|
|
 |
 |   |
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Video Plus Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities 
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE | |
Speak easy Coaches can dish out criticism but can't take it
Updated: Monday November 12, 2001 2:24 PM
Sports Illustrated senior writer Phil Taylor touches on a Hot Button issue each Monday on CNNSI.com. After you read Phil's take, give us yours. Unlike kids, who say the darndest things, athletes, for the most part, say the blandest things. They're taking it one game at a time, they have great respect for their opponent, they just want to do whatever it takes to win, blah, blah, blah. A 10-minute interview with most pro athletes will make your eyelids feel heavier than manhole covers, which is why any player who bothers to express a thought that's not straight out of the handbook of sports clichés deserves at least our gratitude, if not always our agreement. Terrell Owens and Charles Oakley are two athletes who recently chose to give the public something more than cookie-cutter quotes, and their candor has earned them nothing but grief. Owens, the gifted San Francisco receiver, suggested that Niners coach Steve Mariucci's friendships with other coaches has kept him from going for the jugular when he has had an opponent on the ropes. Oakley, the aging Bulls power forward, had harsh words for Chicago coach Tim Floyd about his substitutions during a blowout loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Owens' words brought a torrent of criticism from the press and public as well as a rebuttal from Mariucci, who was clearly seething just below the surface. Oakley's statements brought a similar gritted-teeth response from Floyd as well as a more tangible punishment -- a $50,000 fine by the team. Not to go all First Amendment on you, but Owens and Oakley have a right to air their opinions, however misguided, without being flogged in the town square. Beyond that, they've both accomplished enough in their careers to have earned the right to be heard. But for some reason, any athlete who criticizes his coach automatically becomes regarded as an enemy of the state. A coach can question his players' effort, their will to win or -- to borrow the current popular bit of coachspeak -- their "desire to compete" as often as he likes. New York Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy, for example, seems to have it on his daily "to-do" list. But when the roles are reversed, it seems that coaches can dish out criticism but can't take it. Mariucci responded to Owens' comments about his conservative play-calling by saying when Owens puts in the long hours, in season and out, that Mariucci does, he could have a say in the game plan. The implication was that Mariucci works much harder than Owens does, and therefore should not be subject to his criticism. Owens could have responded by saying that until Mariucci runs windsprints until his lungs ache or gets clotheslined while running a pass pattern across the middle, he should have no right to tell Owens to keep quiet. Floyd suggested that Oakley wasn't putting up impressive enough statistics to spout off. Oakley could have reminded his coach that he was fighting for rebounding championships back when Floyd couldn't get into an NBA arena without a ticket. This isn't to say that Owens and Oakley's criticisms were necessarily well-founded, only that they should have been able to make them without such a backlash. It's true that every team needs its players to recognize the coach's authority, but we also need someone to speak their mind once in a while to break up the droning monotony of most players' utterances. Owens and Oakley may not have said the right thing, but at least they said something, and for that, they deserve credit. Sports Illustrated senior writer Phil Taylor writes about a Hot Button issue every Monday on CNNSI.com. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
| |||||||||||||||||||||
