1997-98- Lost in conference finals, 58-24 regular season, 10-6 playoffs.
1998-99- Lost in conference finals, 33-17 regular season, 9-4 playoffs.
1999-00- Lost in NBA Finals, 56-26 regular season, 13-10 playoffs.
147-67 (.687 winning percentage) in regular season, 32-20 (.615 winning percentage) in the playoffs.
Three years, three times in the conference finals, one NBA Finals appearance. One NBA Coach of the Year Award.
I don't see how you can say that Bird was not successful as a head coach.
He's been successful as an executive as well.
But your point is spot on. In fact, the wikipedia article said that Bird was the only player to ever win the MVP Award and the Coach of the Year Award. So, no other basketball player, and he's won the Executive of the Year Award on top of that. So, no one reaches his caliber.
Dude is a tireless worker, is always prepared and watches more film than Siskel and Ebert combined
Cons
Dude is working on a separate level. He's a football savant, and sometimes for folks like that, they can understand it perfectly but can't communicate it properly.
Plus, we've always thought Manning will be the next Madden-type personality in the announcers' booth.
We could accept Manning in either the Bird or MJ group, but remember Bird's success has been as a GM. If Manning decided to coach and had success, he'd be far and away the most accomplished player to succeed as a head coach. Right now the two most accomplished players who appear to be good coaches are who? Don Mattingly and Jim Harbaugh?
Where does Peyton Manning fit into this discussion? Is he an MJ Group or a Larry the Legend Group? I think there's no doubt he tries coaching somewhere at some point (many of my family members insisted last year that he was going to retire, Dooley was going to be fired, and he was going to take Dooley's place for this season- I thought they might need to lay off whatever it was that was making them delusional). How do you think he fares? He could be highly successful- then again, MJ, Magic Johnson, and Ted Williams don't have the best winning percentages.
And in a strange merger, let's say the World's Most Interesting is in the beginning of Hill Street Blues — "Stay thirsty my friend, and let's be careful out there."
Gang, great comments today. Well-played all-around.
Spy Two Times —
No sweat, no sweat. And we can respect your love for the other AP. And the news of the Times-Pic is magnified by the news of the same thing happening to the Newhouse folks in Alabama. Yep, Birmingham, Mobile and Huntsville going to three days a week.
Not good times.
CardVol —
We bet it was uphill both ways too. And great call on Hal Baines. Great hitter. And DJ. Very underrated. (But you don't have to yell.)
BTG —
We can respect the Murphy call. We understand that many love the Murph — and, hey he's Mormon so that's OK, too.
And it is good news for B.J.
Deboman —
Not only was it an inexact science, at times it was dangerous. Because let's be honest, the only time the antenna was not working was when the elements made it very unsafe to get on the roof. Of course, where do we head... to the ROOF.
Think how dumb we were as a society when we were kids.
No helmets. No seatbelts. (Forget no seatbelts, we can remember riding in the very back of the FTD station wagon in those flip up seats — in like 120 degree heat — and staring at cars coming from behind. If some one had rear-ended us back then, ball game.
Gretzky's sweater would be sweat... and like the Dorsett call (Loved those Cowboys teams and the jerseys).
McPell —
Winner, winner about the Bo jersey. The 5-at-10's son (age 4) gets one every year for his birthday.
OK- you caught me. I don't like racing of the automobiles. It bores me, honestly. But I'm entering anyway, because I want to win stuff. I actually went out and did a little research to try to figure out who I should pick. (Not much, obviously. I just finished your article 5 minutes ago.)
Indy 500- Helio Castroneves
Coca Cola 600- Jimmie Johnson
Belmont- I'll Have Another
This is a carefully calculated attempt to figure out who is likely to finish near the top. For example, I don't think I'll Have Another will win the Belmont. But I do think that he'll finish second, and I'm less convinced that a Bodemeister (track too long) will be able to win. Who wins? I don't know. So, I'm confident I'll Have Another will finish second, and that's better that picking a random one and having that horse finish sixth.
Concur about BJ and great call on the golf hotbed — especially considering that UTC's best player went to Baylor, too.
Mr. 962 —
We were guffawing at "Human Flashlight Holder." The 5-at-10's Pop could fix anything — seriously anything. Other than a dynamite Bloody Mary and a messed up sports story, we have a tough time fixing a flat.
So you are so spot-on with the, "Uh, we're 9... and our hand is number... and we got to pee..." Which was countered with the "Hold it this way... You beat all I've ever seen..."
As for the monologue, we have to fight the urge on almost a daily basis not to go on some interweb-sports-column version of old-school free style rappin'. Seriously.
Spy—two times (get the papers, get the papers)
Even with your hatred for all things NYC (save Letterman) how can you keep the Bambino off the Rushmore of 3s? We almost went with Montana at NDame, but didn't Pawlus or Meier wear it too?
Jan Stenerud is excluded for being named after the middle Brady daughter and for the whiff blooper that we've all seen 100 times.
Someone needs to remind Cam Clear's pops not to be so sloppy in his future re-recruitment after JuCo, though.
Spy —
The Belmont is booked. In fact, we'll have a racing trifecta. Pick an Indy driver, a Coca-Cola 600 driver and a horse for the Belmont and the lowest total of the finishes wins. Who's in?
Tommy Lee Jones is like 5-foot-10 or even 6-even which means he is WAY too tall to play Saban. We can so see MM chewin' grass and talking about "the want to be a great football player" as Miles.
And Costner is playing Richt and this can't be debated. And the lady who played Granny Clampett can play Lou Holtz in the cameo.
Livn(Large) —
Boxing is the runaway winner. And it's impossible to know how the Vols will respond.
BTG —
We'll just have to agree to disagree. When in Rome...
5-at-10: Friday mailbag
Trifecta entry update (deadline is Sunday at 9 a.m.)
Dawg747 — Castroneves/Harvick/I'll Have Another
BlueOval — Will Power/Matt Kenseth/I'll Have Another
StuckinKent —Helio Castroneves/Jimmie Johnson/I'll Have Another
McPell — Tony Kanaan/Matt Kenseth/Bodemeister
Todd962 — Scott Dixon/Tony Stewart/I'll Have Another
Jefe — Franchetti/Brad Keselowski/I'll Have Another
5-at-10 — Andretti/Stewart/I'll Have Another
Mrs. 5-at-10 — Power/Earnhardt Jr./I'll Have Another
OTWatcher — Kanaan/Johnson/Bodemeister
ThatIDoKnow — Ryan Hunter-Reay/Hamlin/Union Rags
Fred — Castroneves/Edwards/Dullahan
33wannabe — Rahal/Biffle/I'll Have Another
(More to come...)
5-at-10: Friday mailbag
Stuck —
We stand corrected. Maybe his success as a GM faded our memory of his success as a coach.
He is on a different plane.
The only other coach we can think of from the big three sports that has an MVP and a coach of the year award is Joe Torre.
— 5-at-10
5-at-10: Friday mailbag
From friend of the show StuckinKent —
You are ignoring Bird's career as a head coach:
1997-98- Lost in conference finals, 58-24 regular season, 10-6 playoffs. 1998-99- Lost in conference finals, 33-17 regular season, 9-4 playoffs. 1999-00- Lost in NBA Finals, 56-26 regular season, 13-10 playoffs.
147-67 (.687 winning percentage) in regular season, 32-20 (.615 winning percentage) in the playoffs.
Three years, three times in the conference finals, one NBA Finals appearance. One NBA Coach of the Year Award.
I don't see how you can say that Bird was not successful as a head coach.
He's been successful as an executive as well.
But your point is spot on. In fact, the wikipedia article said that Bird was the only player to ever win the MVP Award and the Coach of the Year Award. So, no other basketball player, and he's won the Executive of the Year Award on top of that. So, no one reaches his caliber.
5-at-10: Friday mailbag
Stuck —
We waffled back and forth on Manning.
Pros about being a great coach:
Dude is a tireless worker, is always prepared and watches more film than Siskel and Ebert combined
Cons
Dude is working on a separate level. He's a football savant, and sometimes for folks like that, they can understand it perfectly but can't communicate it properly.
Plus, we've always thought Manning will be the next Madden-type personality in the announcers' booth.
We could accept Manning in either the Bird or MJ group, but remember Bird's success has been as a GM. If Manning decided to coach and had success, he'd be far and away the most accomplished player to succeed as a head coach. Right now the two most accomplished players who appear to be good coaches are who? Don Mattingly and Jim Harbaugh?
— 5-at-10
5-at-10: Friday mailbag
From friend of the show StuckinKent —
OK- here's my question for you.
Where does Peyton Manning fit into this discussion? Is he an MJ Group or a Larry the Legend Group? I think there's no doubt he tries coaching somewhere at some point (many of my family members insisted last year that he was going to retire, Dooley was going to be fired, and he was going to take Dooley's place for this season- I thought they might need to lay off whatever it was that was making them delusional). How do you think he fares? He could be highly successful- then again, MJ, Magic Johnson, and Ted Williams don't have the best winning percentages.
5-at-10: Three degrees of celebration
Mr. 962 —
Send us your Trifecta entry before you get gone.
And in a strange merger, let's say the World's Most Interesting is in the beginning of Hill Street Blues — "Stay thirsty my friend, and let's be careful out there."
— 5-at-10
5-at-10: Three degrees of celebration
Gang, great comments today. Well-played all-around.
Spy Two Times —
No sweat, no sweat. And we can respect your love for the other AP. And the news of the Times-Pic is magnified by the news of the same thing happening to the Newhouse folks in Alabama. Yep, Birmingham, Mobile and Huntsville going to three days a week.
Not good times.
CardVol —
We bet it was uphill both ways too. And great call on Hal Baines. Great hitter. And DJ. Very underrated. (But you don't have to yell.)
BTG —
We can respect the Murphy call. We understand that many love the Murph — and, hey he's Mormon so that's OK, too.
And it is good news for B.J.
Deboman —
Not only was it an inexact science, at times it was dangerous. Because let's be honest, the only time the antenna was not working was when the elements made it very unsafe to get on the roof. Of course, where do we head... to the ROOF.
Think how dumb we were as a society when we were kids.
No helmets. No seatbelts. (Forget no seatbelts, we can remember riding in the very back of the FTD station wagon in those flip up seats — in like 120 degree heat — and staring at cars coming from behind. If some one had rear-ended us back then, ball game.
Gretzky's sweater would be sweat... and like the Dorsett call (Loved those Cowboys teams and the jerseys).
McPell —
Winner, winner about the Bo jersey. The 5-at-10's son (age 4) gets one every year for his birthday.
Good times.
5-at-10: Three degrees of celebration
From friend of the show StuckinKent
OK- you caught me. I don't like racing of the automobiles. It bores me, honestly. But I'm entering anyway, because I want to win stuff. I actually went out and did a little research to try to figure out who I should pick. (Not much, obviously. I just finished your article 5 minutes ago.)
Indy 500- Helio Castroneves Coca Cola 600- Jimmie Johnson Belmont- I'll Have Another
This is a carefully calculated attempt to figure out who is likely to finish near the top. For example, I don't think I'll Have Another will win the Belmont. But I do think that he'll finish second, and I'm less convinced that a Bodemeister (track too long) will be able to win. Who wins? I don't know. So, I'm confident I'll Have Another will finish second, and that's better that picking a random one and having that horse finish sixth.
We'll see how this turns out.
5-at-10: Three degrees of celebration
Oval —
You're in.
Dawg747 —
Concur about BJ and great call on the golf hotbed — especially considering that UTC's best player went to Baylor, too.
Mr. 962 —
We were guffawing at "Human Flashlight Holder." The 5-at-10's Pop could fix anything — seriously anything. Other than a dynamite Bloody Mary and a messed up sports story, we have a tough time fixing a flat.
So you are so spot-on with the, "Uh, we're 9... and our hand is number... and we got to pee..." Which was countered with the "Hold it this way... You beat all I've ever seen..."
As for the monologue, we have to fight the urge on almost a daily basis not to go on some interweb-sports-column version of old-school free style rappin'. Seriously.
Spy—two times (get the papers, get the papers)
Even with your hatred for all things NYC (save Letterman) how can you keep the Bambino off the Rushmore of 3s? We almost went with Montana at NDame, but didn't Pawlus or Meier wear it too?
Jan Stenerud is excluded for being named after the middle Brady daughter and for the whiff blooper that we've all seen 100 times.
We'll be back in a few, back in a few.
— 5-at-10
5-at-10: 100 days until UT kicks off, conference rumors and short-answer Wednesday
Mr. 962 —
Someone needs to remind Cam Clear's pops not to be so sloppy in his future re-recruitment after JuCo, though.
Spy —
The Belmont is booked. In fact, we'll have a racing trifecta. Pick an Indy driver, a Coca-Cola 600 driver and a horse for the Belmont and the lowest total of the finishes wins. Who's in?
Tommy Lee Jones is like 5-foot-10 or even 6-even which means he is WAY too tall to play Saban. We can so see MM chewin' grass and talking about "the want to be a great football player" as Miles.
And Costner is playing Richt and this can't be debated. And the lady who played Granny Clampett can play Lou Holtz in the cameo.
Livn(Large) —
Boxing is the runaway winner. And it's impossible to know how the Vols will respond.
BTG —
We'll just have to agree to disagree. When in Rome...
— 5-at-10