In Defeat, He Became a Winner

Looking back at a lost weekend of Los Angeles basketball, let me leave you with these thoughts.

I do not think Randy Pfund did a good job of coaching the Lakers. I think Randy Pfund did a great job of coaching the Lakers. I think Randy Pfund did an absolutely unbelievably incredible job of coaching the Lakers. Are we clear on this point yet?

The man was given a job--his first NBA head-coaching job. Then he was told, sorry, you can’t have Magic Johnson, your best player, maybe anybody’s best player, because he’s retiring. Then he was told, sorry, you can’t have Sam Perkins, your best remaining player, your most highly valued player, because he’s being traded to another team in your division.

Then he was told, sorry, but you’ll have to bench your most famous remaining player, James Worthy, because the old graying player ain’t what he used to be. Then he was told, sorry, you can’t have your first-round draft pick, Anthony Peeler, for the playoffs, because he’s hurt.

Now go out there and bring home that championship, son.

The man made the playoffs. That’s more than the Orlando Magic coach did, and he had Shaquille O’Neal. That’s more than the Detroit Piston coach did, and he had Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, Dennis Rodman, Mark Aguirre and Bill Laimbeer. That’s more than the Miami Heat coach did, and he had a 1992 playoff team that added Harold Miner.

Then the man made the playoffs as exciting as basketball can be. Randy Pfund coached the Lakers into overtime of Game 5 of a five-game series against the best team of the 1992-93 NBA season. Pfund’s team came within one referee’s unfortunate call--Charles Barkley’s dunk that shouldn’t have counted, because of offensive goaltending and shot-clock expiration--of scoring as great an upset victory as any NBA coach ever.

Fire Randy Pfund?

Have you been head-butted by John Starks lately or what?

The man had a better season than Mike Dunleavy did. I can’t swear that the Laker talent was any better than what the Milwaukee Bucks had this season. Did Dunleavy pull off a coaching miracle and guide the Bucks to the playoffs? No, because he’s a coach, not a miracle-worker. And neither is Randy Pfund, but he came a lot closer to working a miracle than Mike Dunleavy did.

James Worthy was such a ghost of his former self, he should have been played by Patrick Swayze. He sat on the bench beside Pfund and had to wait for minutes behind players he once could have devoured. But, like Randy Pfund, he kept coming to work, kept punching the clock and kept reminding everybody how valuable a little hard work and a little more experience could be.

By the time the last game and first season for his new coach was history, Worthy was saying: “I think Randy’s done a great job. He gave us leadership and he gave us enthusiasm, and sometimes it takes a combination of the two to be a winner. He also took a lot of heat for us. He took the blame for many things that were beyond his control. The loss of Earvin. The trading of Sam.

“All I can say is, don’t you have to give a guy a chance?”

Damn right you do.

I could understand how someone who made the least out of the most talent could be in danger of losing his job after one season. Or how someone such as Tom Lasorda could point to all the championships in his portfolio to debate the theory that anyone else in his team’s current situation would have been removed from the dugout by now.

After Sunday’s loss to the Suns, the freshman Laker coach found himself in the strange predicament of being unsure whether to feel satisfied or sad. Had he and his team revealed their strengths or their shortcomings?

“I don’t understand, really,” Pfund said. “It was so obvious that we were making a move for the future. Then somewhere along the line, the second half of the season, it got down to being my responsibility to make this team win basketball games.”

Not only did he have to play without a point guard, not only did the Lakers have to walk the basketball up the floor, but Perkins was traded for two players who contributed next to nothing--Doug Christie down the stretch was a non-factor; Benoit Benjamin remains a career non-factor--and, almost grotesquely, the Lakers could have ended up playing Perkins and the Seattle SuperSonics for the Western Conference championship.

Don’t replace Randy Pfund.

Reward him. Rehire him.

As for the Clippers, they lost another big game, but their players want more money.

This is a recording.