Tag Archives: randy wittman

I think Randy Wittman is a bad NBA basketball coach. I know that Randy Wittman understands basketball better than I do.

Randy Wittman played four years of college basketball at Indiana University.  He played there for Bobby Knight, one of the greatest coaches in the history of sports.  In Wittman’s sophomore season, the Hoosiers won a national title.  In his senior season, Wittman was Big Ten Player of the Year on a team that won the conference.  After his highly successful collegiate career, Wittman went on to play ten seasons of NBA basketball.  Most of those seasons were with the Atlanta Hawks, coached by winner of more than 1200 games and the 1985-86 NBA Coach of the Year Award, Mike Fratello.  Shortly after his playing career ended, Wittman entered the coaching ranks himself.  He spent eight seasons as an NBA assistant coach, most of them under Flip Saunders with the Minnesota Timberwolves in the early seasons of Kevin Garnett’s career.  With that incredible basketball resume’, Witt finally landed his first head coaching job.  He was hired by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1999 and spent two seasons on their bench before being fired.

I list these career accomplishments of Wittman not because I want to write his biography, but because when he later coached the Timberwolves I criticized his abilities and decisions countless times even though I am 100 percent sure that he understands basketball much better than I do.  Continue reading →