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NBA Insider: Toronto's Coach Shrugs Off Poll Axe

Posted on: Friday, 10 March 2006, 12:00 CST

By Joe Davidson, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

Mar. 10--Nothing, Sam Mitchell insists these days, gets under his skin.

That is, outside of his Toronto Raptors bumbling through games, blowing leads, blowing gaskets and earning technical fouls and otherwise blowing any chance to salvage another lost season north of the border. Other than that, the man's cool as can be. So when the Raptors coach learned this week he was voted the worst coach in a Sports Illustrated poll of 248 NBA players, he blew it off, telling Toronto media, "You ask the few players that have played for me, and I'm sure they would beg to differ." Polls are a pretty simple thing. The winners collect all the positive votes, the losers the worst coach votes. The breakdown for the four worst, according to the poll in which players were not allowed to vote for their own coach: 1. Sam Mitchell (15 percent of the votes) - Sputtering right along at 21-40, never mind Mitchell has a scaled-down roster that once included Vince Carter. Mitchell's a yeller and screamer, so maybe this dishonor is proof players only like to hear barking from a dog. 2. Mike Woodson (13.3) - The Atlanta Hawks coach has been stuck with a stacked deck, meaning he has the youngest team in the NBA, kids who know how to run and dunk but not necessarily how to play the game, and practice time in the NBA is extremely rare. Still, only in the Eastern Conference can the 20-39 Hawks be in third place of a five-team Southeast Division. 3. Jeff Van Gundy (10.8) - The man appears perpetually exhausted, as if he needs a 30-hour nap, but is he this bad of a coach? His style is boring, a slow-it-down, creep-ball approach, so no style points there. 4. Mike Montgomery (8.3) - Perhaps NBA players don't like college coaches who bound into their league thinking they can pile on the victories. Or maybe it's the way the Warriors blow so many games down the stretch. 5. Byron Scott (6.7) - The man gets no respect, apparently. He takes the New Jersey Nets to the Finals twice and is practically run out of town. Now he's heading the upstart bunch of the season, with the displaced Hornets in the thick of a playoff race after bottoming out last season. Go figure. In order, Gregg Popovich, Phil Jackson, Larry Brown, Flip Saunders and Mike D'Antoni were named by the players as the best coaches. Seen and heard Van Gundy to the Houston Chronicle on Reggie Evans: "I am so sick of watching that guy flop, I can't stand it." (Rick Adelman of the Kings said during the Kings-Sonics playoff series last season Evans was a classic flopper, ready to drop at the sound of the air conditioner going on). * Chicago Bulls coach Scott Skiles to the Chicago Tribune if he was surprised ex-Bulls underachiever Eddy Curry has struggled with the New York Knicks: "No." * Red Auerbach on TNT if he could coach in the NBA today and how he would approach it: "If you give me a new pair of legs. The game hasn't changed that much. The ball is still the same size. I would appeal more to pride today. I would tell them that you've got enough money - unless you're an idiot - to sustain your family comfortably for the rest of their lives. So what do you have going for you? You have prestige and pride, and the only way you can (win) is through a team effort."

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

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Source: The Sacramento Bee

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