Thursday, September 23, 2010

PUERTO RICO NATIONAL TEAM GENERAL MANAGER

IPRB confirmed that Carlos Beltran has had conversations with several potential candidates for the National Team's, General Manager position. This group of people he has communicated with includes both current and former BSN team owners. Clearly, an existing owner of a BSN Team should not be the GM of the National Team. It's a major conflict and should not be allowed. I find it interesting that the last several GM's were clearly not "personnel guys" who could develop and work with players. Players did not respect Rivera or Diaz and that is a must if you are going to have a GM that is more than just a figurehead. Both Diaz and Rivera are decent people and clearly love the game but neither of them are the right age or have the right background to be successful as a GM in today's game. Things have changed drastically in basketball over the last 10 years and Beltran has a very difficult decision to make as he recommends someone to the FBPUR Board.

The GM's position is to run the team and act as a intermediate between the coach, players and senior management. Their focus must be on putting a team on the floor with one vision and goal and that is to win. Lets also add the fact that no player should be compensated for playing on the National Team. All players must abide by the same rules and receive the same "perks" or else it is not a team but a collection of All Stars. History has taught us that a solid team beats a collection of All Stars 9 out of 10 times.

There is clearly a candidate available who can do the job and help make the necessary changes to bring PR back into the top 10 FIBA world rankings. His name is ...