15.) Mike D'Antoni
He was the guy that along with his trusted sidekick Nash brought the NBA back from the dead. His system made guys like Jim Jackson, Raja Bell, Quentin Richardson and Boris Diaw into good players, and made Nash a two-time MVP. Sadly, his failure to win a title, and his horror show in New York put him down here.
14.) Bill Cowher
The chin would probably be higher if he was a coach for more than just the first seven years of the decade, years that included three times not making the playoffs. He did, however, lead three spectacular regualar seasons, but twice lost at home in the conference title game. His one troph redeemed the decade for him, etched his name into the walls of Canton and also made it known that coaches that don't work 100 hour weeks can win.
13.) Ozzie Guillen
The funniest guy on the list. If this was a list of "Coaches I would most like to have a beer with", he comes first (just ahead of Mike Tomlin, with Gregg Popovich (the bearded era Pops), Mike McCarthy (looks like he could throw many down) and Stan Van (just for the comedy) rounding out the top-5. Belichick would be in there, for bar-brawl purposes). Sadly, his team has only once made the playoffs outside of the 2005 World Series win. But, when you win a title in a city that had gone 187 years without one, you get on the list.
12.) Charlie Manuel
Seems to be a fun jovial guy. Plus, he's huge in Japan. Steered the Phillies nicely, but I would have to say was a gib dissapointment until 2007, as he had many talented enough Philly teams that couldn't even get past the Marlins of the world.
11.) Mike Scoscia
He did win a title this decade, and has made many trips to the playoffs, but they have only made it past the first round three times. When he marsterfully guided the 2002 team to the World Series title, he was hailed as a saviour, a brilliant mind leading a small-market team. Sadly, the Angels are not a small-market team any longer, which makes his lack of total playoff success a legitimate knock the past 5 years. They might not have the Yankees/Cubs/Mets type wealth, but they have brought in stars. Scoscia has been good, but not good enough.
And Now, The Top-10 Coaches of the 2000s:
10.) Dick LeBeau
I felt that it would be nice to start with an assistant coach. What is more ironic is that he was a HORRIBLE head coach in his three years this decade (2000-2002) when he coached the Bengals. All is forgiven in my book, though, with his years in Pittsburgh. He joined Bill Cowher's staff in 2004, and for the next five years, his team had the league's top ranked defense three times, finishing second another year. He was the best coordinator in the league. The Steeler's defense went through all kinds of overhaul. In his first year, the guys by the name of Clark Haggans, Larry Foote and Joey Porter, as well as DeShea Townsend and Bryan Flowers were all major cogs in the Steeler machine. All of them are gone, replaced on the fly without drop off. LeBeau will be inducted into the Hall of Fame as a player this August, but I am almost 100% sure that if not for his success in Pittsburgh Part II, he doesn't get there.
His ability to scheme his zone blitzes is amazing. He is the man singularily responsible for the zone blitz being run by nearly every team in the NFL. He is the man that made blitzburgh a reality, showing that being smart can beat being strong. In his six year run that saw the Steelers win two titles, the team went 65-31 (8-2 in the playoffs). In the five years in Pittsburgh that surrounded those, the team went 38-25-1 (2-2 in the playoffs) without him. Cowher left, replaced by a green Tomlin. Porter left, replaced by a street player named James Harrison. Kimo von Olhoffen left, replaced by a guy named Brett Keisel. Tommy Maddox left, replaced by Ben Roethlisberger, and the Steelers kept humming. Why? LeBeau. He's the real brains behind the Steelers dominance in the 2000s.
9.) Ron Gardenhire
He's won a total of one playoff series since 2002. He's won just two playoff games since 2003. So, why is he on this list? He's been as succesful as any team not named New York, Boston, Philadelphia or St. Louis, and he's done it with a small-payroll year after year. Brad Radke? Brian Duensing? Carlos Silva? Kyle Losche? Lew Ford? Corey Koskie? Shannon Stewart? Nick Punto? Those are the names of guys that started playoff games for the Twins under Gardenhire's managerial run. Other than Santana, Hunter, Mauer and Morneau, Gardenhire has never been given a great every-day player or starting pitching. The Twins cut corners at every opportunity they can. The Twins are cheap. They are finally opening their pocketbooks now, but if they did back in 2002 when they hired Gardenhire, he would have won mutliple titles.
There were Yankees who didn't like Torre. There have been Red Sox critical of Francona. I have never heard of a single twin who did not love Ron Gardenhire. Teaching the fundamentals of OBP, throwing strikes and playing defense, the Twins have been to the playoffs five teams, and lost a play-in game in 2008. It is hard to statistically defend this selection, but anectodally, it is easy.
In 2002, with the MLB all-but assured of a strike (one that never came) Bud Selig brought up the dreaded "C"-word, 'contraction'. The two teams in question were the Expos, a team deserving of contraction, and the Twins. Seriously, during a year where the team was rumored to be on the contraction block (a much scarier block than the trading block) Gardenhire piloted the team to the ALCS. With a frugal owner, despite being worth billions himself, Gardenhire has taken the players given to him and always molded a competitive unit. This year might just be his year, with the team moving to outdoor Target Field, and finally opening up a fat, fat wallet that Carl Pohlad has been hiding. Gardenhire might finally get the ultimate success, but he earned it years ago.
8.) Andy Reid
He may be the butt of jokes due to his large butt (as well as his large body mass). He might be criticized alot for wasting timeouts and being terrible at calling two-minute drills. Those are both legitimate claims against him. However, we should not gloss over the fact that between the layers of fat, lies a great coaching mind, talent evaluator, game planner and big heart. It is never easy to coach in Philadelphia, a city that demands excellence at all times. Even though his regime has easily been the best in Eagles history at consisitently putting a winning product out on the field, Reid has been hammered by the Philadelphia media and fandom alike. It is not fair to a good man and a good coach.
Andy Reid inherited slop, left over by the Ray Rhodes era. He took one year to clean house, and then, starting in 2000, he went to work, making the Eagles the best NFC Team of the decade, and the most consistently good year-in-year out team not quarterbacked by first-ballot hall of famers. He didn't have a Brady or a Manning. He had a good QB one level below. He did not have a Marvin Harrison or a Randy Moss. The one year he had one of those players, his team made the Super Bowl. Other than in 2004, he has had McNabb throw to guys named Pinkston, Trash, L.J, Staley, Westbrook, Curtis and Baskett. It was the passing form of the Denver running game, just plug in a WR, and McNabb will find him. If not McNabb, then Feeley or Detmer, as shown in 2002, when he lost McNabb for 4 games and went 3-1 with those two world-beaters. One year, his receivers were so bad that none of them caught a TD until Week 9, and his team started 0-2 losing their first two games, both at home, by a combined score of 48-10. What happened? His team went 12-4, and hosted the NFC Title Game
Sure, he has had the benefit of a LeBeau-level defensive coordinator in the late Jim Johnson, but that defense has never really been a top-5 unit since that Super Bowl. It has been Reid's offense, which primarily has late round picks (as the Eagles use the early draft for primarily defensive players) that has made this team a playoff team eight times in the decade (one more than New England, two more than Pittsburgh). The knock on Reid is that his team falters in the NFC Title Game, losing it four times, twice at home. However, what people fail to mention is that the guy always got to the title game. Winning playoff games are hard, period. Bill Belichick's early-2000 success makes alot of people scoff at going one and done. Reid, until this year, has never done that, winning his first playoff game every time out. Reid has twice gone on the road in round two and pulled an upset. Reid has taken the Eagles further than anyone else.
7.) Tony LaRussa
The old brooding bespectacled one. Always looking dour, directly into the camera that fixes its lense, entrapped by his ornery gaze. LaRussa seems like some classic suave villain, a man whose curmudgeonly demeanor hides a brilliance. It does. The brilliance is not villainous, but much simpler, a brilliance of throwing strikes, getting hits and winning baseball games.
Tony LaRussa has done it all, winning big in Oakland and Chicago before turning his attention to St. Louis. He entered the new millenium, about to begin his fifth season in St. Louis, with a team that had missed the playoffs each of the past three years. What happened next was St. Louis magic, as in the shadow of the Gateway Arch, he proceeded to open the gates for the Cardinals to seven trips to the postseason, including six as a division winner, five trips to the NLCS, two to the world series and one World Series Title. He won over 90 games six times, and 100 back-to-back years. His teams could do everything, but they could pitch as well as any team ever. Credit has to be given to Dave Duncan, but even he alone could not turn Chris Carpenter, Matt Morris, Woody Williams, Jason Marquis and Jeff Suppan into a 105-win team. Albert Pujols helped too, but until 2004 when Rolen got into town, it was above average players, like Edgar Renterria, Jim Edmonds (who did have one huge year in 2004), Reggie Sanders, Fernando Vina and Placido Polanco that were key batter on 95 win teams.
The Cardinals were the Braves of the 90's in the NL, getting close every year, but in the end winning just one title. But having a team that year-in-year out competes to the highest level is vastly underrated. LaRussa excelled at bringing his team together. The Cardinals twice experienced tragedy, wether it was the deaths of pitcher Darryl Kile and beloved announcer Jack Buck within a week of each other in 2002 or the sudden drunk-driving death of Josh Hancock, and the team kept together and kept on winning. He may never have the titles of a Torre or a McCarthy, but he is as important. LaRussa continued his winning ways for a third straight decade.
6.) Mike Babcock
Amazingly, no hockey coach one more than one title in the 2000s (The Devils and Red Wings were the only franchises to win multiple titles, and they both had two different coaches), so I had to look to find the best hockey coach of the decade. I didn't have to look far. Mike Babcock is his name, and the hyper-focused handsome Canadian is the best coach of the 2000s in the NHL. He has been a coach for 6 full seasons, and all he has done is take the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim to the Stanley Cup Finals, where they lost a tight 7 game series to the New Jersey Devils, and then led Detroit to the Cup Finals each of the last two years, finally winning a cup in 2008.
Mike Babcock was hired to Detroit in a time of transition. Gone were Shanahan, Federov and Yzerman. Gone was Brett Hull, Luc Robitaille and Dominik Hasek was a section 8, going in and out of retirement, showing some seriously bipolar attitude toward playing. Babcock had to replace a coach in Dave Lewis who took the Red Wings to the playoffs in each of his two years. All Babcock did is become the first coach in NHL history to coach a team to over 110 points in four straight years. His first year, the Red Wings had the third best record in NHL history. In two of his first three years the Red Wings had the best record in the NHL. The other two years: the second and third best. His teams have won at least two playoff series each of the past three years. His teams have been the envy of the league, as his puck-possesion game-plan has allowed overtly average players like Dan Cleary, Johann Franzen and Valterri Flippula to become star cogs in a well-oiled machine.
Hockey coaching is the hardest to judge, because it is also the hardest to understand. However, understanding Babcock's strategy is easy, just hold onto the puck. The same thing that made Barcelona into the most dominant club team of the past 3 years, made the Red Wings into a dynasty of success. He may never get the credit of the other 9 guys around him, and he has had his fair share of playoff burns, including two losses in 7-game Stanley Cup Finals, but he deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as all of them.
5.) Terry Francona
I have had Red Sox friends tell me that as long as Francona knew when to take out Pedro, they would be fine with him. Fortunately for them, he knows so much more. Terry Francona has already taken the Red Sox to the playoffs more times than any other manager in team history, and has won two more world series than the previos 26 managers combined. He was the guy who broke the curse. He was the leaders of the "Idiots" (still the most apt nickname for a team in baseball history), with his big floppy ears, pointy nose, round face and wad of chew in his cheek. He became synonomous with the Red Sox, and the Red Sox with winning. The Red Sox are now the new-Yankees, the team that spends tons of money, that is hated by every fan base, and Francona oversaw the transformation perfectly.
There he was, in his first year. Sure, Grady Little may have left Pedro out there too long, but at least he won three games in the ALCS. Francona wasn't going to win any. He, in a quick, calculated decision, sent out Dave Roberts to pinch run, telling him to go wether Posada knows it or not. Off Roberts ran, off the Red Sox walked three innings later. Seven games and seven wins later, Francona was christened along with his idiot players. A hero was born. Three years later, with another miracle run from 3-1 down to Cleveland, he was beatified a saint of Boston. Move over Belichick, there was a new hero in town, and this one had the ability to tell a joke in public.
Baseball managers have it easy, but in Boston, that is the most pressured job in all of sports. He has to get up every day and walk into a band-box of demanding fans, fans that have tasted the water of victory, and need their thirst filled. Knowing that Terry Francona is the man heading the team, dealing with the bullpen and joking with his players, the thirst is already filled. Francona turned the question of a Boston World Series win into a 'when' instead of an 'if' and there is no better way to show what Terry has done.
4.) Tony Dungy
A football coach is generally a man with no life, a man who lets go of sunlight, ceding it for a life with the never-ending tick of the tape-projector in the background. Dungy was not a normal football coach. Dungy would see the daylight. Dungy would see his kids more than three hours a week. Dungy would not overreact to a loss, or celebrate too much with a win. Dungy would leave each game the way he entered, with a confident smile, knowing, win or loss, his work is done, and the real challenges and fun lie outside. Dungy was not a football coach who happened to be a classy guy, he was a classy gentleman who happened to know alot about football.
He inherited a team that was 6-10, that had a coach who scoffed and regrettably was furiated by the talk of playoffs. He inherited that team, and from day one told his players that football was not his life's work, that football was not the number one thing in his mind. He told he players he
wouldn't yell like Parcells, wouldn't scowl like Belichick and wouldn't tear up like Vermeil. He told his players he would win, and God knows he did that.
10-6, 12-4, 12-4, 14-2, 12-4, 13-3, 12-4. Those were the records of his seven Colts teams. Teams that, besides having a once-and-a-lifetime QB and a hall-of-fame receiver, had nothing much but discarded and undervalued players. They had no real defensive talent other than Dwight Freeney. They were helpless, but year in and year out, they won twelve games, and reached the playoffs. Dungy had the sad task of going head to head with a better coach and a better team at the hight of their powers twice, but never wavered, never questioned his team, his will and his players. He kept preaching patience, that when the time comes to reach the mountaintop, that he would be ready, and it would be joyful. They finally did, and it was.
Dungy means alot more to the world than being a football coach. He was a trailblazer, hiring african-american coaches and mentoring them up to head coach levels, and then becoming the first African-American coach to hold the Lombardi Trophy. He is an activist, a man more interested in helping better the country and the youth than scheming his Tampa-2, a system that he created. On the side, he coached football, and he was damn good at it.
3.) Phil Jackson
The man now has 10 rings, four from this decade, and did it all with a shape (the triangle) and some stars. He was able to prod Shaq to give him his best, and he did that. He was able to prod Kobe to change his ways, to embrace shooting and art, and was able to do that too. He entered this decade as the 'coach of Michael Jordan' an epithet that would inevitably be etched on his grave, something he would never overcome, never outgrow. He would always be Jordan's coach. Somehow, he has outgrown it, has passed it off. He is now his own guy, he is the coach of champions, period. Wether they wear 23 or 24 is irrelevant.
His triangle offense is a simple way to describe his coaching. Sure, it has some technical meaning about flex passing, changing the pivot corner and some other crap. However, it has a real meaning: calmness, helping and movement. The three virtues of a man embracing Zen were carried onto the basketball court and somehow molded to for teams that ran, that passed that shot and defended, and most importantly won. The 4 titles this decade are alot, but can be used as praise for the singular brilliance of Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant. However, they can moreso be used as proof of the ability of the Master of Zen.
Phil Jackson is an interesting character. He is probably the only man who has never gotten in trouble for sleeping with his boss. He is probably the only man ever to coach a team to three titles, then be forced to retire because of a player ruining the team, and then be courted with open arms and chocolates to come back. The greatest example of Phil's power, and his perfect new epithet: he is the only coach ever great enough to be able to write a book calling his star player a selfish teammate, then coach that same player and force him to not only pass more, but embrace being part of a team. That is a recipe for failure, for Phil, its a recipe for a Champion.
2.) Gregg Popovich
Like his star player, he is hidden beneath the San Antonio desert, cornered away from normal civilization, in the grout southern outpost of the NBA. Like his star player, he is the best at what he does, and has been for the full decade, taking a team blessed with one great player, and doing things normally reserved for teams with two or more. His three titles may be fewer than Phils for the decade, but his one star player is fewer than Phil's two. What shapes Popovich is a love for wine, business and defense, and his penchant for winning.
Pops too has never lost 30 games in a season since the decade started. Pops too has never gotten nearly the credit he deserved. He molded the Spurs, but he was also the one who bought the iron, assembling the team through his talent eye. He was the one who thought that Tony Parker was a star. He was the one who like the cutting ability of a spindly Argentinean named Ginobili. He was the guy who embraced a lunatic named Stephen Jackson, turning him into a team-first defensive presence. He was able to make the Spurs into the perfect team, one that had the defensive ability to outplay the Pistons, at that point the best defense in teh NBA, on the defensive side of the ball. He was the coach of the team that took on the 2005 Suns, in their "7 seconds or less" peak, and outran and outscored them.
The Spurs never backed down, and that came directly from their coach, a man with the complexion and temperment of a cool Army General, one strict enough to elicit great reaction, but smart enough to plan for any style of game. Popovich is tethered to Duncan, and why not. It was a perfect marraige, a coachable brilliant player paired with a brilliant coach. Four titles, 10 fifty win seasons later, Popovich can see the end of the Duncan era. He is smart enough to realize that it might be over, and that what he created was a masterpeice.
1.) Bill Belichick
The pain of this is hard to bear. I have to swallow pride (and some inebriation-causing beverages) before writing this. It will be difficult for I hate the man more than any human should hate someone they have never met. Yet, there is no way around it. He has been the best coach of the decade, if not the best coach of the past 2. He made a dynasty out of his own image, surly, smart and special. Bill Belichick is the best coach of the 2000s, in football and in all American sports. Period.
It wasn't always like this. After five average years in Cleveland, he was stunningly given a second chance, and not so stunningly started out with a nice 5-11 season. What followed next is NFL history. For the next 6 years (the real Patriots dynasty, not the offensive showboat that arrived in 2007), the Patriots won 70 games, and 12 more come playoff time. They were the team that could do it all. They could win games close, like 9-3 over Cleveland in 2003. They could win shootouts (38-34 over Indianapolis, 38-31 over Tennessee). They could run, they could pass, and boy could they play defense. Inside Belichick's mind was a super-computer (had a nice web-cam!!), analyzing everything about every other team, proccessing what he had learned, and formulating a plan of action. The plans were never the same. One game it was putting out seven d-backs, rushing just four and focusing the defense on the running back. One game it was running a 4-2-5, with the safety playing close coverage and the cornerback shading deep. One game it was playinga 4-3 alignment for the first time in 14 weeks, in what happened to be the Super Bowl. It never stopped, and it seemed like it never would.
Tom Brady wasn't yet Tom Brady the stat machine that he is now. Tom Brady was then just a nice player, a Jeff Garcia with more hair and fewer questions about his sexuality. It was Belichick's team, created in his own image. Tedy Bruschi, Mike Vrabel, Willie McGinest, Ty Law and Richard Seymour seemed like bigger versions of Belichick, playing on the field with their master controlling the action from the sides. Whatever he wanted done, they would do. It was flawless, it was perfect, it was going 17-2 in back-to-back seasons. It was the Patriots, it was pure hell for the Patriots-haters, it was hell frozen over for Patriots fans wondering where this messiah in a hoodie had been the last 20 years.
Nothing is more perfect about Belichick and his team than their 2004 AFC Playoff march. First, the played a Colts team that was red hot, with a QB that had thrown for 49 tds, and a team that had score 523 points, and 49 more in the Wild-Card round. His ingenious defense held them to 3. Next round they faced a Steelers team that had reeled off 15 straight wins, and had the NFL's best defense. His offense score 41, including seven on a play he diagrammed himself. Nothing was beyond their reach, and that was because they had the master on their side.
The luster is now gone. It has been five years since the Patriots were on top, and two since their disastrous Super Bowl XLII loss. However, it is still a Belichick world. The mere presence of that man prowling the sidelines makes them favorites in nearly every game. The mere presence of his hoodie and his scowl makes the pits of the stomachs of the opposing teams fan's drop. Finally, it is the mere presence of his calm look, his confident aura, that makes everyone think, the Pats have a shot. They have Bill.
