The Anatomy of an NBA Coach

What it takes to be an NBA coach has always left me guessing. I understand that it is some combination of being able to motivate people, understanding the game and being able to see skills in players, and more things, but there has to be more. There must be hundreds of people who could handle an NBA coaching job, but what exactly makes a coach successful?

To answer this question, I quickly dug up a list of the coaches with the highest win percentages of all time, but only included those past 1979-80 (the year the 3-point line was introduced, and usually taken as the beginning of the modern NBA.) That gave this list of coaches with their career winning percentages, after adding in Larry Brown and Don Nelson for good measure.

Phil Jackson .705
Gregg Popovich .675
Pat Riley .636
Rick Adelman .616
Jerry Sloan .602
Flip Saunders .597
Don Nelson .567
Larry Brown .553

It can be quickly seen that most of these coaches have one thing in common.

Out of the eight of them, half of them had won championships as players with Jackson, Riley and Nelson winning in the NBA and Brown in the ABA.

Popovich never player professionally, instead heading to the military for 5 years before studying under Larry Brown at Pomona-Pitzer in 1985-86.

Flip Saunders played his college basketball with Kevin McHale and was roommates with Tony Dungy.

Jerry Sloan was a two time all-star and was named to a NBA All-Defnesive team six times.

Rick Adelman was once compared to Hitler by Phil Jackson, and if that doesn't say something about him as a coach then I don't know what will.

So what makes a good coach? It isn't dependent on the system, whether they prefer defense to offense or if they yell at or coddle their players. Most of the successful coaches have felt what it takes to win, know how to work hard and maximize what they have in themselves and in those around them. They are used to winning, are surrounded by winners and expect success.

Based on this, I looked through the list of some current coaches who have a chance at joining the ranks above.

Scott Brooks has led this year's young OKC team to a 45 wins so far this year, and are currently jockeying for home court advantage in the playoffs. A 23-win team last year, Scott Brooks has come in and coached this team to work hard every night on both ends of the court. All of these players believe in their team and their talents and believe they can win every single night. The team is constantly motivated, and have had their eyes set on winning, no matter the opponent, ever since the outbreak of the season. It was this motivation and desire that allowed a 5'11" Scott Brooks to stay in the league for ten years and win a championship with the Rockets in 1994. Brooks had the taste of winning early in his life and it seems he hasn't looked back since.

Mike Brown has gathered more wins than any other coach over the last two seasons. A lot of this could of course be accounted towards Lebron, but there are no doubts that Mike Brown has extracted the most he could have out of the team he has. Instilling defense first, last years Cavaliers were able to post the highest defensive rating while possessing probably the best offensive player in the league (and well, he might be the best defensive player as well.) Mike Brown learned his craft under Popovich, after being hired as an assistant coach. The Spurs had three consecutive 58+ win teams while Brown was an assistant coach and after winning the title in 2003, he set himself up for his head coaching job in Clevland. The point here is that Brown learned early to expect to win, and learned how to win from a great coach.

Mike D'Antoni played in the Italian League for a dozen years, piling up five championships there and two Euroleague championships. D'Antoni was Kobe Bryant's motivation to pick number 8 for his jersey, after he piled up win after win along his way to being named one of 50 Greatest Euroleague Contributors. D'Anotni's Suns averaged 58 wins a season, and if not for a crazy call on a Horry hip-check, they could have won a championship. D'Antoni took his winning ways he learned playing and coaching in Italy and applied them to the NBA to bring the Suns franchise to some high heights.

What separates a good coach from a serviceable coach is this precedent of winning, the expectation and desire to win. This Muhammad Ali quote sums things up nicely "Champions aren't made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them -- a desire, a dream, a vision." These coaches have surrounded themselves with winning in their lives since a young age and I think you can expect to see one of these three to be hoisting the Larry O'Brien in the near future.

Learn the Name: Rodrigue Beaubois

Here's my first recurring post - Learn the Name. I'll talk a little about a talented but unheralded player and why you should get to know them a bit better. First up - Rodrigue Beaubois.

Roddy Buckets showing off the ups.

Now Rodrigue is getting noticed a bunch after his 40-point game off the bench, but I've been talking about this guy since the start of the year. This guy has blazing speed, almost a 40-inch vertical and a great shooting touch, all while keeping his head on straight and motivated throughout his rookie season. He's got a great set of mentors in Jason Kidd and Jason Terry, and the Mavs have him on a cheap rookie contract for the next three years, so keep your eye out for this kid. If he can keep improving and gets more consistent, Dallas will have their PG of the future.

Steve Nash: Making People Richer

Just go ahead and watch that video above. I'll wait.

Now I know that Jared Dudley, Robin Lopez and Channing Frye are talented, NBA-worthy players and all that jazz.

But does anyone else think that they really owe it to Nash to take him out for a really expensive dinner at the end of the year?

Can Vince Handle the Pressure?

As a good Canadian boy, as Don Cherry calls em, I've always hated Vince Carter's guts since he quit on the Raptors back in '04. I loved how he carried the Raptors to their highest point, facing Larry Brown and Allen Iverson in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, putting up massive averages of 27, 7 and 5. I was watching when he threw down those insane dunks at the beginning of the new millennium, setting the dunk contest up to be a disappointment for the next decade.

But once he quit on his teammates, I could never see him in the same way. I can understand quitting on Rob Babcock and Sam Mitchell, but giving up on a young Chris Bosh, a still hardworking and effective Jalen Rose and some of the great character guys in this league (Bonner, MoPete and Donyell Marshall) is just unforgivable.

So why am I excited to see this man I can't stand go to the playoffs with the Magic?

Because he is going to crumble like a stale muffin once the Magic are out of the first round.

Early in his career, Vince's skills let me overlook his clear character flaws. He quits when he doesn't see a benefit for him, he never looks like he even wants to be there and I never believed for a second that he worked much harder than Iverson in practice. It didn't matter to me as a teenager, the man was a god in Canada. I can overlook character flaws in supremely talented players (Mr. Bryant, I'm looking at you) as long as they don't effect the team. But once they start hurting the team, it becomes an entirely different issue.

Bill Simmons' book The Book of Basketball features a considerable amount of Russel vs. Wilt talk (and a lot anti-Vince talk, too.) Simmons paints the picture of Russel constantly rising against all odds and Wilt Wilt-ing (check one for bad puns so far) on the biggest stages possible. Meeting in the Finals a few times, with Russel having Wilt under his thumb the entire time.

Now let me change the topic a little bit.

If you asked around the league who the two players who have (or had) the best chance to be the next Air Jordan, I'm betting you would hear a lot of players, coaches and GMs tell you it has to be Vince or Kobe.

Does anyone see where I'm heading with this?

Just like Wilt and Russell, they came in the league a few years apart and they both played the same position. when you compare the two sets, a lot of similarities arise past this.

Both Russell and Kobe have never been traded from their first team, are notorious for stepping up in the clutch moments and has a competitiveness unmatched by any other player. They both maximized their potential as players by constantly working on their games and playing the game the right way. While Kobe might have some problems with his ego and connecting with teammates, no one can ever say he didn't put enough effort forward.

Both Wilt and Vince have been traded in their prime multiple times for scraps (fill in details) and are known to have a passive approach to the game. They both were better known for having bigger concerns than basketball, for not having interest in basketball except for personal gain from their ridiculous talent level. Vince might not have the teams that Wilt had, but for being heralded as having one of the highest ceilings by many scouts, winning the ROY and being an All-Star in his second season, he sure hasn't been in the playoffs much.

But despite all this, not many people would argue that Wilt could have been better than Russel or that Vince could have been better than Kobe.

The issue was never athleticism or talent.

Not size or IQ; not their teammates or their coaches.

It was their unwillingness to co-operate and play a team game, inability to apply themselves to the game, and lack of desire for winning.

That's why I think that no one should be surprised is Vince falls through in the clutch, when the players who have invested their lives in the game start to shine. Kobe will be grinding his heart and mind on every possession once everything is on the line, just like Russell. Meanwhile, players like Vince and Wilt who just went through the motions with their unparalleled talent will fall apart. It all makes me think of when Russel said to Wilt - "No one in the world but me knows just how good you are", and if Kobe meets Vince in a Finals rematch I think Vince could be hearing some similar words.

Life of a Canadian Slammer

Who remembers Henry Bekkering?

A YouTube sensation from 2003, he's famous for the dunk competition above that he won at his high school in Taber, Alberta in Canada. Myers High isn't exactly a basketball hotbed, so it probably wouldn't be surprising if Henry attributes this video in bringing his bit of the spotlight to Taber.

After being recruited to Eastern Washington in 2003, he attended the school for only two years before departing to University of Calgary after having a reduced role in 2004-'05 for the Eagles. Now he plays for the Dutch league team Matixx Magix and has been putting up some good numbers for them.

Now I don't feel so bad giving myself an excuse to watch that clip again. Look here to see him on The Best Damn Sports Show Period.