Diego from Jazzsmack, one of the more obscure Jazz podcasts, talked yesterday about Hardy chewing his players out:

I'm sure you saw the clips of Hardy just letting the team have it. I watched it and honestly I have mixed feelings about that. I applaud a guy that's trying to get the team to play harder, (but) I got to tell you nothing's really changing. So I wonder is if what he's doing is effective.

I do not respond well to consistent aggressive criticism, and don't like to watch it. I'm fine with something occasional, even if there's colorful language, but regular harsh criticism is something different.

Any thoughts?

5 comments

  1. These guys are professional athletes. They’ve been coached hard since they were kids. Hardy also praises when it’s warranted, so it’s not like it’s all criticism all the time.

    He seems to have a good relationship with most of the players, and part of that is telling them how it is. It’s easy today nothin is changing but we have absolutely seen guys develop and play hard under coach Hardy. So while it may not work for every aspect of every player, it’s a push to say it clearly doesn’t work at all.

  2. I actually think it’s okay due to the 5 game break between games. Let the players think about trying better in this 5 games of no games.

  3. I feel that locker rooms are highly likely to self-destruct in a losing culture, and I think Hardy understands this when he sees players giving up on competing so early in a game. He’s trying to light a fire under them to keep players engaged at a competitive level, and I’m really not sure what would be a better approach. Hardy has my support for sure.

  4. I would be concerned if I hadn’t read a million articles about how Hardy has worked to build relationships off the court behind the scenes

    I’m sure guys like Lauri, Nurk, and Love have heard worse and probably appreciate that Hardy cares about winning.

    I don’t think Sloan’s approach of yesteryear would work, but I think Hardy is a good blend.

  5. I don’t think anyone whose played a sport beyond a recreational level was one bit shocked by hearing him. I’ve said and had so much worse said to me by coaches, teammates, etc. Anyone who thinks sports is about positive reinforcement needs to stay at the Jr Jazz/Little League level of it. I don’t even think it’s a ‘Does this approach work?’ Question. It’s probably a PRETTY DAMN NORMAL interaction- not an ‘APPROACH ‘- that got caught on a mike. I’ll bet not a single player took anything from that past the underlying message.

Leave a Reply