Posted by codeunknown:

On the contrary, this teams needs new and creative excuses. Pre-season boos would be crushing for morale.

Posted by BasketballJones:

But is it just a problem of motivation, or is it also the other problem we've had in recent years: a somewhat random collection of players resulting in a team with no solid identity?

[Edited by - basketballjones on 10-18-2007 00:26]

Posted by BlueSeats:

Posted by BasketballJones:

But is it just a problem of motivation, or is it also the other problem we've had in recent years: a somewhat random collection of players resulting in a team with no solid identity?

[Edited by - basketballjones on 10-18-2007 00:26]

I don't know, I didn't see tonights game, but a 40 point loss reeks of not coming ready to play, or getting punched and just not getting up again. I'm sure Boston is good, but effort alone keeps less talented teams that ours in most games.

FOR THE RECORD; He Inspires Feats. Or Is That Defeats?

By MAREK FUCHS
Published: April 2, 2006

THROUGHOUT this sordid and disappointing New York Knicks season, which could end up the worst in the franchise's history, Larry Brown has often repeated a provocative statement about the nature of coaching. It has almost become a mantra.

Brown, who has won championships in the National Basketball Association and the National Collegiate Athletic Association and has bolstered the fortunes of all the many teams he has led, says he can coach execution but not effort.

This concept goes against the grain of every would-be Knute Rockne who has ever roamed a high school or college sideline, looking to scream young athletes into running through walls.

So, what do local coaches make of Brown's assertion? Are coaches in the end more technicians than motivators? Is the effort on the floor or field dependent on which players a coach lucks into, not the ability to deliver ''win one for the Gipper'' speeches until the team triumphs?

Matt Brady, who coaches Marist College's N.C.A.A. Division I basketball program in Poughkeepsie, signs on to Brown's theory.

Brady has had a front-row seat, of sorts, for two of the more recent stops in Brown's career. He was an assistant coach at St. Joseph's in Philadelphia when Brown was coaching the 76ers. The two began coaching in New York about the same time, too. Brady noted that nothing in Brown had changed since that 76er team overachieved its way into the N.B.A. Finals in 2001, losing to the Los Angeles Lakers.

'Either players have the fire inside, that competitive spirit, or they don't,' said Brady, adding that, with few exceptions (Malik Rose comes to mind), the Knicks don't.

Brady said that when he was an assistant coach and recruiting players to St. Joseph, he would seek out the most talented. Now that he is a head coach, and sees better the value of the intangibles that can't be taught or coaxed, he pays much more attention to character and toughness.

Dino Garr is the successful longtime coach of the Rye football team, which won the Class B state championship last season. He said that in his estimation, Brown was partly right but was also making a false distinction. Why? Because if a coach can get players to execute the plays and they begin to see success, effort will increase. Therefore the two cannot be considered separate factors.

''They make the effort because they see the big picture,'' said Garr, who has reached the 200-victory plateau.

Mark Finegan, who coaches both boys' basketball and girls' volleyball at Pelham Memorial High School, said that although coaches may not be able to coach effort, they can cultivate team leaders who do, which effectively influences the effort being expended. Finegan, whose basketball team went 19-3 this season, put it this way: ''A coach can yell and scream, but by midseason it is going in one ear and out the other.''

When a coach identifies a leader, even years before an athlete is on a varsity team, and that leader then demands effort from fellow players, effort level is high, Finegan said. 'You have to get the leaders on board on what you are doing,'' he said, adding: ''if that guy doesn't want to do it, it is not going to happen.'

The Knicks' leader, almost by default, is Stephon Marbury, a brooding point guard who rarely marshals his team as most effective players at his level do, and who gives spotty effort defensively.

I did find one college coach in the area -- Dr. Kevin McGinniss, athletic director at Mercy -- who said that those in his position must coach effort. His reasoning: Unlike the pros, ''they can't just drop a guy and get another guy.''

McGinniss, who has coached in high school and college, said that among student players, in their formative years, it was possible to coach effort. For one thing, they are more likely to listen to authority figures; for another, they play only a fraction of the games the pros play, so they aren't always thinking about pacing themselves.

McGinniss said successful coaches try many subtle tactics to motivate. In fact, he said, he saw a tactic in Brown's remark: In protesting that he can't coach effort, Brown might be trying to do just that.