Re: Pitino and Billups

[Roy Enrile <renrile@qualcomm.com>]

On Wed, 12 Nov 1997, Tom Eisele wrote:

> 
> just siding with Pitino for being tuff and sticking to his
> guns. In this day and age of very rich stoned and drunk and lazy NBA
> players I for one am glad to see a caoch that throws it all out and stands
> alone as one who will do anything to win spare nothing! GO CELTICS!!!!
> 

I want Pitino and the C's to do well as much as everyone else, but
don't really like it when Pitino frequently lies to fans, media, players
even if he thinks it's for the benefit of winning/improving.

example:
Billups was quoted as saying something like
"Pitino told me that he hasn't for 1 second thought about trading me",
Yet other teams and Chris Wallace admitted that they had talked to Pitino
about Billups.

Then there was the going back on verbal agreements w/ Fox and Radja.
And the statement that he was not leaving Kentucky.

Finally, all of Pitino's hype about Dee in the beginning(stuff like 
"Dee is as professional a person as I've been around"), then
not giving him playing time.  Then philly confirms trade talks w/
Dee and Derek Coleman, and Pitino denies it.
First, I don't see Dee as carrying himself like the most 
professional guys in the league(example Dumars).  Second, it seems
like Pitino unethically hypes up players even if he doesn't really
want them(on Dino he said something like "Any guy who shoots 20 + 10 
bds will do great in my system").


So I'm not in favor of a coach who "throws it all out and stands
alone as one who will do anything to win".  You don't see Jerry 
West treating players like that.