RE: Losing? Don't look at Larry. He's only the coach.

["Berry, Mark S" <mberry@journalink.com>]

You know, I keep hearing a lot of criticism of Bird's coaching, but isn't it
true that Indiana has played the best unselfish, team basketball in the NBA
since Bird arrived? I think he has something to do with that. He believes in
making the other team adjust to you -- something that used to be common (do
you think the '86 Celtics would have "gone small" without Parish or McHale
just because of matchups?) Everyone wants to run Pitino out of town because
he yells too much and wants too much control, but then you criticize Bird
for allowing his players to play and being confident that they were prepared
for these situations during practice.

I'm not saying Larry's blameless, but he's done a lot of good things there.

Mark

P.S. I look at this Pacers team and see the 1985 Celtics. Great talent, good
record, but something was missing. Hunger? Something.

> ----------
> From: 	damekmo@teleport.com
> Sent: 	Thursday, June 10, 1999 6:43 AM
> To: 	celtics@igtc.com
> Subject: 	Losing? Don't look at Larry. He's only the coach.
> 
> From J.A. Adande in this morning's LA times:
> 
> >http://sports.latimes.com/news/19990610/lat/19990610fd3ichgy.html
> 
> >"I try to instill a lot of confidence in them," Bird said. "I want
> >them to have confidence. It's too bad for us that some guys talk it and
> >they don't walk it."
> 
> You know, I keep waiting for Larry to take some responsibility for "his"
> team's failures. But he keeps blaming everybody else in his interviews
> with
> the press. He might want to think about saying something like, "I need to
> figure out how.........," since he's the coach. That would tell me that he
> knows what's going wrong and actually plans on addressing the problem. He
> keeps saying things like, "We need to get more from......," and "Reggie
> has
> to start playing like....." How about "Larry has to start helping his team
> by actually coaching them during a game." More from Adande:
> 
> >The Pacers have blown fourth-quarter leads in every loss.
> 
> And:
> 
> >After a strong first quarter, the Pacers looked like a bunch of guys
> >with different ideas on how to win. They had only 12 assists, their
> >lowest total in the 1999 playoffs, and only one in the third period.
> 
> But Larry has nothing to do with that.
> 
> >Then they stopped playing smart basketball, and when they do that
> >they're not a threat to beat anyone. They went away from matchups that
> >worked in their favor and gave the ball to players in matchups that
> >favored the Knicks.
> 
> Not Larry's fault.
> 
> >Point guard Mark Jackson was more of a post player than a playmaker.
> >He kept trying to pound the ball inside, often against the taller Allan
> >Houston. Although he scored 16 points, he had only four assists.
> >In the second quarter Miller appeared more interested in drawing fouls
> >than trying to score, and his array of wild shots missed badly.
> >They lost their 14-point lead and went into halftime tied at 42.
> >"We sort of broke down into isolation again," Bird said. "You've got
> >to get good ball movement. If you don't, they're quicker than we are and
> >can get up on you."
> 
> And Larry just stands there and watches it happen over and over again, and
> continues to say before each game,"We're not going to make any
> adjustments." He really is in way over his head. Thank God he's in
> Indianapolis.
> 
> Paul M.
> 
>