Houston Rockets coach Kevin McHale: Basketball is not a Rocket Science – NBA Update
Boston Celtics’ three-time NBA Champion and the former coach of Minnesota Timberwolves, Kevin McHale, who was recently hired as the head coach of Houston Rockets is certainly a man who likes to make his own mark. McHale has made
it very clear that he has a different philosophy of coaching and that he does not accept the conventional thinking in basketball.
The 53 year old Hall of Famer is not a big fan of a common perception that a team cannot win a championship without an elite player or a superstar and there are only limited approaches towards clinching a title.
"I've heard people talk about basketball, and I get a chuckle out of it, like it's some sort of rocket science. This is the only way to do this . . . there's a million different ways to skin the cat." McHale said.
Kevin supported his argument with Detroit Pistons’ example. The then bad boys of the league, were without any significant star, but toppled the mighty Los Angeles Lakers in the 2004 NBA Finals and nabbed their third NBA title.
"The Detroit Pistons won a championship. Rip Hamilton, nice player. Rasheed Wallace? Nice player. Chauncey Billups, nice player. Where was their elite, superstar, Hall of Fame player there?”
On both the occasions when McHale had a chance to coach in his career, he jumped in to replace a fired coach during the season and performed the job for a short spell. He has short coaching experience and said that his approach
is the outcome of the thirteen years player experience with the Greens.
"I'm surely not going to change who I am. I'm pretty comfortable with who I am. I'm going to be the same guy I've always been and go out there and coach the same way." Kevin said.
After parting ways with Rick Adelman, the Houston Rockets have adopted a new approach and hired McHale. He is adamant that the pressure of taking on other coaches in the league with far more experience will not affect him and as
such the job is not so difficult and complex as it is sometimes made to be.
McHale was a leader for the Celtics and spearheaded the team for three NBA championships in 1981, 1984 and 1986. He finished his career with 17335 points, 7122 rebounds and 1689 blocks per game and was the one who introduced the
hardnosed defensive ideology at the franchise.
With Yao Ming’s status for the next season still in a limbo, Kevin will be leading a young team and have a big challenges ahead to guide the four newcomers Marcus Morris, Chandler Parsons, Donatas Motiejunas and Jonny Flynn. The
Rockets missed a play-off berth for the second consecutive time last season as Kevin top assignment will be to transform the team into a play-off contender.
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