How it's done
Great sports column (sorry, you'll have to register, the Times had a major server crash) by Howard Beck in today's New York Times about the excellent management of pro basketball's Western Conference champions, the San Antonio Spurs. Makes you fully realize what losers -- on all levels -- we have in our NBA organization here in the Rose City, with little or no improvement in sight.
| Posted at 9:58 PM | Permalink |
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Comments (6)
No doubt the Spurs are a good organization. But I give most of the credit to Popovich. He kept Duncan in San Antonio, and gets all the players to buy into his system.
Portland needs a good coach. And the Blazers need to stand behind that coach. I didn't think that Cheeks was great, but it didn't help that the organization undermined him when it came to player control.
I say PDX find a good assistant coach, and then stand behind him and let him coach and discipline his players.
And ditch Miles and Randolph. They suck. They're not team players. Ditch 'em.
Posted by justin | June 4, 2005 2:22 PM
I agree about Popovich. He seems to be the only guy in pro sports who has made the GM/HeadCoach combo work.
He has been able to steal some good players from Europe while constantly updating the line up. Having Duncan uninjured as long as he has is the only big break Popovich got I think.
Don't forget the entire time, Shaq had been with the Lakers.
PS - Mr Bog - Sorry, I forgot the name of the album "What's Goin' On?" by Marvin Gaye and only remembered the "Inner City Blues" song. Still one of the best Motown albums, along with some of the prime Stevie Wonder stuff (we are including TAMLA right?)
Posted by Steve | June 4, 2005 8:50 PM
Tamla (Marvin, Stevie, Smokey) and Soul (Gladys Knight & the Pips and others) were both Motown brands. I do believe Tamla was the strongest of the labels.
Hey, what does "Tamla" mean?
Posted by Jack Bog | June 4, 2005 9:05 PM
From: http://the-soulsurvivor.co.uk/tamla_motown_page.htm
Berry Gordon "then decided to borrow $800 from his family and start his own record label called "Tammy" after the Debbie Reynolds film, but that was already being used so he then decided to name it "Tamla". "
Posted by John Ray | June 5, 2005 5:16 PM
I say the problem hereabouts is Paul Allen. When we get over marvelling at the richest owner in pro sports --and the 4th richest man in the world-- owns our little 'ol Blazers, and fantasizing about what that might mean, we'll come face-to-face with the fact that the man has woefully underachieved in everything that he's ever done, and that he essentially won the lottery of growing up as Bill Gates's childhood friend, and therefore being along for the ride when Gates caught lightning in a bottle. Frankly, I'm pessimistic for the Blazers' prospects as long as Allen owns them.
Posted by jay bird | June 6, 2005 12:47 PM
Big discussion at my blog about the current state of affairs at Blazers HQ, after a recent tirade I went on that got picked up by Oregonlive's Blazer Blog (if you're interested)...
http://leblogue.blogspot.com/2005/06/blazers-haters-unite.html
Posted by The Pieman | June 6, 2005 4:45 PM