Odd couple stole the show at draft

["Stephen Beauregard" <sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Odd couple stole the show at draft


By Peter May, Globe Staff, 6/28/2003

hey work in the same business, doing a lot of the same things, but, from an
appearance and reputation standpoint, they could not be more different.



On one side, you have the distinguished, regal, idolized,
never-a-hair-out-of-place Jerry West, the Memphis basketball boss, a Hall of
Famer who is the man behind the NBA logo. On the other side you have Leo
Papile, the Celtics' player personnel director, who knows the best sub shops
in Hamtramck and Paterson, may not have a mirror in his house, and relishes
his role as unheralded bird dog and talent finder. It's sort of like Cary
Grant doing business with Angel, James Garner's occasionally sleazy cohort
from ''The Rockford Files''.

West and Papile got together this week and, for five days, they were
telephonically inseparable. There were five-plus phone conversations a day.
There was a draft-day call from West at 6 a.m., Boston time, and subsequent
whispers as to what he planned to do. Papile whispered back, telling West what
he planned to do.

''We were all doing our surveillance and countersurveillance,'' Papile said.
''He gave me his names. I gave him mine. We got in bed together and made the
deal.''

The deal, of course, was THE deal of the 2003 NBA draft. In essence, West
drafted 13th and 27th for Boston, delivering the much-coveted Marcus Banks and
project manchild Kendrick Perkins. And Danny Ainge drafted for Memphis,
picking Troy Bell at 16 and Dahntay Jones at 20.

Ainge made the final call, but Papile did most of the legwork for the Celtics.
He hasn't known West that long, but they became new best friends as the draft
approached, eventually coming to the mutual realization that they needed each
other.

''We both needed help,'' Papile said. ''We wanted Banks. And he wanted Jones.
Without Jerry, we ain't getting Banks. Without me, he ain't getting Dahntay.
That's because we had perpetrators above us who were going to come in and
steal our young. That's the truth.

''Jerry's a hell of a guy. I take my hat off to him,'' Papile continued. ''He
helped out a friend in need. And we helped out a friend in need.''

Now, Celtics fans might be wondering two things today: Why deal with West at
all, given his reputation as the best in the business? Isn't this the man who
traded Vlade Divac for Kobe Bryant? Isn't this the man who lured Shaquille
O'Neal to Los Angeles -- and then likened the occasion to the birth of one of
his children? And why would Celtic-hater West, whose Lakers teams lost to
Boston in the NBA Finals five times in the 1960s, want to do ANYTHING nice for
the Celtics. (OK, he did give Boston Tony Battie for Travis Knight, but that
was, we think, to mollify then-coach Del Harris, a Knight fan. At least we
hope that was the case.)

That suggestion brought a laugh yesterday from the venerable West, who added,
''I must tell you, Leo and Danny were fantastic. They were honest. There was
no deception, as you sometimes find in this league. They could not have been
more professional. They were wonderful.''

Why the deal? The Celtics were convinced that Banks would not get to 16 and
the Grizzlies were convinced that Jones would not be there at 27. West was
prepared to draft Bell at 13, saying yesterday, ''We have to make our own
decisions. I don't really care what anyone else says.'' He said Bell and Jones
were rated sixth and seventh on their own board, which stresses athleticism.

''Years from now, teams will say they should have done this or that,'' West
said. ''We got two players from exceptional conferences, who are four-year
players, who can come in and play. In this league, it's always buyer beware.
Each team has different needs.''

But while Bell was available at 13, West was not so sure about Jones at 27.
The Celtics, meanwhile, desperately wanted Banks. They feared that either
Seattle or Orlando (notably the Magic) would swoop in ahead of them at No. 14
or 15 and get the guy they had targeted from Day One. Perkins was an added
bonus; the Celtics wanted him, but could have lived with someone else at 27
had he gone earlier. The swapped picks not only got both teams what they
wanted, but the Celtics saved about $30,000 in salaries next season.

Papile now considers himself on West's A list. He made a habit of contacting
West in the time that the Logo was, as they say, ''between jobs.'' If Papile
was on a scouting trip out West, he'd call West in Los Angeles just to say
hello. ''We sort of hit it off,'' Papile said. The two had been introduced by
Celtics general manager Chris Wallace, who, like West, is a native West
Virginian.

''I first saw Jerry West in Boston Garden when I was 5 years old,'' Papile
said. ''But I didn't get to know him until much later.''

He knows him a little bit better now.

Thanks,

Steve
sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx

[demime 1.01b removed an attachment of type image/gif which had a name of T.gif]

[demime 1.01b removed an attachment of type image/gif which had a name of BGMag_Big.gif]