SVG and the Zen Master

trokletak · Post #1 » by **trokletak** » Sat May 16, 2009 7:01 am

I do not post very often, but I thought this was interesting.

The two coaches who are being criticized the most this post-season for mismanaging their teams are the complete opposite of each other.

SVG is getting grilled for panicking, which is funny because that is how he is all the time anyways. It is not like he is suddenly changing character. The dude is freaking out at every game at every moment. I would think his real freak out would be, him sitting down at the bench not yelling at anyone, or cringing his face. His would be, not calling an abrupt time-out when someone blows a defensive assignment, or not making a big deal about giving up 100 plus points. Whatever the merits, the media is running with it. Nevermind that Howard cannot outperform Perkins, or Lewis seems to shy away from the ball towards the end of the games but still act like he should have been given the ball, or that Boston has defended the pick and-roll well leading to a horrible series from Turkoglu, or that Rafer alston is garbage, and that in general Boston has defended very well. The media has found a nice reasoning. If Orlando loses, it is because SVG panics.

The second one is the Zen Master. The guy who never panics, is being grilled in the media, for exactly that reason: being too calm, downplaying LA losses, seeming not worried about almost anything. Still not calling timeouts when his team is down 15-1. Coming up with really lukewarm excuses like Bynum is returning from injury, while the opposing team lost its 2 best players, its sixth man was shot 6 weeks ago, and starts a 6-6 guy to defend his allegedly offensively talented 7 foot center. It took a while, but now it appears that the media's fascination with the Zen method is coming to an end. In the end, it looks like even they (or at least an increasing number of them) will be willing to roll their former legend coach under the bus in order to save the carriers/legacies of a number of under-performing stars.

The stars seem aligned for two cases of fine coach-grilling, both criticized for not being a little more like the other one.

christian72589 · Post #2 » by **christian72589** » Sat May 16, 2009 9:18 am

It's the way of the media dude... anything for a story. That is usually why journalists try to bait players into saying something negative about staff, organization, team mates.

Turkoglu has been playing poorly all playoffs and i disagree that alston is garbage, He just needs to learn his damn role and stop chucking. Dwight can't out perform Perkins? really? I will admit, Perkins has been holding his own, but Dwight has definately been what he needs to be more or less.