Bad Boys Reunion?

BY SCOTT MORGANROTH

When I heard reports on ESPN that former Bad Boys Isiah Thomas and Bill Laimbeer were being considered as possible replacements for the fired John Kuester, as I was tossing and turning in bed, I warmed up to the idea.

When the Pistons won their titles in 1989-90, these two policed the locker-room and made sure that there would be no distractions to reach their goal. Just ask Thomas' best friend Mark Aguirre, who was acquired in a trade that sent Adrian Dantley to the Dallas Mavericks. Aquirre had a track record for being outspoken in the locker-room but Thomas and Laimbeer made sure that wouldn't occur in Detroit.

As executive of the New York Knicks, Thomas thought about the possibility of hiring Laimbeer as his head coach, but wound up luring Larry Brown to coach in Madison Square Garden. This move turned out to be a major disaster.

But if either of these guys gets selected as coach, lets make it clear that it should be based on their performance on the sidelines.

Thomas did a fine job as head coach of the Indiana Pacers from 2000-2003 by leading the franchise to three consecutive playoff appearances. He helped develop Jermaine O' Neal, Jalen Rose and Ron Artest into stars.

The 50-year old Hall of Famer, who is regarded as the greatest player in Pistons history, has done a solid job the past two years with Florida International University. I have watched Thomas' teams the past couple years and his records of 7-25 and 11-19 are very deceiving.  Last season, the Golden Panthers lost several close games due to poor free throw shooting and Thomas quipped during his press conferences that he'll take suggestions from the media to fix the problem.

FAU Coach Mike Jarvis told me that the Golden Panthers are loaded with talent and if Thomas returns for a third season at FIU, they'll be one of the best teams in the Sun Belt Conference.

As for Laimbeer (54), he is responsible for five of the six championships at the Palace of Auburn Hills. He won two as a player and three more as head coach of the Detroit Shock of the WNBA. He was WNBA Coach of the Year in 2003 and took a franchise that was on the brink of extinction and talked late owner William Davidson into allowing him to save it.

Three titles later, it's safe to say the move worked out. I don't care what level of sports you're in. To win a championship is something to be proud of so Laimbeer can take pride in that. On the court, he was a hard-nosed player that was hated by all.

Yet one of his biggest rivals Charles Barkley has always endorsed him as a possible head coach and went on ESPN's Outside The Lines and expressed his support wondering why the former Bad Boy never received more consideration for other positions. This attention enabled Laimbeer to land an assistant coaching job with former Los Angeles Lakers rival Kurt Rambis of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Laimbeer has been instrumental in the development of Kevin Love and is working with Pistons draft choice bust Darko Milicic to make him a better player.

The commonality between Thomas and Laimbeer is the fact that they have worked with younger players and the Pistons are indeed a young team. When these players look up in the rafters and see their jersey's retired, they'll know the men teaching them to be professionals have excellent credentials.

Even if one were to get hired, the other should be the lead assistant.

In Arizona, former Tiger Kirk Gibson has led to the revitalization of the Diamondbacks. The fiery Gibson reminds me so much of Laimbeer. Both were hated by the media in their playing days but I remember seeing Gibson as a coach during spring training and he toned down and was enjoyable to deal with. I hope for Laimbeer's sake, he's mellowed because he needs the media to put people in the stands.

Nonetheless, Gibson has his Diamondbacks in second place in the National League West a game behind the World Series champions the San Francisco Giants with a 33-28 record. His bench coach is former Tigers Manager Alan Trammell. The roles were reversed when Tramnell and Gibson were running the Tigers earlier this decade. Yet, the lessons learned by Trammell working with Lou Piniella had to only enhance Alan's development in the dugout. Now the two have fans in cactus country talking about a return to the post-season. The Diamondback players know that their manager has two memorable World Series home runs and titles on his resume.

There is no reason that a Thomas and Laimbeer reunion can't produce similar results. Do you think Pistons Owner Tom Gores was a passionate fan during the Bad Boys era? Gores does live in Los Angeles and has watched the Pistons defeat the Lakers in the NBA Finals on two occasions.

If Thomas didn't burn his bridges with Davidson, who knows, perhaps we could have seen this tandem together much sooner. But Dumars did manage to win an NBA title on his own and is smart enough to know that the slate is clean between Thomas and Gores. Dumars sees there are some intriguing possibilities here. Dumars also knows that his next hire better be a good one because he know longer has the safety net of the Davidson's to cushion his next fall. Even though he was retained by Gores doesn't mean that he won't be under a more intense microscope that falls under the category, what have you done for me lately?

With the Pistons set to pick eighth in this month's draft, Greg Monroe, Austin Daye and Jonas Jerebko are a good foundation, but there is little margin of error to make more roster mistakes. It's time to get it right so that the team can finally work it's way back into the playoffs.

More importantly, with the NBA heading towards a hard salary cap, Detroit could land a player or two in free agency because there will be more available as Commissioner David Stern watches his league become more balanced. There is talk that a hard salary cap could force the Miami Heat to break up their big three of Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh. If that happens, one of these players is going somewhere.

With Gores in charge, I'll be curious to see what indeed transpires with the Pistons. If Thomas and Laimbeer don't return to the Palace either together or individually, at least the thought of it happening was enough to get me out of bed during the middle of the night to just examine the possibilities based on the developments in Arizona with Gibson and Trammell.

Scott Morganroth can be reached at scottsports33@aol.com and his blog can be seen at www.scottsports33.com.

Is Bill Laimbeer NBA Coaching Material?

BY SCOTT MORGANROTH



When I see Charles Barkley endorse Bill Laimbeer as a potential head coach, "My Wheels Start Turning" as to why a man with two NBA Championships as a player and three more as head coach of the WNBA's Detroit Shock isn't receiving much consideration getting NBA interviews.

There is no doubt that Laimbeer has done an outstanding job making enemies in the league. He's been in altercations with current and former executives & coaches named Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Danny Ainge and Kurt Rambis when the Pistons/Bad Boys were winning titles during the "Bad Boys" dynasty.

The "Bad Boys" dynasty saw Bird fire Isiah Thomas when the pair were on the Indiana Pacers payroll. It was inevitable that Celtics and Pistons couldn't work together.

What amazes me about Laimbeer is I do believe he could have done a much better job than the Pistons recently deposed Coach Michael Curry.

Laimbeer is a fierce competitor and along with Thomas, they took it upon themselves with their strong personalities to lay down the law when Detroit acquired Mark Aguirre and made sure he wouldn't be disruptive in the locker room. The rest is history as Detroit defeated the LA Lakers and Portland Trail Blazers and won their championship rings.

The one thing I'll never forget about Laimbeer was when I made my lone appearance at the Boston Garden in January of 1990, I was in the Pistons locker room talking with Dennis Rodman.

On December 25, 1989, the same day former Tigers Manager Billy Martin was killed in an automobile accident, I was injured in a skiing accident on Magic Mountain in Vermont tearing the ligiments on my last run of the day.

A concerned Rodman was asking me why I was wearing a fiber glass cast on my left ankle. At that time, Dennis and I had a great rapport and he was always cooperative when I wanted to speak with him. Rodman treated me like a friend.

As I was speaking with Rodman, Laimbeer made some stupid wisecrack and I went ahead and told him, "Just because you can afford to make your car payment doesn't mean I can afford to make mine." Rodman quickly jumped in and told Laimbeer to get off my back and to leave me alone. Dennis and I then proceeded with my interview and I went on to talk to another player.

Right then and there, I knew like many people, why Laimbeer was hated. It's easy to tolerate a guy when a team is winning. But he made reporters jobs more difficult and as aforementioned, didn't get along with other players. Little did Laimbeer realize that dealing with the media is free advertising for the team. I certainly never questioned his basketball intelligence, but his public relations skills were horrible.

Laimbeer did a masterful job with the Detroit Shock by saving a franchise that was destined to fold to winning championships. Since I never covered the Shock, I'm unaware of his dealings with the media. I would think that they should have improved.

Laimbeer reminds me of former Tiger Kirk Gibson, who as a player was lousy with the media. But as Gibson retired and when he became a part of the media, he appreciated the other side and now as a coach is much better to deal with. I do believe that it's a matter of time before Gibson becomes a manager because the difference between him and Lambeer is he didn't burn bridges with other baseball people like Laimbeer did with basketball people.

Gibson's dramatic World Series homers with the Tigers in 1984 and LA Dodgers in 1988 will always be great memories on ESPN Classic. Laimbeer's elbows and fights on ESPN Classic won't capture the imagination of fans but will only infuriate them.

I'm still amazed that Joe Dumars hasn't hired him as an assistant coach unless the two discussed it but Laimbeer frowned on the idea. Again, I don't know so I don't want to be questioned for making false statements. But Dumars has been around all five of Laimbeer's championships so there is more to this than meets the eye.

When Thomas was running the New York Knicks, he did interview Laimbeer but hired Larry Brown. I'm surprised that Thomas didn't talk Brown into hiring Laimbeer as an assistant coach. He's always made sure that Brendan Suhr and Brendan Malone had jobs with him during his stops in Toronto and New York.

Dumars' former top front-office aide and now Milwaukee Bucks General Manager John Hammond had a chance to offer Laimbeer a coaching job of some sort when he hired Scott Skiles as his head coach. There was familiarity but nothing transpired.

Laimbeer did interview for the Minnesota Timberwolves head coaching job which did go to Rambis. I wouldn't have expected there to be a friendly reunion between these one time rivals unless Rambis won't hold a grudge against Laimbeer and utilize his basketball knowledge that he obtained from the late Chuck Daly. Even before Daly passed away, I'm surprised that Daly wasn't able to get Laimbeer more consideration for other jobs unless he thought his former center was happy working in the WNBA.

Nevertheless, the question remains, is there a future on an NBA bench for Laimbeer? I'd like to think there is since he does know how to win.

It's no secret that he plays mind games with his players but even the best coaches in sports like Bill Parcells, Pat Riley and many others do to keep their players off balance and focused.

But the NBA coaching ranks are very weird. I'm amazed that New York Knicks legendary Center Patrick Ewing hasn't been given the opportunity to be the head coach for this team since he has paid his dues as an assistant under Jeff and Stan Van Gundy and played under Riley. This is an injustice.

Until we find out how Ewing and Laimbeer would do as coaches, for the time being, we'll never know. Ewing is more media friendly but Laimbeer still has what Ewing was unable to accomplish in his career and that's win an NBA title.

The only thing I can say to Laimbeer at the moment is if there are no NBA jobs in the future, Bill you should rejoin Thomas at Florida International University (FIU) and learn how to teach because if there is a job that opens up with a bad team, you'll be forced to educate the younger players and develop patience.

It would be scary to think that FIU would be the amateur version of the "Bad Boys" with the boosters paying the fines because of rough play. Then again, they won't care if the team is winning, gets to the NCAA Tournament and becomes a Cinderella Story that bolsters recruiting and puts the university on the map.

It's time to start paying dues Bill like the rest of us who take entry level positions and work our way up. At least you know now through ESPN's "Outside The Lines" that while Barkley still might not like you, he does respect you and does believe you'll be a winning coach, thus you do have an unexpected ally.

Scott Morganroth can be reached at scottsports33@aol.com