Bob Lobel: Fellowship of the Miserable
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
“If they expect you to cook the dinner, at least you should be able to buy the groceries.” – New England Patriots coach Bill Parcells on front office interference.
Two of my top five Boston sports quotes. The other three belong to one guy.
“This town is full of negativity, and it sucks.” – Rick Pitino to the media after one grueling loss.
“These sports talk shows are fueled by the fellowship of the miserable.” – Rick Pitino after another grueling loss.
“I have news for you, Larry Bird is not walking through that door. Robert Parish and Kevin McHale are not walking through that door, and if you think they are, you're sadly mistaken.” – Rick Pitino after a day when the “fellowship of the miserable” were being true to their usual “negative” persona.
Seldom was so much expected from one individual any time, anywhere. People called his arrival from Kentucky a “coronation.” It was with all the trappings. After all, he did a respectable job at Boston University, went on to Providence and took a terrific program with lots of history to the Final Four. In fact, he has the rare distinction of having taken three different schools, the Friars, Kentucky and Louisville to the Final Four and has a national championship to show for it.
When he came to save the Celtics and rebuild the house that Red built, he had his reputation of being a tough and terrific motivator of a coach. Somehow his time with the Knicks was looked upon as developmental and necessary to succeed in a league of overpaid stiffs. He tried too hard, went too fast, was way too impatient, and in the end left to go back where he could and has made a difference. In college, Pitino could do the motivating coaching thing. In the pros, he was tuned out almost immediately.
The show, although fun at the start, soon became a chore, as I'm sure you can imagine. The producer, Alan Miller, now with the Globe, and the host, now with GoLocal, would tape the show every Thursday at practice. The producer and the host would go to every Wednesday night home game and hoped to hell the Green would win so the coach would be in a good mood for the show. It rarely worked out that way.
But we both like him for lots of reasons. That would be a contrary opinion of “the fellowship of the miserable.” The week before Pitino left the Celtics job, a few of his associates met at a Boston restaurant called the Palm. It was a back room private meeting. Alan and yours truly were invited, because I think he knew we would be honest with him. We were.
Others in attendance besides the coach were friends that were part of the Pitino posse for a long time: his driver, his assistant, a unique personality/friend named Ken Ford (aka Jersey Red of Fall River) and maybe one or two others.
The question he asked us was to voice our opinion on the subject of him staying in the job or leaving. It was pretty well split. Now remember, at this point he was taking major heat. He was not a popular guy to say the least. My vote was for him to get on the first Acela train south and say “Thanks for the opportunity. I'm sorry it didn’t work out.”
We left the meeting thinking he was going to stay. Five days later, he announced he was leaving—immediately. Truth be known, he left a lot of money on the table by opting out, close to $20 million that was left on his contract. But good for him. He knew he could not repair the situation he had inherited, which he only made worse by trying to fix it his way.
Now, I look up and see him going to the Sweet 16. He is doing this in the state that had the national champion and arch rival Kentucky and John Calipari. The last coach Cal sighting was watching Robert Morris cutting down the nets in the first and extremely embarrassing NIT loss.
I do want Pitino to win this thing. He has many detractors, but he is one of the greatest college coaches ever despite the Christian Laettner moment. He didn’t belong here. When he figured that out, he got out. The fellowship of the miserable is still around.
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