More From the Padded Room

["Dan Forant" <dforant1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Aside from management which has been destructing teams instead of constructing
them for years the Celts have found a way to survive. The East is soft
compared to the West. We would have trouble making the playoffs out there. So
on the surface this mess doesn't look nearly as bad. Talk about Vins drinking
problems, will Boston ever sober up?? They've been on a drunken buying and
selling binge for years.

DanF

"Way Of The Ray" <wayray@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message
3E61E786.659650A8@ix.netcom.com">news:3E61E786.659650A8@ix.netcom.com...
> http://www.nypost.com/sports/knicks/55362.htm
>
> How dreadfully disappointing to see what a poor team player Jim O'Brien
> has turned out to be.
>
> Was the acquisition of Gin, er, Vin Baker appalling? Indisputably! We
> branded it the NBA's worst off-season trade first day back from summer
> vacation . . . unlike Boston's media that only began to ask tough
> questions months later and now suddenly are wondering why Paul Westphal
> and Chris Ford were never consulted.
>
> I've also got a question; what took you bozos so long? Moreover, why not
> ask Ford, who coached Baker in Milwaukee? Vin averaged 19.2 points in
> his first year in helping the Sonics win the Pacific Division title and
> making the All-Star team under George Karl.
>
> Petty details aside, considering the $56 million, four-year obligation
> they were incurring, shouldn't the Celtics have delved more deeply into
> Baker's well-known emotional instability and alleged substance
> dependency? Hey, who says they didn't know the risks they were taking?
>
> Keep in mind, GM Chris Wallace was prohibited by then owner Paul Gaston
> from re-signing Rodney Rogers for more than the $1.3M veteran minimum;
> the Nets inked him to $9.2M, 3-year deal. At the same time, having lost
> to the Nets in the East final, O'Brien was desperate for an inside
> offensive presence, as well as someone tougher at the point than Kenny
> Anderson to compete with Jason Kidd.
>
> As a result, O'Brien, after at least two interviews with Baker, signed
> off the trade for the overweight, overwrought fragile forward and
> Shammond Williams for Anderson, unused rookie Joe Forte (a Red
> Auerbach-imposed selection, whereas Wallace wanted to draft Tony
> Parker!!!) and retread Vitaly Potapenko . . . owed a conveniently
> overlooked (by everyone but the Sonics) $22M over three.
>
> For whatever reason - bad publicity, negative feedback from
> father-in-law Jack Ramsay and top assistant Dick Harter, or simply
> seeing for himself how much Baker's skills had eroded though his health
> habits and condition sure seemed to improve - O'Brien has distanced
> himself from being a co-conspirator (leaving Wallace out there to fry by
> his lonesome) in the trade ever since.
>
> Is it any wonder Baker has reverted to booze when his own coach has
> given him so little love? In which Hindu life does O'Brien plan to help
> him?