# Getting to know Bernie Bickerstaff



## Charlotte_______

> Growing up deep in the mountains of eastern Kentucky's coal country, Bernie Bickerstaff watched his father and grandfather troop off every day to work in the mines.
> 
> "That's what you did," said Bickerstaff, named Thursday to be the NBA expansion Charlotte Bobcats' first coach and general manager. "You either grew up and went into the mines or the Army."
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> The mines of Benham -- a tiny, company town established in the early 1900s by International Harvester agricultural machinery manufacturer -- did not interest Bickerstaff. He was the best basketball player at East Benham High in 1961, and his full attention was directed at his coaches.
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> Bickerstaff liked the idea of being in charge, of leading a group toward some common goal. Eventually, he would get the chance in basketball, starting in college, then in the pros, where has forged a 30-year career as a coach and administrator.
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> "I always had aspirations to be a coach," said Bickerstaff, 58. "They were the guys who issued all the punishment in the schools. They had those paddles with holes in them. They were the guys we looked up to, the disciplinarians. They were my role models."
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> Bickerstaff watched and listened to his coaches closely. By 24, he was a college head coach. Then it was on to the pros.
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> "He's always been in a position where he's had somebody pretty great to mentor him," said Eugenia Bickerstaff, his wife of 36 years.
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> Learned discipline in college
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> Bickerstaff graduated from East Benham in 1961 and, with plans of joining the Army, moved to Cleveland where he had relatives. But he had been noticed in high school at East Benham by a college scout, and Bickerstaff instead headed to Texas to play for Rio Grande College. It didn't work out at Rio Grande, however, and he returned to Cleveland to work in a steel mill."There was a guy who went around with a torch, putting an imprint on that steel," said Bickerstaff. "I was the guy behind, holding the hose. That fire would shoot back on me, putting holes in my pants.
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> "That reaffirmed that I was going back to college."
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> This time, Bickerstaff landed in San Diego, where coach Phil Woolpert awaited. Woolpert stressed discipline and the basics of the game, concepts that were foreign to Bickerstaff. But Bickerstaff, a second stringer, learned quickly.
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> "I had an athletic game," Bickerstaff said. "(Woolpert) was into fundamentals. And he said, `This is our system; you have to do it.' There was a guy playing in front of me, no comparison in our skills. But it had to be done a certain way.
> 
> "I made the transition because I wanted to play. And the man was fair about it. All this stuff I understand now."
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> Said Eugenia Bickerstaff: "It took a heckuva person to make him understand he was part of the team, that he wasn't the show. And Bernie came to really love and respect him for it."
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> Woolpert hired Bickerstaff as an assistant coach, and he was promoted to head coach a year later when Woolpert abruptly resigned. Bickerstaff stayed at San Diego four more years, then was brought to the Washington Bullets in 1973 by coach K.C. Jones.
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> `He's perfect for the role'
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> In Washington, Bickerstaff established a friendship with American University's young coach, Ed Tapscott.
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> "I knew the Afro'd Bernie," said Tapscott, executive vice-president of the Bobcats and now Bickerstaff's boss. "We didn't really hang out every day, because our circles were different. But through the years our paths would cross, we'd have a meal, talk basketball, do the salt-and-pepper shaker (diagramming plays) thing on the table."
> 
> Bickerstaff left Washington after 12 seasons for head-coaching positions in Seattle (1985-90), Denver (1994-96) and again Washington (1997-99), as well as a two-year stint with the International Basketball League's St. Louis Swarm. He was NBA Coach of the Year in 1986-87 with Seattle, and coached the Nuggets to a first-round playoffs victory against Seattle in 1994. He has a 338-348 career record and is the league's 34th all-time winningest coach.
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> He also was the Nuggets' president and general manager from 1990 until 1997.
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> "He's perfect for the (Charlotte) role," said Carl Scheer, a former Charlotte Hornets general manager who ran the Nuggets' business operations in 1990. "He's a man of high profiles. He builds confidence."
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> Bickerstaff's charge is to build a franchise from scratch, in a town where a previous NBA experience went sour.
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> "Here are some of the things I've found out," Bickerstaff said. "We like leaders, but most people don't have the (nerve) to lead. Everybody wants someone to lead.
> 
> "I have no problem with that."


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## BCH

I am sorry the Bobcats had to settle for Bickerstaff.


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## Charlotte_______

They didn't "settle" for Bickerstaff, he was chosen because he is best qualified for General Manager and Coach of the Charlotte Bobcats


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## BCH

> Originally posted by <b>Charlotte_______</b>!
> They didn't "settle" for Bickerstaff, he was chosen because he is best qualified for General Manager and Coach of the Charlotte Bobcats


Trust me. It was settling.

I loved Tapscott as a postgame analyst for the Wizards, but Bickerstaff was horrible. What is funny is that they both did it last year for the Wizards. I think Bernie took over for Ed when he left to Charlotte. Bernie was the coach in DC for awhile, and it did not work out. Good luck to Charlotte.


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