 |
| |
|
 |
 |
 |
Problem unsolved Even with Floyd gone, Bulls still have issuesPosted: Thursday December 27, 2001 11:50 AM
If the Tim Floyd fiasco demonstrated one thing -- as if it needed to be demonstrated again -- it's that college geniuses sometimes turn dumb in a hurry when they get to the NBA. True, Floyd, who quit as Chicago Bulls coach several days ago with an abominable 49-190 record in three-plus seasons, was dealt a bad hand. True, general manager Jerry Krause should've been forced to walk the plank before Floyd. True, no coach, not even some combination of Phil Jackson and Red Auerbach, could've gotten this sorry-ass, Krause-concocted aggregation to the playoffs. But make no mistake about this: Floyd did a bad job. He didn't have a workable offensive system; he didn't know how to run an organized practice; he didn't know how to treat or motivate pro players; he didn't, in short, have a clue. And so he found out, as Rick Pitino, John Calipari, P.J. Carlesimo and others before him, that this NBA thing isn't as easy as it seems to many of America's sports fans. The boyish charm that wowed Mom and Dad on the front porch doesn't cut it with men who make millions, that tinhorn dictator approach that kept collegians in line doesn't mean anything when there's something called free agency. Get back, Tim Floyd, get back. Get back to where you once belonged. As for Krause, well, it is necessary to plumb the pages of Shakespeare to fully understand the man, for he is, in thought and action, a kind of Iago, the character who proved to be the ruination of Othello. Iago is not all bad. He is, in fact, an old soldier with some ability and intellect, a man who has worked hard and, in his view, loyally. That accurately describes Krause -- a man who beats the bushes for talent and has made some good decisions over the years, Doug Collins and Phil Jackson being two of his hires, for example. But Krause is a jealous soul, obsessed with the thought that he never got proper credit for the Bulls' six championships, a man to whom rampant opportunism knows no bounds, a man who, like Iago, "follows but myself." In an effort to prove his genius, to prove that he didn't need Michael Jordan to win a string of championships, Krause has pushed this once-proud organization to the banks of Lake Michigan. With Krause securely in place -- and at this point it appears he would keep his job even if the Bulls go 0-82 next season -- Chicago cannot hope to attract the kind of talented, NBA-savvy coach (Jeff Van Gundy? Mike Dunleavy?) who could start to turn this thing around. Hey, would you have come to work for Othello in Venice had you known Iago was pulling strings behind the scenes? The Denver Nuggets franchise is also wheels-deep in quicksand following Wednesday's resignation of Dan Issel, but coaching under a solid pro such as Kiki Vandeweghe, the general manager who seems to be calling the shots, is at least a workable proposition. (Plus, there's great skiing nearby.) Where does Chicago go from here? The most interesting scenario presents assistant coach Bill Cartwright as Krause's preference, at least for the short term, which makes sense because Cartwright has long been a Krause guy. The GM brought him in before the 1988-89 season to give the Bulls an inside presence, and though Cartwright was at first ridiculed by Jordan for his mechanical, elbows-flailing style, he proved to be an important piece in the Bulls' first three-peat in the early '90s. Cartwright is familiar with the stark reality that even with his two decades of NBA experience, he will have to pay homage to Iago's genius. But he, like most people who want a head job, will gladly take this one if offered. If he does take over, won't it be a little sad to see a proud 7-footer standing in the shadow of a gnome? Sports Illustrated senior writer Jack McCallum covers the NBA beat for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Click here to send a question to his NBA Mailbag. |
