Kenny Smith is an outsider wanting in. The Detroit Pistons could change that.
Detroit needs a new head coach and reportedly has plans to interview the TNT NBA analyst
James Washington Color Rush Jersey , who has no prior coaching experience.
The former first-round draft pick out of the University of North Carolina played in the NBA for a decade, making appearances with six teams. He’s mainly
known for his six-year stint in Houston, where the Rockets won championships in
1994 and `95. He hung up all his jerseys in 1997 and put on a suit for TV.
During his final season, Smith made a pit stop in Detroit. He played just nine games for the Pistons.
Smith would not be the first former player to go directly from broadcasting to coaching. Nor is basketball the only sport plucking people out of the booth
and plopping them down on the bench; it actually hopped on the trend late
compared to baseball.
Here’s some others who paved the path from the booth to the bench:
Aaron Boone (MLB)
The current Yankees manager spent seven years behind the microphone for ESPN, analyzing what he saw rather than dictating what he wanted. A desire to return
to the field was fulfilled in 2017 when New York offered Boone a three-year
contract, with a team option for 2021, and he returned to the pinstriped
uniform.
During his 12-year professional career, Boone played 54 games for the Yankees in 2003, hitting an ALCS-clinching home run against Boston. He mainly spent his
time with the Reds – seven seasons – and joined four other teams before
announcing his retirement in 2010. That’s when he made the switch to the
broadcast booth.
Right now, the Yankees (35-17) have the second-best record in the majors.
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Buck Martinez (MLB)
Boone actually went to Martinez for advice, because he made a similar move at the turn of the century: Player. Broadcaster. Manager. Of course, Martinez went
back to broadcasting after being fired in his second season.
Martinez played for 17 years
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In 2001, Toronto made him its new manager.
Martinez returned to broadcasting with the Orioles. That lasted a couple of years until he took his mic back to the Blue Jays in 2010, where he remains.
Martinez is in his eighth season as the team’s play-by-play announcer.
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Jerry Coleman (MLB)
Managing didn’t work out too well for Coleman, either. Coleman was in broadcasting for 51 years, giving a voice to baseball until his death in 2014.
He took only one year off the job: 1980.
The Padres made Coleman the team’s team manager after eight years in San Diego’s broadcasting booth. He lasted a season, leading the Padres to a 73-89
record, then went right back to where he was most comfortable: behind the
microphone. There, the former four-time World Series champion covered two World
Series and 18 League Championship Series.
In 2005, Coleman was given the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s annual Ford C. Frick Award that recognizes broadcasters.
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Mark Jackson (NBA)
Enough baseball, back to basketball. Jackson dribbled his way through 17 years in the NBA before calling it quits in 2004. From there, he spent seven
years working for ESPN until the Warriors called in 2011 with a job offer.
Jackson coached the Warriors for three seasons, leading Golden State to back-to-back playoff appearances
Martin Kaut Blackhawks Jersey , with young stars Steph Curry and Klay Thompson. But then he was fired.
Immediately after, ESPN brought Jackson back on its NBA announcing team. He has stayed there ever since and will call the 2018 NBA Finals, where his former
team is defending its title.
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Steve Kerr (NBA)
Here’s a success story still in the making. Kerr replaced Jackson as Warriors head coach, winning the title in his first season.
But even Kerr isn’t a stranger to the booth. Kerr had no coaching experience prior to the Golden State gig. He did play, though. He’s one of 26 players in
NBA history to claim five championship titles. Kerr had also worked as an NBA
executive, serving as general manager of the Suns from 2007-10.
Since he was hired away from TNT in 2014, Kerr has had the Warriors in the NBA Finals each season, and they are trying for their third title with him. The
Pistons sure wouldn’t mind if Smith could replicate Kerr’s success.
His numbers are ordinary. His name is not.
And his potential, that’s still to be proven.
A player who averaged 5.2 points and 2.9 rebounds per game in his lone season of college basketball, primarily as a backup for a team that didn’t finish with
a winning record, wouldn’t ordinarily seem like much of an NBA draft prospect.
But in this case, the player in question is Kostas Antetokounmpo – who believes
that he is ready to follow his All-Star brother Giannis into the league.
On Thursday night
http://www.giantsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-b.j.-hill-jersey , he’ll find out which NBA club agrees.
”I feel like when you do a sport, when you do something, you want to be the best at it,” Kostas Antetokounmpo said. ”Since I was little I wanted to be an
NBA player. So it’s about time.”
Maybe so, but unlike his brother – the Milwaukee star who might be an MVP candidate for years to come – Kostas Antetokounmpo’s game is nowhere near the
elite level.
”He can be really good,” Giannis Antetokounmpo said. ”He has a lot of things to work on. But I think he can be really good if he gets with the right team and
tries to get better every day.”
The 20-year-old Kostas Antetokounmpo struggled to remain a big part of the rotation at Dayton in his one college season, starting six games early in the
year but also playing less than 10 minutes in six others. He had a big game off
the bench late in the season to help the Flyers beat Saint Louis, and after that
game Dayton coach Anthony Grant pointed to that as the sign of what
Antetokounmpo can do.
”That’s what he’s capable of,” Grant said, ”when he puts his mind to it.”
The good news for Kostas Antetokounmpo is this: He knows he’s nowhere near a finished product.
He’s 6-foot-10 with long arms, his standing reach extending just 10 inches shy of the rim. But he’s only 195 pounds, needs to work on his strength and
missed basically half of his free-throw tries last season.
”I know that I’ve got to let my body get stronger
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game, and my moves.”
If he makes the NBA, Kostas would be the third Antetokounmpo brother to reach the league. Besides Giannis, there was Thanasis – who appeared in two games for
the New York Knicks in 2016. And there’s a fourth one on the way, that being
16-year-old Alex, someone who Giannis and Kostas both predict might be the best
in the family.
So soon, Alex will likely deal with what Kostas is dealing with now – inevitable comparisons to the more-famous brother.
Kostas and Giannis are built similarly, with their long, lean frames and almost neverending reach. They sound alike in some ways, but both insist that
they do not play the game the same way. It used to be difficult for Kostas to
carry the label of `the next Antetokounmpo,’ he said, though over time he thinks
he’s been judged more on the merits of his own game.
”Every good player coming up
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It makes me work harder. If they compare me to a top-10 player in the NBA, I
don’t have a problem with that.”
Kostas Antetokounmpo said he expects to immediately contribute at the NBA level, based on the way he can run the floor and his penchant for being able to
defend – especially around the rim. He said he tries to emulate not his brother
so much, but more along the lines of Kevin Garnett largely because of the way he
defended.
He has no idea yet where he’s going to get picked, and some mock drafts have him sliding to the second round.
He insists that won’t matter.
”I feel like I can be an NBA player,” he said. ”I think a lot of teams see me and they see a kid that works hard, a kid that can become a NBA player. First
round, second round, it doesn’t matter to me. I’m going to do what I can do and
try to get better.”
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