“Ball didn’t go in the hoop.”
Can’t find the link but got an ESPN notification. His record in 3 seasons was absolutely dismal.
He is apparently an exceptional assistant coach with a rare ability to impress those selecting head coaches. But it is kind of amazing that he can be so good at being an assistant and so bad at being a HC. Is their a wider gulf?
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I wonder where his next HC gig will be. No joke.
To be fair, nobody was going to be winning with those Bulls.
I know Popovich is a good coach, but, like everyone else, he can only win with talent. Robinson, Duncan, Manu, Leonard. Boylen would also have won a title with that team.
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At the professional level ‘being a good coach’ is all about the talent. Phil Jackson sure won a lot of championships and coincidentally he also coached the NBA’s most talented teams.
I think I understand what you’re saying, but are we seriously going to ignore the burning trail Boylen has left behind him? Surely he is accountable for at least some of the failings of this team.
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His wife was a member of our parish, his daughters went to the same catholic school as my son, and he lived in our neighborhood. Because of several fundraisers in which we were involved, I met and got to know him a little. He was very helpful to my son with his basketball game as he was entering Judge Memorial.
He is an involved family man, genuinely cares about people, and overall, a good man. He is passionate about his work, has endless energy for work, and community, and driven to succeed. I’m sure that Chis Hill saw all of those qualities, and I know he had the highest recommendations from Izzo, and others. Knowing him a little as I did, I wanted to see him succeed as much as anyone.
But, watching him turn into a near lunatic on the sidelines, with a microphone at the huntsman center, watching his inability to manage a presser, watching his teams under-perform, watching the staff turnover, and watching the losses, was like watching a runaway freight train. He would become obsessed with the officials over a bad call and simply stop coaching. And the “seek and …whatever” method of rebounding he taught, well…
I’m sure most of you know people who’s judgment gets overwhelmed by their passion at every turn, and they make one bad decision after another. A good head coach sets boundaries within which Boylen is successful; on his own, he’s his own worst enemy.
I hope he finds a position as a number one assistant to a good head coach on a winning NBA team, and spends the rest of his career resisting the temptation to take over as the head coach.
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I always thought Boylen was a good Xs & Os coach but he wasn’t the recruiter the Utes needed entering the PAC.
If I recall correctly, when he was on his way out at Utah he was telling players to transfer. If that memory is correct, that is pretty low. I don’t doubt that he generally is a good man, but it does appear that he gets in his own way often.
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Yeah, I forgot about that - another perfect example of being one’s own worst enemy. How do you expect to get another job, when you leave the last one in this manner?
I’ve been in a position to have to fire a few people in my life, and the one’s I remember, are those who left with so much grace and dignity, that I felt compelled to reevaluate why I had fired them in the first place.
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The only surprise to me was how long it took. It really appears that Boylen is a much better assistant than head coach.
From other posts in this thread, to interviews we’ve seen and heard, Boylen strikes me as a good person, a really good assistant coach, but extremely poor HC.
For his and his family’s sake I hope he lands on his feet, and realizes that he’s better off in the background than foreground.
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Funny–I thought just the opposite. I always thought he was over-matched with Xs and Os but that players liked him because he genuinely cared about and was good to them.
It could be I thought that just because he followed Giac, who was so completely overmatched that a Jr Jazz coach would have looked better.
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I’m with you. My buddy who I went to the games with in those days and I used to leave games having counted the number of picks set on one hand. It never looked like they had anything resembling a structured offense.
I totally agree with people in the nice guy part. There wasn’t anyone I wanted to succeed more, but he proves he was simply not capable of it.
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Boylen is not Head Coaching material. He seems to do ok when he fulfills a role on a coaching staff, he just doesn’t have the tools to put it all together on his own.
Of course, the current talent in Chicago isn’t even second tier NBA right now. Drafting is on the front office more than the HC. I hate to say Chicago today reminds me of the first seasons of the Jazz when they moved to SLC. #DumpsterFire
Well, best of luck to him on his next gig.
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