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Disgraced former Boston Celtics HC’s tenure torched by analyst

By Andrew Hughes

A disgraced former Boston Celtics head coach's tenure with the franchise was torched by an analyst who feels he overpromised and underdelivered Mandatory Credit: Getty Images
A disgraced former Boston Celtics head coach's tenure with the franchise was torched by an analyst who feels he overpromised and underdelivered Mandatory Credit: Getty Images /
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Disgraced former Boston Celtics head coach Rick Pitino had his tenure in Beantown torched by CelticsBlog’s Mike Dynon — who believes the new St. John’s lead locker room voice constantly made the wrong decision.

“To close out those dark times (from 1992-2001), we had four years of Rick Pitino, the highly successful college coach who was expected to rejuvenate the franchise,” Dynon prefaced before saying, “He did the opposite by building poor rosters, making unwise and impatient trades, losing way too many games, and generally overpromising but underdelivering. Pitino resigned in disgrace and everyone was relieved to see him go.”

Pitino was a top coach at the collegiate ranks at Kentucky and Louisville, but his 192 wins and 220 losses as an NBA coach, while with the Celtics and New York Knicks, prove that the Long Island native was in over his head coaching in volatile media markets like Boston and the Big Apple.

Tracy McGrady reveals that he didn’t want to play for Rick Pitino on the Boston Celtics

For Boston Celtics fans looking for more proof that Pitino wasn’t the right man for the job, look no further than Tracy McGrady revealing that he had no interest in playing for the coach during the 1997 draft process.

“I just remember in college, I was being recruited by Kentucky and I knew how hard and how tough Rick Pitino was,” McGrady said (h/t MassLive). “Rick Pitino had left and become Boston’s coach, and I was like, ‘I don’t know if I want to play for Rick Pitino.’ The reason being because [the Celtics were] probably my hardest pre-draft workout ever. I wouldn’t mind playing for Boston, but I didn’t want to play for Rick Pitino at that time because he was too tough, man.”

In 1997, the Celtics had the No. 3 and No. 6 draft picks; ending up with Chauncey Billups with the third pick and Ron Mercer with the sixth selection.

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