Winter in Summer
By Eric Boyum
Summer Forty-Niner
The mastermind of
the famed triangle offense has arrived. Tex Winter, a former head coach
at Long Beach State for five years, returned to The Beach to join the Los
Angeles Laker’s coaching staff lead by Phil Jackson.
Winter, who flew
in to Los Angeles last weekend, was on hand at The Pyramid for Laker’s
final game Tuesday to capture a glimpse of some of the young Lakers playing
in the Fila Summer Pro League.
The Laker’s summer
league schedule ended on that same day by losing to the Orlando Magic 116-76.
The Lakers were victorious
in only one game during two weeks while learning the triangle offense that
Jackson used to capture six NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls. Those
championships were won with Michael Jordan running the offense and doing
much of the scoring.
With non of the Laker’s
starters participating in the league, Winter said it is too early to evaluate
how quickly the team will learn the offense.
However, Winter said
he is excited about having Laker center Shaquille O ‘Neal in the offense.
Winter said he considers Shaq the best pivotman in basketball and that
should add an extra dimension to the offense.
"There are some things
and adjustments that he [O’Neal] will have to make and there are some adjustments
that we will make in the offense to take advantage of him too," Winter
said. "We haven’t had that kind of powerful scoring center in all of the
time that we had won [with Chicago]."
Winter brings 53
years of coaching experience to the Lakers and fills out the final position
on Jackson’s staff. Winter said he believes that the system can be effective
with new players.
"Were going back
to the building blocks," Winter said. "Don’t expect this thing to be learned
overnight."
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