Stan Van Gundy, Pistons Agree On $35M, Five-Year Deal

Walt

Walt

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Talcum X turned down coaching a bunch of West Coast pretty boys to work with two recidivist rock heads and a young giant with untapped potential in a city everyone else has thrown in the bushes... Good lord his black cred is through the roof, and his good pass got legit stamps on it.
:wow:
 
dem bath salts

dem bath salts

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what the pistons cap space looking like :patrice:
They got get Jennings the fukk outta there before they can really start building
 
N

nomoreneveragain

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Ed MOTHEREFFING G said:
out of curiousity...why is 3x coaching champion and 2 time playing champion Bill Laimbeer never seriously considered for NBA jobs?
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Laimbeer is too real for the NBA

When I mentioned Laimbeer, though, the reaction was visceral.

He’s lazy.


He’s a buffoon.

He can’t relate to NBA players.

He treats them like it’s college.

Guys just won’t play for him.

Laimbeer’s tenure with the Timberwolves is seen as a resounding failure, probably the final nail in his NBA coffin. Never mind this is the same league in which losing and getting fired seem like badges of honor for other coaches, something that happens every few years, like the Olympics, or the Sixers making the playoffs.

Unfortunately for Laimbeer, the popular opinion of him as an NBA coach can be crystallized in one key moment when he acted very Laimbeer-like, his behavior confirming for those who witnessed it that the label they have for him — a whiny crybaby no one wants to play for — is not just a stereotype, but God’s honest truth.

Before the 2010 NBA draft, many of the league’s top decision-makers flew to Minnesota to watch a few prospects work out for the Timberwolves, who had a high pick. As one NBA general manager explains it, the purpose of these sessions is usually twofold: "The team is trying to impress the players as much as the players are trying to impress the team. And everyone with half a brain in the NBA understands this."

Laimbeer was on the court that day, running the workout. He set up one drill, telling the players to outlet the ball to him with a crisp chest pass, then run the lane and finish on the other end. Pretty basic stuff. Once the drill started, though, the players occasionally forgot the whole "outlet the ball" part, and Laimbeer, as he is known to do, called them out in a sarcastic manner. The next time around, the players remembered to outlet the ball but forgot about the chest pass. Laimbeer became visibly agitated by their inability to run the drill correctly. "By the end of the workout, we all thought there might be a fight on the court," one GM remembers. "Why make yourself the center of attention like that? For some executives, that day is all they know about him. And everyone left that gym with the same impression, that Laimbeer doesn’t understand how the NBA works."

So how does the NBA work?

Perception is often reality. And in NBA circles, Laimbeer has a perception problem, compounded by his "I-don’t-give-a-s—" attitude about it. He doesn’t care how he’s viewed, even if how he’s viewed is keeping him from achieving the very thing he says is (or at least was) his ultimate goal: a head-coaching job in the league.

"I’ve had to get over that," Laimbeer says. "It hasn’t happened, for whatever reasons. If it does happen, it would be an oh-my-God moment. But I don’t really care what NBA people think. I’ve always been who I am, and I’m not going to change my style to fit their mold. I’m just not a career assistant. I’m not that guy. I had to decide if going into the ladies’ league would hurt my chances to be in the men’s league, and I came to the conclusion that I didn’t care. I thought, ‘Coaching basketball is coaching basketball.’"
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Just don't expect Laimbeer to get the job, says a former Pistons beat writer who covered the team from 1987-93 and got to know Laimbeer as well as a reporter could.

"No way, he's burned too many bridges," said Dean Howe, a former beat writer for Booth Newspapers, which is now MLive.com. "They shouldn't hire Laimbeer, either. He probably would be a good coach but he burned too many bridges in the NBA. That's why he probably doesn't have a job now.

"Too many enemies."

Laimbeer had few friends outside of Detroit during his playing days and he made some powerful enemies for his physical style of play.

Players like Larry Bird and Michael Jordan detested Laimbeer to the point that one national columnist said back in 1990 "if the NBA issued an MDP (Most Despised Player) Award, Laimbeer would be working on winning his third straight trophy."

Laimbeer's personality never won him many friends outside the Pistons' locker room.

He routinely took a "who cares?" attitude when players and fans would complain about his physical style of play – many called it dirty – and he had few friends in the media for his often abrasive attitude.

So despite Laimbeer's success in the WNBA, where he currently serves as coach and general manager of the New York Liberty, Howe says don't expect him to land any NBA head coaching job.

"A lot of people around the league remember," Howe said. "They don't like him. As a player, they didn't like some of the things he did. And he was kind of a rude guy to the media and other players. It took me two years to get to know him to even talk to me. That's the kind of guy he was.
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