![]() ![]() “He knew what the play was,” said Kings’ guard Don Buse, who had also played under McKinney at Indiana. They also say that on occasion he has called a play the team no longer uses.ĭuring a huddle near the end of his time with the Kings, McKinney told his players to run a play “the way we did against St. They talk of a coach who does have some memory lapses and of a coach who, by his own admission, has trouble remembering names. Players in Kansas City and Indiana tell a slightly different story. Kansas City General Manager Joe Axelson, who has hired McKinney back as a scout, sent an extraordinary, two-page letter to each of the NBA’s general managers defending McKinney’s memory as well as his ability to coach, saying the Kings’ players “simply let him down by playing below the level of their abilities.” Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, and is a close friend. “Jack is identical to the way he was before the accident,” said Jim Lynam, coach of the San Diego Clippers, who played for McKinney at St. A larger question looms: Has McKinney ever completely recovered from that bizarre biking accident in Palos Verdes? When McKinney walked away from the Kings, who had only won once in nine games, there was a story in the next day’s Kansas City Times quoting unidentified players as saying that McKinney had lapses of memory and that he didn’t always designate the play he meant to call. Even today, it follows him, it haunts him. 8, 1979, he had fallen off his bike and lapsed into a coma only to wake up and find that Paul Westhead, his best friend, had taken his job.īut it was not over. Everyone knew how, 17 days into his only season as Laker coach, on Nov. He had every reason to believe the nightmare of the year before was over, a nightmare he had shared with the world. McKinney took over a mediocre Pacers’ team, coached it into the playoffs and, for his efforts, was named the NBA coach of the year. ![]() That was during his first year with the Pacers, a season after the stupid bike ride had cost him his job with the Lakers and very nearly his life. In earlier days, in better days, Jack McKinney had said that he didn’t want “to go to every league city and have there be a story based on the coach getting over a stupid bike ride.” Worst of all, there was no one to blame this time but himself. Nine games into the Kansas City Kings’ season, McKinney walked away from a four-year contract worth $500,000 and from a job that has fired his soul for 27 years. He had quit, and, in a way, that was even worse.
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