The Pride of Silver Lake
Everybody Is Somebody's Favorite Son...
Sad news out of Atlanta this week, as Lon Kruger was dismissed as coach of the Hawks. Kruger was an odd choice from the beginning, I thought, because he didn't have a pro pedigree, and he wasn't a particularly high profile college coach. He was and is, however, a very good coach. His greatest failing may have been that he was too nice a guy to succeed at the pro level, but we'll talk about that in a moment.
Lon Kruger is sort of the Kansas version of Steve Alford. He was from a very small town just outside Topeka, KS, called Silver Lake. He was a star athlete there in the late 60's and early 70's, and went on to be an all Big Eight performer at point guard at Kansas State. His name is still revered in northeast Kansas, and for good reason. It sounds hokey, but I always found Kruger's career to be inspirational. I mean, here's a guy who comes from this little tiny town, and has playing and coaching success at some of the highest levels. It's not like that's unusual; it happens all the time. But there's something about being at Silver Lake High School (which I have) and seeing a small display case with a faded picture of a teenager and a basketball, and reading about how he made the big time.
After his playing days, he went the usual route for coaches, being a graduate assistant in a few places, then an assistant before finally getting a coaching gig at Pan American University in Texas. He eventually made his was to Kansas State, replacing the equally-revered Jack Hartman. It was under Kruger, the favorite son returned home, that Kansas State put together some very good teams in the mid and late '80's. The 1988 team that featured Steve Henson and Mitch Richmond had a real shot at a national title, only to be derailed in the Elite Eight by the Kansas team that eventually won it all. Kruger's teams played hard for him, and they played smart.
Which is ironic, because that's exactly what his Hawks team did NOT do, and it cost Kruger his job. I'm not here to say whether the players quit on Kruger, or whether Kruger really didn't have the psyche to coach in the pros, because I surely don't know. I'm not in the locker room. It certainly isn't for me to speculate about a player like Glenn Robinson plays for a team that completely underachieves in Milwaukee for many years, and then moves to another team that completely underachieves.
I don't feel too bad for Lon Kruger; he's going to coach somewhere for a long time, and he's going to do a great job. I'm happy he got the chance to coach a bunch of guys going through the motions in a passionless city for a corporate ogre like Time Warner. It will probably make him really appreciate leading a top-flight college program again, which is what I predict he will be doing very soon.
Laker Whites...
What do people think of those Laker white unis? I think they look OK, but are they an improvement on the coolest home unis in the game? Heck, no. The Laker Gold is the baddest, man. The Lakers are so cool, they don't even wear white. I can't think of another team that is that cool. Of course, they'll sell the bejesus out of those, which will help Jerry Buss finance a new hairpiece or hire some other talent to go with KobeShaq.
Tell me this: Why is it OK for baskeball teams to wear a monocolor uniform, (red tops and shorts, for example), but if a pro football team does it, everybody acts like Satan just stepped on the field? I have heard more gnashing of teeth over the monocolor unis in the NFL this year than any other sport-related item this side of Mike Tice's policy of wasting at least one timeout per half. Men who like football like to pretend they are all tough and only care about "the game on the field", but put the Eagles out there in all green and they all become a less evolved Mr. Blackwell. I happen to like the monocolor jobs, myself. Tell me the Saints don't look great in that all-black. Now, OK, the Cards in all red does sort of make them look like a second-rate Fresno State, but isn't the extra variety worth it? I want the Chiefs in all red, the Vikings in all purple (they don't even have purple pants yet), the Jets in all green, the Seahawks in all whatever-that-color-is. I don't know why I want this; I hate the baseball trend for black jersies, outside of the Pirates...
Maybe that's where it comes from. The first World Series I ever seriously watched was the 1979 classic between the Orioles and Pirates, and I still remember being captivated by the infinite number of combinations the Pirates wore those days. Could be all white, all black, all gold, mix and match, pinstripes, paisley, tweed...they had it all, and I loved it. Seeing Willie Stargell in that all gold uni was like watching a Saturday cartoon.
If it worked for the 1979 World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates, it can work for today's NFL.
10:19:03 AM 
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