Though I take your point that players are not often great GM's, I have hope for Kerr. A few points:

1) Isaiah has been a great evaluator of talent both in NY and in Toronto. Let's remember that his draft picks this year were roundly booed, and both turned out to be quite good. He's just not been great at putting together a team.

Unlike Isaiah, though, Kerr has the advantage of working with the ultimate team coach in Mike D'Antoni. I trust D'Antoni to keep Kerr focused on team needs.

2) Great players make lousy GMs. They can't understand why the players they assemble can't do it all. After all, they could.

Kerr was a great presence, a wonderful person, and a great shooter. But I don't think Steve Kerr's *mother* (and, knowing the tragic situation of his father, I use that word carefully) ever thought he was the best player on the floor. Kerr was a cerebral player. I have hopes he will be a cerebral GM.

I don't want to guarantee his skill. And the Phoenix GM will have the unenviable task in the next few years of replacing Steve Nash, a great player who makes his teammates immeasurably better. So Kerr is set up to fail.

But the article was about one of the best GM's in the game, and detoured into badmouthing Kerr. I don't know how good he'll be. But neither do you. At least give him time to fail.

Odd the article would mention Bryan Colangelo without noting he basically built the current Suns team. The author says Kerr is trying to follow the Spurs' pattern, but his team already awesome; they just need to find a way to get out of the West. Kerr is looking for a single missing piece--a Bruce Bowen type on defense or a widebody who can block some shots and give them a low post presence when the pace slows down in the playoffs. Not to sell Buford and the Spurs short, but their cornerstone, Tim Duncan, is only with them because they were lucky enough to win the draft lottery. Coangelo didn't have that luxury.

Something else the article didn't mention: Kerr was a member of the Spurs for a few years, even won a championship (or two, can't remember) with them. Since this was toward the end of his career and his playing time was down, he had ample time to observe and learn from Popovich and Buford on how to be a GM. This should help him in his new role with Phoenix.

Another note: Robert Horry is included on the list of players who were "discovered or championed" by Buford. Hold on just a minute there: Horry had already won 5 NBA titles--2 with the Rockets, 3 with the Lakers--and earned the nickname Big Shot Rob (or Big Shot Brob, if you're ESPN's Sports Guy, can't remember why though). By no means did Horry need someone championing or discovering him.

It was a great signing though that has paid off time and again, most recently in the Phoenix series when BSR's forearm got two Suns suspended for the next game. But I'm not bitter or anything, really.

Hi,

It's easy to heap credits on RC Buford as a great GM, but the job is much easier when you have Tim Duncan manning the post and the stifling defensive system the team embodies and displays game after game. Having someone with championship caliber like Tim Duncan manning the post, it takes effort to build a crummy team around him. Granted one could say the same thing for Kevin Garnett, who in my opinion has more raw skills than Tim Duncan. But the Timberwolves never had a working system, made difficult by the selfish, albiet talented sidekicks like Sprewell and Sam Cassell or even Stephon Marbury in the days of yore. Bottomline, Tim Duncan is a once-in-a-lifetime talent and Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili et al., bought into that notion and never overstep their boundaries and hence deservedly bask in the glory and keep adding to their championship bling-bling.