SPECIAL WEEKEND EDITION
Phil-thy mouth taunts Kwame
Editor's note: ESPN.com senior NBA writer Marc Stein supplies each item for this weekly around-the-league notebook edition of the Dime.
By Marc Stein
ESPN.com
You know about his controversial book and the relationship he's trying to rebuild with Kobe Bryant.
You also probably know that he's now co-hosting a weekly Sirius radio show on the same satellite network as Howard Stern, who, we can confirm, isn't related to David Stern.
And, yes, you heard right: Phil Jackson did indeed tell reporters earlier this week that he has been regularly calling Kwame Brown a sissy. Except the crude word Phil has been using makes sissy sound like a compliment.
The Zenmeister obviously has lots to say in his twilight coaching years. Great news for anyone who wants to be entertained by the ultimate insider.
I'm nonetheless moved to ask: Shouldn't the Kwame quote have caused at least a minor furor?
The reflex answer: Because it is Phil Jackson -- and because it is Kwame Brown -- there isn't a great rush to challenge the remark. Jackson has as much credibility as anyone who has ever coached this game. Brown's toughness has been questioned every day of his NBA career.
Phil can actually say anything he wants about anything. Right?
Still ...
It's one of the most stunning on-the-record remarks I can remember.
You never, ever hear a coach publicly say something like that about one of his players, even in jest. Anything goes in the locker room or on the practice floor, but this? The stuff in the book about "uncoachable" Kobe doesn't come close.
I could believe it was never meant for public consumption -- just Jackson being quippy with writers before a game -- if Jackson's explanation wasn't another shot. "The thing I do is that I meow when I go by him," Jackson said Thursday, trying to downplay his original remark by revealing that Lakers assistant Brian Shaw has been making cat noises around Brown.
Shaw insists the whole idea was trying to get Brown believing he can be a Big Cat down low. Believable or not, the clear feeling you get from Jackson is that he's fed up with Kwame already, with Brown having missed nine games with thumb and hamstring ailments and looking lost when he has been available.
I thought all along, as soon as the Lakers dealt for Brown, that Phil-Kwame relations would be a much bigger problem than the Phil-Kobe dynamic. Yet I never expected Phil, after just two months, to let something like this slip to the press when he knows Brown's history of fragility. Phil, after all, did get the full Kwame scouting report from Michael Jordan before the season began.
The kid has been coddled long enough, no question, but I thought Jackson's methods of motivation were a bit more sophisticated. He has always seemed to know exactly who could and couldn't handle these psychological ploys. It seems awfully early in the Kwame experiment to choose this path, no matter how disappointing he has been so far.
A happy ending here would see the 23-year-old prove us all wrong and use this new low in Kwame-bashing as the pivotal point in an overdue turnaround. Yet you don't have to be a veteran Kwame-watcher to know that would be a surprise ending. A massive surprise. The smaller surprise? Keeping things in-house this time, as he promised, hasn't been as easy as the Zenmeister of multimedia made it sound.
source: ESPN
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dailydime-051210-11
Phil-thy mouth taunts Kwame
Editor's note: ESPN.com senior NBA writer Marc Stein supplies each item for this weekly around-the-league notebook edition of the Dime.
By Marc Stein
ESPN.com
You know about his controversial book and the relationship he's trying to rebuild with Kobe Bryant.
You also probably know that he's now co-hosting a weekly Sirius radio show on the same satellite network as Howard Stern, who, we can confirm, isn't related to David Stern.
And, yes, you heard right: Phil Jackson did indeed tell reporters earlier this week that he has been regularly calling Kwame Brown a sissy. Except the crude word Phil has been using makes sissy sound like a compliment.
The Zenmeister obviously has lots to say in his twilight coaching years. Great news for anyone who wants to be entertained by the ultimate insider.
I'm nonetheless moved to ask: Shouldn't the Kwame quote have caused at least a minor furor?
The reflex answer: Because it is Phil Jackson -- and because it is Kwame Brown -- there isn't a great rush to challenge the remark. Jackson has as much credibility as anyone who has ever coached this game. Brown's toughness has been questioned every day of his NBA career.
Phil can actually say anything he wants about anything. Right?
Still ...
It's one of the most stunning on-the-record remarks I can remember.
You never, ever hear a coach publicly say something like that about one of his players, even in jest. Anything goes in the locker room or on the practice floor, but this? The stuff in the book about "uncoachable" Kobe doesn't come close.
I could believe it was never meant for public consumption -- just Jackson being quippy with writers before a game -- if Jackson's explanation wasn't another shot. "The thing I do is that I meow when I go by him," Jackson said Thursday, trying to downplay his original remark by revealing that Lakers assistant Brian Shaw has been making cat noises around Brown.
Shaw insists the whole idea was trying to get Brown believing he can be a Big Cat down low. Believable or not, the clear feeling you get from Jackson is that he's fed up with Kwame already, with Brown having missed nine games with thumb and hamstring ailments and looking lost when he has been available.
I thought all along, as soon as the Lakers dealt for Brown, that Phil-Kwame relations would be a much bigger problem than the Phil-Kobe dynamic. Yet I never expected Phil, after just two months, to let something like this slip to the press when he knows Brown's history of fragility. Phil, after all, did get the full Kwame scouting report from Michael Jordan before the season began.
The kid has been coddled long enough, no question, but I thought Jackson's methods of motivation were a bit more sophisticated. He has always seemed to know exactly who could and couldn't handle these psychological ploys. It seems awfully early in the Kwame experiment to choose this path, no matter how disappointing he has been so far.
A happy ending here would see the 23-year-old prove us all wrong and use this new low in Kwame-bashing as the pivotal point in an overdue turnaround. Yet you don't have to be a veteran Kwame-watcher to know that would be a surprise ending. A massive surprise. The smaller surprise? Keeping things in-house this time, as he promised, hasn't been as easy as the Zenmeister of multimedia made it sound.
source: ESPN
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dailydime-051210-11
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