SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

[Dorine Pratt <norine@sover.net>]

For all us Celtics fans and fans of other Boston teams as well, Sports
Illustrated has on the news stand a wonderful magazine called Sports
Illustrated Boston Collection.  I bought it today and it's wonderful, if
you're interested.  My husband read some of it tonight and is enjoying
it immensely.

My opinion on Chauncy is that we should keep him.  I don't know why
Pitino is on his case but he said, didn't he, that we have a young team
that is not going to win right away but they'll get better and they will
win, eventually.  His lack of patience with Billups is not admirable.
He's undermining the poor kid before he's had a chance to learn the
system.  If he wanted to win right away he should have kept some of the
other players, namely Wesley.  He's a point guard who did it the hard
way - he earned it - we saw him improve game by game.  Pitino has the
team he wanted, now he has to be patient right along with the rest of
us.  I love the uptempo game, that's exciting basketball, but they have
to calm down and channel all that energy.  I said it before - they're
basically a college team right now, and we knew it would take time.  I
just heard the Celtics lost $3.5 million - maybe they're all getting
antsy.  For what it's worth, keep Billups and let him learn is my
feeling on the subject.
Dorine