I think a lot of what went down in Washington was because of St. Jordan. At first he wanted to come off the bench, not bother the other players, give that "oomph" as the 6th man (wish Cuttino would do the same for us). Then he saw how much the team sucked, or, at least, didn't understand that the team wouldn't perform well while looking over its shoulder, waiting for him to show them how bad they were (kind of like the parent who never lets the kid learn for himself). So, Ewing at first would have worked a lot with Kwame, but Jordan's lack of confidence in Kwame, and how everyone kowtows to MJ, might have affected that progress. I don't think JVG would allow Ewing to slack off in helping Yao.
Ok alot of us are having an emotional response to this. Yeah the thought of seeing Van Gundy a Starks on our bench bothers me. But I think Van Gundy's a good coach, so you've got to let the guy pick his assistants. And honestly Ewing's really taking an undeserved bashing here (though it is kind of fun). The guy had outstanding fundamentals when he came into the league. He played hard, and he's a HOF center that wants to coach. Yeah I'd want one of our HOF centers with rings, but neither are seriously interested. Kareem has some sort of rep in this league that even with every insult, or bit of innuendo I've read I don't understand - especially given he's driven to coach. But Ewing could be the best choice anyway. Other than Mikkan, Wilt or Russell, the guy's slogged it out in the paint with the best centers in NBA history. He never disgraced himself, he was tough, and his proclamation that he was going to bring the NBA title back to NY took guts - especially knowing he was going to get slaughtered for it if he failed. And his legacy isn't our problem. But against my heart and better judgement, I've got to ask what people here think Moses taught Hakeem? Dream's always said he "beat me up" and "cheated" and "he wouldn't give me a call at Fonde if my arm had been ripped off". Helpful yes, but I don't think Moses could drop 40 on Yao now. Yeah sure he could still break ribs and annoy the hell out of him, and preach ferocity - if Yao could understand him. I'll always love Moses, but does anyone really think he's cut out to be an assistant coach? Yao's a respectful man, but I can imagine him saying "In China we don't let people like you walk around". And we all should remember the wars at Fonde began when Olajuwon was a freshman at UofH. Yao's experience and skill level is very different than Dream's was for those first 2 or 3 years. If Dream were interested, you've got a totally different proposition. He knows about culture shock, he had more moves than any center period, and his ferocity I think gets short shrift from Rocket fans and that I'll never understand. Maybe it's because of his religious awakening or that big smile. But Dream wanted to fight everybody from the first time he stepped on a court in Houston literally and kept fighting more figuratively until he left Houston. Moses was more of a mojo guy: "I'm going to hurt you, abuse you, freak you out and then sit down in the 4th quarter and watch your sorry a** try to ball". Moses was too busy intimidating to ever be intimidated. Players wanted to fight him, but he was too bad to give them the time of day. He should have had his own TV series. Ewing might be a good teacher, I don't know. I agree the jury's still out. Sorry for the long post, been sick for three days and am medicated. One more day of this and I'm likely to invite Moses over for an nice old fashion chain fight. Going crazy.
Well I have a look at the new completed downtown arena: We're also getting a really tall building and a bay to boot, heh heh heh!
