Justice: McHale should talk to, not iso, Les Alexander

Interesting how Feigen is the humble Rockets PR mouthpiece, Solomon is the brash outspoken critical guy, and Justice is the "somewhere in between" guy who is speaking candidly about real internal issues like an actual journalist.

 

and now that the gm and coach are sharing jobs, that gives them time for more than 30 transactions™ !!!1

maybe they can break the record ...

Spoiler

 

If Alexander were be more of a hands-on owner in the mold of Mark Cuban, I could mayb see this being a problem. I may be wrong, but I don't see him that way. He's delegated the work to these guys, he's not involved in the day-to-day workings of it.

I don't really know about what went on with Adelman. I'm just going by what the team president said about the JVG situation, that Alexander had no problem with his intelligence and work ethic (in other words, he didn't think JVG was underperforming) and JVG would still be coach if he made himself more available to Les. That sounds kind of messed up to me.

 

I think another angle of the Coach/Owner relationship that is coming into play is the corporate boss/employee relationship vs. sports franchise boss/employee relationship.

Les Alexander's background obviously shows that he has alot of experience in the business world and alot of his success comes from the relationships he has built with his collegues and business partners. In all angles, Les would be a very good boss to have in the business world for many different reasons.

However, in the sports franchise world, for some reason owners and the players/coaches have this disconnect where the team just expects the owner to write the checks and stay out of the lockeroom aspect of the game. I understand why, owners have never played at that level, and therefore their opinion on basketball related decisions should be kept at bay on a day by day basis.

I believe that Les just wants to be able to have the same working relationship that he would have with a normal business partner and employee with open communication. Him being up front and honest about wanting to have that relationship is definitely a positive notion from any boss, and If the relationship falters between McHale and Les, then Les surely shouldn't be the one to blame since he is making it known that he wants to have some sort of a working relationship.




-As for this being a PR spin, If you look back at Dick Justice's track record with the Rockets, you couldn't possibly link him to being the Rockets PR department. Whether he is supporting the Rockets, or creating controversy, he typically is 50/50 on reporting accurate info. Lately though, he has seemed to mend the relationship with Morey n Co. possibly getting a better line of trust to report a little more breaking news than he has been trusted with in the past.

Feigan however has a working agreement with the Rockets and usually will be the columnists they can trust to get the correct information out to the public first. I highly doubt Justice has done enough to build back that trust over the years to all the sudden be linking as the Rockets PR machine.

 

Les is the worst type of owner to have. He is halfway in and halfway out. He hires difficult coaches because they have recognition and he wants to say hey look I got the best coach and then he tries to get the coaches to do stupid events and follow a chain of command and is upset when they ignore him because he thinks he knows basketball but really he is stupid. I remember when he told the media that the Rockets had assembled one of the best teams of all time. He didn't say one of the best teams in the league that year but one of the best teams of all time. That year the teams best players were steve and Cat and a young Eddie Griffen and a rookie Yao plus MoT and Cato. They were all young bot WOW! Les really, one of the best teams ever to play together in the NBA.

So when Rudy got sick with cancer and they failed to make the playoffs it was pretty obvious the writing was on the wall for Rudy. He needed a scapegoat. The dumbest thing Les has said lately is why does ther have to such friction between the owner and the coach. He had the best coach he ever had. They had an open relationship.

Rudy was totally open with the owner. Rudy is such a good guy and would never pull the stunts Van Gundy did. He would never blowoff Les and his stupid requests as the idiot that he is Like Adelman did. But stupid Les thought he had a championship team without Hakeem and Drexler and Barkley. Wow 3 of the top 50 just left your team and you think you still best team to ever put on a uniform. The only thing we were the best of was the best lottery with the winningest record to not make the playoffs.

He hates his coach later and wants him out the door but the coach was known to be exactly the way he was and then dumb Les cries because he is surprised with his behavior. So now Les wants a coach he will listen to him. Oh is in for an awakening. Mchale is a good guy and he is going to listen to Les in the beginning but once les get into want his stup charity events and wants Mchale to sit in the chair at the water tossing bucket I think he will be in for a rude awakening. The problem isn't the coaches it is the stupid requests from the owner. An owner who is the worse type to have in the league because he knows enough about basketball to make him think he is smart enough to help the coach coach. Stupid Les

 

great post

 

As Cuban put it, at the end of the day you have a $500m business asset and you have to run it with that in mind.

 

I don't see the article as a PR spin at all. If anything, it's a subtle exposure of the petty nature of the firings. At best, it's a neutral report of the real reason for the firings: not performance, not coaching style, not team building philosophy, but owner-coach relationship.

Every report that comes out brings more light to what we've been suspecting all along.

 

We are all entitled to our opinions. However, in your post you used the words "stupid, idiot, etc" over 9 times while describing Les Alexander and his actions.

I understand disliking someone you really dont know personally as a sports "fan" but if this man is really as "stupid" as you seem to think he is then there is no justice in this world. Also, I wish that I was that stupid to somehow stumble on a few billion dollars and be as successful of a businessman in my lifetime. The way you describe him makes it seem like he can't chew gum and walk at the same time.

The owner says he wants to have a good line of communication with his coaches, and everyone including Dick Justice comes out and makes assumptions about this day-time tv show melodramatic working relationship Les has had with every coach since Rudy T. This is only the fourth coaching hire since Les has been the owner of the Rockets. In that timeframe that is a lifetime compared to most coaching stints in the NBA.

If so-called Rockets "fans" want to be this angry at the man in charge here because the Rockets haven't won a title since the 90's then there are always teams like the Lakers, Heat, etc. for bandwagon fans to root for if this is too much for you to handle.

 

What I meant was that all the fire-breathing fans on this board shouldnt consider this PR. Half of what Justice writes is rubbish and the Rockets front office wouldnt trust Dick with that kind of extended role with the organization.

 

The THIRD in 8 years.

 

was counting the inheritance of Rudy T. Def. not a true hire. Les has owned the Rockets since 1993. Im not a math wiz or anything but Im pretty sure that is 18 years. The past two coaches (JVG & Adelman) both worked their entire contract length.

 

First off, I want to commend you for not falling into the "PR spin" bullcrap. I mean, how do you even carry on a discussion with someone like that when they can just brush any argument aside as "Rocket PR". You would never do something like that, would you? Well, at least you didn't in this case.

Now with pleasantries aside, I'd like to know where you got this idea from. Seems to be a little logical disconnect. Let me explain, as grandmaster and principle of the school of logic.

To quote the article:

Saying a relationship with their boss would have helped them stay does NOT equal not having a relationship with their boss is the sole reason they were let go. You can bet your bottom dollar that performance, coaching style, team building philosophy all played a part as well. However, with a better line of communication, maybe some misunderstandings could have been avoided. For instance:

From this we can deduce that JVG was let go because communication was murky between him and Les. Before you say, "AH HA!" That was the circumstance, not the reasoning. The reasoning behind the fire very well could have been questions about performance, and especially coaching style. JVG is infamous for his offense, or lack thereof. Personally, I believe it is a myth, since his offense has excelled when given enough offensive talent. However, Les could have easily fallen for the trap of conventional thinking. After all, with an information block, there was no one there to explain that to him or speak for Jeff. Just because someone is intelligent, doesn't mean they can't be stubborn, or wrong. Les could have believed that was the case and fired him for those reasons. In that sense, if only JVG was more open with Les and explained himself better, he could still be here.

Where did I get all that from, you ask? That was what the whole article was about!

Or, you know, I could just be the Rockets PR machine.

 

As Easy has been saying, so what if your coach doesn't have time for you, or doesn't want to talk basketball with you, or won't take time for charity events beyond their own.

So WHAT! As long as the coach is not being disrespectful in public, or demanding too much money, it is no reason to fire someone. And forgot comparing this to the workplace. imo, it's more like comparing an owner and coaches to the President of the US and his generals. It's like the president firing George Patton for being an arrogant a-hole.

Can someone please give me a concrete example of why Les would fire a coach who he respects as a tactician and trusts and a floor general? And don't say asking for too much money or arguing in public -- because those didn't happen.

 

This is a complete contradiction of the quotes by Tab Brown -- the President -- regarding JVG. You can't pick and choose which quotes you are going to say are correct and which you are going to ignore. come on,,,that's a weak debating style.

 

Great analogy. It's like if George Patton decided to start bombing France, and the president asks, "Hey what the hell are you doing?" And Patton's answer is, "Go mind your own ****ing business."

 

That's funny that your attention span is such that you couldn't read a few paragraphs down where I indeed quoted Tad Brown, and showed how it isn't a contradiction. But rather confirmation.

 

Uh, Patton DID bomb France, because it was the only way to win the war.

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