That was a bit unfair of me. 
My choice would be Sven Goran Erikkson. England has possibly the best national side since 1966 and he has reduced them to Mediocrity with his dull, unadventurous tactics.
No complaints from me there. By all rights, we should be a consistently winning side - and that, we are not.
I gotta throw Parcels on the list. He was once a good coach(not great in my opinion) but lately he is too busy being Bill Parcels, rather then coaching. He is too busy trying to prove his way, and his guys. He went into Dallas and threw down the gauntlet claiming he could win with Quincy Carter and Julius Jones. And he stuck with those losers long after it became obvious to everybody they sucked, just because his arrogance couldn’t admit he had been wrong in the first place. Then he replaced with Testaverde and Bledsoe, a couple fossilized dead-ends, just because they were his guys.
I find Phil Jackson repulsive in many ways. He’s obviously an egomaniac, and enjoys posing as a genius. I’ve never liked him.
But is he overrated? Only in the sense that ALL great coaches are revered more than their accomplishments deserve (they’re not curing cancer or bringing about world peace, they’re just coaching a game).
Was he lucky to have Michael Jordan in Chicago? Sure, and Phill would tell you so, himself. But remember, Doug Collins had Michael Jordan in Chicago too, and it didn’t do him much good.
Was Phil lucky to have Shaq and Kobe in LA? Of course, and he’d surely admit that. But Del Harris had Shaq and Kobe too, and it didn’t earn HIM any champiopnships.
Doug Collins and Del Harris weren’t idiots either. They’re smart guys and decent basketball coaches. But for whatever reason, they couldn’t get the most out of their players’ talents. Phil Jackson did. If you don’t think that’s great coaching. well, I beg to differ.
For overseas baseball, my first pick is Shigeo Nagashima, former coach of the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants, known in Japan as “Mr. Giants” and “Mr. Baseball.” He was good as a player, but as a coach, he was mediocre. Yet the man could kick puppies from morning 'til night and people would call it a groundbreaking new coaching technique.
The Giants routinely have a payroll that is more than twice that of the second most expensive team. On paper, they have the best individual players in all Japan. And yet, they consistently finished (and still finish) in the middle of the pack. When you have that much raw talent and it simply goes nowhere (and none of the players are troublemakers), the blame has to rest squarely on the shoulders of the coach. But Nagashima is still treated like a god, and by all appearances he never viewed himself as anything less.
After he was finally let go, the next coach finished his first full season in 3rd. He quit, claiming it was his fault as the leader that the team didn’t do better.
It’s 782 wins I believe, fifth best all-time. He just happened to be the coach at UK when their corrupt program was exposed. Oklahoma State made sure that the NCAA cleared Sutton of any wrongdoing before they hired him.
He may not have a championship, but he was the first to take four different teams to the NCAA tournament, and one of the few to take two teams to the final four.
He built two college basketball powerhouses (Arkansas and Oklahoma State) from programs that were in disarray. At Oklahoma State, there was one NCAA tournament appearance in 30 years before he came, since he was hired they have only missed it two or three times in 15 years.
I don’t know if it’s true, but I heard a caller or host on WFAN say this Saturday that without Bill Belichick, Parcells’s career record is under .500. Anybody know if that’s right?
that is correct.
parcells isn’t bad, but he’s a better disciplinarian than anything.
he’s the wolf of football. fix your problem and be done.
True, but a bit misleading. Belichick joined Parcells on the Patriots’ staff several years AFTER Parcells first took the head coaching job. The first few years with a new team are bound to be problematic, and Parcells’ first few years in New England were. He piled up some losses there, just as he would have with Belichick on the staff.
With the Cowboys, Parcells is over .500, but hasn’t done a great job. I don’t think the problem is that he’s “overratred” or that he wasn’t a superb coach in his prime. I think the problem is, he can’t maintain his passion for the game for long periods of time any more. I just can’t see him holding ANY pro football job for the long haul, ever again.
Parcells is still a great coach when he cares- you just can’t depend on him caring the way he used to.