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Rivers took it out on the golf ball, not the players. In today's game, screamers like Bob Knight earn more enmity than respect. According to both coaches and stress experts, volcanoes shouldn't be welcome in the white-collar world either. "Every time you embarrass a player on the sideline or in a huddle, it's a mistake," says Jim O'Brien, who quit as Boston Celtics coach in January after new general manager Danny Ainge traded away several of his favorite players. "You have to be man enough to apologize." That doesn't mean you can't be demanding or get close to employees in other ways, say the experts. "The good leaders in business and sports are the taskmasters, but they are also the people who know and care for the individuals under their watch," says Glenn Schiraldi, a stress-management professor at the University of Maryland. "They create a less tense environment. That helps performance."
Coaches also concede the need to give up some control. Fassel says better delegation could have relieved some of the stresses of coaching in New York. Two years ago, after the Giants struggled on offense during their first six games, he added the play-calling responsibilities to his plate. "Running the offense is a fun part of the game. It's the reason I got into coaching in the first place," he says. "But as the big fish, I should be able to hire someone to do that job. Sure, it would have made things easier."
No doubt, things were harsh for Fassel this year. How does a coach who once reached a Super Bowl cope with public humiliation? Not by locking himself in his home. "You have to realize that the fans that get POed and scream don't come close in numbers to those that support you," he says. "There is a silent majority out there that respects how hard coaches work, even when teams are not performing."
Such rational thinking may help calm coaches, but it's not enough to recharge a losing team. Bzdelik, whose Nuggets dropped nine of 10 games after the All-Star break, tried small things like putting an arm around a player to rebuild confidence and airing the good plays during film sessions. Denver soon snapped out of it. Riley's not really a coddler. During his final days with the Heat, which finished last in 2003, he taught history lessons to the team. "You have to educate today's young players about how the Magic Johnsons and Larry Birds went about their business," he says. "They don't have the same absolute passion."
Like most corporate managers, coaches have bosses. And a coach's boss is reading the same critical newspaper articles as the fans. Rivers says it was important to have "courageous conversations" with the team's general manager, John Gabriel, who has since been demoted. When Orlando started losing, Rivers told Gabriel that expectations were outrageous for a club with seven new players. "I'm glad I spoke up for myself, but I shouldn't have been so blunt," he says. "That got me into some trouble." In Boston, O'Brien says there's a misconception that he and Ainge didn't get along. "We communicated well," he says. "Danny thought we couldn't win with the players we had, and I thought we could." With their contrasting philosophies flushed out, O'Brien quietly moved on.