Sound familiar ???

["John Lyell" <Jlyell@concentric.net>]

Vancouver Grizzlies  Team Report   SportsLine Report Dec. 16, 1999  The
Grizzlies, losers of 15 of 16 games, fired coach Brian Hill on Thursday.
Assistant coach Lionel Hollins will replace Hill on the sideline. The
Grizzlies were coming off their fourth consecutive loss, and had lost six
straight at home.  Hill was in his third season with the Grizzlies, hired by
the team after being dismissed in the middle of the 1996-97 season by the
Orlando Magic, whom he led to the NBA Finals in 1995.  Vancouver general
manager Stu Jackson had recently grown tired of the same old excuse about
the Grizzlies: the team was losing because of its youth.  "I think an unfair
way to look at it is, 'We're a young team,' '' Jackson told the Vancouver
Province before Hill got fired. "We're not a young team. We lack some
experience in some areas but this excuse of being a young team is getting
old. Our roster is laced with young veterans and older veterans, but to say
we're a young team is an excuse.''  The leadership issue might have been
addressed with the firing of Hill, who compiled a 31-123 mark in Vancouver.
Now, it's up to the players to perform in close games with the outcome on
the line -- something the Grizzlies didn't do under Hill.  "My mindset is
that we really lack the positive mental focus, and execution that it takes
to win those kinds of games,'' the general manager said. ``It's obvious
we're at a point where we can play with almost anybody, but we have yet to
exhibit the type of confidence . . . it takes to win those games.''  "You
have a very deep vested interest in the team,'' he said. "You're responsible
for putting the team together. You're responsible, particularly in our case,
for bringing most of these guys here, and you want it to be a good
experience for them as you would anyone in your own family that you care
about. And when that doesn't happen, you feel badly.''