And Rick Pitino, followed his recent blast at Boston fans a few weeks ago with a wild threat to suspend several players who were bickering on the bench during a blowout loss to the Magic. Pitino promised "major suspensions and major trades," but wound up backing off...
And depending on the playoff outcomes, Paul Westphal could be in trouble in Seattle, where his highly emotional team is on the edge of a breakdown. After a Vernon Maxwell-Gary Payton fight last week and a loss to the Knicks, their fifth straight at home, Westphal cited the poor play of Maxwell and Vin Baker, saying: "It's not a team problem. It's a couple of players. We've got some guys standing around watching the game. [They should] buy a ticket if that's their attitude."
...Slugging Sonics: Seattle's Westphal, who seemingly has witnessed more fights now than Mills Lane, says the team's turmoil is no surprise. "From the first day we put this team together, we said, `Buckle up, we're going to be a roller coaster,'" Westphal said. "Sometimes the roller coaster goes up, sometimes it goes down." But the biggest fallout of the Sonics' dysfunction may be the inevitable trade of Payton.
... Star-crossed Nets center Jayson Williams, out for the season after breaking his foot as he was about to return from a broken leg, remains optimistic. Said Williams: "My father says everything happens for a reason. I don't know. Maybe it was God telling me I wasn't ready. Well, God could have whispered it to me." [From jlprk: Williams later murdered someone, but you don't see the Nets media holding their fans in paralysis for years like the Oregonian did.]
