After eight years in which he restored the University of Kentucky to college-basketball pre-eminence, Pitino, 45, has been called upon to perform another salvage job–this time on the NBA’s most storied franchise. There was not a glimmer of Celtics glory, past or future, in the last season’s 15-67 team. But in six months at the helm, Pitino has transformed the franchise. Boston’s roster is the youngest in NBA history; the eight new faces on the floor Friday averaged under 23 years old with less than one season of NBA experience. ““You got to be a risk-taker when you’re starting from the bottom,’’ says the coach. ““Inexperience will spell some losses, but the hope is to keep our nucleus together for five or six years and develop a championship team.''
Pitino, who also masterminded turnarounds at Boston University and Providence College and with the New York Knicks, represents far more than the dreams of Celtics fans. With the game’s premier star, Jordan, likely embarking on his swan-song season, the NBA is at a crossroads. The Dream Teamers are fading away, and the new breed of NBA basketballers, with their rap songs and, far too often, rap sheets, has far less fan appeal. The game, too, is suffering. The wide-open, free-flowing, balletic NBA game that captured America’s fancy in the ’80s has, of late, become an increasingly static and ugly exercise in bump and grind. The most obvious result has been a leaguewide scoring drought. Pitino may represent the NBA’s best hope. His last Knicks team averaged 116.8 points a game and was third in the league in scoring; the Bulls topped the NBA last season with a meager 103.1. Pitino has vowed to buck that trend with a running style triggered by full-court pressure defense, he says. ““Fans should leave the arena feeling that they got their money’s worth,’’ he says.
Pitino thinks more coaches would opt for a running game if they thought their players were willing to work that hard. But his authority is buoyed by his status as coach and team president. ““My players understand that if they don’t do what I want, they’ll be traded,’’ says Pitino. At least three of his starters don’t need any convincing, having won the 1996 NCAA title with Pitino at Kentucky. ““He can push you to the next level,’’ says former Wildcat Antoine Walker, Boston’s top scorer last season. ““But if you don’t love to play the game, you’re going to flat-out hate playing for Coach Pitino.''
Pitino may not need the bully pulpit of the club presidency, nor the added clout of his $7 million-a-year salary, highest ever for an NBA coach. He is a master motivator whose rhetorical flourishes seem perfectly nuanced. ““I have to communicate to my players that the most important name is not the one on the back of their jersey but the team name on the front,’’ he says. But while Pitino preaches the glory of selfless team play, he also reminds his players that his running style inevitably leads to higher scores, which, of course, means better individual numbers, too. ““It can produce the stats that will help get them the economic security they want,’’ he says.
Pitino has unwavering faith in his system. He will never emulate Pat Riley, who went from ““showtime’’ with the L.A. Lakers to ““slowtime’’ with the Knicks and Miami Heat in order to accommodate different talents. ““I admire him, but I couldn’t do that,’’ he says. ““I just don’t think it’s fun to coach that style. We’re bringing in quickness. We are not looking for guys to slug it out in the middle of the ring.’’ Pitino’s longtime assistant, Jim O’Brien, says Pitino is actually quite flexible, making constant changes and accepting input from anyone on the team. ““But nobody messes with his press,’’ says O’Brien. ““The press is an extension of him.''
Pitino executes his own press at work each day. His sole concession to life’s other pleasures is an effort to have breakfast with his family. (He and his wife, Joanne, have four sons and a daughter.) He seldom gets home much before 11 p.m., and then ““I flat-out pass out.’’ Yet he projects a kid-in-a-candy-store relish for coaching in the NBA pressure cooker. ““It’s why you get up early and stay late–to innovate, to win a couple more games,’’ he says. Pitino expects the same commitment from everyone on his team. ““Some people say he’s mellowing, but I see no sign,’’ says Winston Bennett, another Kentucky assistant who trekked north. ““As successful as he already is, he’s driven to be more successful.''
Pitino has already endured as many losses during the Celtics 1-7 exhibition season as he did in the last two years at Kentucky. ““As long as the players are working extremely hard, I’ll be patient,’’ he says. But those close to Pitino suspect that he believes he can coax this green Celtics team into the playoffs. ““I am a dreamer,’’ he admits. ““I had my first two Kentucky teams convinced we were going to the Final Four, and we were on probation those years. I’d rather raise the bar unreasonably high than set a very makable goal and then treat it as a big achievement.’’ Ultimately there’s only one height and one truly big achievement. ““Rick’s all about championships,’’ says O’Brien. The Celtics once were all about championships, too.
RICK’S PIT STOPS
Having Rick Pitino at the helm has been an immediate boon to every team he’s coached. A comparison of their seasons before and during his tenure:
Pre-Pitino Pitino’s second year COLLECE/TEAM SEASON RECORD SEASON RECORD Boston University 1977-78 10-15 1979-80 21-9* Providence College 1984-85 11-20 1986-87 25-9[t] New York Knicks 1986-87 24-58 1988-89 52-80** Univ. of Kentucky 1988-89 18-19 1990-91 22-6
*NIT APPEARANCE. [t]NCAA APPEARANCE. **NBA PLAYOFF APPEARANCE
