Parker posing: Celtics didn't act with this one

["Stephen Beauregard" <sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Parker posing: Celtics didn't act with this one


By Peter May, Globe Staff, 3/9/2003

t's pretty painful when the San Antonio Spurs come to town. It has nothing to
do with the fact that the Spurs are one of the NBA elite and haven't lost to
the Celtics since the 1996-97 season. It has everything to do with their two
best players, both of whom were Celtics-in-waiting at one point, only to end
up in Texas. The more obvious, of course, is the estimable Tim Duncan. The
Celtics did everything they could to land Duncan in the 1997 lottery, going
15-67 during the season to acquire the most ping-pong balls and the lowest
odds. They didn't come close. (All LeBron wannabe employers, take heed.)



Four years later, the prize was less well-known. Tony Parker was only 19 years
old at that point, playing in France, which is not to be confused with Duke or
even Bologna. The Celtics were looking for a point guard to groom for the
departure of Kenny Anderson. They had three picks in the first round and, at
No. 21, Parker was still there.

Parker may not have been an automatic at that slot, but he should have been.
He was at least as well-known as Kedrick Brown, whom the Celtics had taken 10
picks earlier. San Antonio certainly knew about him. The Spurs, who eventually
got Parker with the (ugh) 28th pick, wanted him desperately. They had worked
out Parker twice, once in Chicago and once in San Antonio. ''We fell in love
with the kid,'' recalled Spurs coach Gregg Popovich. They were impressed with
his maturity and his court sense. They also needed a point guard because Avery
Johnson was moving on.

''We tried frantically to move up in the draft into the high teens to get
Parker,'' Popovich said. ''But then teams ahead started making picks that
helped us and he fell to us. We were dumbfounded.''

The Celtics, of course, decided to take Joseph Forte with the 21st selection.
He lasted a year before being dealt to Seattle and rarely played in Boston.
Celtics icon Red Auerbach has been targeted as the guy responsible for the
Forte selection, even though Chris Wallace was the general manager and
personnel boss Leo Papile defended the selection by saying Forte would have
been a top 10 pick had the draft been in January.

Somehow, there's this notion still lingering of Red doing a Nikita Khrushchev
at the United Nations, banging his shoe on the draft table and demanding the
team take Forte.

''It wasn't that way at all,'' Auerbach said. ''It was a collective pick. I
advocated for Joseph Forte. I liked him a lot. If I had to do it all over
again, I'd do it the same way. The guy led his conference in scoring. He could
pass. With a little work, we thought we could make him into a point guard. He
could shoot. Then he came up here and did a lot of crazy things and his
teammates never liked him. He turned out to be a mess, you know what I mean?
Always in trouble. Bad attitude. Things like that.''

What about Parker, Red? Anyone advocate strongly for him?

''He was mentioned, but nobody had really seen him play and it was all through
word of mouth,'' said Auerbach.

The Celtics weren't the only ones who bungled this one, although, given their
point guard needs and the fact that Parker was their third No. 1 pick, they
bungled it more than the others. Popovich is simply glad everyone passed on
the kid, who merely has developed into one of the game's better point guards
and is, inarguably, the most valuable Spur after Duncan.

''There's no doubt about it,'' Popovich said. ''We're 16-0 when he scores 20
points or more. He has to play well for us to beat the good teams.''

Popovich has really taken a liking to Parker, who already is rumored to be
sign-and-trade bait should the Spurs, as expected, make a serious overture to
Jason Kidd this summer. But with each passing game, Parker is making himself
harder and harder to ignore. Instead, we're now wondering whether a
Kidd-Parker backcourt could make it, with Argentine Manu Ginobili as the first
guard off the bench. That's how much Parker has progressed in less than two
seasons.

''Sometimes I have to shake myself when I want to correct him,'' said
Popovich. ''He's only 20. He came from France and he had no clue. But he just
has an uncanny maturity and sense of self for a 20-year-old.''

So, Celtics fans, watch this kid tonight because he can flat-out play. Maybe
he did land in the perfect spot, as Auerbach contends. If so, he has made the
most of it.

''You make mistakes and you go on,'' Auerbach said. ''Remember, I'm the one
who drafted Bill Green [No. 8 overall in 1963]. How was I supposed to know the
guy didn't like to fly? Who knew?''


Clip and save

Here's some advice to deposed Clippers coach Alvin Gentry (who was replaced
last week by Dennis Johnson): At least make a few phone calls between now and
the date your contract expires. If you don't, the checks may stop coming.
That's what happened to one of Gentry's predecessors, Bill Fitch. The Clippers
owed him two years' salary after they fired him, then stopped paying him
because they felt he didn't work hard enough to land a new job.

Fitch sued to get his money. The Clippers cited a ''duty to mitigate'' clause
in his contract, which is legalese for ''he has to try to get a job if we fire
him.'' An NBA job? An assistant's job? A college job? In his deposition,
Clippers executive vice president Andy Roeser pretty much summed up the team's
feelings in this exchange with Fitch's lawyer, Paul Murphy.

Roeser: I think Mr. Fitch had a duty to seek other employment and find other
employment.

Murphy: It could be anything?

Roeser: Absolutely.

Murphy: It didn't matter the job, as long as he found one?

Roeser: That was his obligation.

After a short exchange, Roeser said, ''I don't know what would have been his
next calling, what he would, you know, whether it was to stay in basketball,
be a head coach, assistant coach, you know, do television, outside of
basketball, to sell insurance or sell real estate or sell stocks or, you know,
or sell cars or buy, or buy a company. Whatever it was, any of those things
would have satisfied his obligation. He went on the speaking circuit.
Consulting. I mean, anything.

Murphy: No matter what the pay?

Roeser: What are you suggesting? To go out and work at McDonald's? I think
Bill's more qualified than that.

Murphy: What if he had done that?

Roeser (after several objections and interruptions): I'm not sure we were
requiring him to go work at McDonald's. I think we were requiring him to go
out and seek suitable employment.

Murphy: Well, [the contract] doesn't say ''other suitable employment.''
According to you, it says ''any other employment.'' Does any other employment
include McDonald's, sir?

Roeser: If that's the job he got, then we would have been entitled to a 50
percent offset of whatever he received, I guess is my opinion.

The offset clause was critical because the Clippers would get back 50 cents on
the dollar. Accordingly, the team presented a long list of coaches who were
out of work at the same time as Fitch (after the 1997-98 season) but managed
to find basketball-related employment. Two of those mentioned were Chris Ford
and Don Casey, and their new employer was NBA.com. Here's what they received
to do work for NBA.com as league analysts: a $500 gift certificate to the NBA
Store and a free subscription to DirecTV.

Good luck, DJ.


The weighty '80s

Johnson's elevation only reinforces the idea that the NBA's bell curve peaked
in the mid 1980s. Just look at the players from the two dominant teams of that
time, the Celtics and Lakers, and see how they have still managed to have an
impact on today's game. The Celtics have coaches or former coaches (DJ, Larry
Bird, Rick Carlisle, Danny Ainge, Sam Vincent and Robert Parish) as well as
execs/personnel guys (Kevin McHale, Jerry Sichting) and really smart TV guys
(Ainge, Bill Walton). The Lakers also can boast coaches (Byron Scott, Kurt
Rambis, Bob McAdoo, Michael Cooper, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) as well as an exec
(Mitch Kupchak) and a part-owner (Magic Johnson). Does Mychal Thompson count
as a really smart TV guy? . . . With Bimbo Coles's return to the NBA after a
brief, Cleveland-funded golf outing, we again have three NBA players who were
on the ill-fated 1988 Olympic team that lost to the USSR in the semifinals and
took the bronze in Seoul. The other two are Spurs center David Robinson (his
Boston finale is tonight) and Hornets swingman Stacey Augmon . . . The Magic
have to be elated with the Dixville Notchish returns from their deal with
Memphis that brought Drew Gooden and Gordan Giricek to Orlando. The Magic went
6-1 in the first seven games after the deal, and the only loss was in double
overtime to the Knicks on the night New York retired Patrick Ewing's number.
Over those seven games, Gooden and Giricek together averaged 35.4 points, 18.1
rebounds, and 3.5 assists, with Gooden registering six double-doubles and
Giricek scoring in double figures in all seven games. ''We changed the makeup
of our team,'' said former Celtic Dee Brown, now the Magic's director of
player development. ''Gordan is a perimeter guy who can shoot, but he also can
make plays and create plays. With Grant [Hill] out, the only one who could do
that was Tracy [McGrady]. Gooden gives us a presence inside. He was playing
out of position in Memphis at small forward. Remember, he was the top-rated
power forward in the draft. That's why he went ahead of guys like [Amare]
Stoudemire and [Chris] Wilcox.'' Brown said both rookies were thrown into the
fire immediately and have responded, well, like veterans. ''I know Gordan is a
rookie, but he's been a pro for six years [in Croatia and Russia] so he's
someone who's not afraid to take the big shot or make the big play,'' Brown
said. ''And Gooden came from Kansas. These guys are just so excited to be on a
team in the playoff race and to be making contributions, not just watching
from the bench.'' As for Hill, he said Friday his chronic foot woes will keep
him out for the rest of the season . . . Knicks coach Don Chaney on the
resilience of this year's team as opposed to last year's white-flag ensemble:
''Last year, when our guys were down, they basically threw in the towel. This
year, they still have fight. They may get knocked down a couple times, but
they get back up. Last year, they stayed out.'' New York is in a season-saving
stretch right now, with games against other playoff wannabes and league
detritus before more serious challenges. ''There's a lot of time left,''
surmised Latrell Sprewell . . . The Race, It Is A-Tightenin': 3 Three games
separate the top six teams in the Eastern Conference. Since the All-Star
break, the Nets, Pistons, and Pacers, the indisputable Big Three up to that
point, are a combined 14-27. ''We're all bunched up,'' said Celtics coach Jim
O'Brien. ''But any of these teams would be remiss if it did not think of
winning a championship. That's why you play the games, to have that word --
champion -- connected to your team.'' The Celtics have 20 games left, 10 of
them at home. The Pistons have the edge there, with 14 of their final 21 at
the Palace, where they are 21-6. As for quality opponents, the Celtics have 15
games left against teams either in a playoff slot or contending for one. The
Nets have 12 such games (out of 19 left) while the Sixers have 15 (if we count
the Knicks, as Spree says we should) with 21 to play.

Thanks,

Steve
sb@maine.rr.com

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