Coaching

PARIS [The Monday International Show] - There is no doubt about it, coaching a basketball team for a living is a stressful business.

I discovered this first hand when in 1986 I was the youngest coach in France's first division in Paris at the ripe old age of thirty.

At the halfway point in the season I was fired despite improving the team's position in the standings from 9th the year before to fourth.

Apparently I was too demanding and didn't coddle to the star players enough!

This is when I realized that playing was alot more fun and being a TV commentator was a much more secure job!

After that painful experience I have always defended coaches during my commentaries and never called for a firing despite often being in disagreement with certain tactics or choices.

Generally, I think it's more efficient to let the coach finish out a season and then make a change if necessary because I'm not a big fan of the so-called "psychological shock" method.

In the NBA, the first quarter of the season has been marked by the firing of former coach of the year Byron Scott from New Orleans and hardworking Lawrence Frank from the outclassed Nets.

Even Mike D'Antoni was on the hot seat when the Knicks started so poorly and right now Bull's coach, Vinny Del Negro, seems day to day like a player nursing an injury!

As losses pile up, frustration mounts and finger pointing to deflect blame is a classic phenomenon.

Even worse, loyal assistant coaches realize that an oppurtunity might be openning up to replace the head coach who probably gave them their job in the first place!

These shakespearean type situations lead to alot of paranoia and guilt which is not conducive to creating a healthy environment in order to get back on a winning track!

We've read recently some bitter statements from former King's coach, Reggie Theus, about the lack of loyalty from his former assistant,Kenny Natt, but Natt's gone already and now Paul Westphal who was out of the NBA circuit for years, is making some progress with Sacramento.

NBA general manager and coaching ranks are very clanish(this always goes back to the loyalty question), and breaking in to the closed microcosm, for foreign coaches for example, is almost impossible.

Coaching at any pro level is a complicated balancing of the carrot and the stick concerning players who have their own agendas and entourages filling their minds with individualistic goals while the coach has to concentrate on the team.

I was recently saddened by the disappointing spectacle of some of Rome's pseudo-fans calling publicly for the firing of coach Nando Gentile during a Rome-CSKA Moscow euroleague game(where it's true, Rome played pathetically),that I commentated last thursday.

Of course Gentile replaced Jasmin Repesa under similar circumstances last season so the coaching carousel continues to turn and sometimes stops violently like a guillotine.

You have to have a thick hide and a solid ego to be a pro coach because even when you win, the players who didn't play much and their agents are often unhappy.

Imagine that in the NBA most of the players are making more than the coach so it's hard to exert one's power because the owner knows it's generally easier to find a new coach than alot of new top notch players!

Amazing exceptions to the rule are Popovich,Jackson and Sloan in the western conference who have stayed true to their values and principles and also held onto their jobs for a very long time even though at one point Phil Jackson took a hiatus because of a conflict with his superstar, Kobe Bryant, despite his incredible record.

These men have been able,over the long haul, to keep their feet on the ground and stay in touch with their players through honesty and modesty despite the generation gap.

One thing I've noticed in my dealings with NBA coaches,european coaches or national team coaches, is, as time goes by, a tendancy to hole up in their ivory tower,especially if things turn sour, and the coaches become soloists of soliloquy for self-protection and very poor listeners.

This is usually a signal for the end of a reign as in politics, and it's true that in coaching there are alot of politics.

In general, in the business of sports, or in the business of media or anything else for that matter, being a good listener is usually a sign of good health whereas talking a blue streak and feeling that you possess the absolute truth is a sign that the end is near!

George EDDY