Rayclay ,I hope you are right. I remember a few years before the RedWings one there first Stanley Cup they gave Yzerman a few days vacation in Florida.(during the season,after they had a playoff spotwrapped up) Alot of his teammates did not like it. Of course two years later they won the first of three Stanley Cups. I guess if you win know one cares what you do.
Of course you have problems when players run the team. Look at the history of the Red Sox.
On the other hand, look at the Celtics. Read up on Auerbach, you'll be surprised that he treated players very differently.
Some players were sensitive to criticism so he wouldn't yell at them. Tommy Heinsohn (substitute joker Vrabel) didn't give a damn. If Auerbach was mad at some guy's effort, he would tell at Heinsohn, (even when he scored 40, he'd yell about his rebounding) Heinsohn realized he was being used but when A uerbach explained it, he just laughed. Of course the guy who was really goofing off felt terrible when poor Tommy took the heat and went out and produced.
People don't realize that Bill Russell was a terrible practice player. He hated it and saw no point in doing more than the minimum when it didn't count.
One day Auerbach got tired of it and laid into him in front of the team and got Russell pissed. That practice Russell ran up and down the court like a demon, blocking every shot, getting every rebound, stealing balls and going in for stuffs. It was so bad, they had to cancel practice because nobody could get anything done.
Russ lazed through practice after that and nobody questioned him, because he played the real games like his life depended on it.
A coach needs the respect of his team, not strict rules. BB's got that respect and tom has it in spades. I guarantee that everyone in that locker room respects both of them and wants Tom to be *ahem* relaxed for the second half.
