RE: NBA coach needed

[opi@unesco.org]

Alex Wang wrote:
The chess analogy is a good one, although not in the way you intend.
If you ask some average guy or even an experienced club player to
comment on the moves of a grandmaster, you'll generally get simplistic
garbage. Can you imagine writing to a chess magazine, "If only
Kasparov (or any other GM) would listen to my advice and attack more
on the queenside, he would win so many more games!" There's a reason
they have world-class chess players annotate world-class chess games,
and they get the benefit of reviewing the game carefully at their own
leisure afterwards - similar to breaking a game down into its smallest
elements on video. It may be that world-class basketball coaching is
not the same as world-class chess or brain surgery but it seems that
most fans seem to underestimate the complexity of it and the ability
and effort it takes. It's not as easy as "play man-to-man D and ride
the hot hand on offense."

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When you watch a bit of the Pitino Show with Bob Lobel, it almost starts
to sound like brain surgery or rocket science. "Pitino-ball" seems
amazingly detail-oriented and precise, plus it involves a lot of perfect
timing and bewildering faith on the part of his players, what with
defensive switches and traps that a split-second one way or the other
can leave a guy hanging alone in space or switched onto a much speedier
or taller guy. With Pitino ball, it is very hard to say "so-and-so
scored 30 on Griffen" what with all the switches and presses.

Since under the current cap rules Pitino can't stack his deck by
recruiting superior talent (like his 1996 NCAA team), we will probably
need to be patient and wait until he has a "senior laden" veteran team
to judge if they'll ever reap the fruits of his teaching (much like his
first above .500 Kentucky team did, or his PC "Final Four" team). But,
yeah, after watching several episodes of the Pitino show, I must admit
it is impossible to not come away very impressed with Pitino's
basketball knowledge, preparation, innovations, work ethic and teaching
skills. I guess you just have to have faith that he's more than
competent as a coach, and has more than a competent track record.

Regarding the chess analogy, I'd say that it is more complicated than
that. Chess men are identical in size and talent, other than that the
white ones get to go first. Don't they always! (just kidding). At a
Kasparov-Karpov game in Seville, Spain, years ago, I whispered a
trying-to-sound-smart comment to my neighbor ("looks like the Ruy Lopez,
baby" or whatever) not realizing that you were forbidden to speak (much
less "boo") at games. Anyway, Karpov wheeled around and stared out in my
direction, smiled half-sarcastically while still staring, then swiveled
back over the chess board. I'm surprised he even heard me. If it had
been Bobby Fisher, he would have cancelled the tournament then and there
and I would have made some embarrassing headlines. Actually, they do
have numerous announcers in a separate room (or rooms) doing a running
commentary with lively debate on the games in progress, more or less
analogous to but not quite as harsh as we Celts fans who say "get Dana
out of there" and so forth. In any case, this is very "real time" and
speculative, with a lot of overlapping chatter and babble. Many of the
commentators aren't of grandmaster rank.

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