bluesaxe;842299941 said:
I think that's a very narrow view of what attributes make a good coach these days. Basically, you don't know a thing about what he's done as an assistant (the NBA does more intensive skills coaching than college and people who think it's just a league of one-on-one don't understand it). A guy who can lead players can lead players - it's the game coaching part that would be the question mark in my mind.
I'm not saying he should be hired, but I don't want the hiring decision to be based on your criteria. That just means we narrow the upside and get beat out by other schools for the top level of the more established types.
You've misread and mischaracterized what I wrote.
My first point was that I feel that the reason Shareef's name comes up on this board as a possible head coach is that he was a great player for Cal for one year, and had a fine career in the NBA.
My second point was that
IF we are going to think like that, just hiring a coach because he was a great player at Cal, then a point guard like Kidd or KJ would be a better choice.
I never once mentioned what my criteria are for hiring a head coach.
I agree with you previous post that Shareef just doesn't have the experience for this job.
Shareef played only one season at the college level, as a one-on-one player. He was perhaps half of the Cal offense. The Cal players cleared out the side and the paint, and passed the ball to Shareef, and he backed his man, maneuvering his way to the basket, where he usually scored. I did not follow his career in the NBA.
He played 12 seasons in the NBA and was an assistant coach in the NBA for three more, and a year as a GM for the Bighorns.
That is 16 seasons of professional basketball vs one season participating at the college level.I also did not say that the NBA was a league of one on one play. I said it was "more so' than college. And it was more one on one when Shareef entered the NBA than it is now. In the end, team play is in general victorious over one on one play, and the NBA has learned that, so that more teams play more team ball now.
You mentioned the teaching of skills at the NBA level vs at the college level. You are comparing apples and oranges. At the NBA level you are dealing with great players or at least with great athletes on a daily basis, and you are teaching them little nuances of the pro game for the most part. They are men. In any college season, you are typically dealing with a couple of good or great players and the rest are average or not so athletic college players. You are teaching more basic fundamentals than in the NBA. They are kids, not men, and it is their first time away from home for many of them. They have very different problems. Trying to get these players to play together as a team is much different from trying to get pros to play together.
In order to be a successful coach, you have to be a good teacher at the college level, like Montgomery, or a good recruiter, like Sean Miller, and preferably a good mix of both talents. Shareef has never had the responsibility of recruiting a high school recruit, and getting him to sign on the dotted line.
A college coach should also be a good strategist and a good tactician.
So those are some of my criteria. Shareef, as great a player as he was, does not have college experience in any of the areas I mentioned. He needs to pay his dues somewhere else first, before he is handed the Cal job. Finally, great players do not usually make great coaches. There is an occasional exception, like John Wooden. But Mike Montgomery was not a good player, and Pete Newell was even less so. Phil Jackson was not a great player, nor was Pat Riley or Red Auerbach. The list of great players who tried and failed at coaching is long. But I would wish Shareef good luck in whatever career he decides to pursue.
