duncan228
12-23-2008, 12:11 AM
Edit: Sorry, wrong forum. Please move. :)
Toughest job in pro sports? Interim coach (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Toughest_job_in_pro_sports_Interim_coach.html)
Mike Monroe
It's hard to imagine a more difficult situation than being an NBA assistant coach who is asked to replace the head coach to whom he once answered.
Loyalties are strained, but that's hardly the worst of it. Typically, coaches don't get fired unless their teams are underachieving to an extent deemed unacceptable by management. So interim coaches are handed losers and told they will be considered for long-term employment only if they can accomplish athletic alchemy by turning them into winners.
To Kenny Natt, this is called the opportunity of a lifetime.
Natt, now coaching the Sacramento Kings, became the sixth interim coach of 2008-09 when he replaced Reggie Theus on Dec. 14. He has been around the NBA for 28 years, paying dues aplenty as a journeyman player, scout, administrator and, mostly, as an assistant coach.
Now he is a head coach, so don't try to tell him that his interim tag makes his job harder or minimizes his long-term prospects.
Natt knows the deck is stacked against him. He also knows he is finally in the place he wants to be.
Nothing in sports is more difficult than turning around the mentality that infests losing situations that have become chronic. Little wonder that few interim coaches end up getting the job on a permanent basis.
Natt's approach to taking over the Kings might make him an exception. Schooled for nine seasons on Jazz coach Jerry Sloan's bench, and another three under Cavs coach Mike Brown, he knows what succeeds in the NBA: Hard work, discipline and fundamentals.
I see this as a grand opportunity, Natt said. I've been an assistant for a long time. As a head coach, you have the ability to mold a team. You're making the decisions on what happens.
I sat there for a long time and watched, and learned from, some of the best. I know how to coach. I have confidence in my coaching. I've just never had the opportunity to do it, and I'm grateful that I have it now.
Natt doesn't see his job as teaching Xs and Os. Rather, he wants his players to know right from wrong.
I just want to instill in the guys all the things I have learned over the years. I'm teaching them how to be on time and the discipline you have to have to win in this league; all the things that (Jerry) Sloan taught us.
Four months, he says, is time enough to prove to Kings ownership or another team that he is a capable head coach.
Natt has the support of key veterans. In 11 previous seasons, on six different teams, guard Bobby Jackson never had played for an interim coach. But he likes the changes Natt has made.
He's very old school, Jackson said. He teaches fundamentals and getting the proper things done that are going to win games: being focused and being ready; basic defensive and offensive principles. He's big on the fundamentals of the game. It's good he takes us back to that.
This is good. Young players need that. Some veteran players need that. I think this is a real good thing for us.
Toughest job in pro sports? Interim coach (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Toughest_job_in_pro_sports_Interim_coach.html)
Mike Monroe
It's hard to imagine a more difficult situation than being an NBA assistant coach who is asked to replace the head coach to whom he once answered.
Loyalties are strained, but that's hardly the worst of it. Typically, coaches don't get fired unless their teams are underachieving to an extent deemed unacceptable by management. So interim coaches are handed losers and told they will be considered for long-term employment only if they can accomplish athletic alchemy by turning them into winners.
To Kenny Natt, this is called the opportunity of a lifetime.
Natt, now coaching the Sacramento Kings, became the sixth interim coach of 2008-09 when he replaced Reggie Theus on Dec. 14. He has been around the NBA for 28 years, paying dues aplenty as a journeyman player, scout, administrator and, mostly, as an assistant coach.
Now he is a head coach, so don't try to tell him that his interim tag makes his job harder or minimizes his long-term prospects.
Natt knows the deck is stacked against him. He also knows he is finally in the place he wants to be.
Nothing in sports is more difficult than turning around the mentality that infests losing situations that have become chronic. Little wonder that few interim coaches end up getting the job on a permanent basis.
Natt's approach to taking over the Kings might make him an exception. Schooled for nine seasons on Jazz coach Jerry Sloan's bench, and another three under Cavs coach Mike Brown, he knows what succeeds in the NBA: Hard work, discipline and fundamentals.
I see this as a grand opportunity, Natt said. I've been an assistant for a long time. As a head coach, you have the ability to mold a team. You're making the decisions on what happens.
I sat there for a long time and watched, and learned from, some of the best. I know how to coach. I have confidence in my coaching. I've just never had the opportunity to do it, and I'm grateful that I have it now.
Natt doesn't see his job as teaching Xs and Os. Rather, he wants his players to know right from wrong.
I just want to instill in the guys all the things I have learned over the years. I'm teaching them how to be on time and the discipline you have to have to win in this league; all the things that (Jerry) Sloan taught us.
Four months, he says, is time enough to prove to Kings ownership or another team that he is a capable head coach.
Natt has the support of key veterans. In 11 previous seasons, on six different teams, guard Bobby Jackson never had played for an interim coach. But he likes the changes Natt has made.
He's very old school, Jackson said. He teaches fundamentals and getting the proper things done that are going to win games: being focused and being ready; basic defensive and offensive principles. He's big on the fundamentals of the game. It's good he takes us back to that.
This is good. Young players need that. Some veteran players need that. I think this is a real good thing for us.