Somehow, Larry Brown put the idea in Ben'S had that he could be somewhat of an asset on offense. Flip tried to correct this mistake and was disrespected by Ben for that.
You're right, although to be fair his coach not respecting him probably led to him not respecting his coach.
Reminds me of when Babe Ruth was the 1st player to make more than the President of the United States and they asked him what he thought about that and he said something like "I had a better year than the President" This is a hundred year old argument going back since the invention of charging people money to watch others player. In end they are all basically just entertainers and as long as we as fans are willing to spend money to watch them play they will make money off it. Just the free market at work. ON Tay - he has had 2 very bad years ( look at his stats ) this is why we are so down on him lately.
Larry Brown is a master psychologist and being the vagabond that he is, accepts the limited time frame that his words have on the underlings. The cheap result is the overt announcement (in front of team members) that it is indeed important to recognize the complete defense of our disrespected Ben Wallace. Therefore let us dominate another edge of his game: the loop-de-loop on a designated play (the sooner, the better) before the real world hits everyone in the last two minutes of the fourth quarter. THIS WAS ALL GOOD ENOUGH FOR BEN. And the team responded in the sly understanding of the rightful nod. Flip, however had a different respected level of accepted maturity. After the entire season was over and he proved to many that he could get a team into different levels of playoff levels...there was (or should have been) a collective-secured ego maturity away from superficial melodramatics (from said expected players) and toward a different level of learning maturation. Alas, not to be at the eighth grade perception level. Little wonder of championship repeats. Only the Spurs come consistently close. I wonder why?
I don't think LB was trying to convince Ben that he was Bernard King. Brown just felt that it was a good idea to at least try and involve Ben in the offense in the early stages of each game. He had good reasons for doing this: - to let Ben know that he's appreciated for everything that he does on defense. - to let Ben know (& try and make opponents believe) that he's part of the offense. As pass stated, it was more psychology than basketball strategy. ...and it was the smart thing to do! Flip was an idiot.
As much as I dislike Larry Brown, it was pretty smart what he did....give Ben Wallace one token play to begin each game. Do it early so it has no effect on the game's outcome. Plus, it makes Ben feel special at the beginning of the game so he can ride that positive energy.
Flip was a very terrible fit for this team. I still believe that is one of the biggest mistakes Dumars made. That single hire instantly transformed us from being a contender to merely a dangerous team in the playoffs.
