Free Bird Watching by Larry Bird, Jackie Macmullan Page A

J. would make a good coach, but I knew Gaston had someone a lot more high-profile in mind. He had no intention of hiring D. J., that’s for sure. My understanding was that D. J. would be kept regardless of who the head coach was. That turned out not to be the case. He was fired later that year. By then, I was in the middle of negotiations with the Pacers, and talking about putting together my own coaching staff. I found out later that D. J. was upset because I didn’t offer him an assistant’s job in Indiana, but I thought he was set in Boston. I also thought he wanted to be a head coach. Besides, I had already made up my mind that I was going to use two assistants, not three.
    It was clear to me that Paul Gaston wanted Rick Pitino to be his coach, so I called up Pitino and asked him if he was interested. He said he liked his situation in Kentucky, but he asked me a lot of questions. I probably talked to him two or three times, and it was always the same: he said he wasn’t interested, then would pump me for more information. He’d ask me things like, “So what are the Celtics going to do with M. L.?” Later on, he started asking me about Red and his role in the organization. Every time we talked, I sensed he was getting closer and closer to taking it, even though he kept insisting he didn’t want it.
    Until those phone calls, I had no past history with Rick Pitino. I scouted his Kentucky teams for the Celtics, and I was impressed with the way they trapped and applied defensive pressure—it was hard not to be, really—but I had no relationship with him at all. I have very few memories of him as coach of the Knicks, other than that those teams always played hard and gave us trouble. But in terms of having a personal opinion about him, I didn’t. I had no feelings for him one way or the other.
    Even though I felt from the beginning that Pitino would end up with the job, my first choice would have been Kansas coach Roy Williams. I thought he was a perfect fit for the Celtics. His system would be great in the pros. His teams run, but they can slow it up. And his style is right to the point. That’s what I like. His players always seemed disciplined, and fundamentally sound too.
    Williams sounded really flattered when I called. He said the pros might be something that would interest him someday, but he was happy with his job and wasn’t ready to make a move. At that time Kansas had a lot of talent, with Raef LaFrentz and Paul Pierce, and he said the timing just wasn’t right. I could tell he was being sincere, not using it as leverage, and I appreciated that. So I crossed him off the list.
    The other name I gave Paul Gaston was Bob Hill. I always felt he had done a good job as head coach of the Knicks and the Pacers. I liked him because he’s firm and he knows the game, and I felt he’d have the respect of the team. But when I brought up his name to Gaston, I could tell it wasn’t going to happen. Bob Hill might be a good coach, but he wasn’t a big enough name for the Celtics.
    Larry Brown was a big enough name, and everyone knew he was unhappy in Indiana and looking to make a move. I checked with some of my contacts, and they all said there was no way he’d be back with the Pacers next year, so I called the Pacers and asked permission to talk to him about the Celtics job. They said yes. By this time Pitino had told the media he was not leaving Kentucky. I remember being surprised when I heard that, because I really thought he was ready to come to Boston, in spite of all his denials. Gaston told me to call Bob Hill and tell him they had decided not to interview him, and I felt bad about that, because I figured they could at least talk to him. But the feeling I was getting was that Larry Brown was now their man, and I was very happy about that. He is the perfect coach to bring in when you want to turn something around. He runs a great practice, he’s a perfectionist, and he lives for basketball. If Larry Brown