Re: Dave Cowens?

[Celtic4Hire@xxxxxxx]

I think Wallace is a goner unless we reach the finals.

When I saw Cowens sitting with the owners, the thoughts below passed through 
my mind also. It seemed like a business meeting, especially when Cowens 
didn't have a good reason for being in town. Then he hints to the reporter 
about the front office thing.

We had no idea the way the owners are going to act coming in. With them 
getting rid of the 4 employees at this stage of the season, especially long 
time employee Stephen Riley, they are giving the impression they are the 
top-line results kind of owners, loyaltys no matter. After overpaying for the 
Cs, it would seem the owners are going to be proactive and change anything 
that doesn't seem to be topshelf. This doesn't leave Wallace with much to 
hold on to with all the Baker hoopla going on other than the new contract 
that supposedly Gaston gave him before leaving.

Notice that Wallace never had a bad thing to say about Gaston, even at the 
end. Maybe that is where the perhaps parting of ways between Wallace and Obie 
occurred where Obie felt that Wallace should have bucked the system and kept 
the ECF team together regardless of the owner's direction. 

The Baker trade blew up in Wallace's face and team player Obie has now 
distanced himself from it. No one knew it was going to turn out this bad, 
regardless of what anyone says. Yet Wallace has to pay for it. When you add 
in heart throbs Travis Knight and Austin Croshere, the Billups/Mercer and 
2001 draft along with the ill-fated Rodney Rogers trade, it isn't a pretty 
sight. Therefore, you would think that a miracle would be required to keep 
Wallace employed.

However, inspite of all that, we actually have a pretty good team in JR, PP, 
Walker, EWill and Battie, a team that is good enough to reach the finals 
through the East. Every one of those guys listed other than Walker came under 
Wallace's watch. So Wallace has a few skins to hang on the wall, could keep 
his job if the Cs reach the finals and shouldn't have any trouble getting 
another job if they don't. Kind of funny how things work out, huh?....

But if he doesn't,  what assurance do we have that Cowens can do any better? 
Heck, remember  fan favorite Larry Brown traded for Derrick Coleman. Why do 
people think that Cowens will be any better at judging talent, smelling 
someone's breath or calling Chris Ford and getting his opinion? Why does 
anyone think that Cowens will necessarily get players that will fit into 
Obie's system, or even want to?...

DJessen33

<< 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.