The fact that Larry Bird announced right when he was hired that he would only coach for three years, then followed up on it despite how good he turned out to be, is one of the most Larry Bird things I've ever heard.
He had always planned on that. When he came in to the NBA he was coached by Bill Finch. He loved Finch. Finch told him not Coach should stay longer then 5 years because your voice gets stale to players. Finch left the Celtics after 4 years I think and KC Jones took over. KC is the one to put Bird at SF Finch had him playing PF.
@@asvpfernright lmao all I see on social media is ppl calling him a plumber or defending him lol no one wanna talk about how he don’t even trust his 2 top 75 players and would check himself in the game haha 😂
That Bob Cousy story has gotta be one of the most embarrassing NBA stories. Old ass mf subbed himself in, ended up choking the lead and losing his previous team's record.
@@night6724You mean for the Wizards? Sorta similar, but nowhere near what Cousy did. Jordan played through those two years as an actual player. He wasn’t a coach on the sidelines for 99% of the season who randomly decided to sometimes hop in the game. Cousy’s story is more like if Steve Nash was randomly subbing himself in when he coached the Nets.
@@night6724 Similar enough? Your reply to someone describing Cousy's story as one of the most embarrassing ever was, "Jordan did the same." Now you're adding on Bill Russell. Cousy wasn't supposed to be on the floor like Jordan and Bill, which is what makes it so embarrassing. Bill and Jordan went through those years as actual players. Playing dozens of games each season and being part of the rotation. Cousy was a cocky coach that impulsively subbed himself in, totaling a measly 34 minutes of playtime that whole season.
Nash’s head coaching career was really over before it began. You hire a head coach with no prior head coaching experience and you’re tasked to handle 3 very talented offensive players with the #1 offense in the league that season at 120 PPG, but can’t do a thing on defense. Add to that the players never really bought in to Nash’s coaching, and you have a recipe for disaster.
@@janoycresnova9156kyrie did nothing wrong joe Tsai was the problem sean marks was the problem and Harden played on a injured Leg for the Nets that's what caused his decline stop pushing narratives
@@philipaguila6202It's a shame that he couldn't coach beyond 2000 after leading the Pacers to their first and (still to date) only trip to the NBA Finals.
I think people are too hard on Nash. Those big 3 he got had a total of like 30 games together during his tenure, and he still had them at the top of the east one of those years.
I still don't understand why the Nets didn't just put their foot down to tell KD and Kyrie that they weren't going to fire Kenny because Jared Allen was actually the better player than DeAndre Jordan. Those two saying that they didn't need a head coach were all they needed to see that Brooklyn was never going to win a championship.
Firing Atkinson wasn’t a bad decision it’s who they hired. If they got ime Udoka or even Jauque Vaughn earlier they could very well be sitting on a championship right now. Nash wasn’t ready for prime time and he’s likely never getting another head coaching gig again.
Nash wasn’t a coach, he was the chaperone for a bunch of high school graduates who wanted to run their own ship. I think the Nets are such a massive stain on KD and Kyrie’s career. It’s not that they just failed, they clearly failed because they wanted things their way and it was blatantly toxic from the start and Nash never stood a chance. His players poisoned that franchise.
The reason why former players that became great coaches were role players is due to mindset. The role player looks at the game when he plays and thinks: "My star is going right, I need to cut left. Where is the rebounder coming from? I need to box him out. If I don't defend this guy, I'm going to get benched". The star player is thinking: "Where is the double team coming from? Should I drive right, or drive left? Do I pull up, spin, or just keep pushing and try to draw a foul?" That mentality translates into coaching. The role player knows how to take in the entirety of the game. The star player only sees how the game effects him, or how he effects the game.
@@Spawn3582 It's hard to say. I want to say Yes, but I also thought that Mark Jackson would be a great coach because he was a brilliant team player. Then his ego derailed his coaching career. Hard to imagine such an unselfish player having an egotistical downfall. If I had to put my money on a hall of famer making it as a great coach, I would feels safe betting on Tim Duncan. The guy was one of, if not the smartest basketball player that I've ever seen.
@@AK-74K Fair point. It makes you wonder what is it about basketball that differentiates it from other sports in that aspect? I can't think of anything off hand. I will have to give that some deeper thought.
true. I think this is especially so for star players that stay in the league long enough to take on role player positions. You get a perspective from both eyes on the court, something that players like Bird, Duncan, and Kobe could only achieve from their careers.
Everything that was out of Nash’s control went wrong. Covid, injuries, bad trades, a roster that never played together, superstars that didn’t think they needed him. We never got to see if he was a good coach or not because he never got to coach the team he was hired to coach
@@NebraskaPoliceDepartment When you are in a constant spotlight for most of your life, there is enough information out there to make conclusions. Have you read about his reign as a Knicks GM?
Bird someday playing golf with MJ and Magic was like: dudes, we can argue for ever who is better player, let's try coaching/managing instead. Aaand he won the bet :D
I wonder how good Larry Bird would have been had he gone beyond 3 years of coaching. He's probably the only one, along with Jerry West who had success as a player, coach, and front office. Elgin Baylor maybe a mention - 86-135 (4 years) Willis Reed 33-77 (2 years)
Coaching takes time to master especially in the professional level. Most fans and organizations expect quick results. Patience is a challenge. Development can be slow and steady or slow and stagnant. Success isn't guaranteed for coaches even if some were good players in the past.
The Nuggets were able to win a title because the front office put their faith in Malone to develop a young team into winners, and for allowing Jokic to flourish in a stable system
I mean Larry bird was probably the only NBA legend to have a successful stint as a NBA HC even tho it was very small and brief Steve Nash never even had a chance to do anything even with KD , James harden and Kyrie They were literally a KD foot away from a conference final in 2021
Nash never really got a proper chance to coach. Had no prior experience and thrown into a team that's supposed to be in win now mode. Then, the supposed big 3 didn't even play together like half a season in the two full seasons he was coach, yet they still were very high in the standings. I think he has the potential to be a great head coach if they just give him time to develop should he get another crack at coaching.
it's hard to say Nash fail or succes, the Nets big 3 is just so good as individual player but not as a team, they play so well on their own, and the real problem of this team is injuries and chemisty and Nash has no impact in the game or the locker room is really put him in the bad position. He should resign when he had the chance cuz we all saw the red flag come from Kyrie then Durant and after that is Harden, so i would say he also had some responsibilities on his failing as a coach because 1.he took the job that he knew he's not capable to do, 2. he could leave when he saw the bag sign but he chose to stay.
I think former superstars tend to fail as head coaches because it's hard for them to teach things that just come naturally to them, while former role players are better at relating to the average player and can better explain the ins and outs of the game
That makes all the sense in the world, role players could be more of the tactician type than a former star or superstar player. Most superstar players have egos and if that continues being a head coach that’s not going to motivate anybody, nobody’s going to buy into anything from anyone being control freaks.
You didn't mention Magic Johnson coaching Lakers near the end of the 1993-94 NBA season and quitting because he wasn't having fun. Which is his usual go to excuse. After losing five straight games he quit with record as a head coach of 5-11.
Before ruining the Knicks, Isiah Thomas was also in charge of the CBA, a league kind of like a minor league for the NBA. It had been around since 1946. He bought it in 1999, and was so bad at running things that it declared bankruptcy and folded in 2001. After that the NBA decided to make its own developmental league (what is now the G League). Isiah was rewarded by getting to become head coach of the Pacers, where he failed. After screwing that up, he got to be president and head coach of the Knicks, where he was atrocious at both. Then he was head coach at Florida International University where he was also terrible. How did he keep getting jobs? Did he have the best agent of all time?
Probably comes down to a small sample size. Being elite at playing and elite at coaching requires having two sets of different skills. %99.9999 of bball people won't reach the elite level in ONE of those positions; you can add a few more 9s to see how many people are elite in both of them.
Thomas was the Executive of the Raptors. Selected Mighty Mouse (7th overall) in 1995, who went on to win RoY. He selected Marcus Camby (2nd overall) in 1996’s extremely stacked draft. He also drafted Tracy McGrady (9th overall) in 1997. That’s some decent drafting. Whether he was directly the reason for those selections or not as executive he gets the credit, likewise regardless of quality of draft class he still gets the credit.
I love Nash as player, he can manage a team all by himself. As Phoenix went from one of the worst records to one of the best. He deserves another chance as coach, maybe doing NCAA for few years gathering experience. But Nash is not bad coach.
Its kind of like what i learned in business: being a successful individual contributor (salespeople are the most common examples) does not always guarantee or translate into becoming a good team leader , supervisor or manager because they all require different skillsets same as a player becoming a coach. One of the main reasons this often fails is because the star player (e.g. Steve Nash) would've often relied on his natural talent but in coaching he would've had a difficult time teaching the players the things or processes he learnt that helped him to become a great point guard or had trouble relating to or understanding players who are not as great as he is/was. While someone who was a role player or never made the league at all(eg. Pat Riley) has a better career as a coach because they had more time to master the soft skills, observe everything from the bench and film what is often missed if they eere starters or always playing and they understand what is it like to work hard and go through the process and have a better time motivating others to be successful
I feel like Cous did that to spite The Big O due to Oscar Robertson surpassing him in all time debates and Oscar’s calling out of the Royals due them being cheap as hell. The only at that time missing for the Big O was the ring he got with the Bucks the next season.
Yo the Nash hate gotta stop. His 3 stars were constantly in and out of the rotation at his first job. Constantly had to find new kineups to send out because he never had his full team. Snd they were still a foot size away from the finals. This shit gotta stop
*Here is my honest opinion:* Larry Bird’s head coaching record is inflated and heavily relied on Rick Carlisle and other assistants to run the team, not to mention he fortunate to have a roster full of veteran players.
Not a great take. It's the job of a head coach to hire great assistants and listen to them when they have ideas worth implementing. It's like a great manager is any walk of life, you need to have great employees that you rely upon
It's crazy that mostly bench/depth/reserve players become great coaches like Riley, Phil, Rudy T, Carlisle, etc. Hell Phil Jackson was the 12th man for the 70s Knicks.
Funny this video starts off talking about how Larry Bird’s success as Pacers coach was an anomaly, but as it goes along talking about the bad coaches there’s no mention of Magic Johnson being a bad coach for the Lakers late in the 93-94 season….. 🤔
Ive heard Magic explain why he couldn't coach. These dudes are literally built different so when he sees someone playing it's like "Why didn't you do xy & z" because that's what they would've done. But not everyone is Magic Johnson, or Isaiah Thomas, etx.
Honestly, not even mentioning Doc Rivers was inexplicably obvious, because people forget that Doc Rivers was a role player who made like 1 or 2 All-Star teams, that did not contribute to winning basketball when he stepped in as head coach. His track record as a coach says it all you need to know
To double down on Isiah: he would eventually get a college HC job at FIU. Literally some of the same antics followed him and the players weren’t fans either. He maybe lasted 1-2 years. That man shouldn’t be anywhere NEAR a bench 😂
It's probably unfair to put Nash in the spot at the moment, with the injuries, personalities and bad front office I'm not sure even Red Auerbach could have taken this team anywhere (Especially with Kyrie there). Elgin Baylor is the one that I can think of, especially since he didn't even have to deal with Sterling wrecking everything yet.
The Nets would've had a better chance to win the championship if they kept Allen for defense (and Dinwiddie and LeVert). Healthier, less ego, more scrappy on D.
Lenny Wilkens, Jason Kidd, Coach Rudy for the Rockets, and Doug Collins all became really really good or legendary coaches… I don’t think the saying is true
I would hardly even accept Steve as a coach . The firing of Kenny was a big mistake to begin with as he joined the warriors , to prove his doubts wrong.
Certain coaches need time to blossom. People stay expecting instant results, especially when they have a mediocre to okay team. So it's not a shocker when NBA legends start as coaches then fail. They're gone before they can even get acquainted.
@@KH-ou4st Yep, JJ is not ready to be a coach and he is going to get blamed for Lakers failing and probably ruin his future coaching career. He should start off as an assistant and work his way up from there
Nash didn't fail, he was just dealt a terrible deck. It's like coming in as an entry level employee and your manager giving you all of his responsibilities. I also blame the primadonnas he had to coach.
Cousy and Unseld definitely were on the same level of coaching but clearly Wes was sightly better than Bob even tho Wes had no consistency Definitely Larry bird was the exception to the rule even though he got carried by his staff and veteran players but still Larry did good work
I don't think that Nash failed that big 3, I think that big 3 simply failed. It was poorly designed Kyrie and Harden are cones, and KD can't defend strong frontcourt players without fouling), that that big 3 was simply crazy. You can't disprove the maxim 'defense wins championships' by adding more great iso players. No one should've thought they'd were a contender. (Knowing how big your feet are is part of shooting.)
