"I'm not going watch a team just go out there and quit. Just quit. Quit. They quit playing. And they quit playing the other night. It got too hard for them and they quit playing. And that's it. It ain't going to happen. I'll go with rookies. I don't care how smart they are. How much of a veteran they are. This is not what (this is) about. Period. That's it. It's bull." 

Rumors have the Nets removing Don Casey from his head coaching position, and that has opened way for speculation that Rick Pitino would take that role. There have been so many Rick Pitino rumors generated over the last few months that at this point, in the interest of retaining our sanity, we will ignore each and every one of them and - gasp - actually wait and see what happens.

Though it's safe to say that the Celtics are a mess right now, and - forget wins and losses right now - in the interest of making players happy to be in Boston - some changes need to be made. Because there aren't many smiles in Beantown these days, and fingers are pointing in all directions.

``Like (rumors of) North Carolina, Kentucky, the Nets' job, it's a lie, a 100 percent lie,'' he said of Sports Illustrated's suggestion that he chose to miss Celtics practice in order to speak publically (and receive payment for doing so). ``I generally don't talk to (SI), but when they called I wanted them to know the truth and I told them the truth. They chose to write the lie.''

So what is Atlanta Coach Lenny Wilkins to do? The Hawks are in need of restructuring, and they were awful this year. Lenny is old. Lenny's been around for a long time. Does he want to stick around and rebuild this team? Do the Hawks want him around to do so? Or do they start over with new players as well as a new coach?

Otis Thorpe is still contributing.

Jeff Van Gundy would love it if the Pacers would stop whining that the league is against them because they're a small market team.

The Magic and Bucks are in a battle for the final spot in the Eastern Conference Playoffs. Sam Cassell, Ray Allen, Glenn Robinson and a supporting cast vs... umm, well, a supporting cast.

The Mavericks are playing some quality basketball these days. So we assume that any second now Don Nelson will trade Dirk Nowitzki for Benoit Benjamin and Mike Finley for Craig Hodges and some second rounders.

Hot Rice is better than cold Rice.

The Clippers have lost 14 games in a row. Ironically, this streaks is one of their longest winning streaks in the last decade.

Karl Malone has again scored more than 2000 points in an NBA season. It's the 12th time he's done this in 14 years - more than any player in NBA history.

Since Jason Kidd got injured, Penny Hardaway is averaging about 838823 points, 238932 rebounds, and 2389 assists per game.
 

April 14, 2000
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