Live Blog: George Kokinis Press Conference
January 26, 2009Cavaliers West Coast Wrap-Up
January 26, 2009
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Feel free to sound off in the comments, folks.
12 Comments
Nice guy. No issue with his appearance in front of the mike.
-He needs TRAINING WHEELS, hope Schwinn has some left.
-He comes without vision or exposure; made it clear it’s a OJT process.
-He will defer to the coach and staff, for the forseeable future.
-MAJOR learning curve.
-FRIEND of coach.
-Blank slate/check his resume on Brown’s Web site (wow…).
-Nice guy, I repeat.
So they’ve reversed the roles? The nice, but clueless, guy is the GM while the smart, but abrasive, guy is the coach.
Forgot:
-In way over is head.
-Overwhelmed.
@2 – Well, at least it’s a step up.
In no way did this presser instill confidence in me. They are not necessarily doomed to failure, but Kokinis gave me no reason to believe. He spoke in generalities and didn’t give us any kind of idea about the direction of the team. He will have final say over the 53 guys, but we will have to see how much influence Mangini has over personnel decisions.
The communications aspect of this conference made me appreciate what we have in Mark Shapiro. He has his mission statements, sure, but he can also speak frankly. I was watching his press tour where a fan asked a tough question about David Dellucci. Shapiro said (paraphrasing) “Obviously, we expected a lot more from the David Dellucci signing. We are still hoping he can produce this year for us. If he can’t we have some up and comers that we hope will be capable of playing at the major league level like Trevor Crowe, Brantley and Matt Laporta. But I wouldn’t say that Dellucci will get playing time this year because we have to justify a contract.”
Compare that to what we got today from Kokinis and it isn’t even worth it.
I voted no, but i’m not sure i needed to be impressed. It probably goes w/out saying, but i will be impressed when they:
– make decisions…most obvious = QB…RAC flipped a coin to see who would start a preseason game at QB…doubt this will happen with GK and EM.
– get talent via Free agency
– smart drafts…not trading away future picks for average pros
meh…
I voted no. Its not that I’m against Kokinis, but I was certainly not “impressed”.
In all fairness, he would’ve had to resign his post and give it to Scott in order to really impress me. Or come out in a chicken suit on a train of clowns.
Craig-well said, trust your instincts.
I didn’t expect much information to be revealed, so that didn’t disappoint me. But I was looking forward to hearing him speak… but after the fact, I’m underwhelmed. I was holding out hope that he’d have some presence, that he might be the one guy that has some gravitas, who might inspire some confidence, but… meh.
Their PR problems just continue to worsen… I’m amazed that they continue to drop the ball in this area, and refuse make hires that might help address the problem. I don’t see them taking any steps to reach out and reconnect with the fans, their customers. Some will argue it won’t matter if they win… but the season doesn’t start for another eight months, luxury suite contracts need to be renewed, season tickets to be sold…and a lot of damage could be done between now and then. Kokinis missed a huge opportunity to have a Tressel moment (“I can assure you that you will be proud of your young people in the classroom, in the community, and most especially in 310 days in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on the football field.”) that would have had fans eating out of his hand and created an extended honeymoon period for this regime.
He fumbled.
Or, what Craig said. Sorry, I didn’t have the comments up & hadn’t read them when I posted…
Didn’t hear the press conference, and I am against the manner in which the franchise is being re-organized, but do we really need to rag so severely on the guy’s first public appearance? P.R. is important because of the recent P.R. disasters, but if we start hearing about the dominating players he drafted and acquired no one will be complaining about poor P.R. Hey, Kokinis, just upgrade personnel, baby!