Bill Laimbeer Climbs the Coaching Ladder

MINNEAPOLIS -- A look of disbelief crosses Bill Laimbeer's face. After all, he spent years perfecting such expressions for NBA referees.

"I don't know what you're talking about,'' Laimbeer said when asked if he's teaching those on the young Minnesota Timberwolves to flop.

When it comes to flopping, Laimbeer made Manu Ginobili's moves today look rather amateurish. The former Detroit Pistons center was the all-time master.

That's something Timberwolves forward Brian Cardinal, one of the few Minnesota players who didn't watch Laimbeer's glory days through the bars of a crib, knows well about the team's new assistant.

"Absolutely,'' said Cardinal, 32. "All the good players are masters at something. ... Back in the day, that's how they played. They all played beat-them-up style. Everybody flopped and everybody got after it. But, when all was said and done, (Laimbeer) was a great player.''

Now, Laimbeer wants to go down as a great coach. He certainly was in the WNBA, leading the Detroit Shock to three championships. Finding out that wasn't enough to get a NBA head-coaching gig, he has become a Minnesota assistant under Kurt Rambis.

And, no, he hasn't gotten around to teaching the Timberwolves flopping or some of his infamous tricks that enabled him to get away with physical play.

"We're still working on baby steps,'' Rambis said. "We'll get to that. He had a lot of tricks.''

Laimbeer sure did while helping the "Bad Boys'' win NBA titles in 1989 and 1990. But it's important to note Laimbeer, who played from 1980-94, was a four-time All-Star.

While known by some more for being a flopper, a cheap-shot artist and a whiner, Laimbeer did have a potent outside jumper and was strong on the boards, once leading the NBA in rebounding. So there are plenty of things he can teach the Timberwolves.

"Bill brings a wealth of experience,'' said Minnesota president David Kahn. "Not only as a player has he come from a championship culture, but I respect the experiences he's had at the WNBA level.''

Kahn respected them enough to interview Laimbeer for Minnesota's head-coaching position during the summer. But he ultimately decided Laimbeer could use some NBA experience as an assistant.

"I called Bill to tell him that I would not be interviewing him a second time,'' Kahn said. "He was very close, and very capable of being a head coach. But I thought he should be an assistant in a culture outside of the Pistons and learn some of the other ways of doing things.

"When Kurt got the job, I said, 'No pressure, but I interviewed Bill for the head position and I told him he should be an assistant, and if you're interested in talking to him...' It caught me by surprise when he decided he wanted to hire him.''

Laimbeer, 52, was hired Aug. 30. He actually had resigned 2 ½ months earlier from the Shock, in part to pursue an NBA coaching position.

"I didn't want to do another job while saying, 'I want to be in the NBA,''' said Laimbeer, who took over midway through the 2002 season and led the Shock to titles in 2003, 2006 and 2008 before the team moved earlier this month to Tulsa. "I didn't want to compromise my players. ... I didn't want to do it like some people, like Michael Cooper would have done. Do two jobs, which you can't do.''

If you sense that is a dig at Cooper, whose Lakers squared off against Laimbeer's Pistons in the 1988 and 1989 NBA Finals and whose Los Angeles Sparks regularly battled Laimbeer's Shock, you're right. Cooper coached the Sparks in 2009 even though he already had accepted a job this season heading the USC women's basketball team.

But back to Laimbeer.

"That's my stated goal, yes,'' Laimbeer said of wanting to be an NBA head coach, adding that his Detroit teammates always "said I'd be a coach some day'' because "I see everything and I understand the game very well and rapidly.''

Now, though, he's learning. There are plenty of people willing to help.

Rambis has been an NBA head coach before. So have Minnesota assistants Reggie Theus and Dave Wohl.

"It would have taken a strong-willed general manager to pull somebody out of WNBA (as a head coach),'' Laimbeer said of going to the NBA as an assistant rather than remaining a WNBA boss. "I'm learning a lot, so it helps.

"It's understanding the personnel in the league. It's understanding the temperament of players, which is different with the guys. It's understanding the different style of how the game is played compared to how it was 15 years ago.''

Back in Laimbeer's day, players sometimes weren't even whistled for fouls for what now would get a suspension. With that in mind, how does Laimbeer want to be remembered as a player?

"A great complementary player,'' he said. "A great teammate. A fantastic group of guys that competed very hard, and I was an integral part of it. They always sum up (Laimbeer's career) with, 'world champions.'''

That sure sounds a lot better than "Flopper.''

Chris Tomasson can be reached at tomasson@fanhouse.com