The American Spectator

Washington Prowler

p> All Kidding Aside (posted 6/5/03 2:14 a.m.) br> The ABA Finals got off to an expected start, San Antonio asserting is superiority to pull ahead of New Joisey in the second half of game one. The miracle is that the game included no coaching changes, either at half time, at the end of the third quarter, or during the postgame. By NBA standards, that's a sign that each team wants to win the whole thing. /p>

Nonetheless, there was one odd audition: by NJ superstar Jason Kidd, a free agent when the series ends who has long been rumored to be San Antonio's next signing. He didn't have cork in the ball when he shot it on Wednesday, but you'd never know by how off his attempts were. So did he pass or fail his trial? That's a tricky call. On the one hand, he was badly outplayed by SA's Tony Parker, the finest 21-year-old starting NBA point guard since Isiah Thomas. Indeed, his spinning moves to the basket are a carbon copy of ol' Zeke's. Clearly, with a rising multinational star like Parker, San Antonio doesn't need Kidd. But then it's also possible that Kidd may lack incentive to beat the team he may sign with. A few more bad games like last nights and it won't seem as if I'm making this up. You'll hear it straight from NJ's Kenyon Martin, who plays like an F-16 on a mission.

In the runup to the Finals, some nine NBA coaching changes were in the works. Since the league long ago cornered the market on musical chairs, some of the changes will appear not much different from a player switching teams. Paul Silas gets fired by New Orleans, and is quickly scooped up by Cleveland. Larry Brown quits Philadelphia and a week later is hired by Detroit. Maurice Cheeks wants to leave Portland to coach Philadelphia (which would create a tenth opening). Average former coaches like Mike Fratello and Jeff Van Gundy are suddenly in great demand. Even Mike Dunleavy, a lousy former coach, is in line to be hired for one of the new jobs. Go figure.

But above all, go figure what happened to Rick Carlisle. An overachieving player out of Virginia and the Boston Celtics, where he fit the mold of the sort of Celtic that franchise used to win with year after year after year, he coached with Larry Bird in Indiana. Then two years ago he took over the Detroit Pistons and turned a woeful team into a 50-game winner this season and the one before. Last year Carlisle was named the NBA's coach of the year. For his troubles Carlisle was not only fired for a repeat performance, but vilified and smeared.

Naturally, there's a New York Times connection. A William Rhoden column headlined "As Pistons Show, There Is More to Coaching Than Winning Games," said it all. Based on no evidence, Rhoden proceeded to write:

"Coaching is about building relationships, managing egos and people, fostering mutual respect. When you look beneath the surface in Detroit, you see that Carlisle has not yet learned those lessons."

Or this: "The lesson for Carlisle, if he chooses to learn it, is that there is more to winning than winning. There is humility and decorum."

It's all guff. There have never been any such complaints against the gentlemanly Carlisle -- at least not until someone decided to can him. Rhoden gave the game away early on when he noted that "I was initially part of that stunned choir of voice" shocked by Carlisle's firing -- "but as I've learned more I've changed my tune." Talking to one or two people with something up their sleeve was all it took to bring out the smear artist in Rhoden.

Even when the man who did the public firing, Joe Dumars, praised Carlisle as "a class guy," Rhoden, relying on an unnamed Detroit "official," moved to undercut that very characterization, relying on that "official" to describe Carlisle as "abrasive, combative and often disrespectful to players, team employees and even the Pistons' owner." (A coach "disrespectful to players"? Or not a lap dog of the owner? Shoot him at dawn!)

Of course, it's entirely possible that Rhoden's "official" is none other than Dumars himself, who, in his own vague way, explained the firing by telling Rhoden on the record that "without going into details, there is more to winning." Knowing the whole story without having any of the details, Rhoden proudly adds: "I agree with Dumars that there is more to winning than simply winning."

Absolutely. The thing is, the Pistons signed Larry Brown a day or two later. He was in the wings the entire time, in short. To hire someone of his overblown reputation required that a successful if undersung young coach be drawn and quartered to set the stage. These are PR geniuses.

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