The best coaches never let ego or emotion get in the way of good coaching. Pop doesn’t do it. Phil Jackson has never done it. In the words of the great Herm Edwards (former Kansas City Cheifs/New York Jets/ Matt Moore’s Bizzare Fantasy Team head coach):
If the ultimate goal of sports it to “win,” one can assume that in order to win, you would want a coach to make the best decisions possible, as often as possible, based on rational analysis, matchups, skill set comparisons and teamwork. However, Vinny Del Negro seems to have a slightly, um, egotistical view of how this is done. Steve Buckley of the Boston Herald leaves us this little tidbit from the post game:
“Watching and listening to Miller speak with the media after the game, it’s a wonder Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro even let him go to the line. ‘Rondo hit him in the head,’ Del Negro said, ‘but when you’re a big guy you never let a guard take you out of the game.‘”
No, Vinny. That is completely incorrect. And I, for one, have been lobbying hard for you during these playoffs. Withholding misgivings, exhalting good manuevers. I mean, I invented the hashtag #VDNWillNotBeStopped. But this, THIS, has got to be a joke. This ain’t streetball. This ain’t trash talking. This is playoff basketball. It’s not about cajones, its about winning. If Brad Miller gets slapped hard enough across the face to knock a tooth out and fill his mouth with blood, you don’t patch him up and put him on the line. You sit his butt on the bench and put in your best free throw shooter. So what, Brad Miller looks liks a chump!?! REALLY? He’s Brad farking Miller, not Shaq (for what it’s worth, I would love to see if VDN would have kept Shaq in under similar circumstances – ah, fantasies!).
If it’s possible to pull a player in the exact same position, do you not think that Pop would have punted, say, Matt Bonner half way to Corpus Christi and brought in Finley? Phil would have rolled out his yoga mat for Bynum to relax on while The Machine drained 2 gimmes.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand that a playoff series is a jog, not a sprint, but you cannot let emotional decisions and tough guy stereotypes get in way of winning basketball. Personally, I tend to think the Rondo foul was pretty flagrant. Rondo is staring at Miller’s head (and away from the ball), slapping towards his nose/mouth and nowhere near having any play on the ball. The old mantra is “Defending champions get all the calls on their home court in the playoffs.” Yeah, well, it’s true. Regardless of what you think of the foul, you can’t go back and re-write history. What you can do next time, VDN, is put the ego aside, concentrate on winning the game and use whatever rules and players are available to make sure that happens.
And if Rondo thinks Brad Miller is a punk afterwards, so what? His team will be down 3-2 and going on the road to keep from getting their “defending champion” butts whipped in the first round. Maybe Vinny should cut down on the hairspray? Or, better yet, just play to win the game.
