[TimesPicayune] Bass' Hornets tenure offic …
http://www.nola.com/hornets/t-p/index.ssf?/base/sports-1/1088582440127890.xml
Bass' Hornets tenure officially ends
GM brought in talent, didn't have a losing season while with team
Wednesday, June 30, 2004
By John Reid
Staff writer
In his nine years with the Hornets, Bob Bass hired four head
coaches and made nearly 200 transactions.
But his days of negotiating trades and signing free agents end
today. Bass will retire after a 54-year career in basketball
that started at a small Baptist college in Oklahoma and ended
in the Hornets' front office, where he was general manager and
executive vice president of basketball operations.
Under Bass, the Hornets qualified for the playoffs seven times
and never had a losing season.
"It was a great ride and a lot of fun," Bass said. "It was all
basketball. I liked to go to work every day, and I really
enjoyed what I was doing."
Bass hasn't had a job outside of basketball since 1952, when he
became head coach at Oklahoma Baptist. He stayed at the school
for 15 years before moving to the professional ranks as the head
coach of the Denver Nuggets in the American Basketball Association
in 1967. Bass coached seven years in the ABA with four teams.
He became a front-office executive with the San Antonio Spurs in
1976 and spent the next 18 years with the franchise before
accepting the vice president of basketball operations job with
the Charlotte Hornets in 1995.
Hornets owner George Shinn was so impressed with Bass' experience
that he allowed him to have the final say on all trades, coaching
hires and personnel moves.
"Bob is the main reason we've gone 10 or 11 years without having a
losing season," Shinn said. "I've been the brunt of a lot of
criticism because I let this player or that player go, but you
know we've always gotten better, and Bob is the reason for that.
"I have tried to keep Bob under control about not going spending
crazy. So he tried to use good judgment, and he's done an incredible
job. His fingerprints are all over this team."
With Bass' retirement, duties in the Hornets' basketball operations
department will be divided between General Manager Allan Bristow,
director of player personnel Jeff Bower and vice president of
basketball operations Willis Reed, who was hired Monday. Bristow,
who worked last season under Bass as assistant general manager, will
have the final say on all trades, personnel decisions and draft
selections.
"I've seen him in the locker room, on a field behind a hunting dog
and I've seen him on a boat fishing, so I've seen different sides
of him," Bristow said of Bass. "I just have a tremendous amount of
respect. I always feel you're lucky if you have four or five people
in your life who are that special to you, and Bob is one of those."
One of the best draft decisions Bass made was using the third pick
in the first round of the 1999 draft to select point guard Baron
Davis. He is one of the top point guards in the league and is a
two-time All-Star.
In the 2000 draft, Bass selected center Jamaal Magloire with the
19th pick in the first round. Magloire has been a starter the past
two seasons and was an All-Star for the first time last February.
In last year's draft, Bass selected forward David West with the 18th
pick in the first round. As a rookie, West developed into one of the
team's best rebounders off the bench.
Bass also can take credit for a 2000 trade that brought P.J. Brown,
Jamal Mashburn and three others to the Hornets from Miami in exchange
for Eddie Jones, Anthony Mason, Ricky Davis and Dale Ellis.
Although Mashburn struggled with injuries the past year, he was a
2003 All-Star. Brown has been a solid contributor as a starter every
season he's been with the Hornets.
"I thought some of the trades we made were exciting and helped the
team a lot," Bass said. "What was most difficult for me was having
to scout European players. It's so difficult to scout them because
of the travel.
"And eight or nine years ago, nobody was even thinking about
high-school players until Kevin Garnett and Kobe Bryant had been in
the league a few seasons. They both were really good, and now eight
(high school) guys were drafted in the first round (this year)."
Earlier this week, Bass supported the move to select high-school
player J.R. Smith with the 18th pick in the first round.
Not all of Bass' decisions have gone the way he hoped. Bass drafted
forward Kirk Haston in 2001 with the 16th pick, ahead of such players
as Tony Parker, Zach Randolph, Jamaal Tinsley and Jason Collins, who
are all starters.
Haston, from Indiana, never developed into a key contributor and was
waived last season.
Last summer, Bass took a gamble and hired Tim Floyd as the Hornets'
coach, even though Floyd had struggled previously as an NBA coach
with the Chicago Bulls. The Hornets finished with a 41-41 record and
were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the Miami Heat.
Bass still declines to comment specifically about the Floyd situation.
"I've seen a lot of changes, and a lot of different things happened,"
Bass said. "Most of them were pretty good."
Bass said he plans to spend the majority of his time at his home in
San Antonio, fishing and relaxing. Last week he finished cleaning
out his office at the Alario Center.
"It hasn't hit me yet that the time has come," he said, "but
everything must come to an end."
. . . . . . .
John Reid can be reached at jreid@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3405.
--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc)
◆ From: 218.166.79.95
Pelicans 近期熱門文章
PTT體育區 即時熱門文章
5
10
-27
44
