For those who think my take on Igor is racist, I ask you to ask yourself the following:
1. If you needed someone to head up an important business project at the highest level for you in, say, Japan, and what's more you needed that someone to train a key group of Japanese professionals to do what was necessary in order for that project to be successful, and if all of the professionals working on the project spoke only Japanese and no English, would you hire and send an American who did not speak fluent Japanese to get the job done for you? To answer my own question in parallel: I minored in Russian in college and can get by in Russian about as well as Igor Kokoskov can get by in English, and never in a million years would I send myself to head up an important business project in Russia where in order for the project to be successful I had to train a group of Russians who spoke only Russian and no English.
2. Language/nationality aside, if you were being instructed by someone who communicates like the public defender in My Cousin Vinny, would any of the instruction actually get through to you? Even if any of it did get through to you, would any of it inspire you to greatness?
This isn't about race. It isn't about nationality. It's about the skill set necessary to succeed in a critical position at the highest level in the world. Simply put, Igor Kokoskov does not have the skill set required for the position.
If this team/franchise is to be taken seriously by anybody, including its own players, it must not hold any of its professional leaders to a lower standard just because that leader was born outside the United States. Either the man can be a head coach at this level or he can't. This team needs leadership, communication and inspiration from its head coach. In my opinion, Igor Kokoskov offers none of that any more than Earl Watson did, and I think his communication deficiencies are a big reason why, as is the fact that he is trying to force a square peg into a round hole by converting his NBA team into more of a European team. Igor Kokoskov has been a good NBA assistant where he hasn't had to assume the leadership mantle in terms of communication to his players. He has had success as a head coach in Europe where he could instruct and lead his team in his native language, which he speaks fluently. None of that makes him qualified to be an NBA head coach.
I cringe every time I hear Igor Kokoskov interviewed, as he struggles to put together a coherent sentence and stumbles over every other word. How do you think his players feel if he speaks the same way to them? How do expect his players to respond when they see everyone else playing NBA style ball while their coach is trying to force them to play a style that clearly does not work in the NBA?
Before you play the race/nationality card with me, I simply ask you to apply the same standards to Igor Kokoskov as you would to any other head coach in the NBA. Is that asking too much?
(And for those of you who are inclined to say "give him a break, it's his first year as head coach", I respond that if this team/franchise is to be taken seriously by anybody, including its own players, the professional leadership it hires should actually be qualified to do the job for which it is hired when it is hired. It makes zero sense to me for anybody to seek to hire someone who is unqualified with the hope that someday he will become qualified.)
