Nice article about Rudy T and the media from the Philadelphia Inquirer

I think nobody has posted this yet and although this is not game action or roster moves, I guess this is the right forum?

A coach may get his due

Rudy Tomjanovich is no ordinary coach. World, take notice.

By Stephen A. Smith
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Rudy Tomjanovich, who has the perpetual look of someone suffering from sleep
deprivation, took a moment from his busy schedule to pick up the phone in Hawaii
recently and deliver a seven-word message likely to please a basketball nation.

"I'm fine," he said. "I am not exhausted anymore."

Predictably, neither is the U.S. men's basketball team, which has run roughshod
over a USA Select Team of college players, Canada, and anyone else stuck in its
path.

This team is without two of the best American players, Grant Hill and Tim Duncan,
who decided not to play because of injuries. It has six guards (Ray Allen, Tim
Hardaway, Allan Houston, Jason Kidd, Gary Payton and Steve Smith), two small
forwards (Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Vince Carter), three power forwards (Vin
Baker, Kevin Garnett and Antonio McDyess), and one center (Alonzo Mourning).

Still, however the team has been constructed, it is unlikely to run into much trouble
in Sydney. Australia has a veteran team with plenty of NBA experience, and China
has capable big men, but winning the gold will be nearly automatic for the
Americans.

For Tomjanovich, something besides gold could be within his grasp: recognition.

Not from his players, or the Houston Rockets, or the Olympic stars, who swear by
him. Not from basketball aficionados or the league office, which couldn't ignore his
back-to-back championships in the mid-1990s, prompting his selection as coach of
the Olympic team.

But from us.

Tomjanovich never pranced up and down the sidelines of the Great Western
Forum or Madison Square Garden, so he doesn't get mentioned in the same breath
as Pat Riley, a man he beat for the Rockets' first NBA crown in 1994. Although
Tomjanovich coached such greats as Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler,
neither of them was as charismatic as Michael Jordan, Shaquille O'Neal or Kobe
Bryant, so he's never been mentioned in the same breath as Phil Jackson, either.

Sixers coach Larry Brown, an assistant under Tomjanovich on the Olympic team,
has a reputation as "Mr. Fix-it," well-earned because of the tumultuous
circumstances he inherited in New Jersey, with the L.A. Clippers, and most
recently in Philadelphia. That somewhat explains why Brown runs a basketball
operation without ever having won an NBA title.

But despite capturing NBA championships in 1994 and 1995, Tomjanovich, a
lifelong member of the Rockets, still falls in with the "ordinary" coaches. Unlike
Riley, Jackson or Brown, Tomjanovich appears to be a coach in the precarious
position of being one season away from glory or unemployment. Yet it doesn't
seem to bother him at all.

"It's not even a factor with me," Tomjanovich explained. "That whole deal, I found
out a long time ago, really means nothing. I go to work and put forth an honest
day's work every day. I love the game. I love the job and my relationship with the
players. I don't think I'm lacking in satisfaction in any way with my job."

Last summer, Tomjanovich's body conveyed an entirely different message.

Diagnosed as suffering from "extreme exhaustion," Tomjanovich had to bow out of
the qualifying round in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in July, leaving the coaching duties to
Brown.

"That was probably one of the lowest times in my life," Tomjanovich said. "I had
worn myself out completely, and I felt horrible. And all the emotions that come with
not feeling good were there. I had nothing left."

Just a year earlier, the NBA was in the midst of a contentious seven-month lockout
with its players association, prompting the NBA players to back out of the World
Championship Games in Greece. The U.S. team, coached by Tomjanovich, was
left with players who felt like "a bunch of misfits because no one believed in us," he
said. The United States came home with a bronze medal instead of the gold.

"It was still one of the proudest moments of my career," Tomjanovich said.

Now that the NBA players are back in the mix, they are planning to make
Tomjanovich proud once more.

Garnett has already said, "I'd walk across the Red Sea to play for [Tomjanovich]."
Payton, Kidd, Mourning and the others say they love playing for him. Yet
Tomjanovich is aware that they still have to go out and win the gold.

"I think everybody in here thinks it's a tremendous honor, but they also know it's a
responsibility," he said. "We are representing our country, but we've got to
represent the game of basketball itself. We'd be cheating ourselves if we just went
out and said, 'OK, we've got talent,' and just rolled the ball out. We've got to
become a real team."
http://web.philly.com:80/content/inquirer/2000/09/14/sports/MBASK14.htm

 

By the way, what happened to this freak who always wanted Rudy T fired...Caveman or what all his names were? Finally, Rudy T gets the respect he deserves.