06-18-2021, 03:39 PM
(06-18-2021, 03:24 PM)hakeemfaan Wrote: You can be smart and still be a difficult person to deal with.
The championship gave him a lot of clout. The fact that almost everyone, including his detractors don’t question his Xs and Os also gave him a lot of clout. Cuban didn’t retain him all these years just out of loyalty.
However the new NBA is all about superteams and stars deciding who should be accorded the privilege to coach them. I don’t know how much Xs and Os matter anymore. You can be a terrific coach and atilll not win a title because 3 friends decided to join and brought a coach along for the ride.
Well, one thing's for sure. YOU'RE smart. This is a great post, and I don't disagree with any of it...except for that emboldened part.
Yeah, they matter. They'll always matter. Now, what you might have meant by that is probably a point about relativity to other attributes, and that might be accurate. But, I get the sense from some that an unqualified coach who happens to be a great manager of people is preferable to a great basketball mind who is not. I think that's ridiculous.
I can get behind the idea that exceptional people skills are one component of the qualification set for this job, combined with great understanding of strategic basketball, the ability to teach concepts efficiently, etc. I just worry that people's thinking has become so binary that we believe it's the ONLY thing that matters.