Nellie And The Knicks Mismatch For The Ages

When he was introduced as coach of the New York Knicks, Don Nelson said:

(A) This is the right job for me.

(B) This is the wrong job for me.

(C) This is the worst possible job for me.

(D) This is the only job that was available to me.

What Nelson said was (A), this is the right job for me. The correct answer, however, is (B) and (C) and (D).

This is the wrong job for Nelson, the worst possible job for Nelson. It also is the only job he could get and, at $2 million a year, may every unemployed citizen be as unfortunate.

Still, it’s too bad that M.L. Carr, the Boston Celtics’ general manager, is so self-impressed that he hired M.L. Carr as the Celtics’ coach. Carr has no coaching experience, but apparently he blew himself away with his interview and clinched the job over lunch at a table for one.

Boston would have been the right job for Nelson, the perfect job. He would have been returning to the town where he spent 11 seasons as a player, where he won five NBA championships, where his jersey hangs from the rafters of the arena. Most important, Nelson would have been coaching a team for which there are no expectations.

In New York, Nelson will be coaching a team for which there are ridiculously high expectations.

Precious little short of a championship will pass for success in New York, and if Pat Riley couldn’t win his fifth there, how is Nelson going to win his first?

In New York, winning 50 games in the regular season, as Nelson did twice with the Warriors, does not make a genius. Being an entertaining team, as the Warriors were most seasons under Nelson, counts for nothing. Fun is restricted to winning, and winning is defined as winning it all.

In New York, it’s impossible to lower the expectations, which always was one of Nellie’s specialties. Every season, no matter what he had on the roster, Nelson would downplay the Warriors’ chances. In New York, they don’t listen to reason, or excuses. You got a problem with your team? You got injuries? Do sumthin’ about it.

Nelson never was able to do much about it here, and here he was the general manager as well as the coach. In New York, he’s just the coach, at the mercy of a GM, Ernie Grunfeld, and a team president, David Checketts. Aside from having to work under people, something with which Nelson has had little experience (and even less success), he will need to work with these people to get what he wants.

The Knicks aren’t a bad team, yet. But they’re getting there. They won 55 games last season under Riley, but they were below .500 against teams with winning records, and in terms of talent they rank no better than fifth in the Eastern Conference, behind Orlando, Indiana, Chicago and Charlotte.

By the time Nelson coaches his first game for the Knicks, no current starter will be younger than 30. Patrick Ewing will be 33, with a right knee twice that age. The point guard, Derek Harper, will be 34. The Knicks can play defense. But Nellie wants to run.

To that end, there is a rumored three-way trade that involves the Warriors and Atlanta. Remember, this is only a rumor:

The Warriors would get point guard Mookie Blaylock and swingman Stacey Augmon, two good defenders, from Atlanta; Atlanta would get John Starks, Charles Smith and a No. 1 pick from New York; Nellie would get Tim Hardaway and Chris Mullin. That would certainly help Nelson run, but not for political office.

The people who know Nelson, like Hardaway and Mullin, know there are two sides to the man. There is the humble Iowa farm boy with the hair hanging down in his eyes. And there is the bullying egomaniac who comes out when the TV lights go dark. The only sports figure I know who does it better is Barry Bonds, who in TV interviews comes off like a guy auditioning for the lead in Peter Pan.

New Yorkers aren’t likely to be fooled. There are too many sources of information and opinion. Too many newspapers, too many columnists, too many radio and TV guys. If Nellie thought the Bay Area media was tough (it wasn’t), wait till he gets a load of these guys.

New York is a town where the news of Riley’s resignation inspired this headline, in 6-inch block letters: QUITTER!

So far, Nelson’s hiring has brought mostly positive reviews from the New York heavyweights. But that will change. It always does in this business, in this society. When someone, or something, gets too popular, it compels others to run counter to prevailing opinion.

Consider “The Bridges of Madison County,” the book. After a year on the New York Times best-seller list, it became fashionable to trash it. It was too good for its own good.

For Nelson’s own good, he should have sat out a while longer, waited for Brian Hill to falter in Orlando, or Allan Bristow to fall through the ever-thinning ice in Charlotte. Either of those jobs would have been the right one for Nelson. High expectations, perhaps, but with the talent to warrant them, and softer media, not to mention a whole lot less of it.

At 55, Nelson has the thin skin of a child. I attribute this to his having spent too many years in Milwaukee, where criticism is administered with an eyedropper. He’s going to find out it doesn’t take long to spend too many years in New York.