A Martinez Interviews Lakers' Head Coach Byron (very long)
Posted: Tue Sep 9, 2014 10:04 pm
http://www.scpr.org/programs/take-two/2 ... s-new-rol/
Around 2000 you became coach of the New Jersey Nets. You took them to back-to-back finals. You didn’t win, but still, you got them to be Eastern Conference champs. Now a few years later in 2004 Phil Jackson left the Lakers, you also didn’t have a job at that time. Why didn’t that Laker-Byron Scott relationship happen then?
I don’t know. I really don’t know. I think timing is always everything. It just didn’t happen for whatever reason. I think I ended up going to New Orleans and taking that job. I don’t regret that one bit because I had this young guy named Chris Paul that I got to know real well, and a couple other guys, Tyson Chandler and David West. But it probably wasn’t just the right time. I mean that’s how I really look at it. It just wasn’t the right time for me to be here in Los Angeles, and I still needed some more experience and I still needed to learn some more things about the coaching. I don’t think I’ll ever learn everything there is to learn about coaching, because if I do, then it’s time to retire. So, it just took me on a different journey, but again, I don’t regret that move at all.
So how are players different now than when you played with Magic and Kareem?
Back in those days, everybody was all about the team, at least the team that I played for. You know, it was no hidden agendas. A lot of these players today, No. 1: They’ve been given a silver spoon with this AAU stuff, so by the time they get to the professional level, if you have a coach like myself, who is pretty demanding, and he jumps on them, they can’t handle that, you know, because they’re not used to coaches yelling at them or screaming, or whatever, or correcting them. Whereas back in our day, it was more of, coach said, ‘Do this,’ we did it. Now you say, ‘Guys I want you to do this,’ it’s more of, ‘Why?’ You know [laughs]. ‘Why should I do that coach?’ So, it’s just a different mentality than it was in the 1970s and 1980s. I’m not saying it’s good or bad, it’s just a totally different mentality.
.... According to RealGM Rules, you can only post 3 paragraphs of a story from another site.
Thanks,
-Kilroy
Around 2000 you became coach of the New Jersey Nets. You took them to back-to-back finals. You didn’t win, but still, you got them to be Eastern Conference champs. Now a few years later in 2004 Phil Jackson left the Lakers, you also didn’t have a job at that time. Why didn’t that Laker-Byron Scott relationship happen then?
I don’t know. I really don’t know. I think timing is always everything. It just didn’t happen for whatever reason. I think I ended up going to New Orleans and taking that job. I don’t regret that one bit because I had this young guy named Chris Paul that I got to know real well, and a couple other guys, Tyson Chandler and David West. But it probably wasn’t just the right time. I mean that’s how I really look at it. It just wasn’t the right time for me to be here in Los Angeles, and I still needed some more experience and I still needed to learn some more things about the coaching. I don’t think I’ll ever learn everything there is to learn about coaching, because if I do, then it’s time to retire. So, it just took me on a different journey, but again, I don’t regret that move at all.
So how are players different now than when you played with Magic and Kareem?
Back in those days, everybody was all about the team, at least the team that I played for. You know, it was no hidden agendas. A lot of these players today, No. 1: They’ve been given a silver spoon with this AAU stuff, so by the time they get to the professional level, if you have a coach like myself, who is pretty demanding, and he jumps on them, they can’t handle that, you know, because they’re not used to coaches yelling at them or screaming, or whatever, or correcting them. Whereas back in our day, it was more of, coach said, ‘Do this,’ we did it. Now you say, ‘Guys I want you to do this,’ it’s more of, ‘Why?’ You know [laughs]. ‘Why should I do that coach?’ So, it’s just a different mentality than it was in the 1970s and 1980s. I’m not saying it’s good or bad, it’s just a totally different mentality.
.... According to RealGM Rules, you can only post 3 paragraphs of a story from another site.
Thanks,
-Kilroy