Review: Kurt Rambis

The truth of it is: Kurt Rambis, the coach (assistant-, head-, otherwise) ruined my own mental image of Kurt Rambis, the Laker.

Yes, that is mostly on looks. When

he was a Laker he was lanky-white power forward filling out sho

rt shorts with a Hanson-brother head with extra sweet dripping from the tips of the hair and the face punctuated by a mustache. He was the role-player guy whose job it was touch the bell less and more effectively so that Magic, Kareem, James, better players in general, were able to make great things happen with it.

FUN FACT: Rambis played in Greece before playing with the Lakers where he was known as Kyriakos Rambidis.

He used hustle. He was a reason to not hate the Lakers. He fought Kevin McHale in the finals. He was a reason to hate the Lakers even more. He was a cartoony-looking character who embodied teamwork. He was a reason to love watching basketball.

It was funny when we first were aware he even coached. It was during the lockout year of 98-99. Del Harris was fired, and Kurt, sans glasses looking like Irwin R. Schyster in a blazer, won his first 9 names. Everyone made more ironic Superman jokes.

Then he was assistant for awhile, which probably was the best thing for him. He had the success and now he could just leech off the success of Phil Jackson. I'm sorry, I bet Rambis did help in some capacity, but he wasn't a Phil guy. He was a Laker guy. At that time, Laker guys were annoying.

Then he became coach of the Timberwolves. Right after Kevin McHale left, but who had them playing better. I mention this because Kevin McHale had one up on Rambis already. So Coach Kurt came in and screwed with Kevin Love's minutes, and now he is a fired head coach with a horrible record. Hopefully for Kurt, our consensus as sports fans is to blame his Marx Brother of a boss David Kahn. But honestly, I'm ok with hating him.

Wear the glasses again Kurt. It's pretty much your only option right now.