News of his impending hire, as first reported by the Charlotte Observer’s Rick Bonnell (though other outlets sadly and shamefully and pointlessly wanted you to believe otherwise ), sent all of us to our laptops to attempt to glean information. Mike Dunlap, former associate Arizona Wildcats and assistant St. John’s coach, is apparently in great shape. There was a New York Times feature on him a few years ago, detailing what should have been a very uneasy time as Arizona’s replacement (and not interim) coach, soon to be let go as soon as the season ended.
And all I have, as an NBA guy, is assurance through the newly established Twitter feed of Denver Nuggets coach George Karl, who called his former assistant “one of the most creative defensive minds” he’s ever worked with on Monday. Significant praise, and praise we’d trust, coming from George — a man who has made a career out of mixing it up with unorthodox defensive schemes. But without much to go on, about Dunlap, besides this … how do we greet the man?
With open arms, I’d say. Maybe it’s our appalling optimism, but because Dunlap isn’t included amongst the typical NBA retreads that usually grab these jobs (even though some of those “retreads” that were in Charlotte’s discussions, like Jerry Sloan and Nate McMillan, are fantastic coaches), we tend to take the glass is half-full approach with Dunlap. Especially because his hire represents the first true hiring of the (Bobcats GM) Rich Cho era, and not owner Michael Jordan’s era.
Jun 192012
With the NBA