Sad story in today's LA Times

by knickfan on Dec 17, 2008 9:58 AM PST

It appears that former Blazer assistant coach, Bill Bayno, had to take medical leave of absence from his head coaching gig at Loyola Marymount University.

Recall that Bayno had lost his previous college head coaching post at UNLV due to an alcohol problem. He then received a second chance as a Trail Blazers' assistant where he really made a name for himself, largely due to his knack for helping young players develop. This led to his getting another shot as a college head coach at LMU. Well, it appears as if the enormous stress of that position has once again taken its toll on Bayno.

[A]s the Lions lost their first few games, people close to the program noticed a problem. One that did not involve drinking.

Bayno wasn't sleeping well or, sometimes, at all. Nor was he eating much. After his assistants went home at night, he would stay up watching videotape in hopes of finding some detail that could help his team.

"He's a good soul and he takes responsibility for everything," Husak said. "At the end of the day, he couldn't put that aside."

In late November, Bayno released a statement saying he had been "diagnosed with a serious medical condition, in part, related to the stress and anxiety of head coaching." Friends say that depression forced him to take a leave of absence.

Truly a sad story.

I sincerely wish him the best. From everything that I had read about him in Portland (and recently in LA) he seemed like a real mensch who genuinely has the best interests of his players at heart. Maybe if he decides that head coaching isn't for him, Pritchard brings him back to Portland to assist with the development of Oden. But that's way down the road. I just want to see him get better in both his mind and body first.

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Geeze

I realy hope he gets better. Bayno really deserves this second chance at redemption.

If it turns out that the stress of being the head coach at Loyola is too much for him, I’m sure he always has a role with the Blazers.

by DonkeyShins on Dec 17, 2008 10:02 AM PST reply actions

I would hope he finds his way back here.

It sounded as if he had found some happiness and he was credited with helping LaMarcus work more inside.

hakkaa päälle !

by timg56 on Dec 17, 2008 10:07 AM PST reply actions

Really?

…and he was credited with helping LaMarcus work more inside.

I either missed this when it happened or forgot since it happen. Does anyone have a link they can share?

If this is true then we definitely need Bill Bayno back ASAP!

Blazer's Edge Ambassador to The Dream Shake Blog
LaMarcus Aldridge you are LaMONSTER!!!

by LaMarvelous on Dec 17, 2008 8:26 PM PST up reply actions

I remember reading

that Bayno worked quite extensively with Aldridge while he was here.

While I can’t recall any specific references as to which aspects of LaMarcus’ game were addressed, I somewhat recollect that LMA was pretty bummed when the announcement of Bayno’s departure was made. The sense I got was that they had had a really close – and highly productive – coach/player relationship.

by knickfan on Dec 17, 2008 8:49 PM PST up reply actions

Thanks, knickfan! For the thread and the above comment...

and I reiterate: If this is true then we definitely need Bill Bayno back ASAP!

From what I have gathered from this thread, it would appear that while Bill both wants and deserves a head coaching position, he doesn’t seem to have the ability to endure the stress that comes with it.

Come back Bill Bayno! LMA needs you!

Blazer's Edge Ambassador to The Dream Shake Blog
LaMarcus Aldridge you are LaMONSTER!!!

by LaMarvelous on Dec 17, 2008 10:56 PM PST up reply actions

Oh, wow

I hope he doesn’t come back here, I hope he can still succeed where he’s at. But if not, bring him back in a heartbeat.

Give Greg a summer with Bayno, and you would not recognize him next year.

But Bill’s life is more important than that, and I hope he gets it together.

Do you like asparagus?

by jscot on Dec 17, 2008 10:16 AM PST reply actions

Damn, I was really pulling for him... I still wish we had him, but wish even more he was doing well down there

That’s crazy how into coaching he is. Staying up all night watching tape. Getting depressed even though he didn’t recruit most of those players. Sad, sad story.

by Bust a Bucket on Dec 17, 2008 10:20 AM PST reply actions

Daaaaaaaang, good thing he wasn't made head coach of OSU...

Hopefully he’ll come back as a Blazer assistant. God knows the bigs can use him…

"Now with a non-provocative footer!"

by timbo on Dec 17, 2008 10:21 AM PST up reply actions

Yeah, if he was at OSU, just imagine how worse it would be for him

OSU has a perfect coach in Craig Robinson. The guy will stay positive no matter what I’m sure.

by Bust a Bucket on Dec 17, 2008 10:31 AM PST up reply actions

Robinson is a good fit so far. I hope can make noticeable headway in this rebuilding process. There’s a lot of work there, I just hope he’s smart/strong/lucky/etc enough to make it all happen.

by ArbyOSU on Dec 18, 2008 2:08 PM PST up reply actions

Tell me about it.

If the Beavs picked him up he’d no doubt have a full breakdown after staring down the rebuilding task in front of him.

I hope this guy gets it together and finds success at LMU. Great part of LA, pretty campus (almost went there actually but too pricey and don’t really like LA)… it’d be a good experience to be a successful coach at a school like that. He deserves it.

by ArbyOSU on Dec 18, 2008 2:06 PM PST up reply actions

Good luck Bayno

He’s a real nice guy, and UNLV wasn’t his fault.

He deserves to be a head coach, and his work with young players is some of the best in the league. He worked with Martell a lot down here in LA at LMU, and he really seems to care and understand his young guys.

I hope he’s ok, and that he pulls through.

Mortimer

by Mortimer on Dec 17, 2008 10:50 AM PST reply actions

Man,this is sad

I was at the West Coast Conference media day in October, and the guy just seemed so stressed out already. He looked tired and a little edgy. I’m really pulling for the guy; I would love to see him succeed at LMU and continue to improve his team and the conference.

The inbound to McGinnis, drives, stops, pumps, shoots, short, no good...AND THE GAME IS OVER! ~ Bill Schonely

by SandbergOnSports on Dec 17, 2008 11:20 AM PST reply actions

Is there a "roster" spot open for him....

…in the event that we can get him back? (there are “roster” spots for coaches right?)

The Faith don't panic, the faith freaks out burns out farms and torchs small villages in the name of The Faith.

by faith on Dec 17, 2008 12:32 PM PST reply actions

What an awesome coach and great guy

This is very tragic and hopefully he recovers smoothly and has a lot of caring people around him.

Best of luck

Sophia

Though patience be a tired mare, yet she will plod. - William Shakespeare

by BlazerFan1 on Dec 17, 2008 12:56 PM PST reply actions

some stuff got trapped in the wrong thread...

TiH:

I double dog dare you to go over to Knickfan’s FanPost and say you think the guy needs a drink to calm his nerves.

Mortster:

Bayno is a recovering alchoholic, so to say he should have a drink to calm his nerves would be in bad taste were one to really make the joke (and since we’re just discussing the idea of the joke and not actually executing it, this is ok).

by Bust a Bucket on Dec 17, 2008 12:56 PM PST reply actions

It is said

that every joke contains a glimmer of truth. Or something like that.

In this case, it seems likely that the same issues that have sidelined Bayno for the moment were probably the same issues that caused him to self-medicate with alcohol earlier in his life. I’m not presumptious enough to claim any insight into what those might be. But I think it’s probably fair to say that his personality might not be a good fit for the unique demands of a head coaching position.

That’s not an indictment of his character or even his abilities as a coach. A head coach is essentially a boss; an administrator who delegates most of the actual teaching duties to the assistants. Not everyone is cut out for the manager role; to assume that level of authority. Based on his time in Portland, Bayno strikes me as guy who is primarily a teacher. He seemed to have a real gift for working with the young Blazer players; pushing all the right buttons to get them to maximize their talent. Not only was he damn good at that job but, more importantly, he seemed to have a real passion for it; it appeared to make him happy.

Who knows how much actual teaching of players he’s been able to do as the head coach of LMU. What we do know, according to the Times article, is that he had placed an enormous burden on himself as the team started losing and gradually began taking on more and more of the responsibilites of the entire coaching staff. As one of the commenters stated upthread, it’s really admirable that he cares that much but he was also killing himself in the process. It’s quite possible that this experience causes him to step back and reassess what it is he really enjoys about coaching. If he concludes that teaching young players is his true calling, then he’s probably better off trading in his head coaching gig for another job as an assistant.

by knickfan on Dec 17, 2008 1:52 PM PST up reply actions 2 recs

Whatever he ends up doing

He’ll do well, because he seems like a helluva guy.

If these current issues can subside, he’d be great for a lot of college players, and if he goes back to being an assistant coach who specializes in development, he’d be great at that was well (or, he has continually been great at that).

Losing is a part of sports at any level, so if something inside of him doesn’t allow him to accept that (or, the self medication he did before that hurt him in many others ways covered that ’doesn’t accept losing’ part up), he might prefer to not be a head coach even though he is totally qualified and likely very good at it. I don’t know the pressures that LMU is placing on him, but I’d hope they aren’t TOO much considering he’s a very good hire for a school like that and he just started his job. His presence legitimizes the program more than the program legitimizes him, in other words.

I sincerely hope this is a temporary problem, and a manageable one. He’s always welcome back with the Blazers of course, but I want Bayno to do what Bayno wants most.

We discussed the idea of “fallen angels” in Jake the Snake 1999’s thread critiquing KP, and Bayno is a great example where getting someone with high potential but hadn’t fulfilled that promise yet can really pay off.

Mortimer

by Mortimer on Dec 17, 2008 2:54 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs

Bayno has worked as an assistant for many prominent coaches and became a head coach in his early thirties. Sounds like a lot of fulfilled promises, even though he might not yet have reached all his goals (who has).

by Norsktroll on Dec 17, 2008 7:29 PM PST up reply actions

I wonder if Bayno has tried marijuana

Instead of suggesting that he take a drink, TiH would have been more wise to suggest a bong hit. But then he might start thinking of himself as a hippie and hanging around with Bill Walton. Wouldn’t want that now, would we?

Pot = bad

Booze = good

The perfect is the enemy of the good.

According to James Kunstler, who writes a well-respected if slightly profane financial blog whose title I cannot repeat here, "The Republicans must be clearly identified as the party that wrecked America... it's hard to imagine the American people giving the clean-up task to the very group that created the mess -- no matter how many cute little faces Sarah Palin can make on TV."

by vavoom on Dec 17, 2008 9:28 PM PST up reply actions

sigh

this story strikes a chord with me which resonates soundly, but takes like these are little more than mashing the piano keys and expecting us not to cringe

theres an underlying current to this, mainly that Bayno self-medicates. Whatever the drug of choice, its to cope with something underlying, something uncovered, something frightening. There is a huge number of people who are self-medicating all around us. I don’t blame anyone for wanting to feel better, and they can choose to feel better any way they want. The problem is to feel better that way without coming to terms with the underlying issues that lead to the depression and/or anxiety only leads to chronic and progressive use. Whether or not this is the case here, I dont know. What’s important to me is treating Bill Bayno with the courtesy and dignity he deserves as a fellow human being and not making jokes at his expense.

For the record, having smoked the sweetest green for 25 years and drank myself drunk daily the past 20, when the light comes on, its serious relief. But until the light comes on, no amount of intervention will work.

I said a prayer for Bill Bayno and support him without knowing him through each of his choices.

Lastly, not sure about how you equate Pot as being bad, and alcohol good. How many of lifes problems are alcohol related and how many are pot related?

Some comments may not be 100% accurate

by bow4meow on Dec 18, 2008 8:25 AM PST up reply actions 1 recs

Thanks for posting this

Wishing Bill all the best.

by jorga on Dec 17, 2008 1:23 PM PST reply actions

As some here know,

Bill contributes here under a pseudonym.

Thus, my dear friend, know that you are loved and missed. Get well. KNow that you can always come home too.

Perfect practice makes perfect.

by Ojala John on Dec 17, 2008 2:12 PM PST reply actions

seriously?

That’s awesome!

by Bust a Bucket on Dec 17, 2008 2:17 PM PST up reply actions

Why would Bill hang out here?

I mean, let’s get real: Bill Bayno knows more about basketball than the rest of us combined!

But if Bill does indeed read our silly posts, I hope he knows we love him here in Blazer-land. Everyone who’d been paying attention realized that the Blazers lost a gem when Bill Bayno moved on.

"If [Roy & Aldridge] walked around in fur coats, with a bunch of glamour & glitz, we'd have a bunch of guys wearing fur coats. But they don't. They're just good guys who want to win and know how to play the right way." --Kevin Pritchard

by hurryup09 on Dec 17, 2008 7:24 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs

Hope he gets better.

Lots to deal with. That is tough. Good luck.

by CanadianBlazerfan on Dec 17, 2008 2:32 PM PST reply actions

Wow thought he would have succsess there

best wishes bayno

by bleedrednblack on Dec 17, 2008 4:15 PM PST reply actions

Understanding

If I knew you and you knew me
If both of us could clearly see
and with an inner sight divine
the meaning of your heart and mine
Im sure that we would differ less
and clasp our hands in friendliness
our thoughts would pleasantly agree
if I knew you and you knew me

— Nixon Waterman

Some comments may not be 100% accurate

by bow4meow on Dec 17, 2008 4:29 PM PST reply actions 1 recs