HoopsHype.com Rumors

Scott Howard-Cooper: Bill Sharman, 86, back at the Hall tonight after health issues kept him away from Buss induction in '10, Tex Winter in '11. Good, good man. Twitter

Hall of Fame, Tex Winter, Bill Sharman 

Roland Lazenby: Tex Winter told me a few years back that Kobe was aware of and quite concerned about his image, that he wanted to do the right thing. Twitter

Los Angeles Lakers, Kobe Bryant, Tex Winter 

Roland Lazenby: As different as MJ and Kobe are, Tex Winter used to admit that he+the coaching staff were intrigued by their similarities. Twitter

Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Coaching, Tex Winter 

Roland Lazenby: Tex said the Lakers coaches immediately fixed on the fact that MJ's hands were larger than Kobe's. This changed somewhat how they attacked. Twitter

Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Coaching, Tex Winter 

These developments were mostly curious to me until my dear friend (and Lakers assistant coach/triangle offense guru) Tex Winter began privately expressing concerns about Jimbo’s influence on the franchise several years ago. Tex is the most honest, unfettered soul I’ve met in 30 years of stalking the hallways of basketball. He has had no real agenda other than winning games and Tex considered Jim Buss a major loose cannon, particularly in his dealings with young center Andrew Bynum. Jim’s approach created a strange atmosphere around the team, according to Tex, who had spent more than six decades coaching hoops. He had been the steadying force for the Bulls franchise when it was being ripped apart by a war between Jackson and Jerry Krause. HoopsHype

Los Angeles Lakers, Andrew Bynum, Jerry Buss, Tex Winter, Jim Buss 

Roland Lazenby: Tex loved Phil, but he also quite aware that Phil wasn't always doing the right thing. Twitter

Los Angeles Lakers, Phil Jackson, Coaching, Tex Winter 

Roland Lazenby: Tex told me Phil calculated that if he told Jerry West to step out of the locker room, that his ego wouldn't be able to handle it. Twitter

Los Angeles Lakers, Phil Jackson, Coaching, Jerry West, Tex Winter 

Roland Lazenby: Phil Jackson wanted West gone, and he knew asking him out of the locker room in front of the team would humiliate him. Twitter

Los Angeles Lakers, Phil Jackson, Coaching, Jerry West, Tex Winter 

Roland Lazenby: Tex didn't tell me about the incident first. Another NBA source, who told me, said, Can you believe that Phil Jackson kicked the Logo out? Twitter

Los Angeles Lakers, Phil Jackson, Coaching, Jerry West, Tex Winter 

Roland Lazenby: Some argued Phil was only doing what needed to be done. Push Jerry West away+create room to coach the team, as I explained in my book. Twitter

Los Angeles Lakers, Phil Jackson, Coaching, Jerry West, Tex Winter 

Roland Lazenby: Eddie Jones loved Jerry West but told me Jackson needed to create team space. Always the question: Was it West's team or the coach's? Twitter

Los Angeles Lakers, Phil Jackson, Coaching, Jerry West, Tex Winter, Eddie Jones 

Clarence Gaines recalls Pippen and Jordan talking in the days after they were teammates with Clyde Drexler on Team USA in 1992. “Pip said this to MJ on the team bus after they had been on the Dream team,” Gaines recalled. “If Clyde Drexler had Tex Winter as a coach, he could be on the level of Michael Jordan. Bottom line, Clyde was not a fundamentally sound player.” HoopsHype

Michael Jordan, Coaching, Team USA, Clyde Drexler, Tex Winter 

His appreciation for the assembled talent left Tex holding the highest regard for the owners who stretched far beyond the mean, Jerry Reinsdorf in Chicago and Jerry Buss in Los Angeles, to acquire tremendous talent for Jackson’s coaching staff to work with. Likewise, he was quite mindful that those same owners shelled out substantial dollars to make him the highest paid assistant in the NBA, an extraordinary commitment in itself. “They’ve paid me a fabulous salary,” Tex told me more than once. HoopsHype

Coaching, Tex Winter 

When Bulls executive Jerry Krause brought Tex on board as an assistant and a consultant, he would be awed by the immense athleticism, quickness and strength of a young Michael Jordan, so much so that Tex confessed to being intimidated by the athletic force he encountered and even reluctant to approach him. HoopsHype

Chicago Bulls, Michael Jordan, Coaching, Tex Winter 

But as entertaining as Rodman was closing the show as the 10th honoree, Winter was simply heroic. Just being there was an awesome feat for Winter. “I’m just happy to be alive,” the 89-year-old former coach said in an interview Thursday. Two years ago, he suffered a stroke. Chicago Sun-Times

Hall of Fame, Tex Winter 

Winter has had to learn how to walk and talk all over again. But the stroke hampers his train of thought and limits him to just a few words before his mind wanders and he becomes incoherent. “I’m sorry,” Winter would say during his interview when he’d start a sentence, then lose his train of thought. Chicago Sun-Times

Hall of Fame, Tex Winter 

KC Johnson: Krause got choked up on my first question to him about Tex so you can bet he'll be crying once Tex gets on stage. Twitter

Hall of Fame, Tex Winter, Jerry Krause 

Luc Mbah a Moute: Tex winter's son probably had the worst speech of the history of the #NBAHalloffame. So sad knowing what the man's legacy is. Twitter

Hall of Fame, Tex Winter 

Chris speaks now for the old coach he calls, simply, "Dad." At 89, the elder Winter has recovered as much as he's going to recover from a stroke suffered in 2009. If ol' Tex could draw up a play to beat it, he would. But this is an opponent no amount of grace or beauty can match up against. "I read him pretty well, but this is not what's on his mind all the time," Chris said. "At a certain point, I just make things up. You're getting it second hand. Sometimes it's things he's told me, sometimes it's things I think he's told me, and sometimes it might just be my opinion." CBSSports.com

Hall of Fame, Tex Winter 

Other than an inauspicious stint as the Houston Rockets head coach from 1972-74, Winter's entire body of NBA work came as an assistant. Now, a quarter century after Jerry Krause hired Winter to serve as Jackson's right-hand man and teach Jordan the triangle, nearly every NBA head coach has an offensive or defensive guru at his side. "He was an assistant, but he was a very high-profile assistant," Chris Winter said. "He didn't do interviews with the press and he didn't write books. He did clinics and stuff, and they sort of made him keep quiet about their strategies, but he really changed the way people think about assistant coaches in basketball. All of these coaches started bringing in these graybeards or just people who knew more about coaching than they did and started listening to them." CBSSports.com

Hall of Fame, Tex Winter