Le Basketbawl

Try to imagine being born and raised in the lap of luxury; you live in a palatial mansion, you have maids and butlers and your life is sheer heaven on earth. But as we all do you reach a certain age and you want to go off and make it on your own. So you get a job and your first apartment; a tenement on Skid Row! All of a sudden all those luxuries you took for granted your entire life are no longer there. You now live in the real Frickin world and you have to deal with all the Crappola that the rest of us put up with.

New York Vinnie believes that those are the kind of thoughts that are running right now through Minnesota Timberwolves rookie head coach Kurt Rambis’s mind right about now a little less than a month into the  regular season. The only view Rambis has ever had of the NBA was from his perch with one of the elite teams in all of basketball the Los Angeles Lakers.

Rambis was a reserve player back in the eighties when the team was going through its “ShowTime” period. The last few years Rambis has been assistant coach on Phil Jackson’s staff going to the NBA Finals the last two years and winning the NBA Title last June. Now however Rambis has a totally different perspective on the NBA; instead of looking from the penthouse and looking down on the rest of the league Rambis is now in the basement.

Rambis for years has wanted to be the head coach of his own NBA team. Unfortunately he had to settle for something close being head coach of the T-Wolves. The Timberwolves are more like a pretty talented NBDL team rather than a true NBA squad. There is not an awful of of talent on the team to begin with and if you add in the injuries this team has had this year you end up with a blow mediocre team.

Right about now the rookie head coach is pretty ticked off at his team. Not because of the juries or the lack of talent; however he is upset about the lack of effort he is seeing from his squad.  The club lost its eleventh straight game Wednesday night to the Houston Rockets by a 97-84 margin.

After the game Rambis told the “St. Paul Pioneer Press” “We had chances to really jump on them in the first half, but we kept them in the game. There was no thrust to what we were doing offensively. A true professional brings it every night. It’s not my job to provide them with a Knute Rockne speech every game. It gets old. On a day like this, it was their job … their responsibility to be ready to play.”

Yo Kurt; New York Vinnie agrees with some of what you are saying but I also disagree with one thing you said. Yes by all means it is the players job and responsibility to be prepared and give everything they have while they they are out on the hardwood. But Kurt it is your job to give that motivating speech before every game. This is not a veteran team that knows what it is doing as the Lakers are. You My Man have a project on your hands.

New York Vinnie realizes there are two schools of thought on how to handle pro players. There is the camp that says that the pros are getting paid and that should be all the motivation they need. That once you reach the level of the NBA you should not need a head coach to get you pumped before a game. New York Vinnie is from  the other school of thought; in my mind that is the main job of a NBA head coach to get his team in the right frame of mind to give their utmost effort on the floor.

If all you are looking for is someone to diagram plays then there would not be a need for a head coach. You could have an offensive assistant and a defensive assistant do that. It is the job of the head coach to set the tone for the team, to motivate. The head coach is supposed to be the guy who knows who needs the kick in the behind and who needs the pat on the back. With a veteran team like the Lakers, the Celtics and the Spurs a head coach can let the team run itself. But not with a glorified expansion team like Minnesota.

So welcome to the real world Kurt and realize this is how it is for many teams in the NBA. But Kurt it is up to you this season to set the tone so next season they will not need a Knute Rockne  speech before every game