http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/1924204 Team needs stern hand, not kid gloves By FRAN BLINEBURY Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle LESLIE Alexander said he wanted to hit the ground running in his search for a Rockets head coach. That's assuming he wasn't already sprinting like a barefoot man across a bed of hot coals before the ink was dry on the buyout agreement with the man who delivered two NBA championships. It's a cruel place, this cannibalistic world of professional sports, where every name eventually turns up on the menu as an entree. Rudy Tomjanovich simply joined Tom Landry, Tommy Lasorda, Don Shula, Sparky Anderson and Chuck Noll as accomplished legends in their respective games who eventually came to the end of the rope. Not bad company, to be sure. For all of the gracious talk from both sides and for the dollops of heartfelt truth at the core, this was a relationship that was running out of momentum. What it continued to possess in terms of hard work and respect, it was lacking in passion. It was becoming as dull, as predictable, as unfulfilling as missing the playoffs four years in a row. Tomjanovich's replacement will be Alexander's first big hire, the one for which he will be judged for years. It will add the next bold line to what we have come to know about him in nearly a decade that he has owned the team. That he considers any season that doesn't end with fire trucks and a parade as a failure. Thus, it wasn't a good thing when the club owner said two years ago that his team could go "deep, deep" into the playoffs and then missed out on the postseason entirely. Nor was it easy for him to digest that the 2002-03 lineup, which he declared "one of the great teams ever assembled," once more could not even reach the playoffs. What Rudy T's unfortunate bout with bladder cancer and resultant new-found perspectives provided was a convenient, if dark, excuse to make a change for the different, if not for the better. The truth is, if there has been a misreading of the talent assembled in the Rockets' locker room, it wouldn't matter if Red Auerbach and Dr. James Naismith coached the Rockets together. If that's the case, more heads should eventually roll in the personnel department. But there is a suspicion around town, around the NBA, around the top of the organizational pyramid that these Rockets are an underachieving bunch. That, of course, is when you change the driver. Legitimate health reasons aside, you don't have to be as tall as Yao Ming to see over the mountain of obfuscation. What Alexander is searching for now is a jockey who can go to the whip, if necessary, and get the horses to run faster. Rudy T's strength also may have been his greatest weakness -- his loyalty to his players. While that was an attribute that was frequently rewarded by the likes of veterans named Olajuwon, Thorpe, Drexler, Elie and Barkley, it has too often left the Rockets spinning their wheels in the youthful era of Francis, Mobley, Taylor, Cato and Griffin. To date, they have neither earned nor deserved such respect, merely abused it. What the Rockets need now are some players with a veteran's outlook on how to play the game and how to approach it. What they need on the bench is someone who won't expect them to eventually figure it all out for themselves but will clearly define the path to be taken and expect them to follow it. No coddling. No cuddling up. No excuses. And no trying to make believe that 45 wins two years ago followed by 29 wins and 43 wins is anyone's definition of progress. In Jeff Van Gundy or Larry Brown -- two of Alexander's favorites -- the Rockets would be getting coaches with sterner hands and less tolerance than Rudy T. However, both come with baggage. While Van Gundy prides himself on his ability to teach defense and has shown a knack for getting his star players -- i.e. Patrick Ewing, Latrell Sprewell -- to show almost blind faith, he did in fact quit on the New York Knicks during the 2001-02 season. TV is the great rehabilitator and, in his new incarnation as a color commentator on TNT, Van Gundy has become a hot commodity again, with an offer from Cleveland with phenom LeBron James on the table and the Rockets scratching at his door. Still, he quit on his team. Brown has an unquestioned reputation as a teacher who will squeeze the most out of a roster. But in all of his other stops along the road, he also has squeezed the life out of his teams, leaving behind a trail of scorched earth. Do the Rockets go with the recognition factor of a Doug Collins, the communicator skills of a Paul Silas or Doc Rivers? If there is a sense of history, a connection to the franchise past, and the desire for a coach who has been around the block and had success, it would be Mike Dunleavy, who has both the résumé and the necessary edge. Does he have a high enough profile? Would he make a big enough splash? Remember, there are suites and seats to sell in the new arena and even naming rights to still slap on the place. For all those reasons, Alexander has to move fast and has to move strong. But in his first big chance, he'd better move right.
