From the beginning, Pitino was blindfolded by his ego

Sporting News, The, Jan 15, 2001 by Dave D'Alessandro

It was a painful business watching Rick Pitino coach basketball these past few weeks. At least I found it so. Rarely has the NBA had a man of such talent--maybe even genius--so altered by misfortune of his own making.

It wasn't so long ago that he was the sport's golden boy, stomping and screeching his way into everyone's heart at Kentucky, producing the kind of success that made most everyone want to throw money at him.

There's never been anyone quite like him. Only he--OK, and perhaps Hubie Brown--can make you feel as though you've wasted a lifetime thinking about quantum theory when you should have been thinking about how to better defend the 1-4 pick-and-roll.

It is this kind of obsession that made him so delusional these past two years, when he couldn't see his team was in flames.

Take, for example, his assessment of the Celtics just last week: "I really think our record would be reversed if we did the little things," he said, apparently with a straight face. "We do the major things. If we did the little fundamental things that you learn as a youngster, we would be 18-12 right now. It's that close if you look at some of the games."

In other words, he chose to overlook that it always is the little things that decide games--that's the whole point--and that he has failed fundamentally the past three-plus years to acquire the players who can be taught those little things.

Yet it wasn't always the little things with the Celtics, who invented exotic and imaginative ways to lose. They have the worst field-goal defense in the league, they have the fifth-worst shooting team in the league and they are the eighth-worst rebounding team in the league. They run the table when it comes to self-destruction and are bad enough to be 9-11 in their own half-empty building.

This is probably the worst shape they have been in at any time in their illustrious history, with the possible exception of the pre-Bird era. Back then, however, they still had Red Auerbach's foresight, which enabled them to take the right risk in the 1979 draft (Bird), and the next year make the greatest trade in history, which brought Robert Parish and Kevin McHale to Boston.

In 20 years, they likely will be unkind when they debate Pitino's legacy in Boston. The postmortem will mention the times he gave Chris Mills ($36 million), Eric Williams ($26 million) and Travis Knight ($22 million) substantial green, only to dump them as soon as he could. It will reiterate his odd affinity for Kentucky kids, such as Walter McCarty, the only 12th man in league history to get an $11 million contract.

It will recall how he chose Chauncey Billups when he had a shot at Tracy McGrady, only to quit on Billups after 51 games. It will note how he let solid pros such as David Wesley get away, only to start the mindless, endless, personnel carousel spinning.

It will be about a succession of other washouts: Kenny Anderson, Tyus Edney, Vitaly Potapenko, Calbert Cheaney, Tony Battie, Danny Fortson, Ron Mercer. It will note how Antoine Walker never became the player Pitino said he would be. It will mention how Pitino let agent David Falk hold his roster hostage. It will note the zeal that served Pitino well as a coach but made him far too impetuous as a talent evaluator, leading radio announcer Cedric Maxwell to conclude that Pitino "falls in and out of love with players more than a high school kid." It will mention hubris, deceit, and bold claims he never could back up.

Yet there is something sad about the whole thing, particularly the harsh reality that even the great ones can be overmatched at this level. Indeed, the game experienced an irrevocable change in the decade between his departure from the Knicks and his return with the Celtics.

Many thought Pitino had unfinished business on this level, but what he never understood upon his return to the NBA was how this players' league--which bares little resemblance to the director's medium in which he excelled--had evolved into a star's vehicle. Success in the NBA, more than anything else, is predicated on a single factor: Find the right star to be the team's leader--one who has abundant talent and the courage to lead; one who talks the talk and walks the walk. If you lack a charismatic, diligent leader-whom the others will follow--then success is a pipe dream.

Pitino's real legacy will be about choosing the wrong leader. He was cooked the moment he claimed Antoine Walker was at the center of a glorious future. Never mind that Walker can get you 20 points and 10 rebounds on most nights. It was the wrong investment, and everyone refusing to admit it is choosing to overlook the little things, because along with those 20 and 10, you usually get five turnovers, criminal indifference toward defense and an extraordinary talent for the wrong play, the wrong pass and the wrong decision with hundreds of games on the line over the past three-plus years.

Hitching his program to Walker's intoxicating but flawed ability will be remembered as the most crucial mistake Pitino made in Boston. Maybe it was loyalty, maybe it was hubris. Regardless, he'll be back in college again soon, and that's best for him. There he can change his stars every three or four years.