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It's time again for the coaching beauty pageant
by Roland Lazenby / March 30, 2006

Auerbach didn’t win it that year. Harry Galatin with the old St. Louis Hawks got the nod.

Nor did Auerbach get the award the next year when his team won its seventh title. That award went to Alex Hannum, coach of a Golden State Warriors team that featured both Wilt Chamberlain and Nate Thurmond and was drilled by Auerbach’s Celtics in the NBA Finals that season.

Finally, in 1965, his last season as coach, Auerbach was finally honored as Coach of the Year as his Celtics claimed an eighth title.

Today the award bears his name, which may be the league’s way of making up for all those snubs.

The circumstances reveal that the coaching fraternity is often uncharitable when it comes to rewarding winners. If you don’t believe that, just ask John Kundla. He coached the old Minneapolis Lakers to six pro basketball championships (including five NBA titles) and had to wait more than four decades to be elected to the Hall of Fame.

The truth is, nobody much likes winning coaches. Auerbach was despised by his peers back in the day.

“Having Bill Russell made Auerbach a coach,” former Syracuse Nats coach Al Cervi once told me. “He’s the biggest phony who ever walked the streets of America.”

“Red was hated around the league,” Paul Seymour, another former NBA coach, once offered while I was interviewing him. “He always had the talent. He was always shooting his mouth off.”

When I asked Auerbach about their opinions, he replied, “Nothing instigates jealousy like winning.”

A dozen years ago, I reminded Phil Jackson, another of the league’s unpopular winners, of these very circumstances. He had already guided the Bulls to three straight titles without being named Coach of the Year. I mentioned that Kundla had waited 40 years for recognition.

Jackson responded with one of his trademark glinting smiles. “I know,” he said.

The NBA had no choice but to give him the award in 1996 when his Bulls set the all-time winning mark with a 72-10 season and their fourth title.

Now, in 2006, it just may be Jackson’s turn to win the award again. It pains me a bit to say that. I’ve been one of the Zen Master’s sternest critics in recent years. He was an absolutely malignant force in manipulating his way through the 2004 season with the Lakers. When team owner Jerry Buss fired him at the end of that season, he fully deserved it.

Yet Jackson has done an exceptional job with a young and inexperienced Laker roster this season. His work with Kwame Brown this year is arguably the finest rescue project in the history of the NBA. The league, after all, has drafted in recent years many young players who are unprepared for professional basketball.

The Washington Wizards with then executive Michael Jordan made Brown an overall No. 1 pick out of a Georgia high school, but the prospect quickly became a poster child for the league’s deeply flawed approach of speculatively drafting high school talent.

Brimming with talent but sorely lacking in fundamentals, the immature Brown became a pariah in Washington, booed by Wizard crowds and disrespected by teammates. When the Lakers traded for him in the offseason, I remember telling a Washington sportswriter that Jackson would help Brown become a real player.

“Kwame Brown?” the writer asked incredulously. “That guy’s a loser and a creep.”

Actually, it has taken Jackson and his outstanding staff longer than I thought it would to begin to turn Kwame around, but that’s only because of my naivete. It’s a lot of work to take a lost young millionaire and help him make something of himself.

Like me, Laker fans have been impatient with the process, often letting their frustration and boos cascade down on a fumbling, stumbling Kwame in Staples Center. In my interviews with him, I discovered a sensitive, sincere young man, willing to work his way through a very public process.

Now Brown’s the primary reason the Lakers were able to put together a win streak in late March that gives them huge momentum in securing a spot in the playoffs. Having seen some consistency develop in Kwame’s game leads one to think that he could become a consistent double-double guy with real promise as a defender.

Brown deserves great credit for making himself a player, and so does Jackson. When he got Brown in training camp, there was no question the player was considered damaged goods with some mental mountains to climb.

Will this effort be enough to get Jackson named Coach of the Year?

That’s tough to say, because the competition is once again tough.

Clippers GM Elgin Baylor likes his own coach, Mike Dunleavy, who has pushed up the team’s win total for three straight seasons. Now, the Clips are looking at a playoff berth for the first time in almost a decade.

"When you look at the injuries we've had, and where we're at, you have to give a lot of credit to Mike and his staff," Baylor told the Los Angeles Times. "The team has played well, and that starts with the coach."

"I'm not real comfortable even talking about that," said Dunleavy, who won the award in 1999 while coaching in Portland.

Neither he nor Jackson is what you’d call a shoo-in.

Consider the long list of other nominees (in no certain order):

- Jerry Sloan, Utah. Why he should win it: Because he has one standard for his players – if you lay your heart on the line every night, then you have a chance to win. The NBA needs the Sloan ethic more than ever. He has been consistently outstanding, even though Jazz owner Larry Miller has strangely teetered in supporting Sloan this season. Why he won’t: He coaches in Utah.

- Lawrence Frank, New Jersey. Why he should win it: His team arguably is playing the best basketball in the league at the right time of year. Why he won’t: Hasn’t established the long-term credentials yet.

- Pat Riley, Miami. Why he should win it: He actually took on Shaq a bit this season, urging him toward better conditioning, rather then continuing to coddle the big guy. Riley also has worked to pull together the rapidly assembled Heat roster into a cohesive group that can challenge for a title. Why he won’t: Riley deserted this team during troubled times and returned when Shaq arrived. It’s too soon to prove he has accomplished anything.

- Gregg Popovich, San Antonio: Why he should win it: Because the Spurs have been consistently excellent the past seven seasons. He’s not only pushed them there, he and the staff have kept them there. Why he won’t: He just won it in 2003.

- Flip Saunders, Detroit. Why he should win it: He’s taken what was thought to be a mediocre offensive team in the Pistons and made them a force that relies on multiple weapons. Why he won’t: Some observers think the Pistons have peaked too early, but don’t bet on that.

- Mike D’Antoni, Phoenix. Why he should win it: He lost to injury the most extraordinary big man to come along in years, and for much of the season the Suns didn’t seem to miss a beat. Losing Amare Stoudemire exposed what a fine coach D’Antoni is. Why he won’t win: The Suns aren’t playing well down the stretch in late March.

- Avery Johnson, Dallas. Why he should win it: He has accomplished the unbelievable – getting the Mavericks to win with defense. That’s how they’ve become a legit contender. Why he won’t: Not sure, except that he’s short on the resume. In fact, he may well win it.

- Mike Fratello, Memphis. Why he should win it: He’s built smartly on the work that Hubie Brown did in Memphis. Executive Jerry West has provided Fratello with veteran leadership in Eddie Jones and company, and Fratello has shown that he knows how to get growth out of his players. The best example of that is the explosion of Pau Gasol. Why Fratello won’t win: Not enough publicity for what he has done. The Griz have made their move up the ladder a rather quiet one.

And the winner is?

Who knows? If Jackson doesn’t get it, I’m always in favor of giving it to Jerry Sloan. The league needs a lot more of Sloan in its mindset. Sloan has deserved this award for years and never gotten it. He has coached through a ton of injuries and a major rebuilding project over the past three seasons. He never compromises on commitment. He never coddles players. He doesn’t want players who want to be coddled. He’s the ultimate coach. If that can’t get you the award, then what good is it?

Even Red will tell you that.

Roland Lazenby is the author of The Show: The Inside Story Of The Spectacular Los Angeles Lakers In The Words Of Those Who Lived It, recently released by McGraw-Hill

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