Re: BIRD AS COACH

[Kim Malo <kmalo19@idt.net>]

At 09:07 PM 5/13/98 -0400, Dorine wrote:
>    I don't mean to be nit picking, but when I was reading how the Celts
>are a young team and Pitino was the coach they needed, not Bird, I feel
>I should point out if Larry had been the Celt's coach we would not have
>had the team we had.  He would not have picked the same players, in most
>cases.  Therefore, it's like comparing apples to oranges, isn't it?

Not totally. Because we might not have been as young or have all the same
players, but we still would have been a rebuilding team, recovering from a
few years of negative development in acquiring players and in developing the
ones we had. That still takes a different, 'teaching' kind of coach, and one
who would get on guys' cases after ML's 'don't worry, be happy' approach.
More Pitino's style than the laissez faire approach Bird used. Indy was a
perfect situation for Bird -a veteran team where there was more need for a
change in management style than in teaching guys how to play the game. The
Cs, even with an unchanged roster from last year, needed a lot more than
that. Which Bird may not have been as able or willing to deal with.
<snip>
-Kim
Kim Malo
kmalo19@idt.net