Theus gets 'sappy' on way back home
Kings coach fondly recalls days as Bull
By K.C. Johnson
Tribune staff reporter
January 5, 2008, 10:24 PM CST
Asked if he ever thought he would return to Chicago as an NBA head coach, Rush Street Reggie got right to the point.
"No," Reggie Theus said. "I was too busy hanging out."
Theus long ago shed his penchant for late-night carousing for late-night film work and parlayed his surprising collegiate success at New Mexico State into an equally surprising gig as the Kings' coach.
The longtime popular Bull talked eloquently and emotionally about what it meant to return to Chicago.
"I actually felt a little sappy driving up because I said, 'Wow, my first time back to Chicago as an NBA head coach,' " Theus said. "It was a nice feeling, really.
"As a rookie, I have a memory of going to a Michael Jackson concert, and I got a standing ovation. Those were pretty incredible things for a young guy.
"Fans here have always made me feel like this is home. We've always had that kind of affair. How many times in a person's life are you in a stadium where they're chanting your name?"
Then Theus, in a nod to the Chicago Stadium crowds that watched many of the lean teams for which he toiled in the late '70s and early '80s, delivered the punch line: "All 6,000 of them."
Theus grew serious, though, when asked about the spate of injuries that has affected the Kings, as well as his coaching philosophy.
"In terms of on-the-job training, I don't know any first-year coaches who have had to go through some of the things I've had to in terms of personnel issues and injuries," Theus said.
"I respect my guys, but I coach them hard. And I believe that I have to have more energy than they do. With all the other pressures, it's a battle sometimes. But I think that's important because if I'm asking them to come out and put it on the line every night, then they have to see me put it on the line also."
