In an interview after Sunday’s game, Jeremy Lin was asked how much he thought his coach —and friend— Kenny Atkinson had improved over the course of the season.
Lin said he thought the Nets rookie coach had “definitely improved.”
Admitting “I’m not an expert on coaching,” Lin broke things down.
“In terms of his overall presence, his managing the game from the sidelines, his play-calling, all that, I feel he’s done a great job. He continues to grow. I know he’s really hard on himself. He’s always looking to ‘how can I improve,’ ‘how can I improve.’ He’s always looking at himself first. That’s consistent with what I knew about him. That’s why I thought, ‘give him some time and he’ll get there.”
Lin also gave a shout out to Atkinson’s staff on the improvement in team defense.
“I think that’s a big credit to the coaching staff, learning the personnel who we have on this team, like ‘what is the best coverages’ and ‘when you change them up, who you’re going up against?’ ‘what does that look like?’ I feel like they’ve done an amazing job putting us in a position and we’ve been working at it, working at it and I think it’s working.”
Lin and Atkinson, of course, go back to Linsanity five years ago, when Lin was an end-of-the-bench scrub and Atkinson worked with him as a development coach, which led to Lin’s emergence in a glorious run for the Knicks. The trust between the two was a big reason why Lin joined the Nets in the off-season.
Thanks to ‘Whats the 411 Sports’ for the interview and the YouTube video.