Monday, October 09, 2006

Doc Rivers one of Big Ben's Favorite Coaches

Well, we know the players certainly love Doc, but here's the quote
from an ESPN.com piece:

Wallace mentioned Jim Lynam, Doc Rivers, Rick Carlisle and Larry Brown
as the favorite coaches he has played for, going on to say Skiles
reminds him of Brown because he does not play favorites and sees
himself as a teacher at both ends of the floor.

The gist of the piece is that Ben Wallace does not like Flip Saunders
one bit. Hard to see how a coach could piss off a guy whose entire
game is based on hustle and heart, but he did it. I've always viewed
Flip as a decent coach (and the Pistons hot start last year certainly
boosted that opinion) and his many playoff failures in Minnesota as
being a product of not having enough talent beside KG (Kevin McHale's
fault naturally), but to hear Big Ben complain about Flip certainly
changes my opinion a little bit. Hard to say what went wrong between
these guys and maybe more will come out as camps and preaseason
begins, but how does Joe Dumars go with Flip given what Wallace has
said and the fact that he left the team? Maybe Flip and Joe save a
little face because Wallace left for more money in Chicago, but I
suspect that Flip has to be on the hot seat from the moment the first
ball is tipped.

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