LaVar Ball let out an explosive rant against Steve Kerr’s coaching pedigree in the NBA, responding to comments Kerr made about Ball being ‘the Kardashian of basketball’. Ball called Kerr the Milli Vanilli of coaching, using the derided musical duo as the comparison for Kerr’s success.
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“Coach your team and shut the hell up and leave me alone. You called me the Kardashian of basketball, don’t get mad at me when I call you the Milli Vanilli of coaching. Milli Vanilli got all those awards for singing but they couldn’t sing a lick. How do you coach Steph, Draymond, and Klay on a running system? You don’t. ‘Hey, run this play.’ They are out there running and shooting. So you out there standing up and doing nothing. Look at what Luke Walton did when you hurt your back, and they called that coaching. I can coach that team blindly. Steph you here? Klay, you here? Dray, all good? By the sound of the crowd, we must be doing well. That’s how easy is. Now you’re seeing he isn’t doing anything. All those championships you won? Come on man, it’s the players.”
Milli Vanilli was an R&B duo that notoriously used lip-sync in their live performances. The pair couldn’t actually sing and were ruthlessly mocked and ostracized. Comparing Kerr to them is pretty rough.
The next few seasons will be the true test of Kerr’s coaching, though he proved he can win a title without having the odds stacked in his favor as he proved in 2022.
LaVar Ball Explains Why Phil Jackson Was A Succesful Head Coach
LaVar Ball went off on a pretty detailed explanation of why superstar-oriented teams succeed. He spoke about Phil Jackson’s success through the lens of the legendary coach empowering his players to play the way they wanted to on the court.
“The only one that was smart enough was Phil. Phil said, ‘I’m gonna create something without coaching. Call it the Zen, they’ll figure it out.’ I tell them less coaching is the best coaching… I don’t think he played a big role, I think they believed in him and let him do what he do. You can draw the best X’s and O’s, if you don’t have the best players, that thing ain’t gonna work. You got Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Rodman, Horace Grant, whoever. You just gotta have those three.”
Phil Jackson won 11 championships as a head coach, six with the Bulls and five with the Lakers. He did have superstar talent for all his titles, but if there wasn’t a coach like him to shepherd so many egos through a season, there wouldn’t be any titles to celebrate. He may not have been the driver like Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kobe Bryant were, but he definitely was the conductor.
LaVar Ball Explains How He Views Coaching Superstars
LaVar Ball explained his philosophy of coaching superstar talent by giving examples of Pat Riley with the Lakers, Red Auerbach with the Celtics, and Phil Jackson with the Bulls.
“Special players, you let them do what they do. Look at the Lakers, you got this guy Paul Westhead who’s like, ‘Oh my system, my system work.’ No, it’s Magic. They brought Pat Riley out of the booth to come on down and look at all those championships. You can’t box great players in, they gotta do their thing. You just got to believe in them and they got to believe in you… Look at Red Auerbach, he said, ‘I believe in Bird, go and do what you gonna do.’ How are you gonna coach a crazy dude like that? You don’t coach him. I can see it now, Phil, ‘Hey, Mike come here, let me tell you what to do.’ No, you don’t coach these special players like that.”
The exact reasons why those other coaches were successful with superstar talent is also why Kerr has been successful with superstar talent. He may have not been for their initial ascendancy but did mold them into title-winners, and he will always deserve that credit.
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