Set Sail

I ran across Eddie Johnson's leadership blogging on HoopsHype. After rolling my eyes, sighing, rolling my eyes again, and switching off the computer, I discovered some rational points. It's a long one on what I consider an insignificant subject matter, so I skimmed and scanned. I do appreciate that an oft-discussed subject was actually discussed by someone qualified to discuss it.

A coach wears a number of hats besides coaching his team. Father figure, policeman and fireman come to mind. He would much rather tell you he wants to coach and have a parental quality when needed, but he will be happy if he can place the responsibility of policeman and part-time fireman on one or, if he is lucky, a few of his players.

People ask me all the time why I have not gone into coaching. My normal response is that I have always been afraid that I might be too much of a disciplinarian and that method would be hard-pressed to accomplish if I were not coaching experienced and committed players who actually get it when it comes to the word Team.

Considering the college, pro, and international success the Bulls roster had prior to sucking this season, it seems like leadership and chemistry wouldn't be hard to come by. Unless Skiles is doing an excellent job of ruining everything.

It's hard for me to come down too hard on the Bulls players about leadership, because I personally think everyone of them would be a role player on any of the teams listed above. If you look at the Bulls roster, I don't think any of these players were the top guys on their college team when they got drafted. I believe they are still growing and sooner or later one of them will evolve into a powerful leader. But right now they have to do it by committee and they have failed miserably. The obvious choice is Ben Wallace because that's what the Bulls thought they were getting, but they forget the reason Detroit did not cry too much when he left town. It was because Wallace was becoming a complainer of minutes and strategy and not privately but at times publicly of Flip Saunders. So now you have a hard-working talented team that has no big-time player leadership and because of it Scott Skiles has to wear the hat and that's when players start to get tired of the coach.

I disagree that there's no big-time player leadership on the Bulls. A-Drain's checks are made out to "Big-Time Player Leader," and I already mentioned the Bulls are made up of players who have all the experience and qualities you would find in a leader. So what gives? This isn't complicated stuff. It takes plenty of mind reading on our part, but it's not rocket science. Mopey Iowans be damned, if you've ever endured a motivational speech you'd know that being a leader is never more than a 5 step process.