RP show

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

This Sunday's Rick Pitino show was pretty content-free. Pitino has
given up on the season and was joking around a lot.

1. He loved the Orlando game in terms of the effort. He noted that
fans are booing poor shot selection at home, but they are "on the
money." He noted that Parish and McHale had career shooting percentages
of 55% and Bird shot just about 50% even taking tons of shots including
threes. So Boston fans are used to great shot selection.

2. He talked about the Kenny Anderson incident and played it down. He
loves Kenny off the court and says he's a very funny guy. On the court,
he needs to improve on both offense and defense.

3. They go over the new facility which has the original championship 
banners over the practice court. Evidently they used to be in a storage
closet or something. He notes that they've left space for the 17th
banner. Cousy said that he hopes the Celtics put another up in his 
lifetime. Pitino assures the audience that they will, but then makes
a joke about hoping that Cousy lives until he's 115 to give him some time.

4. Pitino talks about getting older while keeping "some of the young
nucleus together." He shows off the entrance device to the new facility
which requires players' handprints. Pitino says that trades are a part
of the NBA and something about them being imminent (I'm not sure about
how he put this), and then joked that now, with the new entrance device,
he doesn't need to sit down with players and tell them they've been
traded. Instead, when they come to the new facility and try to get in
with their handprint, the device will say, "You have been traded" on it's
screen. 

5. They show Bill Russell talking about how patience can be a virtue,
and that the team needs to learn to have a team ego.

6. In the coaches' clinic, Pitino talks about a new low-post move that
they've been working on with Walker. Instead of playing with his back
to the basket and throwing the jump hook, they are having him pivot
towards the basket and perform a jab series in the low post. The idea
is that he can double teams coming. He shows Antoine beating Van Horn
with it a couple times. On one time, there's clear contact but no call
and Pitino mentions that he's not happy with officiating. He also says
that this move tends to draw fouls more often so they didn't use it 
previously because Walker couldn't hit free throws.

7. Pitino talks again about how veterans are better. They understand
that the little fundamentals are important and listen to the coach.

8. Finally, Pitino raves about Iverson, calling him one of the top
three players in the game. 

Alex