ORLANDO, Fla. -- There really is a method to the unorthodox seating arrangement on the bench of the Chicago Bulls' Summer League team this week in Orlando.
It's the Vinny Sandwich.
Not only is Vinny Del Negro the only head coach working among the six teams playing here, he is strategically seated between 71-year-old assistant Del Harris on his right and 63-year-old assistant Bernie Bickerstaff on his left.
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| Vinny Del Negro: Bernie to the left of me, Del Harris to the right, here I am -- stuck in the middle. (Getty Images) |
Del Negro's gaze never leaves the court, but the assistants turn their heads to make their points. It's like basketball coaching lessons in stereo.
"This is the Vinny Show, no doubt about it," Bickerstaff said after the Bulls beat Orlando on Wednesday. "He will do well in coaching. He's such a sharp young guy. We're just here to help him. But the worst thing we could do is inundate him with too much. That's what we have to guard against."
Del Negro, 41, was the surprise hire this summer by general manager John Paxson, who was smitten with Del Negro's plan to erase everything that went wrong during last season's disaster -- when the Bulls went from 49 victories to 49 defeats -- and return the team to NBA prominence once again.
With absolutely no coaching experience on any level, Del Negro wasn't the Bulls' first choice -- he was third, actually, after Mike D'Antoni and Doug Collins walked away -- but they still gambled on him after the Phoenix Suns took a look and didn't think he was ready.
To give him the experience he lacked, Del Negro hired the best, most experienced assistants he could find. As NBA head coaches, Harris and Bickerstaff won 971 games combined. Add in assistants Bob Ociepka and Pete Myers, in his ninth season with the Bulls after an eight-year playing career, and the group has more than 90 years of NBA coaching experience.
"I haven't coached before," Del Negro said. "And I'm not a magician. But I've got some great people around me. They are here for a reason."
They have been together now less than two weeks, but already the fit feels good, as upside-down as it seems. Instead of the conventional young assistants learning from the veteran head coach, the Bulls will try to do it this season in reverse.
"Vinny is like a sponge. He really gets it, and he wants to hear from you," said Harris, who has been a head coach with the Rockets, Bucks and Lakers. "But it's not like he just landed from Mars. He played in this league a long time. He has a brilliant basketball mind. There also is a certain humility about him, which is good, but it comes with confidence."
The Bulls have entrusted Del Negro with the future of No. 1 pick Derrick Rose, expecting him to lead the team back to the playoffs, where they reached the second round in 2007 with a nice young mix of players. Paxson also interviewed two other former players with no coaching experience, Mark Jackson and Jeff Hornacek, before picking Del Negro.
"There was a sense that we didn't know what we were doing," Paxson said. "But we just don't see it that way."
The Bulls started to destruct before last season even began. The Kobe Bryant trade rumors rankled many. Ben Gordon and Luol Deng turned down contract extensions. Coach Scott Skiles didn't like the work ethic of highly touted rookie Joakim Noah and Ben Wallace just didn't fit. The unselfishness from previous seasons disappeared. Skiles was fired early and interim coach Jim Boylan was dismissed after the season.
But as so often happens in this league, bad luck for one means good luck for another, which is how Del Negro went from the front office in Phoenix to the hot seat in Chicago. When he started interviewing assistants, he laid out his plans for the team and asked each potential candidate his thoughts of his plan.
"He's got a philosophy, how he sees everything. It's like a skeleton, with a lot of openings in it still. It's not a blank tablet, but it's not a full sheet yet, either," Harris said.
"It's like a kid going into the 7-11 store. He gets one of those big cups and takes some drink out of every fountain, some Pepsi, some Coke, some Sprite, some orange, and comes out with a blockbuster. Vinny will come out of this with a great mix, his own philosophy. And it will be a good one."
