Dave Cowens?

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is from the Lowell Sun. Just speculation, but thought everyone would
find it interesting.

Mark

P.S. Did anyone else notice that Vin Baker is no longer even included on the
team roster on the Celtics' official Web site?

Celtics GM may be looking over shoulder

By ROB BRADFORD
Sun Staff 
www.lowellsun.com/Stories...5,00.html#
<http://www.lowellsun.com/Stories/0,1413,105%257E4767%257E1225315,00.html> 

Thursday, March 06, 2003 - BOSTON Chris Wallace, this is your professional
life.

The Boston Celtics general manager was not in attendance for his team's
eighth straight win over the New York Knicks last night at the FleetCenter,
but he should have been. The 97-95 victory helped tell the tale of Wallace's
current plight, and how he got to this point.

Dave Cowens, Tony Battie and Travis Knight. They were all there and, for
better or worse, could be linked to the potentially shortening Wallace era.

Of the trio, Cowens's presence was the most unforeseen, and potentially most
damaging, for the Wallace camp. A coach of three separate NBA teams, the big
redhead may have, as he insisted, just been visiting. But simply by sitting
front and center next to owner Steve Pagliuca in what has been a most
turbulent stretch for the Celts GM is enough to raise eyebrows.

Cowens is currently enjoying an NBA-free life in Cincinnati after being let
go by the Golden State Warriors last season. His wife, however, still works
in Boston and he has obviously gotten over being snubbed by M.L. Carr during
the team's head coaching search in 1995.

"(Pagliuca) is bringing a lot of guys back, and Jo Jo (White) asked me to
come up and see a game. I hadn't seen one in a while," said Cowens. "Right
now I'm just learning how to play golf. It's a full-time job."

Innocent enough, right? But then came this tidbit from Cowens: "Really, when
you haven't done something like work in the front office you kind of think
maybe that's something you might want to try."

Cowens's first appearance at the FleetCenter in a year and a half is most
likely nothing more than the return of another old Celtic. But it does
warrant a double-take.

"(Cowens) is just in town to watch the game. We're only six weeks into
this," said Pagliuca, whose ownership group did believe it was the right
time last week to let go of four Celtics employees. One of the layoffs
included Stephen Riley, who had been with the franchise longer than anyone
except Red Auerbach.

To Wallace's credit, it was Battie, perhaps the GMs biggest coup, who played
the hero this time around. With the Celtics leading by two and the final
seconds ticking off the clock, the Celtics center had the presence of mind
to adjust to a Latrell Sprewell air-ball and block Clarence Weatherspoon's
potential game-tying jump hook as time ran out.

Sad as it may seem, Battie represents perhaps the Wallace/Rick Pitino
regime's best trade. The Celtics traded Knight to the Los Angeles Lakers on
Jan. 21, 1999 for a player who has become one of Boston's most irreplaceable
parts. Knight, on the other hand, has averaged less than seven minutes per
game in three seasons with the Knicks, although he did win a championship
with the Lakers in 2000.

"Things turned out pretty well," said Battie. "Except he has my ring."

But, as Bill Belichick explained before watching the game courtside, "You
win some and you lose some." The New England Patriots coach may have been
talking about his organization's free agency exploits, but it might as well
have been concerning Wallace's tenure.

Unfortunately for the Boston GM, Knight represents the list of what has
become too many losses. Including the albatross, Vin Baker.

Wallace joined Pitino in making one of his first, and worst, transactions.
It was back on July 7, 1997 that the Celtics renounced the rights to the
likes of Rick Fox and David Wesley so that Knight could come aboard with a
whopping seven-year contract. It is a deal which will pay the seldom-used
forward $4 million this season and $4.5 next year.

"I wanted to go back to the Lakers, but they could only offer me the minimum
so I went for the years and the money," admitted Knight. "We had a pretty
good group of guys (in Boston) before they started trading everyone away.
Then it was just a bunch of 23-year-olds who didn't know what was going on."

The bottom line last night was that the Celtics won and are now just four
games out of first place in the Eastern Conference. Their stars, Antoine
Walker (34 points) and Paul Pierce (24), continue to play well and Boston
seems in good shape to make a run at playoff time.

But will Wallace be around? Should he be around? Somewhere down the road,
fans may be able to view last night as the the GM's Professional Perfect
Storm. Maybe by then we will know if he survived it.