Re: Jim O'Brien takes potshot at Paul Gaston

[Eggcentric@xxxxxxx]

I very much appreciate your gutsy post, Jim, because it brings up several
overlooked points concerning Gaston. 

It is hard to feel sorry for a guy who sells his team for $360 million in 
Sept. when in May, Forbes magazine placed the value of the Celtics at $218 
million.  But I do.  Because profit aside, in the end his legacy was one of 
frustration, failure, and bad decisions. And through it all, ThanksDad never 
achieved his number one goal - to make his dad proud.  Funny money has 
left an aching void.

It got so bad after eight straight years of a losing record that Gaston 
stopped attending home games and speaking to the press.  And during 
that period when he planted his feet in the sea and rode upon the 
storm, his hirings got worse and worse.  He got rid of Dave Gavitt and 
brought in M. L. Carr in 1994, naming him coach in 1995.  He mortgaged
his soul for $50 million dollar flim-flam man Pitino (instead of 
Larry Brown) believing Rick would be the answer. And as you mention, 
Jim, Gaston also shelled out the money for the state-of-the-art 
Healthpoint and for several irresponsible player signings which have 
left us some $12.2 million over this year's cap of $40.27 million.  

After Rick left, in an effort to maintain some sort of continuity, Gaston
committed his final error of judgment - he retained the I-didnbt do-it 
Wallace to run his operations. In short, much like a restaurant owner who 
has never been a chef, Gaston continually hired and counted on all the 
wrong people.

Yet can we fault Gaston for not drawing Duncan in the 1997 draft, for
Pitino turning out to be such an expensive ass, or for taking a stand for
fiscal responsibility regarding the dreaded luxury tax?  This whole luxury
tax thing is ridiculous anyway ... how can CEO's plan their budget a season
ahead of knowing what that budget will be?  And how can responsible
owners cope with the arrogant Mark Cuban types who we erroneously find 
swashbuckling rather than crippling to the future economics of the NBA? 
I mean how much are you willing to pay for a ticket to view a half- dozen CBA 
caliber players on each team while putting up with the jumbotron?

We view Gaston as Scrooge because he would not allow us to sign Rogers 
to anything more than a vet. minimum contract. Yet I wonder at what point 
Wallace realized that ... before or after the JJ trade?  And our latest 
frustration with whipping-boy Gaston is that he will now not allow us one 
more red sou in obtaining an additional player. But should we blame him 
because his GM squandered his FA grocery money on empty calories?  
Sundov, Wolko, and Bremer are taking up 25% of our small roster while 
providing 0% to our team. And then of course there is Walter. With so many 
adequate FA's available, whose fault is that, Wallace? 

So Gaston is gone. Enter a new consortium of Celtic fans (Grousbeck, 
Grousbeck, and Pagliuca) who have grossly overpaid for an NBA franchise 
and at last peek were still seeking additional investors to make the 
deal fly.

You ask an important question, Jim,  "Did we get deeper pockets? " 
Our new owners appear to have the heart, the question is, do they also 
have the $$$$$$?

Eggy