Detroit Shocked
August 16, 2007
Bill Laimbeer was named head coach of the WNBA’s Detroit Shock on June 19, 2002. Since then, he has led the team on a remarkable rollercoaster ride that includes league championships in 2003 and 2006.
Laimbeer’s playing career with the Detroit Pistons of the NBA earned him the nickname of “baddest of the Bad Boys.” In other words, he was pro basketball’s equivalent of Derek Boogaard. However, unlike Boogaard, Laimbeer was more than just a goon.
He is one of only 31 players to have scored more than 10,000 points and grabbed more than 10,000 rebounds in his playing career, which spanned 14 seasons.
With the Shock, Laimbeer oversees the basketball staff (which includes another former Piston Bad Boy, Rick Mahorn) and its roster development (including all player acquisitions), while also coaching the team on the floor. It is in that latter capacity that Laimbeer has earned the reputation (from his own players) as possessing arrogant and sarcastic traits.
“I’m strong-willed and stubborn,” Mahorn recently told John Frankel on HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. “I yell at them and get in their faces.” This prompted a response from veteran starter Deanna Nolan. “Bill has made us tough inside and out,” Nolan said, with obvious results. Going into last Thursday’s game with the Minnesota Lynx at Target Center, the Shock’s won-loss record was 24-8.
Apparently, attending Notre Dame did little to smooth the edges of the rough-hewn Laimbeer, who urges his players to “take things in your own hands” when referees appear to be too reluctant to make foul calls. His players don’t hesitate to take things into their own hands in dealing with the coach. The Real Sports segment on Laimbeer revealed that on a table inside the Shock locker room sits a large plastic jar. A sign on the jar reads: “Fuck you, Bill.” Every time a player responds to a Laimbeer comment or action with the words “Fuck you, Bill,” she must throw a dollar into the jar. The jar is brimming with cash.
On his show, Gumbel observed that Shock players respect their coach, “but they don’t exactly like him.”
Laimbeer’s personality traits are reflected in the way he treats media members. Against the Minnesota Lynx, injuries and suspensions dictated that he use only seven players throughout the contest. Following the Lynx’s 87-77 victory, a timid reporter observed that, on that night, the coach had a short bench.
“You think?” was the sarcastic reply, and that reporter spoke no more.
Another reporter observed that, in the heat of battle, former Lynx ace Katie Smith took a hard blow to the nose. “Probably improved her looks,” was the Laimbeer reply. When informed that during the game Smith became the first WNBA player to score 6,000 points, the coach allowed as Katie had “been around a long time,” implying such events were bound to happen in the careers of outstanding women athletes. (Smith scored 3,605 of those points as a member of the Minnesota Lynx.)
Laimbeer had a short bench primarily because two of his enforcers, 6-3 Cheryl Ford (daughter of Karl Malone) and 6-1 Swin Cash, were out nursing injuries. This allowed the Lynx, who entered the game with only eight wins this season, to race to a 31-16 first quarter lead that was never relinquished. The closest the Shock got was within five points in the third quarter. “We were glad to get through the game without any more injuries,” Laimbeer observed.
Also, during the game, Seimone Augustus of the Lynx broke her single-season franchise scoring record. She finished with 19 points and 755 points for the season. Last year, she scored 744 points.
Svetlana Abrosimova finished with a season-high 25 points, including 5 three-point goals. She also became the 51st player in WNBA history to pass the 2,000-point mark. “They (the Shock) were in a soft zone defense, and that allowed us to shoot from the outside,” Abrosimova said in the locker after the game.
Reserve guard Ivory Latta scored 15 points for the Shock, followed by 6-8 giant Katie Feenstra with 14. Plenette Pierson also scored 14. Nolan had 13.