Coach firings. Coach hirings. Coach pay cuts. Clandestine conversations about replacing a firing by hiring a coach who’s supposedly getting a pay cut.
How about a coach who is simply getting the job done?
Calm, cool and collected, Alvin Gentry has revolutionized these NBA playoffs. After self-assuredly coaxing the Phoenix Suns into a sweep of perennial bogey San Antonio, he has transformed his orange-clad team into something more closely resembling a notable Big East powerhouse on the other side of the country that wears the same color and stifles teams into submission playing straight-up zone.
Never mind that Phil Jackson, who has as many NBA rings as fingers, stands opposite. Gentry has turned the Los Angeles Lakers into jump-shooters and gone fearlessly 10 players deep on his bench to even the Western Conference finals at 2-2.
For all Jackson’s Zen-infused abilities, it’s Gentry who is playing the Jedi mind trick on the reigning NBA champions and has become the most compelling coaching story of the postseason.
