Bring Back the Player / Coach

I stumbled across this ESPN.com Page 2 article yesterday. It raises some compelling arguments for bringing back the player / coach to the NBA. The last guy to do it was Dave Cowens for the Boston Celtics back in 1979. The article got me thinking about LeBron James in 11 years. After he surpasses Bill Russell's 11 championships, maybe he could take over coaching duties in addition to "world-class baller duties". Anyway, the article states the case for Sam Cassell to take over player/coaching duties for the L.A. Clippers.

This argument is based around the idea that aside from the elite coaches, NBA coaches are

"...all interchangeable, ranging from "decent" to "I wouldn't hire that guy to manage a McDonald's." Take Dunleavy, whose 2000 Blazers blew a 15-point lead in Game 7 against the Lakers, still the most painful sports collapse of the decade. He's not a bad coach, but he's not really a good one, either. The same could be said for the rest of these guys."

At the same time I thought of other sports where player coaches are more common (Soccer & Hockey come to mind). Didn't some hockey player do this recently? Anyhoo, long live King James! I've got a Cavs playoff montage post brewing... chock full of Alex Hastie voice mail messages! Ed I may need your help on this... too bad I was so busy during the playoffs, we should have had post game wrap up posts (way to go Al).