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But the reverse is also true. Great players do not make great coaches. (IMO, of course) Stephen Jackson was a great, internally motivated player who played on lousy teams for lousy coaches. As have other great players in league history, he toiled in vain on a poor team and he could do little to raise that team's ceiling.
Running backs rarely if ever RFL, that's not a good example.
See Dallas Cowboys and Barry Switzer or the Niners and George Seifert.
The list of examples is long.
I might also add Jordan, Pippen, Kobe and Shaq to the Phil Jackson mystique.
His latest stint has certainly tarnished the perception.
I was tracking with you until you mentioned Phil Jackson. He was a great coach; he's an awful front office executive.
What he did in NY was not coaching.
I do think I'm leaning your way on valuing great players above great coaches.
Well I along with many others in the sports field are now questioning that.
Did you know that Phil refused to accept a coaching job where HOF type players weren't in place?
He's coached 4 of the top 50 greatest players in the history of the NBA.
If you actually watched him coach he didn't do much in-game coaching.
He ran a Tex Winter offense and let the players figure it out.;
I'm aware of the difference between front office exe and coach, but there is a perception that there is a correlation.
I'm inclined to agree because I have always questioned his coaching ability.
Greg Popovich, now there IS a gr8 coach.
I've known all of that and it's true on PJ. Don't think it takes away from his coaching legacy though.
PJ was never about the x's and o's. He ran the triangle as a philosophy.
His genius was developing culture, leading and developing men, building trust and unity in the team, and managing egos. The triangle as a philosophy helped with this. He's not doing any of that as a front office exec.
Shaq and Kobe didn't win until he got there. It's likely that a coach with less cachet would not have successfully built a winning culture and made two alpha personalities buy into playing as a team with a clearly defined hierarchy.
I'm not gonna begrudge the man his respect as a coach. That's wrong IMO.
Agree on Pop. I've always thought he was the Best coach we've seen in the NBA maybe ever.
