OFF: Larry and Mike

[John A Swartz]

>Hey now.  Bird, Mchale, Parrish, Ainge, DJ et.al, won, what 3
championships?  One was Fitch the other two KC?  What if Celtics Mgmt.
told Bird/Mchale they were dumpng KC after he'd won his first
championship?

Well, the DID dump him after they won a 2nd with him...

>Don't think Larry would have held his tongue very long.

Don't know.  Maybe.  I didn't hear as much about the "off-the-court"
stuff back then as I do now.

My impression of Bird is that he always went out and did his job no
matter what.  Some of the stuff he did with his back in the condition it
was in boggles my mind.  But, I don't want to try and draw comparisions
between Larry and Mike in terms of character.  But, if Larry Bird
threatened to retire simply because "his coach" wasn't kept, I'd expect
that people wouldn't look too highly on that.

>I can't imagine Jordan playing for anyone other than the Bulls.

Well, I never said he should.  But people go through coaching changes
all the time.  You mean to tell me that arguably the greatest player in
the NBA can't adjust to a new coach?  Hell, his offensive strategy is
probably just gonna be "give the ball to Mike" anyway...

>Until you beat Mike, he's going
to stay.  Bird did the same

No, Bird got out because his back was shot.

>it was the intelligence of the Boston front
office thats the difference here.  They understand the great players,
championship guys.  Money mongers don't.

Well, it's hard to debate the financial ins and outs of all this.
However, the Celtics have had a number of setbacks since their last
championship, some of which could be argued that they held onto some
of the veterans too long (the deaths of Len Bias and Reggie Lewis didn't
help either).  But, the Celtics have been a mediocre team for several
years now.

John