Very good read. Really puts Coachie into perspective with regard to how he contributes and where he is at in his coaching career. I am so glad that the young players are coming to him to learn the tricks of the trade! I am sure Coachie has seen a lot of basketball in his days, and probably has seen every type of way to win and lose games. Pete Carill in another lifetime was a very good coach of a very upstart little IVY League school called Princeton. There is an Offense in the Game of Basketball named after him for goodness sake! It is an elegant form of basketball that we all loved watching during the C-Webb-Vlade-Bibby days when the Princeton offense was run to perfection!! And what a fine coach he was in his day. He competed with the likes of Coach Wooden at UCLA no less on the chessboard of college coaching! Not many can say that and say they had any success at all. Coachie is really an amazing man, and I am so glad that he is still here, still willing to impart all that important knowledge to the young ones that really want to be good like Evans an Donte Greene.
I think that is the greatest thing about how Coachie goes about his business and how Geoff has let him do his coaching style. I hate to use the Analogy of Yoda, but it fits so well!
. The Young kids COME TO HIM when they are ready to take the next step. To find out what it is in their game that is keeping them from taking that next step. Coachie watches basketball and knows basketball inside and out. It the youngsters are willing to be patient and listen to his wisdom, he has much to teach. If they are in too much of a hurry, then they need to wait till they slow down to learn at Coachie's speed of teaching! Pete Carill didn't get this far not knowing anything about basketball, and I have seen and heard far too many basketball GREATS attribute part of their greatness and knowledge of the game to Coachie. That kind of wisdom is priceless when wisdom of any kind is always in short supply.
I hope Coachie stays and helps out with the Kings just as long as he wants to continue doing it. As long as he has the energy and desire to impart his wisdom, the Kings would be foolish to part ways with this walking basketball dictionary. When even the Great coaches and Basketball minds of our time go to Coachie for advice, there is something very special about the man the advice is coming from. Coach Westphal speaks highly of him and Geoff Petrie absolutely idolizes him! May Coachie have a long and continued prosperous career ahead of him in whatever he chooses to do !!!
p.s. Coachie is one of the reasons my wife watches basketball with me. She really gets a kick out of the fact that someome as old and small as Coachie is still relevant to the NBA game TODAY!
