Vinny the Bull

I think one function this blog will serve is to highlight former Spurs who are in the news for one reason or another. Today it's Vinny Del Negro. Or as I sometimes like to think of him: Manu Ginobili's Dad.

So here's the lowdown: The Chicago Bulls announced this week that Vinny Del Negro will be their new head coach. This is Del Negro's first coaching job of any kind. The 2-year contract at roughly $2 million per year makes him the lowest paid coach in the NBA.

A few facts about Vinny's playing days: (if you don't like boring timeline-stuff, skip over this paragraph. But it couldn't hurt you to fill your brain with a little more totally irrelevant sports information, right?)

(right. So...)

After becoming the Sacramento King's 29th overall pick in the 1988 NBA Draft, Vinny Del Negro played in Sacramento for two years before signing with Benetton Treviso in the Italian Pro Basketball League. He led Benetton Treviso to the Italian Championship in 1992, averaging 25 points a game. He played with the Spurs from 1992 to 1998, and then bounced around to teams including the Milwaukee Bucks, Golden State Warriors, Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Clippers. He retired in 2001 after being traded to the Orlando Magic.

Then he did some other non-sports related stuff, I assume, that isn't mentioned on his wikipedia page or nba.com. And then he became a radio commentator. After working as a radio commentator for the Phoenix Suns, Del Negro was tapped by another former Spur and Suns GM/Minority Owner, Steve Kerr, to be the Suns Director of Player Personnel in 2006. Then in 2007 he was promoted to the position of Assistant General Manager. After the Suns were eliminated this year, yet again by the Spurs, Mike D'Antoni left as head coach. Del Negro interviewed with Kerr for this job, but did not become a finalist because of his lack of coaching experience. But supposedly Kerr really likes him. Apparently John Paxon, Chicago's GM, likes him too. The Bulls hired him, and he now moves from relative obscurity into the spotlight of coaching one of the NBA's largest market teams.

This is interesting for a few reasons. First, to me, Vinny Del Negro is one of the most awesome and hilarious Spurs ever. For some reason (see above image), whenever you mention his name to a Spurs fan, or really to anyone who was paying close attention to the NBA during the mid-90's, you'll usually get a laugh or at least a smile. It's not that he was a laughable player--i mean he wasn't an all-star or anything but he was alright; he's just kind of funny for some reason. My best friend's mom claimed to have a big crush on him at that time, and likened his dapper looks to that of a ski instructor. It's hard to argue with her. Slightly poofy hair, short but neatly trimmed beard, exotic last name: he's the only NBA player past or present that I can imagine playing in a turtle neck.

Second, he's never been a coach before. Ever. He landed this job over candidates like Dwayne Casey, Marc Jackson and Avery Johnson, both of whom are still without coaching jobs for next season. Avery Johnson, another former Spur, was 2 wins away from the 2006 NBA Championship, and now somehow seems untouchable as a head coach. I'm sure the aforementioned small price tag for Del Negro's services figures into this. I'm sure because the Bulls are so bad and so young, they wanted someone who was also young and unproven. If he's successful, great...but if not--and it may be that no coach would be able to do much with this team for a year or two--they can can him without taking too much of a hit financially.

Third, thanks to a strange set of circumstances pointed out by K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune, this hiring, coupled with Mike D'Antoni's new job with the Knicks could rekindle a New York Knicks / Chicago Bulls rivalry:

The first curveball came when D'Antoni spurned the Bulls for the Knicks on May 10. D'Antoni signed a four-year, $24 million deal.

And the Knicks-Bulls rivalry begins anew: Word in Phoenix is that D'Antoni's displeasure with management meddling extended beyond Kerr to Del Negro, whom he felt quietly criticized his coaching.

But I guess the rivalry looses a little sizzle when it's between two of the very worst NBA teams in recent memory.

So we'll see what happens. Hopefully Vinny will be fantastically successful in Chi-town. At very least I hope his players can learn a thing or two about proper slalom technique.