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Friday, November 3, 2006
Woodson, Knicks’ Thomas can relate
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
For the longest time on Friday night, Philips Arena was dead. You know, almost as much as Mike Woodson’s chances of coaching in Atlanta beyond this season if the Hawks expire before the playoffs for an eighth consecutive year.
So, with Joe Johnson, the Hawks’ usually soft-spoken star, admitting, “We [as players] need to help [Woodson] as much as we can, because we know we don’t have much time left,” you had a team looking to quit breathing heavily before its home opener after lacking a pulse to start the season on Wednesday in Philadelphia.
Now the Hawks live, and so does Woodson as the team’s skipper for at least a little while longer. You can attribute the resurrection of both to Johnson (30 points, eight assists) combining with Zaza Pachulia (22 points, seven rebounds) to keep the Hawks from dying after their 17-point lead dwindled to three inside the final six minutes. The thing is, the Hawks were playing the dysfunctional New York Knicks. That, along with the Hawks’ resiliency down the stretch (“Our guys never cracked,” Woodson said), propelled the Hawks to a 102-92 victory.
Huge game. Yes, it was only the Hawks’ second game of the season, but when the coach has one foot and a few toes dangling out the door, especially after that ugliness against a pitiful 76ers team, every game is huge. To worsen matters, this was the quietest sellout of 19,604 in NBA history through much of the first half. Then again, you can’t expect to have that much positive noise coming your way after spending this century as mostly a negative. The same goes for the Knicks, with a trip to the playoffs only once in the past five years.
Come to think about it, you have many similarities between Woodson and Knicks coach Isiah Thomas, including the bad one involving shaky job security, but let’s start with those other ones. For instance they both survived Bobby Knight. In fact, they both loved the former basketball coach, state messiah and red-sweater terror at Indiana University, where they both were all-everything dribblers for the Hoosiers.
Woodson even showed the younger Thomas around campus during his recruiting visit to IU. “The two things that stood out with him was that he wanted to know where I got my clothes, and if he could meet a woman like the one that I married,” said Woodson, laughing Friday night at Philips Arena, home of the Hawks.
For now. Just like Thomas is coaching the Knicks. For now.
After watching three coaches crash and burn while dealing with the ill-fitting players that Thomas assembled as general manager, Knicks boss James Dolan ordered Thomas to do nothing less than coach these Knicks to prominence. Woodson hasn’t gotten such an ultimatum. Still, when the average tenure of an NBA coach these days is less than three seasons, Woodson has an unofficial ultimatum to prosper after winning just 24 percent of the time (39-125) during his previous two Hawks seasons.
It’s just that everything involving Woodson’s situation with the Hawks is unfair. For starters, his general manager did the right thing by blowing up a dysfunctional roster, but guess who still has to find a slew of victories in a hurry despite lacking all the pieces to do so?
We’ve already told you about the Hawks multi-headed ownership situation. Not good. Not with one guy suing the other seven for control of the franchise.
And, even worse, while Thomas looks down his bench and sees talent, Woodson glances down his bench and sees a mess.
He knows the deal, though. Said Woodson, around the league as a player or a coach for nearly two decades, “The bottom line, for sure, is that you’ve got to win. We’re talking about winning and having the team going to the playoffs.”
We’re talking about doing both of those things for Woodson or else.
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Long shots fare well
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Larry Nelson said it the other day, on his way into the World Golf Hall of Fame: “I’ll never understand any player who withdraws from a tournament when $100,000 is guaranteed for finishing last.”
Look at it this way. It just goes to show you how high the price for mediocrity has jumped. It might be an underlying reason for the uncommon number of times the Tour Championship has been won by players not on their way to the Hall of Fame. They’ve had a long, hard season, there’s money in the bank, play the course, collect your $100,000 or more and head for the barn. Or your condo at Ocean Reef.
True, the first three Tour Championships were won by Tom Watson, Curtis Strange and Tom Kite, none a stranger to the winner’s circle in majors. Then the long shots began to make themselves known. Jodie Mudd won at Houston, took his stash and started breeding horses. Craig Stadler came next, a very good player, but not great. Then Paul Azinger. Same, borderline, but not great, though he shaped his game to fit one of the historic American courses, Pinehurst No. 2, where he won.
Now we reach back into the pack, for Jim Gallagher, who won by a stroke at the Olympic course in San Francisco. Mark McCumber followed him over the same course the next year, and it is not to be forgotten that he had won the Players Championship, practically played off his front porch back in Florida. But not one of the greats.
Then came Billy Mayfair, like a name out of a London musical, but not Hall of Fame stuff. Tom Lehman then turned the corner into 1996 and made it his year, won the British Open, which paid less than his Tour Championship, won that year at Tulsa. I pause here to point to Dean Wilson from Hawaii, who played his way into the field this year in The International. He beat Lehman in a playoff, thereby sparing Tom having to face the tempting choice of picking himself for the Ryder Cup team he would later captain to defeat.
David Duval won next at Houston, on his way to World No. 1. Then came a career depression, and he is still vaguely visible in the world rankings. Hal Sutton won the Championship’s first run at East Lake, in a playoff with Vijay Singh. Then, the cream rose to the top — Tiger Woods won at Houston, but that would be an aberration. He hasn’t won since, and won’t this week since he gave it the back of his hand. Same for Phil Mickelson, who beat Tiger down the stretch at East Lake the following year, and RSVPed for this one, though not with regret.
Mike Weir won at Houston in 2001, and he would later win the Masters — he and Mickelson, two lefthanders in a row — but his game has since gone south. He didn’t make the party at East Lake this week. Singh finally made up for the one that got away in 1998. Retief Goosen turned the corner into the 21st century winning the U.S. Open, then repeated in 2004, a year he would win the Tour Championship at East Lake, dusting off Woods in the Sunday round. Chad Campbell won in 2003, he of illustrious promise who has yet to deliver.
Ah, then came the shocker of all shockers last year over this same acreage. Good ol’ boy Bart Bryant, 42 years old, as Texan as a country-fried steak, emerged from a shadowy career and not only won, he beat Tiger Woods by six strokes down the stretch. Bryant was unquestionably the longest of all the long shots, and he accepted his check for $1,170,000 with grace and went home to Ocoee, Florida, which is no inland Riviera. He finished 70th on the tour money list this year and lives happily wherever he is. So you see, Tiger and Phil, you aren’t missed. Having a wonderful time without you, and as you can see from this roundup of champions, odds are that you wouldn’t have been a winner anyway.
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