the thing that bothered me the most during the season was not so much the criticizing Doc....you are not going to be a person in a key position in the Boston sports scene (whether it be player, coach or exec) that is going to be immune to criticism.
If Larry Bird was the GM of this team and was doing a bad job, fans here would quickly set aside their reverence for him as a player let him know EVERY mistake that he made in his new position...and i don't really have a problem with that dynamic. i probably wouldn't be so quick to criticize personally, but i understand the idea of holding people to a Red Auerbach type measuring stick. it certainly reminds people who come here what is expected of them and it keeps the traditions alive.
but the thing that bothered me about the Doc criticisms was that it was based on what seemed to me to be a fundamentally incorrect belief - that being that Doc was a bad coach....that he didn't know what he was doing out there....
many have pointed out that Doc got better as the playoffs went along and while that is technically true, it doesn't validate the original belief that Doc was a bad coach up until the very end when he all of a sudden got good.
the whole team got better during the playoffs, but nobody would maintain that KG or Paul or Ray were not good players before we won a Title. the winning of the Title just takes things to a whole new level.
The fact of the matter is that Doc has been a good coach all season long and the thing that was wrong was the belief at the earlier stages that Doc wasn't just that.
heck, one of the biggest problems people had with Doc were his "crazy" rotations and those continued right on to through game 6 of the Finals with BBD and Leon making up our front court at a time when the game was still a game...
we came back in game 5 with back courts of Cassell and TA...
we made the biggest comeback in playoff history with SMALL BALL for gosh sakes...
so aside from Doc getting better at managing in playoffs, there was a more fundamental belief that got corrected this season and that was the idea that Doc was not a good coach. it doesn't mean that he didn't make mistakes and it doesn't mean that fans can't complain about those mistakes, but it does mean that those complaints simply cannot any longer be based on the idea that Doc is not good at being a coach or somehow doesn't know what he is doing out there.
that belief has now been officially dispelled. and for Doc's sake, i am very happy about that.
the very best coaches in the NBA make mistakes (Pop and Phil can attest to that from this season) and i'm sure Doc will continue to make his fair share, but i think at this point we can put to bed the idea that his mistakes are/were born out him not being good at his job...
Topic: What I was wrong about. (just like I told Chris I would do if this happened) (Read 5707 times)