Many people mention certain coaches as being the best in their respective sports. While I'll agree that not all coaches are the same, I will disagree that one coach's strategies or policies can change a team of bad athletes.
Consider this, head basketball coach Glenn "Doc" Rivers was hired by the Boston Celtics in 2004-05. He found some success in his first two seasons, including a playoff appearance his first year (lost in first round). His talent tailed off and the Celtics record in 2006-07 was 24-58 (.293 win percentage) and Celtics' faithful were calling for his job. When people named the elite coaches in the NBA, hardly anyone mentioned Doc Rivers (even after being named NBA Coach of the Year in 2000).
Enter Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. GM Danny Ainge brought in talent, kept star forward Paul Pierce, and drafted well to create a team with all the pieces to win an NBA Championship. That following season, the Celtics rolled to a record of 66-16, won the Atlantic Division, and won the NBA Championship over Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers. Oh and guess who was credited with an outstanding coaching job and mentioned by many as an elite coach in the NBA? Yep, you guessed it, Coach Rivers.
My point in all of this is that the coach didn't change, yet he went from being on the hotseat with a poor record to being on top of the world as the coach of an NBA Championship team. So what changed? Uh, those new guys certainly helped. A solid young point guard with tremendous upside plus two future hall of famers in Garnett and Allen made Rivers an instant genius in Boston.
Also, before anyone comes to the conclusion that this is just a personal attack on Doc Rivers individually, that's certainly not the point. I'm simply using his situation as an example to prove my point. Any sport on any level that you look at, coaches without talent don't succeed and those with talent do. Notice Urban Meyer at Florida in college football and Roy Williams at North Caroline in college basketball. Both dominate the recruiting battles in their respective sports and both have found tremendous success. Currently Florida has seven of the top 33 recruits for the 2010 recruiting class according to espn.com's ESPNU 150 and North Carolina had the top recruiting class in basketball this past year according to multiple recruiting websites.
So before anyone tells you that one coach is on a different level than any other coach, check their rosters. I'd be willing to bet their athletes are also on a different level than anyone else.
No comments:
Post a Comment