Well no. As a passionate Laker fan who suffered through a childhood of playing second fiddle to the Celtics, only relieved in 1985 ( we have mostly dominated them since then), I do not underrate their championship run. If anything it is overrated in my mind, like the monsters in the closet of my childhood bedroom.
Auerbach was a great, if complicated, figure in the early NBA (a sentence the adolescent version of myself would never have allowed himself to type).I have reasons that I think valid (though have to admit my bias) for ranking him no higher than #4 on list of great NBA coaches, behind (in no particular order at this point) Phil Jackson, Pat Riley and Greg Popovich. The reasons have to do with the differences in the NBA between the vintage and modern period, in terms of number of opponents, number of miles travelled, and full diversity among the players, and to some extent the rules of the game. Basically, it was just a lot easier to win an NBA championship in those days (this also applies, even more, to Kundla and those championships Laker Nation still claims from Minnesota, which were won I think all or most before the 24 second clock). Similarly, while a great figure in the early MLB, I would not really rate someone like Joe McCarthy as the best manager in baseball history. On Sat, 2 Jan 2021 at 2:28 AM JW <[email protected]> wrote: > > So, I suspect Bob that JW was simply pointing out with a little (well > > deserved) snark that the Coach if the Year trophy is not named for either > > Pop or a former Laker coach, but by a certain long time Laker nemesis who > > was insanely successful with the Lakers arepa enemy in Massachusetts. > > Exactly. > > More snark would be pointing out that one of the Lakers' most successful > coaches (John Kundla) was done before the team moved to Los Angeles. > > Ultimately, I think those 11 Celtic titles in 13 years are so hard to wrap > our heads around that there's a tendency to underrate them. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKSNnOEiq1KO64umtZD2hB0CrRsvc94RxVwsd%3DVpgXcmWuB2rg%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKSNnOEiq1KO64umtZD2hB0CrRsvc94RxVwsd%3DVpgXcmWuB2rg%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- Sent from Gmail Mobile -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/CAKGtkYK4%2BKBa2zX2CNu1tDVN8BNj-OK6b%3DJXiq%3DsrShmtoqJKw%40mail.gmail.com.
