http://www.realgm.com/src_wiretap_a...ds_fly_at_flip/

Detroit News - Ben Wallace made it clear to Chris Sheridan of ESPN that
he neither respected, nor liked Flip Saunders as his head coach.

"I have no relationship with him," he told ESPN.

"He's a coach, and I'm a player, and that's as far as it went. If you
say your door is always open, and we can always talk about things, and
you'll be willing to listen, and when I come to him and talk about
something that's bothering me that I think is hurting the team, if you
don't do anything to change it, then that's the last time I need to talk
to you."

--
---------------------------------
http://www.myspace.com/araxen

Araxen wrote:

What a wonderful study in a clash of culture and egos.

My take is that Ben Wallace is an *outstanding* role player
who came to believe that he was more important than he
actually was. And on the "Flip" (unintended pun) side, Saunders
got his formative coaching experience in the CBA, where coaches
rule and players drool (over the chance to play).

It might have been the Strib, but I read that Ben wanted Flip
to put more emphasis on defense in practice. This makes
sense for Ben because it's his major strength. I think Flip
thought the defense was good enough and that the Pistons
needed work on offense, which is his forte.

Is Ben right, Flip wrong - or vice versa? Who knows? Do
you work on your strengths or on your weaknesses?

But let's look at who Joe Dumars kept and who he let go.
Dumars was certainly closer to the situation than any of
us and I'll opine that he knows more about how to run a
team than any of us.

levi wrote:

Okay . . .one guy can be let go and won't cost the team a dime, while
the other has a guaranteed contract worth millions. Certainly not the
brightest way to assess the situation.


Dumars deserves his share of praise, but he's not immune from criticism
or questioning. He did draft Darko ahead of some very good players,
and give him up for peanuts. Big Ben was right. Flip screwed up a
good thing by taking the focus off defense.

ikrushlots@aol.com wrote:

No, that pretty much proves my point that Wallace thought
that he was more important to Detroit than he actually was.


I didn't deify Dumars, just opined that he knows more
about running a team than you do (and me too).


Detroit lost because they couldn't score. Flip was right.

See, they were both "right". This is what makes the
story an interesting story in clashing cultures and
egos.

levi wrote:

That can be said about every GM. Might as well paste that line
whenever discussing players.


With all that practice they couldn't score . . .should have focused on
D, which is what that team was *built* for. Another example of Flip
sticking with his system at the detriment of his talent.

ikrushlots@aol.com wrote:

Baseless Flip bashing. In the regular season, the stats
show that overall, they were better - giving up a few points
but scoring more. In the playoffs, they got good shots,
but missed them. Maybe you should blame Ben's grousing
for the other players poor performance. You choose to
blame Flip. Oh well. Business as usual in asbnm-w.

levi wrote:

You said the magic words . . .*regular season*.