The team doesn’t even have to have won the championship, but has a team in NBA history overachieved notably due to coaching? How did the coaching impact the team’s rotations, player roles, defensive schemes, etc?
The team doesn’t even have to have won the championship, but has a team in NBA history overachieved notably due to coaching? How did the coaching impact the team’s rotations, player roles, defensive schemes, etc?
Bill Russell, 1969 Celtics.
The entire team was completely worn out. Over the previous decade they’d played an additional season and a half relative to a bad team in playoff games alone. Lousy shoes, rattly floors, useless surgery, bad food - a 35 year old basketball player in 1969 pictured next to a 35 year old basketball player today looks like a father and son photo.
The coach also had to be the starting center. Surely they were just tanking for a high draft pick? That didn’t work in the regular season, as they made the playoffs.
And then they stranded ten thousand balloons in the rafters in Game 7 of the finals.