stiff after stiff.  That's
why the team sucked for so long.  It was Red's later drafts and then Pitino
that killed this team for so long.  (Michael Smith, Acie Earl, Eric
Montross, Billips, Mercer, Forte..... ugh)

Just think, "IF" we had drafted Duncan and McGrady that year and Pitino was
willing to play a NBA defense instead of his "system",  Gaston would look
like a basketball genius today instead of just a financial one.

History has proven that selling off the "Big Three" and putting Red out to
pasture may have been the most effective thing for the Gaston family and
potentially the next banner for Boston.  But they/he didn't.  And I'm glad
they/he didn't.  Family ownership can do things that consortiums usually
won't and can't do things that deeper pockets can.  Did we get deeper
pockets?  The jury is still out on that.  It seems like just some bored VC
guys using daddy's money.  Another Thanks Dad and friends running the team
for those keeping score.

To paraphrase a little, "be careful for what you wish....."

<Jim

Snoopy opined:

I'm still behind in e-mail, forgive me if this has been covered, but I just
read this in the Boston Globe, where Coach O'Brien said, in "not"
commenting on the depleted roster, that "Some owners are richer than
others. Some owners can afford to blow paper like [Dallas's] Mark Cuban.
Some can't."

I love that.  Gaston is getting 360 million for selling the team, plus
several more million for selling out the team, by moves like tightening the
roster like a tourniquet on a leaky artery, and committing the C's to a
multiyear TV deal--which netted him more moolah just for signing the
contract.

But, O'bie-Wan can't get GAH-ston to pay for a player to bring the roster
up to the league minimum after learning Kedrick Brown is out until
mid-December.  We're not talking a top-of-the-line player, here.  Just
someone with a pulse who can at play on the practice court.

I CAN'T WAIT to hear O'Brien's first press conference AFTER the new owners
take over.  :>))

Snoopy the Celtics Beagle