Newsday had an article about the best coach in NY the other day. Shockingly, the coach they chose was none other than Tom Coughlin. When I read it, I almost fell off my chair and started laughing. How can a respectable newspaper think Coughlin is the best coach in NY?
Then I started to think about it a little more. Look at who he's up against. Joe Torre is in LA, and Joe Girardi hasn't even started yet. Willie Randolph barely kept his job after the worst collapse in regular season history, Eric Mangini stinks as bad as his team does, Ted Nolan's not doing anything spectacular and Isiah Thomas is, well, do I need to go there?
That leaves Coughlin and Tom Renney of the Rangers. My first thought was to go with Renney. After nearly 10 years of misery, Renney lifted the once proud Rangers team out of the NHL doldrums and brought them back to respectability. The team is a winner again, the Garden sells out every night and he even managed to win a playoff series last year.
Coughlin on the other hand has made the playoffs the last 3 years depsite the fact that they regularly crumble at the end of each season. You can't knock a guy for making the playoffs, can you? Oh wait, you can if you're George Steinbrenner.
So after reading this article, I really started to think about it. At first I thought it was a joke that the winner was Coughlin. Then it dawned on me, Coughlin is the man.
But that's not where the realization ends. The more telling thing about this article is that there really are no legendary coaches in NY anymore. Gone are the days of Bill Parcells, Red Holzman, Mike Keenan, Joe Torre, John McGraw, Casey Stengel and dare I say, Al Arbour. Today, we are stuck with Isiah Thomas.
Now putting Isiah Thomas in the same category as Coughlin, Mangini, Randolph and the rest of the bunch is not flattering to those men at all because Isiah is a mess. He's the worst thing any team could possibly have. He makes Knicks fans long for the days of Scott Layden again, and some of us remember how bad those days were.
My point is, we need another Pat Riley or Miller Huggins around here. Girardi and Renney probably have the best shot at winning a championship than the other coaches in NY. But in the case of Girardi, no matter what he does, he will never be Torre so maybe Renney has the best shot at achieving some degree of immortality amongst the NY coaching ranks.
No matter what happens, THE KNICKS MUST FIRE ISIAH!!!!
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3 comments:
If the best coach in your city is Tom Coughlin, I think it is time to move.
I give the edge to Girardi based on in his only season as Manager he won the award for Manager of the Year. By the way, it was with the Florida Marlins, arguably the cheapest team in baseball. Granted he has not started yet in NY, but he does not need to do much.
Spoken like a true Yankees fan. At least you are dedicated to your team, no matter how biased it may make you.
Big D,
I think you help my point here. But when you look at the nation, where are all the big name coaches? There really aren't any. The coaching ranks have become a game of who can survive the longest.
All the big name coaches win and retire to keep there legacy. The only exception these days is Boston where you have multiple champonships in 2 sports now with the Celtics making some noise.
But it's tough to give Girardi the nod in this one because he hasn't made a decision on anything yet. What happens if the Yankees get out of the gate slow? Will he panic or crumble under the pressure. That's what made Torre special. He was the same regardless if it hey won or lost.
Girardi shouldn't even be in this discussion.
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