| | WALTHAM, Mass. -- A day after blasting Boston fans for
unreasonable expectations, Celtics coach Rick Pitino vowed on
Thursday to remain optimistic with his young team even while
conceding that its chances of fulfilling his playoff guarantee are
dwindling.
"I told the team this morning, 'Your chances of making the
playoffs are slim.' But how do you define slim?" he told reporters
after practice. "Slim means the door is open."
Pitino is in the third year of a three-year rebuilding plan, but
he long ago admitted the original plan went out the window almost
immediately when the Celtics failed to draw Tim Duncan in the draft
lottery shortly after Pitino left Kentucky for Boston in 1997.
This year's team is 23-34 and tied for 10th in the Eastern
Conference, giving Pitino a 78-111 record in Boston and virtually
assuring him of more losing seasons here than in all of his
previous college and pro head coaching stints combined.
Part of the problem is that the team he inherited from M.L. Carr
conceded the 1996-97 season -- going a franchise-worst 15-67 -- in an
effort to get Duncan, then failed at that, too. And part of the
problem is the NBA's salary cap and Pitino's struggle to build
within its constraints.
What seems to concern fans is there is no end in sight. And to
that, Pitino had no answer.
"There are no quick solutions on this basketball team. If there
were, I'd take the quickest one we could find," he said.
"The solution is very tough with the situation we acquired. And
there may not be a solution in certain scenarios. That's the part
that's difficult. There may not be a solution."
The Celtics lost 96-94 to Toronto on Wednesday night on Vince
Carter's buzzer-beating 3-pointer. Asked what he said to the team
after two tough defeats -- Boston blew a 20-point lead to Dallas on
Monday -- Pitino immediately grew animated in his criticism of fans
and media who are growing impatient with his rebuilding program.
"Larry Bird is not walking through that door, fans. Kevin
McHale is not walking through that door, and Robert Parish is not
walking through that door," Pitino said of the Big Three that won
three NBA titles in the 1980s.
"What we are is young, exciting, hardworking and going to
improve. People don't realize that. And as soon as they realize
that those three guys are not coming through that door, the better
this town will be for all of us.
"There are young guys in that room playing (hard). I wish we
had 90 million under the salary cap. I wish we could buy the world.
We can't. The only thing we can do is work hard, and all this
negativity that's in this town (stinks)."
Pitino reminded that former Red Sox stars Jim Rice and Carl
Yastrzemski were booed at times by the hometown fans.
"It stinks," he said. "It makes the greatest town -- greatest
city -- in the world, lousy."
A day later, Pitino refused to back off his comments except to
say that he didn't think they were "earth-shattering."
"I said what I felt," the coach said. "That (patience) is the
way a young team's going to get help. It's the only way a young
team's going to improve."
Pitino seemed to be reacting to a fan who confronted him as he
left the floor Wednesday night and loudly suggested that he teach
his players to shoot free throws. The Celtics were 18-for-31 from
the line against Toronto, and Vitaly Potapenko missed two shots
with 3.5 seconds left to allow the Raptors one last chance.
"That's what we're trying to do all day long," Pitino laughed
sarcastically, "we try to miss our free throws."
Pitino said it wasn't the fans as much as Carter's shot, which
evoked memories of Christian Laettner's game-winner over Kentucky
in the 1992 NCAA tournament. Like Laettner, Carter patiently
dribbled into position before hitting a turnaround jumper.
"I think what put me over the top," he said, perhaps
half-joking, "was it brought back memories of that shot." | |
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Pitino frustrated in post-game comments after loss to Raptors
Buzzer beater: Raptors' Carter hits last-second 3
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