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

Chuck Daly & I in Richfield, Ohio

By Scott Morganroth
When I was covering the Detroit Pistons on a regular basis, I'd occasionally take a nearby road trip.
There is one road trip I'll never forget in the early 1990's and that's when I saw the Pistons face the Cleveland Cavaliers in a nationally televised contest on a Sunday afternoon at the old Richfield Coliseum.
The Richfield Coliseum was located at 2923 Streetsboro Road, Richfield, OH 44286. The Coliseum was located between Cleveland and Akron.
The arena was torn down by a wrecking ball from 3/99 to 5/99. It was transferred to the National Park Service which runs the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area. Now instead of basketball players roaming the court, the land is home to the deer and rabbits who run and roam the wild.
What made this trip so special were a couple things.
The Saturday night before the game, I stayed at the Pistons team hotel and went to dinner with Detroit's Assistant Coaches Brenden Malone & Brenden Suhr at Whitey's Restaurant.
We were watching a couple of NBA games on separate televisions. They were scouting other opponents while I was subdued and asked them basketball questions during commercials. It was a great time! These guys were class acts.
Twelve hours later, I had lunch with another Pistons Coach. His name was Chuck Daly. We sat in the Media Cafeteria and just talked. I asked Daly lots of questions off the record about his team but more importantly slipped a few in about life. He was nice enough to answer them, pat me on the back and shook my hand when the meal was over.
Daly told me the key to his squad's success is that he got his players to buy into the team first approach and not worry about individual statistics. He said this approach works well in life as well and thanks to his wisdom I've learned 18 years later, he is truly correct. He said he'd use his distribution of minutes to get his point across and the players knew he was in charge and respected what he was doing.
One of the things we joked about was the fact that in the Richfield Coliseum, he was 9-32 as coach of the Cavaliers in his first coaching job. He admitted that this was a learning experience but when Cleveland fired him, he always enjoyed coming back with a division rival and letting his former employer know they made a mistake by not giving him enough time to incorporate his system. But he told me that when he was dismissed, he was determined to turn a negative into a positive.
Did he ever.
It's hard to believe that Daly's first Pistons contract was a three-year deal for about $125,000 per season. He had a three-year contract at Cleveland in 1981-82 worth $500,000. But he took lesser money to come to Detroit and erase that blemish for another shot to become a successful NBA head coach which he undoubtedly did building a dynasty with the Bad Boys that led to a pair of championships.
Dealing with personalities like Dennis Rodman, John Salley, Rick Mahorn, role players such as James Edwards, Vinnie Johnson along with his stars Isiah Thomas, Bill Laimbeer, Joe Dumars and juggling their minutes made Daly look like Albert Einstein with his success.
He worked the same magic with the 1992 Olympic Dream Team which won the Gold Medal by dealing with more superstars. Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, Michael Jordan, etc... turned out to be the icing on the cake for his Hall of Fame Career.
But when you think of all the success he had, it's still hard to believe that once upon a time, Daly like all of us had some tough challenges in the pros to overcome dating back to his days at the Richfield Coliseum.
It's also very ironic that by the end of June, the Cavaliers are considered the odds on favorites, led by LeBron James to win their first NBA title and Daly will not be alive to see it. Perhaps, deep down inside, he doesn't care, but we'll never know.
To date, he's still the all-time winningest coach in Pistons history. Detroit retired the No. 2 to honor his pair of titles. There is no doubt that late Pistons Owner Bill Davidson made sure his future contracts were much, much higher as his stature with organization and his influences are alive and well with the people he touched the most.
When I saw Pistons Vice President, Public Relations Matt Dobek and Dumars in town to see Detroit face the Miami Heat on April 15, there is no doubt that they went to Jupiter, Fla., on this trip to visit with Daly.
On the day that Daly died, Detroit News Columnist Terry Foster was correct when he said that it's been a tough period for the Pistons by mentioning that longtime scout and Hall of Fame Coach Will Robinson died last year and Davidson died earlier this year.
As much as I think of the great times I've spent with Daly especially in Richfield, Ohio., it's ironic that I was in Jupiter, where he lived and died on May 9, at the age of 78 of Pancreatic Cancer. I was in Jupiter picking up my friend Melissa. When I first heard of Daly's death, Melissa, who isn't knowledgeable about sports, was fantastic and listened to my great memories of Daly.
Scott Morganroth can be reached at Scottsports33@aol.com