nice carbonite reference, perhaps Jabba had him hanging on his wall?

Its quite obvious that you haven’t watched a single basketball game in the last two years. Before reading the rest of my comment, I invite you to take some time to stretch, go for a walk, shave your beard, and catch up on current events. Once you’re done, feel free to continue reading.

1) “Thanks for alienating Ben Wallace, a 4-time DPOY, who you could not possibly figure out how to coach.”

Since you haven’t seen any basketball in the last two years, I feel the need to share with you that two coaches: Mike Brown (whom you address later), Scott Skiles and Jim Boylan couldn’t coach him either, and not as well as Flip did. Also, that 4-time DPOY is now a mediocre-at-best player who is only starting because of the size of his contract, not his performance.

2) “Thanks for pissing off Rasheed Wallace”

In the last two seasons, us Pistons fans that adore Rasheed have realized that there is only ONE person who is in control of Rasheed’s temper, and that person’s Pistons jersey number is 36.

3) “Thanks for destroying one of the NBA’s best defenses”

This season, that “one of NBA’s best defenses” was the #2 defense in the NBA.

4) “Thanks for burning out our aging starters, 3 years straight.”

This season, which again– you must have missed, saw more rest for our starters than any season in recent history. Our bench was exercised, our starters were rested.

Its nice to have you back, though. When you have a chance, I’m excited to hear about what it was like to be cryogenically frozen in carbonite. I’m a big technology buff

Thanks for alienating Ben Wallace, a 4-time DPOY, who you could not possibly figure out how to coach.

Thanks for pissing off Rasheed Wallace, the lynchpin who got this team a championship, and thanks for never figuring out how to work with his strength, emotion, and raw talent.

Thanks for destroying one of the NBA’s best defenses, and demanding that they revert to high-school zones which -everyone- in the NBA can pick apart after 3 or 4 successive possessions.

Thanks for blowing an opportunity to to garner a championship ring (or two) by insisting that your offensive strategy was more important than the man-on-man defense that got this team where it was when you took charge.

Thanks for burning out our aging starters, 3 years straight. We really enjoyed watching their jumpers fall short while you straightened your tie wondering why, as we screamed “too many minutes during the regular season AGAIN, asshole!”

Thanks for proving to all of your critics that yes, Mike Brown and Doc Rivers are, in fact, better coaches than you, and that Bill Davidson was, in fact, out of his senile fucking mind when he refused to sort things out with Larry Brown and settle differences.

Thanks, Flip.

And good riddance.

I hate to pile on a guy who’s now been fired, but here’s the bottom line IMO:

In 2004, he had the #1 seed in the Western Conference, and lost in the conference finals.

In 2006, he had the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference, and lost in the conference finals.

In 2007, he had the #1 seed in the East, and lost in the conference finals.

In 2008, he had the #2 seed in the East, and lost in the conference finals.

The pattern seems apparent enough. Flip wins big in the regular season and can beat overmatched playoff comp, but his teams can’t go toe-to-toe with other contenders. To have THREE #1 seeds and never make the Finals is hard to understand. That’s highly implausible from a mathematical standpoint.

Flip has a lot of good qualities, but he just wasn’t the right guy to lead this group and simultaneously develop the young guys, like Jackson has done with the Lakers.

I think Flip was totally risk averse and would not take the risk playing young guys that he needed to, especially when they were talented. To Flip’s credit he did play Stuckey but I think Joe D. left him with no real alternative. Murray was never an alternative nor was Dixon.

With Amir Flip was a total disaster and I believe that Flip would have kept him on the bench again this year if Joe D. hadn’t insisted on Flip playing him.

Why didn’t Joe D. insist on Flip playing Amir in the playoffs. I think Joe D. may have felt that it was up to Flip to make the right choices and it would have been too much of a distraction during the playoffs to get in Flip’s face about not playing Amir.

Flip never could control Sheed. In fact Brown has been Sheed’s only NBA coach that has been able to come close to maximizing Sheed’s potential as a player, though Sheed did let us all down on the Horry play in the 2005 Finals.

Good luck to Flip. He is a coach with a lot of Midwestern roots. I hope he lands in Chicago as they have a good core of young players and the #1 pick in this month’s draft.

http://ktar.com/sports/?nid=21&sid=855879