One of the wealthiest multimillionaire bankers on the ship, Benjamin Guggenheim, worked tirelessly to help the ladies onto the lifeboats, then sent a last message to his wife: “Tell my wife I’ve done my best in doing my duty.” He then went back to his cabin, dressed up in his evening clothes, with top hat, and declared that he was “prepared to go down like a gentleman!”

One third class passenger, Daniel Buckley, disguised himself as a woman and succeeded in getting into a boat.

Do they still make men like Benjamin Guggenheim?

But listen, I don’t buy Kerr’s smile. He seems like he is always calmed, like everything is under control. That kind of creeps me out for some odd reason.
I understand your feelings towards Mike, I felt the same way. I felt he gave up on the team and on his players and fans. But let us try to put ourselves in this guy’s shoes:
For starters, his boss doesn’t like him. If he stays, the media and management will question every single move. If you thought the team had some sort of (last year’s) Playoffs hangover…you haven’t seen anything. Everyone would have felt uptight, nervous.

On the other hand, Let’s try to understand why Kerr did not make a move to keep D’Antoni: For starters, he doesn’t like the man. He doesn’t believe he can win a championship the way he coaches. Defense wins championships until proven wrong. All Kerr saw was a coach who couldn’t make his team execute after a timeout, all he saw was a coach who couldn’t change or adapt his game plan as the game went, all he saw was a coach who didn’t sit players when they were playing badly, all Kerr saw was that he was outcoached by Gregg Popovich…yet again.

I was mad, just like you, when he left. But maybe the team needed a change, maybe they needed to relax and enjoy playing basketball, after all.. its just a game.

The underlying premise here is that D’Antoni, despite all the difficulties, was the best available coach for this team next year.

Was he, though. Really? I’m not sure. I didn’t want to see him go, but I’m not sure. What’s striking is that he was not so stubborn so as to keep Shaq in the high post for more than a few games (i.e., he changed the offense), but he was too stubborn to realize a few more stops or another bench player might be the difference.

Didn’t it all really end after the 2005 playoffs? Everyone was just “happy to be there” and the loss was largely caused by JJ’s broken face (not saying the Suns would’ve won, just saying he sure would’ve helped). Then, Q is traded for KT so KT can guard Duncan. Bell is acquired to guard Manu and then JJ “leaves” (or whatever happened). While everyone was thrilled with Boris, the Hawks did get the better player (and kept their picks).

Going back to the summer of 2005, that’s when D’Antoni should’ve started thinking about a bench and a little (just a little) defense. STAT’s failure to switch to Finley in Game 1 wasn’t because no one told him and it wasn’t because he didn’t listen. It’s because he never practiced and, like Maverick says, “You don’t have time to think. If you think, you’re dead.”

Did you ever see a management team behave with such understanding?

I can’t agree with that. I saw a lot of passive-agressive stuff with all three of those—especially with D’Antoni.

”’The underlying premise here is that D’Antoni, despite all the difficulties, was the best available coach for this team next year. Evidence includes that the coaching selection process was a joke. Of all the interviewees, only one had the head coaching experience necessary to take on a veteran team with waning title aspirations. Porter got the job by simply having 2 years head coaching experience to none!”

This is getting ridiculous, ZF. Maybe we should cue up Mel Gibson’s Conspiracy Theory and heat up the popcorn.

As I stated in http://www.brightsideofthesun.com/tags/fluxball, and echoed by JSun above, I think 7SOL was DOA after the inaugural season. D’A and the fans held on to it for three more years. It is time to cut loose. He Is NOT the better coach for us now. He would not adjust. Obviously you don’t like Kerr and Sarver. I’m not sure I do, either. The simple fact remains that the team before the Shaq trade had serious problems, and I do not think they would have gotten any farther that the team did with Shaq.

Actually, the case could be made that we could have beaten SA had MikeD not worn down Hill with his insistence on playing him heavy minutes during the season. Tthat certainly cannot be laid on Sarver/Kerr. Is the play of Amare, Boris, and LB Sarver/Kerr’s fauld? Is the handling of Raja’s early season injury? I could go on and on.

I defended Coach D many times. But the GM and coach have to be on the same page, and if you are not, and the GM loses out, that is not a good thing. (see Atlanta with Billy Knight and Mike Woodson). So I guess you are wishing Jerry or Bryan Colangelo are back, or that Jerry never sold.

But don’t come out with this nonsense that D’A is the perfect coach for us. He wasn’t. Who would you want to coach? I don’t think the selection process was a joke. It’s easy to make those claims. I suppose you want AJ, Flip, or Paul Silas. But maybe those guys didn’t jive with Kerr’s philosophy. Do you actually believe that is a good coach came in that merited 4-5 million per year and dovetailed with Kerr/Sarver’s philosophy would have been rejected simply because of the dollars?

D’A went to New York because they are going to give him a few years to do whetever he wants. Why does that say he is a rat? His problem is that he doesn’t want to change. That is a fatal flaw when you are trying to convince a superstar power forward to rebound or a multi talented player like Boris to develop a hard nosed streak, or a hotshot guard to become more consistent (LB). those three are the future of the team, and Mike failed them all miserably. And I’m not even talking about his refusal to emphasize defense.

Come on, ZF, this is a red herring.

But I don’t really get why Sarver and Kerr didn’t just leave it at “I’m your boss, this is what I want, and I’m going to be paying you $4.5 million next season, so figure out how to work under those conditions.” Same with JJ 3 years ago—”I understand your feelings are hurt, but here’s $70 million as an apology. We think you’re too good to let go. How’s that for respect?”

In any case, ZF is right that D’A was probably the best coach for the Suns next year, but what we have now is a series of moves by Kerr and Sarver that, in theory, address those chemistry issues that seemed to plague the team last year. Given what has happened with the Lakers and Gasol, and the emergence of CP3, it may be a moot point, as the Suns decline was likely sealed with the JJ trade and the selling of the draft picks more than Marion and D’Antoni’s departures. We shall see.

As much as I would like to have seen D’Antoni stay, one could see the writing on the wall when we lost the series, hell when the season started, it was hard to imagine D’Antoni here next year without a title.

Defense was only improved on a minimum scale, the bench was non-existant, the rotation was still at eight men, yada yada yada…

With all the same problems cropping up, did anyone think he was going to stay?

Remember the bench he’s had in pervious years was his choosing. He was GM when he picked up Marks, Banks, and some of the other bums and traded all of our other picks. Granted, I argue that Banks (and a few others , uh Boris?) let him down, but he was the one who got them…

Really if there’s anything I’m pissed at the front office for, its not handling the JJ situation properly, and letting go of Bryan, who’s presence would have helped D’Antoni, allowing him to focus on coaching, and supplying him with the talent for SSOL. Good Coaches do not always make good GMs.

Oh also, reiterating my point back in Febuary, because of this year’s playoff failure, I now rate the trade as a failure as well. As much as we needed a big man, I don’t think the Shaq is a good fit.