Quote:
Originally Posted by EricaLubarsky
Rick was all about xs and os and tenacity, grit, and determination
Luka and co weren?t that professional so they clashed and instead of the whole franchise saying Rick was right, they canned and grabbed a coach the players liked. A real laid back dude.
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Eh, I don't agree with this at all. I mean, maybe the part about grabbing a coach the players liked. I'm by no means the biggest fan of Kidd. But I think Rick's time had come and gone. I don't think it had much of anything to do with Luka not being professional. Rick Carlisle is plainly and simply an asshole. He has alienated people his entire career. Not just young, "unprofessional" players. Front office, media, and older, veteran players as well as younger ones. It's the reason he got fired by the Pistons out of nowhere after an extremely successful season where they had the #1 seed in the East and went to the conference finals. The entire organization there just did not like him. And I can't prove this, but I do think that Carlisle's presence was at least partially responsible for our complete inability to sign quality free agents. To say that Carlisle is known for not playing a "player's coach" is an understatement. He's downright infamous.
Luka did not like Rick at all, true. But I remember reading multiple reports to the effect that it had nothing to do with the way Rick treated Luka himself, rather that Luka was thoroughly disgusted with the way Rick treated other people. In fact, supposedly Rick coddled Luka quite a bit, while still treating others poorly, which Luka found distasteful. Specifically there was the story during Luka's rookie year where, in front of the entire team, he accused DSJ of being jealous of Luka- when in reality Luka and DSJ liked each other very much, and DSJ was doing his best to adjust to being the #2 option. Supposedly Luka was disgusted by that incident and never forgot it. If I can find a link, I'll post it.
That's the only specific anecdote that I know of, but I get the impression that it wasn't an isolated incident. There's being a hardass disciplinarian, which all good coaches should be. And then there's just being an asshole. Rick Carlisle is both. You can get away with being an asshole when the team is winning. But after a second straight first round loss (choking a 2-0 lead to boot), I think the Donnie Nelson/Rick Carlisle era had run its course and it was time to make a change.
I do not think the answer after that Clippers loss was for the whole franchise to say "Rick is right."