1.13.2014

The Conlon conundrum

August 17, 1997

So, Celtics fans, wondering about your favorite from last year? Yes, even at 15-67, there was a positive development: the bonding between the fans and Marty Conlon. Well, he went out in the Great Purge to create cap room for the indispensable Travis Knight and is now exploring other options. "When you clearly are not as good as the players they are signing, you have no choice but to move on," said Conlon's agent, Keith Glass, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "They have improved their talent level dramatically. And you can write that." What Glass still doesn't understand, one month after the fact, is this: Why is Pitino still saying he wishes he could have Conlon around when it would have cost only $ 272,500? "They gave Knight $ 22 million," Glass said. "They must have been concerned that they didn't want to reduce that offer, paltry as it was, to keep Marty. That's their choice."


Glass said Conlon has a couple of NBA offers and "one biggie" in Europe. "Marty was very disappointed the way it ended in Boston," Glass said. "He really loved the way the fans reacted. He will miss that." Was Glass surprised that things went down the way they did? "Five years ago, I would have been," he said. "But not now. Not the way the league is now." Glass said the real lottery winner was not Tim Duncan but Knight. "If the lottery balls had fallen the way Boston had hoped, Travis Knight would be in Los Angeles making $ 327,500," he said. "Instead, he's in Boston making $ 22 million. That's the guy who won the lottery."

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