(08-22-2011 03:24 PM)HoopDreams Wrote:  

(08-22-2011 03:19 PM)Midtown Wrote:  Ok, would you rather have NO assistant like Josh was suggesting before or get an NBA veteran that will add more notoriety to the program, be able to teach the players new skills, and help take some of the slack off the rest of the coaching staff while he's here?

#hatersgonnahate

While I agree, what happens when he leaves mid-season?

we'll be back where we are now, no loss.
When was the last time we had a "big man coach", even if it's temporary.

(08-22-2011 03:26 PM)FUT Wrote:  this is a major head scratcher.

I simply do not see what he brings to the table.

Im with you on this FUT. What does he bring. I think we need a recruiter

(08-22-2011 03:28 PM)Bill83 Wrote:  

(08-22-2011 03:24 PM)HoopDreams Wrote:  

(08-22-2011 03:19 PM)Midtown Wrote:  Ok, would you rather have NO assistant like Josh was suggesting before or get an NBA veteran that will add more notoriety to the program, be able to teach the players new skills, and help take some of the slack off the rest of the coaching staff while he's here?

#hatersgonnahate

While I agree, what happens when he leaves mid-season?

we'll be back where we are now, no loss.
When was the last time we had a "big man coach", even if it's temporary.

yeah, his post game is awesome (sarcasm).

(08-22-2011 03:29 PM)FUT Wrote:  

(08-22-2011 03:28 PM)Bill83 Wrote:  

(08-22-2011 03:24 PM)HoopDreams Wrote:  

(08-22-2011 03:19 PM)Midtown Wrote:  Ok, would you rather have NO assistant like Josh was suggesting before or get an NBA veteran that will add more notoriety to the program, be able to teach the players new skills, and help take some of the slack off the rest of the coaching staff while he's here?

#hatersgonnahate

While I agree, what happens when he leaves mid-season?

we'll be back where we are now, no loss.
When was the last time we had a "big man coach", even if it's temporary.

yeah, his post game is awesome (sarcasm).

So you dont think that having a current NBA player on staff is a good thing? One that also has two rings and plays for arguably the best coach and team in the NBA?

Not so sure what to think about this. The biggest win is that the "brand" Memphis will be in the news for a pretty unique hire.

An outside the box hire like this IS a recruiting tool. It gains us national attention and fills a spot (albeit temporarily) that Josh might not have filled otherwise.

(08-22-2011 03:31 PM)homefry20 Wrote:  So you dont think that having a current NBA player on staff is a good thing? One that also has two rings and plays for arguably the best coach and team in the NBA?

No

(08-22-2011 03:31 PM)homefry20 Wrote:  So you dont think that having a current NBA player on staff is a good thing? One that also has two rings and plays for arguably the best coach and team in the NBA?

was Adam Morrison not available?

if we are looking to make a splash just hire Penny and tell him he never has to show up. If you are looking for a coach to, you know, coach the players you might want to go find, I don’t know, a coach.

#boo

#snicker

You forgot to it.

The video messages from Carmelo and Dwight Howard at Madness may have just gotten trumped...

Imagine Phil Jackson and Kobe Bryant video messages at this years event?

Phil Jackson LOVES Luke Walton...

Not to mention he is a player in HollyWood... the sky is literally the LIMIT for Madness Video Message candidates!!

our locker room is going to smell like patchouli

Why all the negativity? This is a great hire. Look at the bright side, the female attendance at games will instantly increase.

Damn people. It should be obvious by now that White is not coming this year. He's already started school in ATL. It's a temporary hire of a guy with two NBA championship rings that played under a coach with more rings than fingers. If the choice comes down to nobody and Walton for a year, seems like a no-brainer to me, I take Walton. Is Walton a hall of fame player in the NBA? No. Was Phil Jackson? No. Give him a chance. He may surprise some folks.

(08-22-2011 03:42 PM)btipton1 Wrote:  The video messages from Carmelo and Dwight Howard at Madness may have just gotten trumped...

Imagine Phil Jackson and Kobe Bryant video messages at this years event?

Phil Jackson LOVES Luke Walton...

Not to mention he is a player in HollyWood... the sky is literally the LIMIT for Madness Video Message candidates!!

yeah, we should all welcome Phil with open arms.

Dresden after the war

Quote:11:45 a.m. If you've ever flown into the Memphis airport, you know that the terminal is basically three shades of brown on brown on brown. It's unbelievably depressing. Memphis is my unquestioned least favorite city on the NBA circuit. Portland and Seattle are my favorites, along with Toronto, New York, Washington, Chicago and Los Angeles.

My favorite story about Memphis comes from when I was covering the Lakers. The team held a Sunday night practice at FedExForum and while making small talk with Phil Jackson, somebody asked him what he thought of the city. His response was that downtown Memphis looked like "Dresden after the war." Our collective jaws dropped.

We all put it in our stories, knowing Phil's way of savaging cities he doesn't like. Even by his standards, though, comparing Memphis to one of Germany's bombed-out cities in World War II was pretty harsh. Two months later, I go into the office at my old paper and there's a letter in my box written by the head of the Memphis Chamber of Commerce.

He writes that he read my story online and took exception to what Jackson said. In addition to listing about a dozen redevelopment projects, he is extending Phil Jackson an invitation to visit Memphis and see all the ways the city is being revitalized. I bring the letter that night to the Lakers game at Staples Center and give it to p.r. guy John Black.

"Phil's going to love this," Black says. He takes the letter in the coaches office, comes out and says Jackson's planning on e-mailing the guy back that night. The locker room is now closed, but when I catch up with Phil after his postgame press conference, I ask what he's going to write back.

"I'm going to say all that might be the case," Jackson said, talking about the redevelopment projects, "but the city still looks like Dresden after the war."

That's Phil Jackson for you

(08-22-2011 03:44 PM)SmokeyOneKenobi Wrote:  our locker room is going to smell like patchouli

Ha.

(08-22-2011 03:47 PM)UofM_Tiger Wrote:  Damn people. It should be obvious by now that White is not coming this year. He's already started school in ATL. It's a temporary hire of a guy with two NBA championship rings that played under a coach with more rings than fingers. If the choice comes down to nobody and Walton for a year, seems like a no-brainer to me, I take Walton. Is Walton a hall of fame player in the NBA? No. Was Phil Jackson? No. Give him a chance. He may surprise some folks.

+1

Every news outlet is going to add the line that the AP added (see bold below). No way is the press going to let us forget that game....

Quote:MEMPHIS, Tenn.—Los Angeles forward Luke Walton will be working as an assistant to Memphis coach Josh Pastner in a deal that ends along with the NBA lockout so he can rejoin the Lakers.

Pastner announced the hiring Monday in a move that must be approved by university and Tennessee State Board of Regents. But the coach says the Tigers can learn a lot from Walton who has been coached by Phil Jackson and played with Kobe Bryant.

Walton has two years left on his contract with the Lakers who drafted him in the second round out of Arizona in 2003.

His father, Bill, has his own history with Memphis. Bill Walton scored 44 points on 21 of 22 shooting to beat then-Memphis State 87-66 in the 1973 NCAA tournament championship.