The Tex in Winter

It is nice that Kobe won his first MVP award. He deserved it for sure but it was sort of like the Cecile B. De Mille Lifetime achievement award. He had an amazing year as were most of the 11 that preceded it. The NBA MVP, more than any other professional sports award, besides the contrived ESPY’s, is given not awarded. The NBA MVP has been awarded 51 times but only given to 26 different winners with Kobe being the 27^th. There are 11 players that account for 72% of all of the MVP awards ever “awarded”. Karl Malone, Charles Barkley, and Julius Erving among others were given the award once to recognize a career of hardwood brilliance.

Kobe got my vote. We talked about it and I appreciated Kobe’s input. The Yard’s vote was not for sale. I will say that Chris Paul came on strong and I did appreciate the Pralines. But my staff could not be swayed by transparent attempts to change our vote based on food, grog and stuff. But we encourage all attempts to challenge those ethics. We will evaluate each on a case by case basis with little disclosure.

Whatever, hooray Kobe!! If you can keep your dick in your pants, you might win another. Please quit jacking 3-pointer’s when you are double teamed because you talked trash last time down the floor and you are pissed at Luke Walton for missing that j on the last pass you generously gave him.

Kobe Bryant did well, Tex Winter is immortal. Kobe has his bronze but the Yard has moved on. I implore our legions of cretins to support a grass roots effort to elect Tex Winter, assistant coach of the Lakers into the Basketball Hall of Fame. Tex has been sitting right next to Phil Jackson for all nine Championships. Tex has coached Michael Jordan to six championships and Kobe Bryant to three. Neither player nor Phil Jackson has ever before or after won a championship without Tex Winter on the bench.

Now, I would want to be called Tex if my parents named me Morice Fredrick Winter. And Tex’s life seemed to begin when he joined the Chicago Bulls staff in 1985. Au contraire, grasshopper. Tex was in Chicago four years before Phil Jackson became head coach and they partnered with MJ to win six titles. Then he followed Phil to LA and they showed Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe how to play together and win three. The players outgrew that sand box but Tex was right there coaching each moment, right over Phil’s shoulder coaching without ego or pretense. He stays off the radar screen, yet he is omnipresent. His image escapes us but his influence is everywhere.

Tex played college basketball at USC. Trojan Fan, you all knew that right? I am sure with your rich basketball tradition, you have retired his jersey? Come on, Tex won the Ernie Holbrook Memorial award for the Most Inspirational Player in 1947! Yes, 1947. Tex is 84 years old and he is still relevant, articulate and a mainstay on the Laker coaching staff. Retire his jersey, this is not football.

Ok, what he did do between 1947 and 1985? Tex was unavailable for comment for this rant. But from what I can piece together from the 6,456,237 Google sites, he did coach at Kansas Sate for 15 years and he has been coaching for over 60 years.

If you are from Kansas, sorry sometimes grandparents did not know where to live. But Kansas is about basketball and University of Kansas won the National Championship in 2008 and has won three National Championships. Besides Dorothy and Toto, winning the NCAA in basketball is some pretty heady stuff in Kansas. KU vs. KSU is like USC vs. UCLA with a more aggressive interpretation of 2^nd amendment rights and a distinct willingness to challenge them.

Kansas has been the dominant basketball program in the home of Dorothy and Toto, right? Not from 1954-68. Coach Winter has the best record in KSU coaching history at 261-118. His 1958 team beat the Wilt Chamberlain lead Kansas Jayhawks to advance to the NCAA tournament and eventually the Final Four. His Wildcats won eight Southwestern Conference titles. He coached KSU back into the Final Four in 1964 but lost to a John Wooden team that was winning his first of ten. Tex had several head coaching jobs before close friend Jerry Krause recruited him to work with a head strong Michael Jordan in 1985. Phil Jackson took the head coaching job in 1989. In 1991, the Bulls beat the Magic Johnson lead Lakers on their way to six championships. One might argue that the foundation for Phil’s “coaching success” had already been laid by “Tex” from Lubbock.

If Tex Winter is not someone that all of us would agree is the epitome of an individual who should be a first ballot hall of famer, who is? He has never been on the ballot! So if all 46 of us, voice our support, it could be, you know, kind of cool, and if it helps Tex, that is a good thing also. So tell your Barrista, your pilates instructor and your parents to vote for Tex, bring his name up at BBQ’s during the summer before the convention…thanks.