 |
| |
|
 |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Make room for Tex Lakers assistant Winter deserving of Hall enshrinementPosted: Friday March 28, 2003 3:35 PM
Former Celtics center Robert Parish and former Lakers forward James Worthy are the big NBA names on this year's Hall of Fame ballot. But the Chief and Big Game James aren't the only ones who deserve to hear their names called as honorees April 7 at the Final Four. Surely there's a place for Tex, too. Lakers assistant Tex Winter, 81, the architect of the triangle offense and Phil Jackson's right hand man during all his championship years in Chicago and L.A., is on the short list. Unfortunately, he keeps getting overlooked. "It's disappointing," Winter said last year after losing out for the sixth time. "It's beginning to be somewhat embarrassing." The ones who should be red-faced, of course, are the Hall of Fame voters. After all, Winter is in the midst of his 55th season as a coach at the NBA or Division I level, the longest tenure of any active coach in pro or college hoops. His triangle offense has been used by the Bulls and Lakers to win nine of the past 12 NBA titles. How can he not be included among the great "contributors" to the game?
"He certainly deserves to be in the Hall of Fame," Jackson said. "It's a shame." Some believe Winter has been the victim of an East Coast bias among voters. Born in Texas and educated at USC, he has spent most of his career out West, far away from basketball's influential New York-Boston corridor. Winter says he doesn't know, but he hopes it's not the case. In addition to literally writing the book on the triangle offense, Winter also coached Kansas State to eight Big 8 championships and two Final Fours in the 1950s and '60s. His '58 Wildcats were ranked No. 1 in the nation and beat Wilt Chamberlain's Kansas squad. "I kiddingly joke I ran Chamberlain out of the league," Winter once said. "Because after we won the championship, he went with the Globetrotters." Winter also had college coaching stints at Marquette, Washington, Northwestern and Cal State-Long Beach, as well as a brief pro stint with the NBA's San Diego Rockets. Wherever he went, he continued to refine and adapt the triangle offense. Most important, Winter always has preached the importance of playing the game the right way. During his Chicago days he was famous for standing up to Michael Jordan, reminding even the Great One at times that he needed to involve his teammates more. Jordan has since credited Winter with helping make him a better player. The current Lakers -- especially Kobe Bryant -- have also praised Winter for helping them win their three NBA titles. Because the triangle is so difficult to teach, Winter's presence over the past four years has been crucial. When asked if the Lakers would have won without it, forward Rick Fox says, "No. We tried it the other way and it didn't work." Though Winter no longer travels with the Lakers on a regular basis, he still attends practice and sits behind the bench during home games. His role might be reduced, but his influence on the game of basketball is as big as ever. Hopefully this year the voting members of the Hall will wake up and recognize it.
Marty Burns covers pro basketball for SI.com. Click here to send Marty a question or comment.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
