Early trouble in Pitino's place

[Phe Meas <pmeas@channel1.com>]

http://CNNSI.com/basketball/nba/news/1997/11/07/macmullen_insider/
                Posted: Fri November 7, 1997 at 2:18 PM ET

                The Celtics are trapping,
                pressing, pushing the ball,
                shooting threes -- and losing.
                Blood-thirsty Boston fans are
                already getting impatient, and
                coach Rick Pitino is begging
                them to back off a bit.

                His players, meanwhile, wish they could tell Pitino to
show
                some patience of his own.

                Sources say the team is upset at how rookie point guard
                Chauncey Billups, who has been the subject of trade
                discussions with New Jersey, Philadelphia and Denver,
has
                been treated. Billups, who would be a junior in college
had he
                stayed in school, has struggled mightily trying to
adjust to
                Pitino's system, and did not play in the second half of
a loss
                to Miami on Wednesday.

                Boston general manager Chris Wallace
                insists the Celtics haven't given up on
                Billups, even as league sources report
                trade discussions are continuing. In the
                meantime, teammates say, both Billups'
                confidence and his morale are shot.

                And Billups is not the only one.

                Sources say that when Boston traded
                forward Tony Massenburg just before
                the start of the season, he ran down the
                hallway cheering and pumping his fist,
                thrilled to be leaving for the expansion
                Vancouver Grizzlies. As one unhappy
                Celtic told me, "I wish I could go with
                him."