During Friday’s game against Philly, I wrote in my halftime blog entry for HOOPSWORLD that Rasheed Wallace was active on the sidelines, despite being relegated to street clothes because of a knee injury:
It’s a little strange to see Rasheed Wallace on the sidelines in street clothes. He’s missed a few games over the years for Detroit, but usually it’s been the result of a suspension, when he’s not allowed in the building during the game. He’s staying involved in the game, going all the way out to midcourt following timeouts to offer advice to Jason Maxiell. Just think, might he have a coaching career in his future? Stranger things have happened.
Turns out, the idea might not be so strange after all. In an interview with WDFN (and transcribed by the Detroit Free Press), Flip Saunders suggested the same thing:
I was talking with someone today, and I said, “This might sound crazy, but I think Rasheed has a lot of the ingredients to be a very good coach.” If you can believe that.
He’s got a high basketball I.Q. He’s got an unbelievable amount of passion for the game. He’s a great competitor. He is a communicator. If he decides he wants to do something, he’ll go ahead and do it — doesn’t care what the ramifications are as far as what people think about it. … I’m sure referees wouldn’t want to see him on the sidelines.
But he has, with Cheikh Samb and Amir — he’s as critical of those guys, like in practice, saying to them, “If you guys can’t learn to play, you ain’t going to play.” He communicates with them, but he gives them tough love at times too.
It’s kind of hard for me to imagine Rasheed joining the other side, but hey, if Bill Laimbeer can do it, anything is possible. There’s some other good stuff in the interview, such as Flip’s reason as for why he got tossed:
I was a little bit surprised I did get tossed. It happened so quick. As I told somebody who called me that night — we talked a little bit. … I said, “Usually when you get tossed that quick, it’s probably because you’re right and that you’ve gotten into the guy’s core a little bit.”
Well, that and cussing out the ref …
After the first technical, Saunders got himself tossed with some biting sarcasm.
“Good job, Marc,” Saunders yelled. “That’s the first (bleeping) call you’ve got right all day.”
Either way, the fact that head coaches can get tossed, too, might make a transition to the sidelines that much easier for Wallace.
For the full audio of the interview, check out MLive.
The obvious subtext here is that with Flip echoing Matt and not the reverse, Matt might have a future in coaching.
I’m all up for Coach Sheed, I just hope he’s not the next Bobby Knight.
No matter how good Sheed plays, there are going to be people who can’t get past his tantrums. I’ve grown to accept Sheed for what he is, he’s a very emotional guy, and sometimes it gets the best of him.
I think of him as the backbone of the team. Most guys his size are post only players, but Sheed can drop the shot from anywhere. It’s not just his offense either, he is one of the best big defenders in the league. With our team forgetting about D lately, Sheed is a sacred commodity. You guys see the game against the Magic, he was giving Howard and Lewis one hell of a tough time getting anything to drop in the paint. Then you have his high basketball IQ; combined with good D; good offense, he can make the shot from anywhere (even past halfcourt in the Nuggets game last year), all at 6-11 makes him a fearsome weapon.
I was throwing a fit with all them bad calls, I’m glad I’m not the only one that felt that way. Here’s a longer excerpt of that from Mlive. “With 2:29 to play in the third quarter, Saunders was ejected after picking up two technical fouls — an automatic ejection — following some heated words directed toward official Marc Davis.
Saunders had picked up a technical after a foul was called against Tayshaun Prince.
After the first technical foul, Saunders was heard from press row telling Davis, “Good job, Marc! That’s the first (bleep)ing call you got right all day!”
Then came the second technical foul, which led to Saunders being escorted off the court by team security.
Chauncey Billups was among those Pistons pleased to see Saunders sticking up for them when, from the Pistons’ perspective, the game wasn’t being called fairly.
“It’s always good to have a coach that recognizes what’s going on and stands up for you in those situations,” Billups said. “But you know, I wouldn’t have minded getting them (technical fouls) either. I thought it was that bad.”
Nazr Mohammed doesn’t talk much about officiating, but the 6-foot-11 center admits he found himself trying to make sense out of how 6-3 guard Deron Williams was credited with blocking one of his shots on a play in the middle of the third quarter in which there appeared to be
some body contact between them.
“What can I say about calls, but get myself in trouble?” Mohammed said. “Some times they go for you, sometimes they don’t. I’m still trying to figure out how Deron Williams blocked my shot and hit all my hand. But hey, that’s how it happens sometimes”.”
Also for tonights game, the Cavs are going to be pretty confident after beating the Celtics. I’m prepared for Lebron to rack up some more bad calls against us. Watchout for Sheed and Gooden, they hate each other with passion.
Wonder if a coach has ever led the leagues in techs before.