The Gastons pretty much ran Larry out of town...I remember him saying the C's would NEVER win another Title with that Ownership--! He was correct.
I thought it was the Pitino factor on why Bird left?
Pitino wanted to run everything and Bird left.
Pitino is the biggest fraud out there.
No, he had already made up his mind he was on the way out before Pitino was in the picture. He only stayed as long as he did because he had back surgery and was using the Celtics insurance to help cover it. I just finished a book that talked about his last few years with the team. He kind of felt like he hurt his back playing for the Celtics so if it was an "on the job" injury then they could help pay for it. So he hung around an extra year before walking away.
But he had given up on his job there because he felt like people didn't listen to him. He told them that Sherman Douglas was the best player on the team at the time and the Celtics turned around and traded him. He told them not to bring in Dominique Wilkins and the team turned around and did it anyway. And the last straw was when they asked him to look into a new coach because Pitino original said he didn't want the job. Bird had Larry Brown in mind and the Celtics talked to Brown and it looked like he was getting the job. Then without telling Bird or Brown the Celtics accepted Pitino at the last moment. Brown called up Bird mad as he could be and Bird had no idea that Pitino had got the job. He felt really bad about the whole mess.
