[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

[Fwd: Dave D'Alessandro: Bird's plight helped by his selflessness]

For any of you who didn't see this article on Larry.
Dorine

-- BEGIN included message

Title: The Sporting News NBA- Dave D'Alessandro




  Bird's plight helped by his selflessness
MAY 15, 1998



REGULARS
scoreboard
power poll
standings
team reports
player bios
fantasy hq
the vault
games

EXPERTS
d'alessandro
daily diary
fly's buzz
more experts

YOUR WAY
customize
sportsmail
search tsn

VOICE OF
THE FAN
letters
chat
contact us

SHOPPING
proshop
auction
classifieds
tsn magazine


PHOTOS
galleries
fans' 5
by DAVE D'ALESSANDRO


There was an interesting scene from Larry Bird's trophy ceremony the other day at Market Square Arena, where a man in the back of the room was explaining how he tried to prevent all this from happening.

Rick Carlisle is Bird's assistant in charge of the Pacers' offense, a former teammate in Boston and a close friend. It is Carlisle and Dick Harter whom Bird credits with Indiana's success this year, which is fair, given that Bird's a big-picture guy who lets his assistants write the game plans, run the practices, and handle the timeout huddles. It resulted in a 58-victory season, a trip to the NBA's Final Four and a Coach of the Year honor bestowed on Bird by the writers and broadcasters.

Yet all that almost didn't happen because of Carlisle, who said he spent "many hours" trying to dissuade Bird from taking the Indiana job.

"I'm somewhat of a sports historian," Carlisle said. "I didn't want the legacy of Larry Bird tainted by a bad experience in the coaching ranks. I wanted to make sure he understood everything he might run into."

Actually, Bird recognized the absurdity of Carlisle's stance immediately. He didn't want the prestige of Larry Bird to be laid on the line? Bird, who is one of those rare people who refuses to take himself or his stardom very seriously, had an interesting response: What is prestige for, if it's not to be laid on the line? Would Carlisle prefer him to climb onto a pedestal and spend the remainder of his days there?

Finally, Bird said this: "Hey, if you don't think I can do this, the hell with you."

Now, you can take this a bunch of ways. First, Carlisle may have played in the Eastern Conference and assisted Bill Fitch in Jersey, but three years coaching J.R. Rider and that bunch in Portland softened his brain as to what most veteran players are about. He underestimated the men who make up the Pacers' roster -- which is fair, given that they all but quit on Larry Brown last year, when they won but 39 games. But mostly, he underestimated Bird himself, which no one will ever do again.

"I'm no dummy," Bird said. "I knew they had a pretty good basketball team before I stepped into this. What I thought I could bring here was leadership. I'm not a great coach. I have great people around me, and everybody does their jobs. You hire people to do a job, and if they can do the job, you leave them alone and let them work."

This modus operandi surprised most people, but not Donnie Walsh, the Pacers' boss. He said during their initial meeting at the 1997 Final Four, Bird told him he'd do four things: He would get them in condition, he would institute the toughest policy on lateness allowable by law, he would hire the best assistants and let them coach the game, and he would give the game back to the players by having them so thoroughly prepared, all he would have to do is sit and watch.

Then Walsh went back to his owners and told them Bird left two impressions on him: "He's smart as hell," he said, "and he's honest as hell."

He also did all four of those things he had promised he'd do.

"I'm not the type of coach who's going to be screaming and yelling," Bird said. "I'm not going to be directing people all over the court on every play. I have a lot of confidence in my players. I expect Mark Jackson to run the ballclub, and I expect our players to play hard, and I expect Reggie Miller to hit the big shots at the end. Simple as that. If you prepare your team to go out and play, you shouldn't have to say much to them."

"We had the same group of guys, but we were battered," admitted Jackson. "The same coaching style that got us to the Eastern Conference Finals was the same coaching style that had us lost mentally and physically. We questioned our own skills. That's no knock (on Larry Brown). It just ran its course. We needed something fresh. And Coach Bird came in and delivered just that."

You wonder whether anyone else could have done the same thing. This is an ego business, and Bird clearly had to subjugate his. He didn't care about jeopardizing his image, which Walsh likes to equate to that of Joe DiMaggio. He constantly deflects the credit. He didn't have to micromanage every little thing like other coaches do these days. He stressed defense and sacrifice, he trusted Jalen Rose and was rewarded for it, he never keeps them around at practice for longer than they have to be.

By resisting the temptation to over-manage, by becoming the anti-coach and iconoclast -- and by surrounding himself with just two assistants rather than the four- and five-men entourages that other coaches need to feel secure - Bird has actually broken the coaching mold.

And it's no surprise that his peers would resent it. They voted for Jerry Sloan overwhelmingly as Coach of the Year here at TSN, and I don't doubt for a second that this is their way of saying that they don't approve of someone who gives his players the liberties Bird's players enjoy. The average life expectancy of an NBA head coach is two years, and much of the time, the short tenure is a result of his refusing to grasp the idea that this is a player's league.

The players, in this case, know better. So do the coaches who work closely with Bird.

"They appreciate that this greatest of all-time players is over there believing in them and not going through the histrionics of many guys on the sidelines," said Harter. "I wish I had known that 40 years ago. I might have won a few more games. But very few of us have the ability to control ourselves and be that calm."

AROUND THE RIM

I hate using words such as "soft" and "intimidated" but frankly, I'm having a terrible time trying to describe what David Robinson turned into when he had to go nose-to-nose in Karl Malone. Put it this way: The Admiral didn't match Mailman's intensity, toughness, and skill, and because of that -- combined with Tim Duncan's ankle injury -- the Alamo was surrendered without much of a fight. . . .

For all the talk about Patrick Ewing's comeback in Game 2 and Reggie's dagger in Game 4, the real difference in the Indiana-New York series was Antonio Davis. He beat Charles Oakley to a crucial rebound off a Miller miss in the final seconds of Game 2, was fouled, and knocked down both freebies to make it a two-possession game; then in Game 4, he blocked two shots in the last three minutes to give the Pacers hope just when they seemed to be running out of it. . . .

Conference finals predix: We like Chicago in six, because we're still not convinced that the Pacers can rebound with the Bulls. The Utah-Lakers series should be a classic, and it seems inevitable that it will be decided by but one factor: Does L.A. hit its 3's in a seventh game on the road? We think not. Jazz advance.


If you would like to unsubscribe to TSN SportsMail, please use this form.

-- END included message