Re: Larry sinking FAST

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

Van Gundy has evidently outcoached Pat Riley and Lenny Wilkens also,
so Larry's not in such bad company. Last year he came extremely close
to "outcoaching" Phil Jackson.

I think people are being a bit hard on him; he's taken a team with 
no superstar to the conference finals two years in a row. If you had
asked anyone two years ago whether a lineup of Smits, Miller, Mullin,
D.Davis, and Jackson was a championship caliber team, I think it would
have been a unanimous no. 

I do agree that he probably wouldn't have done well with the Celtics.

Alex

> Any body out there agree with my following assessment of Bird's
> coaching ability.
> 	Larry being completely outcoached badly, I might add by Van Gundy. He
> has not made one effective adjustment most likely because he ain't that
> smart and really is a lousy coach. Doesn,t it seem funny to any of you
> out ther in list land that when he calls a time-out, he has Rick
> Carlisle drawing up offensive plays. For those of you out there that
> didn't know or don't remember, Carlisle was a Celtic 12th man for years
> and by my memory he never saw action in more than 20 games a year. Bird
> who was one of the greatest offensive threats ever to play the game is
> just flat out too dumb to coach. He can't coach but he can play. Reminds
> me of Magic Johnson's attempt at coaching.
> 	All I can say is thank goodness he coaches the Pacers and not the C's
> or we could be in worse shape than we are now. It will all be moot
> anyway because IMO Bird will quit coaching after this year to be the GM
> and Pres of the Pacers. Pity the poor Pacers.
> 	For what ever it is worth, I would have loved to see McHale stay with
> the C's in some capacity, now there is one sharp dude who obviously
> knows what he is doing.
> 
> Regards,
> Hart
>