You can sort of understand the hire from ownership's perspective. They went to the most successful team in the league and poached their rising front office star. Now they've hired the Spurs' #1 assistant to be their coach. The guys are from Oklahoma and have probably been watching the Spurs on local TV for years.

That said, there's a reason Latrell choked PJ. This could set Durant back five years.

He ain't Popovich.

PJ's no jerk; he was coaching jerks.

He's had nothing but success in San Antonio, as part of the best coaching staff in the NBA.

If Latrell Sprewell strangles you, you must be doing something right.

At Seton Hall, he was a complete and total jerk to his players, and I'm sure he conducted himself the same way at Golden State, which is why he was choked and eventually fired.

part of the best coaching staff in the NBA.

No guarantee of anything. Mo Cheeks worked under a great head coach, too, but he still doesn't know what he's doing.

Jack, I gotta completely disagree with you when you say he was a "complete and total jerk" to his players at Seton Hall. I grew up in Jersey City, went to SHU my freshman year in 1989-90, had a lot of friends who went to PJ's basketball camps, a few who played with him on the team, and my roommate was a team manager and thus attended every game and practice -- in other words, I had a lot of direct exposure to PJ's interactions with his players.

to a man, the kids with character -- that's key, the ones with character -- would go through a brick wall for the man. Terry Dehere was a good friend, and he never stopped singing PJ's praises. Jerry Walker, Danny Hurley, Anthony Avent -- I know for a fact that they loved the man. this article (while a bit of a fluff piece, written by Seton Hall) goes into some detail about Jerry Walker's feelings for the man, which in my experience are emblamatic of many players he coached at the Hall.
http://domapp01.shu.edu/depts/affairs/setonian.nsf/d5b2806150d5195f85256adc006592cd/a457d21ed2911604852570a1007df9e5?OpenDocument

a few quotes:
- “My education was very valuable,” Walker said. “It was the whole system, and at the time P.J. (Carlesimo) was the coach. We had a whole system in terms of study hall, so we could have success in the classroom and on the court. I owe a lot to Seton Hall because it prepared me for what I’m doing now.”
- Walker credits Carlesimo and a few others specifically at Seton Hall for helping him get the most out of his education and steering him on the right path.
- “P.J. was very influential-he was a coach that always wanted to know exactly what was going on in the classroom,” Walker said. “He wouldn’t let you get over in class, and he would punish the whole team if you neglected academics.”
Walker said holding the whole team accountable for individual mistakes forced the team to constantly motivate each other, while making sure everyone held their own weight in the classroom.
“If you missed classes everyone would have to get up at 6 a.m. and run,” Walker said.
“That’s not great for a college student, especially with the college night life. However, it was a good technique because he involved the whole team. He made academics important.”

did some players not like him? sure, the lazy ones. Luther Wright hated him, because he was a knucklehead who wasted his talent and hung out with the wrong crowd. I hung out a lot with Marco Lokar the year before before he became infamously known across the country and world for not wearing the US flag during the Gulf War, and even though he was a thoughtful and intelligent guy, he always complained about PJ because he wasn't getting enough playing time (Marco was a bit of a prima donna).

was he loud, abrasive, caustic at times? absolutely. no denying it. so is Coach K. so was Dean Smith. so is Roy Williams. so is Jim Boeheim. so is Jim Calhoun. etc. etc. yelling loud does not automatically make you into Boby Knight.

all that being said, i do agree that Seattle might be in for bumpy times with PJ at the helm because PJ might not have been the best choice for the job (i.e, maybe not the most skilled coach, his lifetime record is 474-494). Syracuse's Bod Poloquin sums it up nicely here: http://blog.syracuse.com/poliquin/2007/07/pj_carlesimo_gets_hired_again.html

My favorite quote (from an undisclosed source sitting near PJ at a bar in Portland):

"... make it a double!"

did some players not like him? sure, the lazy ones. Luther Wright hated him, because he was a knucklehead who wasted his talent and hung out with the wrong crowd. I hung out a lot with Marco Lokar the year before before he became infamously known across the country and world for not wearing the US flag during the Gulf War, and even though he was a thoughtful and intelligent guy, he always complained about PJ because he wasn't getting enough playing time (Marco was a bit of a prima donna).

This ain't college. The players will mostly make more than he will. They aren't going to take his tough love crap for a second. It's the NBA.

He says he's learned a different way to coach now. Good luck letting him try his new theories out on your team.

He says he's learned a different way to coach now. Good luck letting him try his new theories out on your team.

whoa, whoa, Jack -- the Sonics aren't "my" team. i grew up in NJ, I'm a Knicks fan. and even Isiah isn't dumb enough to hire PJ as an NBA coach! good guy, bad coach.

I didn't mean "your" in the sense of you personally.

Denzel Washington played for him in 1973 and stands by him.