WALTHAM, Mass. -- Boston Celtics coach Rick Pitino promised
to finish the season but said "there won't be a next year for me"
unless the team starts playing better defense.
"I think these players do really care," Pitino said Wednesday.
"Emotion for me is a great vehicle for teaching the game. I've got
great confidence in these guys that we will turn it around."
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Celtics make moves
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The Boston Celtics on Wednesday activated rookie
forward Jerome Moiso from the injured list and put guard Adrian
Griffin on it.
The 11th pick in the draft, the 6-foot-10 Moiso averaged less
than one point and eight minutes in four games before he was
sidelined with a sprained right ankle Nov. 11.
Griffin, who has lower back pain, has averaged three points in
eight minutes over seven games this season. |
Pitino has said since late last season, his third consecutive
losing season, that 2000-01 would be his last season in Boston if
he doesn't see improved results. But after Monday's 24-point loss
to Philadelphia dropped the Celtics to 4-6, he turned that into an
ultimatum for a team he thinks will play harder to keep him around.
"This is my favorite team I have ever coached, as people. I'd
love to see us turn this around together," Pitino said. "I want
them to know right now how important it is that we get this turned
around."
Pitino said he would meet with owner Paul Gaston in January to
discuss whether the team has made the requisite progress. Asked if
he might call it quits then, Pitino said: "I'm definitely
finishing out the season. No question about that."
Players had mixed reactions to Pitino's challenge.
Team captain Antoine Walker declined comment, saying it had
nothing to do with that night's game against Houston. But Bryant
Stith, who joined the team in training camp, said he was shaken by
the news that Pitino might not be around next year.
"It had a dramatic impact on me," Stith said before the game,
which Boston won 96-81. "That came totally out of the blue, and it
caught me off guard. But we have 72 games left that we can change
his mind. That's my every intention."
Wednesday's comments raise the stakes for Pitino, who first
talked about leaving with 11 games to go last season. After a team
meeting on the plane home from a 122-87 loss at Orlando, Pitino
said he wouldn't stay just to collect the rest of his 10-year,
$50-million contract.
"All I would be doing if I stayed at that point is trying to
take Paul Gaston's money," he said then. "If I don't see a major
difference in our ball club and we're still struggling, I think
enough's enough. What I will do is just go on and try my next job
and wish everybody well."
Nothing has changed, he said at a news conference at the team's
practice facility after a front-page story in Wednesday's Boston
Globe raised the issue anew.
"At the end of the year, what I told you last year goes," he
said. "We are not panicking. But there are danger signs, and the
danger signs are the way we've played defensively. ... If we don't
get it done now, there won't be a next year for me."
The Celtics were 27th out of 29 NBA teams in points scored and
field goal percentage allowed going into Wednesday night's game
against Houston.
"I brought these guys in and I am totally responsible," he
said. "I am the leader of this organization. The only one that
needs to be blown up is me."
Pitino came to Boston with a reputation for turning around
troubled teams, and the Celtics were indeed troubled: They went
15-67 the season before he arrived, earning the most chances in the
draft lottery for Wake Forest star Tim Duncan.
Pitino promised fans that he would have Boston back in the
playoffs in three years. But instead of Duncan, who led San Antonio
to the 1999 title, the Celtics got Chauncey Billups and Ron Mercer;
both have since been traded.
Pitino has since said he would never have taken the job if he'd
known how the lottery would turn out.
Pitino said it was possible that he would give up the coaching
job and stay on as team president, if he wanted to and Gaston
wanted him to stay. He has also been rumored for several college
coaching jobs, including North Carolina and Indiana.
"I wish I did have little bit of burnout. Then I could walk
away," he said. "Unfortunately, it's the exact opposite: I'm more
passionate about the game than I've ever been. I don't want to give
up teaching the game of basketball, and there's no better place to
do it."
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