s_knight8

http://www.nypost.com/sports/nets/16352.htm

February 20, 2004 -- TORONTO - Jason Kidd has been labeled as the guy
responsible for driving Byron Scott out as Nets head coach. First,
observers said it. Now Scott has admitted evidence pretty much fingers
Kidd.
But Kidd yesterday maintained he never had a problem with Scott after
the ex-Net head coach, in a radio interview, claimed he wished Kidd
had come to him with any problems. Scott also said that the Nets
"obviously" are playing harder for Lawrence Frank than they did for
him.

"I never had a problem with coach," said Kidd after the Nets prepped
for tonight's meeting with the Raptors here, where they'll try to
establish a new team winning streak of 12 games while hoping to make
Frank 11-0. "I always told [Scott], tried to give him a heads up on
different things that were going on in the sense of maybe getting guys
going. But me and coach had a great rapport. Some people feel
differently but they were never in the situation."

Scott did take a bit of an unintentional hit from Kidd, who praised
Frank for his preparation, communication and use of personnel - the
inference being Scott was wanting in those areas.

"I don't know if guys are playing harder, but coach [Frank] is playing
a lot of guys and guys have responded," said Kidd, who stressed better
rebounding as the key for the Nets. "A lot of times guys respond to
change."

Scott, on ESPN Radio, admitted the difficulty in watching the Nets
play harder for Frank. And concerning all the reports that Kidd wanted
him out - especially as a pre-condition to re-signing last summer -
Scott noted "where there's smoke, there's fire."

"Being on the outside looking in, watching some of the games now it
looks pretty obvious to me now as well, too," Scott said. "Every coach
feels he wants his team to go and bust their butts every single game
because he's trying to do the same thing. That's the only thing that
hurts a little bit is the fact you don't feel the guys were playing as
hard as they're playing now."

Scott, who yesterday signed a three-year-deal as an NBA studio ****yst
for ABC television, had strongly maintained that Kidd did not try to
undermine him. Now, he did not sound as sure.

"You've got to believe something. Where there's smoke there's fire, so
you've got to believe something was said. I'm not naive enough to
believe that everything that's been reported has been totally false,"
Scott said. "Obviously there has to be some truth to some of the
stuff. I don't know what goes on behind closed doors. I only know when
we were together, when we were on the court, how our relationship, in
my eyes, seemed to be OK.

"I'm a man. If I don't like you or disagree with some of the things
you're doing, I'm going to have a conversation with you. . . . I
really think and hope that would be the way that Jason was and if he
didn't like me or didn't agree with the things I was doing. I would
hope he would have come to me," Scott said. "That never happened."

Frank got caught in the middle and insisted his team played hard for
Scott. As proof, he pointed to a pair of Eastern Conference title
banners.

"I think Byron's just being very kind," said Frank, taking Scott's
comments as praise. "See those banners? They played hard. Byron's done
a great job."

Other players gave a "no comment" or did not answer to Scott's
remarks. "If that's the way he feels, no comment," said Kenyon Martin.

topcat

<snip>

It's obvious Kidd is to blame. He is now once again playing like an MVP.
Kidd's honcho Rodney Rogers is even back from the dead. In Kidd's defense,
however, Byron didn't do enough to develop Planinic, who is now playing
pretty well for Frank, and Byron's substitution patterns left many players
and fans scratching their heads.

TC

fred

"topcat" <topcat@aboy.com>


appearances in the NBA finals


fixed it

topcat

fixed it

TC

fred

and fixed it

topcat

overcome Byrons poor substitution patterns and win the east anyway.

Fixed once and for all

TC

Byron is a great Laker, and a so-so Coach. Lakers know this and thus
he'll never run the team. Michael Cooper is a way better coach.

Bryan

levidespam

That's why they keep Coop running the WNBA team - so he'll be red hot and
ready to coach players who cry (about broken fingernails and other matters
of import) when Phil Jackson decides enough is, finally, enough.

chainsaw

It would be easy to joke about this, but you never know. Stranger things
have happened.