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phil even hardly calls timeouts when the other team goes on runs
phil is a wayoverrated coach
http://tsn.ca/nba/story/?id=281487
THE CANADIAN PRESS
RENO, Nev. -- NBA all-star? Most valuable player? One of the greatest ever?
How about coach.
Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant has developed such a floor presence that Alonzo Mourning can't figure out what exactly it is Lakers coach Phil Jackson is doing on the bench.
"To tell you the truth, Phil doesn't have to do anything but call time outs," said Mourning, the former NBA star who helped lead the Miami Heat to the 2006 championship and twice was the league's defensive player of the year.
"Kobe is the facilitator. He is the one driving the mission of this particular team right now," Mourning said. "The communication level he has with his teammates out there, you can just see it."
"I think Phil is just showing up, to tell you the truth, and Kobe is doing all the work to make this team successful."
Mourning was speaking Wednesday on a teleconference that also included Shane Battier and Wally Szczerbiak promoting the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship at Lake Tahoe.
They're among the 75 sports stars and celebrities scheduled to play in the 20th annual event at Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course July 17-19.
Battier, a small forward for the Houston Rockets who has had relative success defending Bryant, was asked what kind of a putt he would compare to trying to hold the Lakers' star under 20 points.
"I think you would have a double-breaking, 40-foot, downhill slider," he said with a laugh. "Similar to the one Tiger Woods hit in the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines last year on No. 11."
Battier said Bryant has slowly risen to a new level since Shaquille O'Neal left the team in 2004.
"There's been a lot said about Kobe and how important these finals are for him. I think it is finally his team," he said. "He was always sort of Robin to Shaq's Bat Man."
"When you are the main catalyst on a team and you win a championship, it sets you apart. Kobe knows that. The basketball world knows that. It really is what is driving him at this point."
Mourning said he's cheering for the Orlando Magic to bounce back from a 2-1 deficit Thursday night and win the le because of his long relationship with coach Stan Van Gundy and longtime friend Patrick Ewing.
He said he doesn't see them pulling it off unless they step up their defence and especially clamp down on Bryant.
"Once you get to the finals you've got to establish a defensive presence and use your defence to stimulate your offence," Mourning said.
"It sort of puzzles me with Stan because he was under the tutelage of Pat Riley, who is obviously a huge defensive advocate, that he would take a more aggressive approach, especially with the pick and roll play," he said.
"When I see the way Orlando is playing that pick and roll, it is just ridiculous -- slacking back on the screen and giving Kobe air space. You've got to get Kobe to turn his back on a hard trap, get the ball out of his hands and deny the ball back to him.
"By then, time is off the clock and somebody else has to make a decision. ... I like Orlando's chances if they play it that way."
Szczerbiak said the Magic looked more like the team that eliminated his Cleveland Cavaliers from the Eastern Conference finals when they beat the Lakers 108-104 Tuesday night.
"Shooting 63 per cent from the field and playing well especially on the offensive end of the floor -- making 3-pointers and scoring down low," he said. "We were trying to devise every scheme known to man and we just couldn't stop them."
phil even hardly calls timeouts when the other team goes on runs
phil is a wayoverrated coach
I'll never forgive the Mavs for allowing Zo to become an NBA champion.
Zo is a sissy cuckold.
Kobe should stop coaching and start passing and making FT's.
Was funny to see Kobe with the board schooling Pao the other night. Hopefully it's an omen of some sort, like when Mike Brown was shown gathering the troops to get assignments from the offensive coordinator.
If Phil is letting Kobe coach maybe Kobe should let Phil shoot his foul shots.
Mourning is just trying to get even for all those years that Phil and the Bulls owned him and the Heat.
Not working.
Since when should back-stabbing, coat-tailing riding Mourning chime in about championship basketball?
A head dissing another head. Fine by me!
This is like Charles Barkley telling Michael Jordan how to win championships.
But PJ is over-rated as some says.
His idea of a time out is to call it, go out on the floor and talk to the coaches for the first 80% of the time-out and then in the last 20%, talk to the players and say things like: "They're getting too many second chances...don't let it happen!"
Duh...!
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