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There have been a handful of losses to inferior teams, and a number of games where Golden State gave it away down the stretch. A 12-3 start to the season gave numerous reasons for optimism. Going 4-13 since has everyone wondering what’s going on. “You are what your record says you are,” Kerr said. “I think Bill Parcells said that, and I think there’s a lot of truth to that. We’ve obviously fallen from that early start where we had a lot of momentum and a lot of good flow to our game. “I know, because I’ve seen it – the way we started – I know it’s in us and I know we can get there. But right now, it’s a struggle for sure.”
According to an NBA executive who has spoken to the Knicks, the hiring of Thibodeau is being compared with Coughlin joining the Giants. At his introductory press conference, the then 57-year-old was likened to “a commanding officer fixing to take an enemy hill.” The comparisons between Thibodeau’s arrival and Coughlin’s extends to their mentors. Coughlin’s mentor was celebrated former Giants coach Bill Parcells. Thibodeau’s mentor is celebrated former Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy, who hired him to his staff in 1996.
Former Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum, who now is Kerr’s agent, revealed Saturday his client recently flew cross-country to spend a day with Bill Parcells to pick his brain about the coaching profession. The visit with Parcells was part of a yearlong process by Kerr in which he visited several prominent coaches and executives both inside and outside of basketball to find out what it takes to be a coach.
Carlesimo knows that the only way he can whack the name Sprewell from the first sentence of his biography is to do something that overshadows it. And what could be bigger than somehow holding on to this job and being the first coach to bring a professional title to Brooklyn since Walter Alston's Dodgers beat the Yankees in 1955? "It really comes down to results. People's perceptions are still colored to a lot of degree by your success," Carlesimo said. "Bill Parcells was demanding but he got results, so he's a great communicator."
This will be your third straight year out of the playoffs. I realize you didn’t envision anything like that happening on your watch, but as Bill Parcells says, you are what your record says you are. With your contract expiring, make a case to the fans why Bryan Colangelo should be brought back next season - and in the future - as president and general manager of the Raptors. Bryan Colangelo: I certainly don’t want to be accused of negotiating through the media, so I won’t. I just hope people realize how much I care for the organization I’m working for and the city I have chosen to live in. I will also add that despite our current record, the franchise is in a pretty favourable position. I do hope I’m here to complete the task.
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Johnson, returning to his hometown for tonight's Nets game against the New Orleans Hornets, was asked by a local television reporter at today's shootaround if he was unfairly portrayed as a control freak after he was not hired to be the Hornets coach this summer. "Oh, very unfair,'' Johnson insisted. "It’s just blatant lies. But that’s just the way it happens. One guy tells one lie and by the time it gets to the 10th person, boy, it’s a really manufactured one. So, that’s a part of the deal; I think Bill Parcells and Belichick – even Sean Payton, my main man Sean Payton – they’ve all been lied on. Gregg Popovich. But they’ve still been able to be successful. That’s the nature of our business.''
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