Not a comment on basketball
I'm not a huge fan of Sally Jenkins' columns — long-standing issues with Post Sports columnists who aren't based in the area (Norman Chad and half of Feinstein included) – but I did like how she closed her column today on the 1-10 Wizards' firing of coach Eddie Jordan.
Now it's up to Tapscott to make them defend. Grunfeld points out that the team has plenty of wherewithal even without Arenas and Haywood: The Wizards have two all-stars and locker room leaders in Butler and Antawn Jamison, and some promising young talent. To say that they aren't capable of fighting back, to give up on the entire season or blame it on the roster, is an easy out. This is not a defenseless team, no matter how much it's acting like one at the moment.
Anyone who thinks so should hear a story retired Hall of Famer Lou Carnesecca tells about Joe Lapchick, the legendary New York Knicks coach and his great mentor at St. John's. Carnesecca was a young assistant to Lapchick when he got his most important lesson in coaching. Their team was struggling and Lapchick simply wasn't getting through to some of the players. Carnesecca said, "Why don't you just get rid of a couple of them?"
Lapchick put an arm around Carnesecca. "Son," he said, "anybody can do that. It's your job to make them better."
This post isn't a comment on the layoffs either. I couldn't be further from those reins and don't know the whys enough to suggest any other real solutions. But I think how we move ahead is important. Too many people react to crisis situations by wanting to throw the other half of the room out the door. The challenge with a legacy — and a future that's going to create its own legacy — is to do more.
