Chris Worthless And The Foreign Market: A Recipe For Celtics Disaster

[Way Of The Ray <wayray@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

When it comes to International Players, Chris Wallace has been
Chris Worthless.....

Where did it all go wrong?

At one time, the Celtics had one of the better
foreign players in the form of Dino Radja.

And then the Pitino/Wallace putsch descended upon Celtic Nation like
a black plague of death and destruction,
and Dino Radja was soon gone, tossed out in the trash heap of an
organizational
cleaning, that also saw Rick Fox, David Wesley, and a slew of  usable
players jettisoned without much in return.

And it was all downhill from there.

Especially in the International Market, where a phalanx of other NBA
teams have
been able to add quality or even All-Star type players, but not the
Celtics.

This debacle rests heavily on the shoulders of one man, and that is
Head of Basketball Operations/GM Chris
Wallace, who is the major constant, in terms of  talent acquisition and
evaluation,
in both the Pitino and post-Pitino eras.

Come, let us look at the error of Little Chrissy's foreign ways:

- Dallas out-maneuvers the Celtics by trading up to get Nowitzki, whom
both
Wallace and Pitino thought they had secretly locked up.

- C's trade an unprotected draft choice (which becomes the eighth pick
and the selection of All Star PG Andre Miller) for Vitaly Potapenko.

C's Draft Australian Big Man Ben Pepper, who was last seen riding on a
surfboard
to New Guinea.

- C's select the immortal Kris Cluck, errr Chris Craft, or whatever
his rapidly anonymous name is, two spots ahead of  Emmanuel
Ginobilli in the 1999 draft.

- C's trade two second round picks for Josip Sesar, whom everyone and
even
Josip Sesar's mother knew, couldn't play NBA defense, and has yet to
even
be invited to a Celtics training camp.

- The Celtics draft Frenchman Jerome Moiso. That's all that needs to be
said
as we all pray for collective amnesia.

- In the disaster of a disastrous Space Odyssey 2001 NBA Draft,
the Celtics are hot for Pau Gasol. So hot, they're practicaly drooling,
and they are discussing trade scenarios with other clubs that involves
them packaging picks 10 and 11 to move up in the draft to take
Gasol. Then, they get a brain fart. They fall in love with a Juco player

by the name of  Kedrick Brown, and cut a deal with his agent to reserve
the 11th pick for him, thus preventing the team from dealing up for
Gasol.
What's worse is that they should have drafted Richard Jefferson with the

11th choice.

- In the same disaster of a disastrous 2001 draft, the Celtics have the
21st pick, and are in desperate need of a PG with Kenny Anderson,
in the tank at the time. Tony Parker is available. Wallace and his
assistant
in decrepitude: Head Scout Leo Papile totaly mis-evaluate Parker,
writing
him off as not that good/second round material, and instead, take their
third
shooting guard in the draft in Joseph Forte, who basically sits for the
entire
2001-2002 season, eating popcorn, wearing Lakers jerseys, pissing off
the
coaching staff, and then is soon traded during the off-season,
after lighting up the Shaw's Summer League.

- In the past draft, the Celtics with the 50th or so pick, select
Darius Songaila, who quickly is told by Boston management to
head overseas, because you're not making the club, and will be cut.
Meanwhile, selected after Songaila are two better foreign players:
high-flying
Argentian combo forward Frederico Kammerichs, and the sweet shooting
Mladen Secularic, who Dallas steals away.

- In the past off-season, both the Celtics and Memphis Grizzlies are
looking for foreign centers. The C's sign 7-3 Bruno Sundov, whom despite

being in the NBA for four years, has played a paltry number of games, is

ascribed to being defensively poor, and likes to play outside on the
perimeter.
Meanwhile, the great Jerry West, concocts another rabbit out of his hat
for
the Grizzlies by signing a sleeper Polish center Cezary Trybanski, who
is
defensively strong, plays on the inside, and can block shots.  Hmmm,
which
center do you think will be better, the guy signed by Wallace or West?

- This past offseason, the C's are looking for a foreign player to fill
the twelfth and
final spot on the roster. Yugo star and hero of the World Championships:
Milan
Gurovic announces that he would "love to play for the Celtics", instead
the Celtics
sign Argentinian third string backup center and the sixth best player on
that team:
Reuben Wolkowyski.


And so the disaster goes on and on. Where it stops, only a new Celtics
ownership knows....
Ray