Re: Eagle Tribune: Time For Larry Legend

[Celtic4Hire@xxxxxxx]

Ray,
I think you have said almost exactly every point this guy has said in the 
last couple of weeks. And only you think Simmons is actually a somebody worth 
quoting. You sure you aren't Mr. Tomase?....<g>

DJessen33


> <Lawrence Eagle Tribune
> 
> Sunday, January 5, 2003
> Time for Larry Legend's return
> John Tomase
> Staff writer
> 
> Celtics ownership mercifully changed hands this week. The first order of
> business for Wycliffe Grousbeck and Co. should be simple:
> 
> Clean out Chris Wallace's office and make room for Larry Bird.
> 
> The former Celtics legend is a man without a team after getting shut out
> of the Charlotte expansion sweepstakes. The current Celtics GM is a nice
> guy who has inexplicably received a free pass in the media and with the
> fans despite mauling the 2001 draft and Vin Baker trade.
> 
> Bird's already a Hall of Fame player. He was on his way to being a Hall
> of Fame coach. Does anyone doubt he'd make like Jerry West in the front
> office?
> 
> If that means Wallace must go, so be it. Were he GM of the Red Sox, he
> would have been fired long before he had time to hamstring the
> organization with Baker's monstrosity of a contract. That baby's going
> to be leaking carcinogens into the front lawn for the next four years.
> 
> The evidence against Wallace is damning. And that's even if he's let off
> the hook for the entire Rick Pitino Era, when Wallace held the title of
> GM, but Pitino called the shots.
> 
> That means we won't hold the GM accountable for the Travis Knight
> signing, the Chauncey Billups-Ron Mercer 1997 draft, the failure to
> select Tracy McGrady in the 1997 NBA draft, the subsequent trade of
> Billups for Kenny Anderson, the botched Danny Fortson trade, the
> ludicrous Walter McCarty, Vitaly Potapenko and Tony Battie contract
> extensions, or the Jerome Moiso draft pick, to name a few. That's a lot
> to ignore.
> 
> When you get right down to it, Wallace has had almost nothing to do with
> the Celtics' semi-return to prominence. It takes two stars to win in the
> watered down NBA, and Wallace deserves credit for neither of Boston's.
> 
> Antoine Walker is an M.L. Carr draft pick, and a lemur could have
> selected Paul Pierce at No. 10 in 1998. Who else were the Celtics going
> to pick? Bonzi Wells? Nazr Mohammed?
> 
> Wallace has done more harm than good since Pitino stepped down on Jan.
> 8, 2001. And Bird has merely turned around franchises as a player and
> coach. Executive is next on his list.
> 
> It's doubtful Bird would have overseen the colossal failure that was
> Boston's 2001 draft. The Celtics owned the 10th and 21st picks and also
> had the option of taking Denver's first rounder, thanks to the 1999
> trade that sent Ron Mercer to the Nuggets for Danny Fortson and Eric
> Williams.
> 
> Denver's pick was lottery protected. The Celtics couldn't take it if it
> was in the top five in 2001, top three in 2002, or No. 1 overall in
> 2003. They had to use it by 2004, when there were no restrictions.
> 
> The Celtics, inexplicably, took the pick in 2001, with the Nuggets
> slated to pick 11th. The Nuggets are to the NBA Lottery what ... the
> Nuggets are to the NBA Lottery. They're the standard for this kind of
> incompetence. Their crapulence can't be overstated.
> 
> It seemed a safe bet the Nuggets wouldn't choose worse than 11th in the
> next three years. But that didn't stop Wallace. He took the pick, then
> convinced junior college player Kedrick Brown not to work out for other
> teams so Boston could select him 11th.
> 
> Only problem is, the Celtics didn't foresee Arkansas forward Joe Johnson
> slipping to the 10th pick. Instead of taking a badly needed big man like
> Vladimir Radmanovich or Troy Murphy at 10, as they had originally
> planned, they took Johnson.
> 
> Brown and Johnson play the same position, but neither plays it as well
> as budding All-Star Richard Jefferson, whom the Celtics bypassed twice
> in a row, allowing him to slip to the Nets.
> 
> So the draft was already a mess when the 21st pick arrived. The Celtics
> passed on French point guard Tony Parker and assist machine Jamaal
> Tinsley to take North Carolina guard Joe Forte.
> 
> Forte wore a Lakers jersey at a Celtics practice and a Mickey Mouse
> shirt on the bench. He was the definition of useless, a mediocre
> shooting guard in a point guard's body.
> 
> Parker, conversely, stepped in at age 19 to start at point guard for the
> Spurs, one of the best teams in the West.
> 
> Wallace then had the audacity to label Forte, "Red's pick," in reference
> to octogenarian Red Auerbach, instead of shouldering the blame himself.
> 
> Ugh. And for the record, the Nuggets currently own the worst record in
> basketball. The Celtics could have been looking at the second pick in
> the draft. Sigh.
> 
> That brings us to the oft-panned Vin Baker deal. Kenny Anderson's $9
> million salary, an albatross for so many years, finally had value.
> 
> The Celtics could keep Anderson on the books for the final year of his
> deal and use the slot to woo a free agent like Darius Miles this
> off-season, or they could deal Anderson to a team hoping to open cap
> space to make a run at Tim Duncan or Jason Kidd.
> 
> About the only way they could screw it up would be to bring in a
> contract worse than Anderson's that still had three or four years left.
> But how many of those guys were out there? Vin Baker, Anfernee Hardaway,
> Damon Stoudamire. That was about it.
> 
> But the Celtics looked at Baker's four years and $56 million, realized
> they would leave themselves zero flexibility during Pierce and Walker's
> prime, and pulled the trigger anyway.
> 
> Baker has been a bust so far, a poor fit for Jim O'Brien's system and a
> shell of the player who was an automatic 20-10 five years ago.
> 
> Wallace defends this deal by noting Shammond Williams came aboard as
> well and has proven productive. That's great. But Williams becomes a
> free agent after the season. And thanks to Baker, the better Williams
> plays, the less likely Boston will be able to keep him.
> 
> Wallace's two best deals would be trading Knight to the Lakers for Tony
> Battie in 1999, as well as netting Rodney Rogers and Tony Delk at the
> trading deadline last year for Joe Johnson and filler.
> 
> But even this aren't exactly highlighting material for the resume.
> Battie is what he is -- a maddeningly inconsistent big man who has
> outperformed the maxed-out Baker.
> 
> While the other deal helped the Celtics reach the Eastern Conference
> finals, it wouldn't have been necessary had the Celtics drafted someone
> who could have cracked their rotation. Someone like Jefferson.
> 
> The jury's still out on Brown thanks to injuries, but with Rogers
> departing via free agency, all the Celtics have to show for what could
> have been the No. 1 pick in next year's draft is Delk, a backup point
> guard.
> 
> ESPN's Bill Simmons, one of Wallace's most outspoken critics, thinks
> he's the worst GM in the NBA. His moves don't do much to dispel that
> notion.
> 
> Bird's stated goal is to run a team. The only thing keeping him out of
> Boston in the past was the presence of owner Paul Gaston. That's no
> longer an issue.
> 
> The Celtics' new owners say they're committed to Wallace, who received a
> contract extension last year. Here's hoping they come to their senses.
> 
> Wallace had his chance. He failed. It's time to bring back a legend.>