Watched Nets coach Lawrence Frank conduct a television interview before the game. He’s a thirty something that looks like a twenty something. Little guys can be successful in hoops (OK, he’s a coach not a player, but still). I’m 5-foot-8 Jewish guy too. He’s my new hero!
Steve Rushin, formerly of Sports Illustrated, summed it up better than I can. Here’s an excerpt from a 2006 story:
As a child, Lawrence Frank says, “I was like a bad Hollywood actor. I kept hearing, ‘Cut! Cut! Cut!’” He was cut from so many basketball teams that he decided, at age 12, to concentrate on coaching. And though he’s now slightly older and the coach of the New Jersey Nets, Frank says, “I still get freakin’ confused with the mascot half the time.”
He’s 5’8″ but looks shorter, 35 but looks younger. When fans ask him for his autograph, he thanks them. No wonder that when Frank replaced Byron Scott two years ago, Larry Brown said it sent the message, “Look, anybody can coach.” Trouble was, Frank had the most successful debut of any coach in the four major professional leagues, starting 13-0. Even before the streak ended, he had been stripped of his necktie, which was shipped to the Basketball Hall of Fame, creating a haberdashery hardship for the coach. “I think I only had two ties,” says Frank, whose look is CPA, not NBA.
