Sam Vincent, Come On Down!

That scraping sound you hear is either a) Kris Jenkins polishing off his 10th straight bowl of Frankenberry, or b) Charlotte basketball fans collectively scratching their heads over the news that Sam Vincent is the Bobcats’ new head coach. It’s absolutely impossible for me to analyze anything of his professional background, because he basically hasn’t a professional background. However, I can confirm that he is NOT related to former KISS guitarist Vinnie Vincent (nor is he a fan, as he is on the record as being loyal to Ace Frehley*).

I would make some joke about Michael Jordan hiring his former Bulls teammate as a head coach only because MJ once lost a bet to him, but with MJ’s history, I’m worried that could actually be what happened. I’m also a little disappointed we weren’t able to get old Larry Brown to call the shots, but that’s not because I think LB is some sort of coaching savant. It’s more because I was curious to see how a man who famously refuses to put in young, unproven players would coach a team that consists of nothing but young, unproven players.

So what the heck, I’m throwing my support to Coach Vincent. As far as I’m concerned, a coach’s significance is overrated anyway. Take the Warriors just now: people keep saying that Don Nelson “out-coached” Avery Johnson, when in fact I think the exact OPPOSITE happened: Nelson didn’t coach AT ALL. Seriously, did it look like the Warriors were operating under any type of “system” out there? Hell no; every single game was total chaos. Nelson’s coaching “strategy” was the equivalent of unleashing a pack of starving pit bulls, and it worked perfectly. Stephen Jackson, Baron Davis, Jason Richardson, et al, were constantly a threat to either score 30 points or get ejected in the first 5 minutes. Thoroughly spooked, the Mavericks had no answer.

Coach Vincent is young enough to relate to the kids, yet old enough to keep ‘em in line. He’s got Brevin Knight to act as on-court drill sergeant, and the underrated J.B. Bickerstaff and Jeff Capel as his cabinet members. Roll the ball out there and let’s play…

*I completely made all of that up