Discuss Amongst Yourselves: Wooden or Auerbach?

A little March Mannyness: the voices were pondering aloud what I found to be an interesting, logically impossible scenario...

And being the Libra I am, I can't really make up mine own mind! Who would I want as my coach in a championship run?

Imagine there was no concept called time and you could travel to and fro through all the ages assembling a roster of "ringers" for your office's YMCA 'B' League. You can be either a player, the sponsor (organizer), Team Captain, the mascot, cheerleader, pseudo-celebrity charity auction blogger,....whatever you want!

Since we know you numbnuts have no lives or girlfriends, this allows us to assume you pour through video, run greuling practices and have blackberries stuffed with plays you personally designed. WHY should YOU do all the work? Are you a sap? Be a hero! Hire a coach that gets your team over the hump!

So I allow you the simple option to pick YOUR ultimate coach for your ultimate All-Times B League All-Stars, but your two choices are:

The Wizard of Westwood, John Wooden or

Victory Cigar, Red Auerbach

Explain your choice, or offer a alternative choice with quality reasoning ONLY, please (with flair; Gimme John Chaney, for instance!)

Also, SHAMELESS PLUG ALERT!!!

- I will be on CJAD 800AM in Montreal talk radio again tonight on "Holder Tonight" around 2:10 AM EST or check out [http://www.cjad.com/ www.cjad.com ]

- I think Wooden would be a better pick for me, personally.

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KelsdadAll-Star

1016 days ago

Score 1

As great as Wooden was, in college, it is possible to win with one great player. Even in the "old" days, there was a tremendous drop-off in talent outside the top 20. In the NBA, its not possible to win with one great player, but it is with two, and a solid group of one-dimensional role players. Auerbach was the first coach to realize this, and thus became the first to utilize his full roster during a game, instead of playing his starting five until someone fouled out, then made a substitution. Russell/Havlicek, Russell/Cousy and a bunch of guys with limited ability won 10 straight titles.

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The BeastAAA-er

1016 days ago

Score 0

Even as a USC fan I have to give the nod to Johnny Wooden.

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The BeastAAA-er

1016 days ago

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Wooden was a man guided by character and a desire to acheive the best. His best ended up with 10 consecutive national titles. On the other hand, Auerbach was a complete jerk who benefited from having all of the talent in the league. He also coached in an era were there were fewer NBA teams than now and the talent was so well divided up.

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ChristofMVP

1015 days ago

Score 1

You are comparing apples to oranges. Wooden was the man in college b-ball, while Red wa sthe master of the NBA. If you put Wooden in the NBA and Red in college, it I very likely that they would not have had much success.

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Manny StilesMajor Leaguer

1015 days ago

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Yeah, but pro or college doesn't matter for YOUR team... I think that you may be right that the two are suited for different purposes. Wooden motivated impressionable youngsters and Red was a hardass on grown men...

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TartanVarsity Captain

1015 days ago

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Give me Bobby Knight running my college program. He gets player Callipari wouldn't even waste a stamp on and molds them into quality people and solid basketball teams. Its too bad in this current college basketball landscape, blue-chippers aren't going to Lubbock and certainly won't play for Coach Knight.

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Manny StilesMajor Leaguer

1015 days ago

Score 0

nice pick, I can respect that.

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Manny StilesMajor Leaguer

1014 days ago

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No one mentions Pat Summit as their choice, eh?

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ChristofMVP