I saw this quote as well by Jon Barry and it got my attention. I think Barry meant it as a total compliment. I do think pretty much all coaches respect him and players with those qualities respect him. But what about squeezing performance and managing players that are not big time competitors or who don't love basketball, but that are merely at the upper echelon at playing basketball or in natural basketball ability. IMO the best coaches find ways to get something out of them too--there is a limited amount of NBA rotation caliber talent in the world, not all of them have fire and focus, and you better find a way to use everybody with talent.
