Re: Pitino Show

[Kestas <Kestutis.Kveraga@Dartmouth.EDU>]

At 15:53 4/9/00 -0300, you wrote:
>Pitino talked about how Toine, for all his intelligence, will never be a
>great defender.  He'll be good, but not great.  Feels that what they are
>missing, is someone like Russell to be there to cover their back as a
>shotblocker.

It still amazes me when Pitino, with his vaunted coaching and motivational
ability, says such things. It's what's known as a "self-fulfilling
prophecy" - if you tell someone that he can never be this or that, no
matter how hard he tries, then he probably won't even try. This is
especially true when it's done in a fatherly, caring, "helping"-sort of
way. The message that it sends to the player is, "don't waste your time
working on your body and defensive skills, Antoine - you can never be a
great defender; don't bother lifting, Walter, your body type isn't right
for it" (as if Pitino knows squat about physiology).  Moreover, if it was
something pleasant and glorified - like scoring - the player might be
motivated to prove the coach wrong. But in this cases it involves doing
what most players dislike - maintaining a rigid strength-training,
conditioning and diet regimen, and playing defense. Pitino's statements
basically absolve these players of any responsibility when they fail to
play great defense or transform their body from that of an pre-adolescent
boy to that of a professional athlete at his physical prime. After all, the
coach himself has said they can't do it and need a Bill Russell to cover
for them. No wonder he can't wring anything out of these players...

It's also an issue of favoritism: when Eric Williams missed an appoinment
or two with the strength and conditioning coach in '97, he was dumped for
2nd round picks before he could say "sorry, Coach, won't happen again".
Fortson loses some 20 pounds of fat *while out with a broken foot* and
builds  20-inch biceps. His reward? He gets to watch from the bench
everybody but the ball boys trying out at backup PF/C before getting dumped
for nothing. Yet when Walker and McCarty show up  year after year  30
pounds over- and under-weight, respectively, Pitino turns into Robin
Williams in "Good Will Hunting".