12.17.2018

Bird may Bolt Boston

May 28, 1983

Bird May Leave Boston

Harry Mangurian is going, Bill Fitch is gone, and Larry Bird might not be too far behind.



Bird's agent, Bob Woolf, yesterday left open the possibility that his client might wind up playing for an NBA team other than the Celtics if Bird enters the free agent market next year. It could happen, Woolf insisted, if Red Auerbach either decides to retire as general manager or is removed by the new owner.

"Bird loves and respects (Auerbach)," said Woolf. "If Red does leave, it could really be a catastrophe. As long as you have Red, you have stability."

Quite a tribute from the man who put Auerbach and Mangurian through the negotiating wringer in 1979 before Bird, then the Celtics' No. 1 draft choice, signed a lucrative, five-year contract reportedly worth $650,000 a year.

And if Woolf has his way, the ante for Bird the next time around could be increased to as much as $2 million per year, starting with the 1984-85 season.

Woolf is well aware that he holds the trump card. Without Bird as part of the Celtics' package, Mangurian's price tag for the sale of the Boston franchise would be considerably lowered.

But Woolf isn't the only agent who feels that things are moving too fast in sizing up future negotiations with the Celtics. John Sandquist, Kevin McHale's agent, admitted in a phone interview that he isn't sure whether Fitch's resignation is a plus or a minus for his client, who is now a free agent.

"We're sure the coach has some solid input into any negotiations that take place," said Sandquist. "It's impossible to project whether the latest development is good or bad for Kevin because there's nothing to compare it to. We don't know who we will be negotiating with. There are no meetings scheduled with the Celtics at this time."

McHale's wife, Lynn, who recently returned with her husband to Minnesota with their three-week-old daughter, said they learned about Fitch's decision to quit just before Kevin and his brother, John, took off for a weekend fishing trip to Canada.

"Kevin couldn't believe it," she said. "He felt it could mean a lot of changes."

No one better expressed Fitch's announcement than M. L. Carr. "How many times lately have I awakened up to another surprise?" Carr observed. "I thought everything was OK when the Celtics recently gave Bill Fitch a vote of confidence and said it was no time to panic. And then Bill comes along and makes his announcement about quitting."

Carr said Fitch should not bear the full responsibity for the playoff loss to the Milwaukee Bucks in four straight games. "You can overblame yourself," Carr said. "Collectively, we didn't do the job. Overall, I thought our four years under Bill were excellent ones. Obviously, I have a certain amount of respect for him. He brought me here to the Celtics when he became the coach. And now I'll be a free agent when these playoffs (LA-Philadelphia) end. It's always been my dream to play for the Celtics. It's a family, and I want to keep playing here in Boston."

Carr declined to comment on whether it was true that Fitch and some of his Celtics players experienced strained relations. "It's never proper to discuss what goes on personally within a family," said Carr. "At least, I won't."

Rick Robey, who recently became a co-owner, with Celtics assistant coach K. C. Jones, of a Quincy Market cafe, said he thought Fitch quit because "it was a matter of the pressure finally catching up to him. We're a veteran club, and you have to handle a veteran club a little differently than a bunch of rookies.

"There were tons of pressure on him, and on us. The whole atmosphere this year was pressure. Bill was a good coach, a workaholic. No man works harder at his job. But it was hard for the older players sometimes to work like that every day and still be able to come out fresh every night. But that's the way Bill was.

"With the owner selling our team, then Red saying he's slowing down, and now the coach quitting," added Robey, "it can't help but affect the team."

One of Fitch's most intense rivals over these past few years, Philadelphia 76ers' coach Billy Cunningham, said he understands why Fitch is bowing out. "It doesn't surprise me," said Cunningham. "The pressure to win sometimes becomes too much. Little things become big things. And it just isn't worth it."

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