"Virtually everything that could go wrong for New York today did go wrong. The Knicks were outrebounded, 55-34. They shot 38.5 percent from the field. Johnny Newman, their second-leading playoff scorer, shot 0 for 8 from the field and did not score. And Chicago had little trouble dissecting New York's full-court press."
This correlates with the other comment about the press not working in the NBA because the point guards are too good. The press did work for awhile for Pitino when he coached the Knicks, but evidently the other teams eventually developed counter measures that worked. He also coached the Celtics with an overall losing record. I'm not sure how much he pressed with the Celtics.
I suppose the overall moral is that unconventional tactics work for awhile, but if the opponent is also willing to innovate eventually skill, strength and other traits will prevail. The full court press is predicated on out working your opponents, but no one in the history of the NBA worked harder than Michael Jordan, who had some talent and skill to go with it.
I dug this up googling 'Pitino Knicks full court press':
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/14/sports/pro-basketball-piti...
"Virtually everything that could go wrong for New York today did go wrong. The Knicks were outrebounded, 55-34. They shot 38.5 percent from the field. Johnny Newman, their second-leading playoff scorer, shot 0 for 8 from the field and did not score. And Chicago had little trouble dissecting New York's full-court press."
This correlates with the other comment about the press not working in the NBA because the point guards are too good. The press did work for awhile for Pitino when he coached the Knicks, but evidently the other teams eventually developed counter measures that worked. He also coached the Celtics with an overall losing record. I'm not sure how much he pressed with the Celtics.
I suppose the overall moral is that unconventional tactics work for awhile, but if the opponent is also willing to innovate eventually skill, strength and other traits will prevail. The full court press is predicated on out working your opponents, but no one in the history of the NBA worked harder than Michael Jordan, who had some talent and skill to go with it.