NFL insider Michael Lombardi joined The Sports Junkies on Thursday morning and had some interesting thoughts on Josh Harris as an owner – notably, how the culture around the 76ers may not be that great, as he may be too player-friendly of an owner and coddling to the big stars.
When BMitch & Finlay came on the air after the Junks, they had a chat about how the Miami Heat, who won Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final against the Celtics team that beat the Sixers, are the best example of how culture can help get the best out of everyone, while the Commanders most certainly are not.
And, after JP Finlay recalled a conversation with Alonzo Mourning about culture in a hotel lobby in Miami one night years ago, Brian Mitchell went off on how we often blame players for failure, when really, the same coaches who can make good players great can also let good players be less than so.
“We seem to blame players for everything, because that’s how society is, but I always ask what the coaches are doing. Are they developing guys, and getting the best out of them? Nine times out of 10, hell no!” BMitch ranted. “That’s the ultimate thing you want to see: if you have the right people who can get the absolute best. I don’t care if a guy is the last pick in the draft or an undrafted free agent, how good can your team be if you can get the absolute best out of them?”
As Mitchell, a former fifth-round pick of the Redskins himself, said and can attest to, the team had a lot of late-round picks or undrafted players become stars, because ‘we had coaches who knew how to develop them.’
“Part of that is identifying them, and finding guys you know will bust their ass to be a star,” JP replied.
Finlay also said he thinks Dan Snyder is a big part of the reason the Commanders have no culture, but Brian disagreed.
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“I don’t think it’s all Dan. As horrible as he is, the on-field culture falls on the coaches on the field at the moment,” BMitch said. “We had some coaches here who, you knew their culture off the field was terrible, too.”
And as for Lombardi’s thoughts about being too player friendly? All that did was spark another BMitch rant:
“Joe Gibbs was a guy that was liked by all his players, and he rarely fussed about much – because when Joe Gibbs was here, Jack Kent Cooke never had to say anything to a player. Joe Gibbs always told everyone in the building to make sure the players were happy,” Mitchell said. “So my question is, do you want to listen to Mike Lombardi – who is not Vince Lombardi – or Joe Gibbs? You can make your players happy, but not make them comfortable; just like with my dad, I could talk to Coach Gibbs about anything, but I knew that when it was time for me to handle my business, I had to do that. It’s weird when people like to come in and say things like player-friendly…you have to put all that stuff into perspective. There are coaches and owners who want to hang out with players, and that’s wrong – but if you want to make sure your players are happy and comfortable, which means they can do their jobs easier, that’s not a bad thing. The ultimate thing is that if you can’t put it in perspective, you can say one thing and people think it means something else.”
JP pointed to how Andy Reid and Bill Belichick are the two most accomplished coaches in the NFL right now and are complete polar opposites, so there is room for things to go both ways.
“The NBA is not really an accountability league; as a broad group, they’re extremely friendly, just look at load management. I don’t think this book is written, and I think it’s premature to say that it is, or make a declaration about what kind of owner a guy will be in the NFL, a league that is the least player-friendly!”
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And, as Brian Mitchell noted, making the comment “you can’t win” is also disingenuous, because both the Sixers and Devils got to their conference semis this year, a spot Philly has been to five of the last six years since emerging from “The Process.”
“If we right now were in the second round of the playoffs on a consistent basis under Josh Harris, people will be a lot happier than they have been,” Mitchell said. “It’s a reputation that follows Doc Rivers around too, that he can’t win the big one – and when have you ever seen Josh Harris and a player together on camera in a private moment?”
Replied JP: “Let’s get to being a steady winner first.”
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