[外電] HELPING HANDS
原文出自 nola.com
http://www.nola.com/hornets/t-p/index.ssf?/base/sports-1/109938221596800.xml
HELPING HANDS
Hornets head coach Byron Scott has surrounded himself with
three experienced assistant coaches who know what it takes to be a winner
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
By Benjamin Hochman
Staff writer
The Hornets coaches have enough jewelry to make Tiffany jealous.
Combined, Byron Scott and assistants Jim Cleamons, Kenny Gattison
and Darrell Walker have 11 NBA championship rings -- four earned
as players, seven as assistant coaches.
But you wouldn't know it if you shook their naked hands.
They feel there's no need to flaunt. And everyone in the Hornets
organization -- and the NBA, for that matter -- already knows
that the Hornets' new coaching staff has an impressive pedigree.
"I was very confident with the hiring of the staff here. There
should be no excuses," said forward P.J. Brown, who will play
under his third head coach with the Hornets. "These guys know
what it's all about. They've been there. Coach Scott, we all
saw him with the Lakers. We've seen Coach Cleamons as an
assistant with Phil Jackson. Darrell Walker played with Michael
Jordan, one of the best players of all time, and Gattison has
had a solid career."
Meet Jim Cleamons
In the past decade, NBA fans have seen a lot of Cleamons -- they
just haven't seen a lot. As an assistant under Phil Jackson in
Chicago and Los Angeles, one would sometimes see Cleamons' left
ear, shoulder and arm as network cameras zoomed in on the Zen
Master. Or, in newspaper photos, there would be Cleamons, albeit
blurry, sitting on the bench in the background behind a focused
Jackson standing on the sideline. Although Cleamons wasn't the
center of attention during the four championship seasons he was
with the Bulls and the three with the Lakers, he played an
integral part.
"Jim Cleamons is Mr. All-Around," Scott said. "He helps me on
offense and on defense. He knows the similarities of the
Princeton offense by running the triangle offense in Los Angeles
for so long. We bounce ideas off one another."
"This year is very intriguing to me. One of the things I'm
looking forward to is learning more about Byron's Princeton
offensive system," said Cleamons, who was the Mavericks head
coach from May 1996 to December 1997. "I've been in one system
for the past 13 years that I understand and certainly appreciate.
Now, the Princeton offense is kind of the first cousin to what
I've learned. What I'm looking to do, as I continue to learn
and grow as a coach, is how to make a hybrid, an offense of the
future. The principles are very similar."
After a tumultuous season with the Lakers, Cleamons has found
the calm after the storm in New Orleans. He has embraced his
role as a veteran assistant on a staff that knows its basketball
-- and has a sense of humor. As the Hornets have gone through
some growing pains learning the new system, Cleamons has sought
solace in sarcasm.
"In sarcasm -- as a lot of humor and comedy is -- there's always
some truth in there," he said. "We find something in that truth
to lighten the moment, so we can say, 'Wow, I can't believe we
did that.'
"As serious as we coaches are about the game, there still are
things that can bring a smile to your face."
Meet Kenny Gattison
You probably already know "Gatt." The lone holdover from Tim
Floyd's staff, Gattison joined his former teammate Byron Scott
on this year's staff, where he works primarily with the Hornets'
post players.
"He understands the big man," Scott said. "He played down there
in that low post for a number of years. He's our big man coach,
and he's done a heck of a job with these guys. You just watch
the development of Jamaal Magloire up to this point. He works
with him every day. He's working with Chris Andersen every day.
He's very important for what we want to accomplish on that end
of the court."
"He's a straight-to-the-point guy," Brown said. "He doesn't
waste a lot of talk -- he's not a big-time talker. He just says
what's on his mind, gets it off his chest. And he's willing to
get out here and teach you the game. He's battled against every
big man during his playing career. He has a wealth of experience
that's really helping us out a lot. We're always listening."
Gattison was friends with Scott and Darrell Walker even before
they became co-workers. He pointed that out as one major
difference between this staff and last year's staff.
"I guess the staff last year, even though I knew everybody's
names and reputations, I didn't know them personally. It really
took us most of the year last year to get to know each other,"
Gattison said. "We were really feeling out each other, getting
a sense of each other's strengths and weaknesses. This year,
you come in, I know what Byron is thinking before he ever says
it. In that way, it makes it a little easier. We don't have to
grow together that much as a staff."
Gattison's personality has helped him bond with the big men.
After Sunday's practice, he and Andersen, eccentric in his own
right, stayed on the Alario Center court to work out, but
Gattison's feet were hurting. Instead of heading to the locker
room to get a different pair of shoes, the coach simply took
off his sneakers, and rebounded and played defense against "The
Birdman" while wearing socks.
"He probably thinks I'm part goofball, too," Gattison said.
Meet Darrell Walker
It didn't have quite the same theatrics as David Robinson's
departure, but Walker, too, ended his NBA career by winning an
NBA championship. In 1993, Walker spent most of the season on
the bench for the Bulls, but earned his first ring by doing so.
It seems staying on the bench has its rewards. By the 1996-97
season, he was an NBA head coach, guiding the Toronto Raptors.
After leaving Toronto in 1998, Walker pulled off a rare feat in
a zany 1999-2000 season. He was a head coach of three franchises.
He began the season as coach of the Rockford Lightning of the
Continental Basketball Association. On Jan. 29, 2000, he was
named interim coach of the NBA's Washington Wizards, as well as
director of player personnel. After the season, he was no longer
coach of the Wizards, but remained as director of player personnel
and doubled as interim coach of the WNBA's Washington Mystics,
leading the team to its first playoff berth. He remained in the
Wizards organization until his buddy Byron Scott scooped him up
to coach in New Orleans.
"Darrell Walker was a defensive specialist back in his day as a
player," Scott said. "I brought him in for the defensive part of
the game with the perimeter players. That's his main focus."
"It's been great for myself," said Walker, a former standout at
Arkansas and the No. 12 pick in the 1983 NBA draft. "Even though
I've been a head coach in this league, to watch Byron Scott,
Kenny Gattison, Jim Cleamons, who in my opinion should have been
a head coach in this league a long time ago but is not right now,
they're good basketball minds. And sometimes you just sit back
and listen, absorb what these guys know. It's been beneficial
and fun for me, too. We just draw from each other."
. . . . . . .
Benjamin Hochman can be reached at bhochman@timespicayune.com
or (504) 826-3405.
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