What does it take to run an NBA organization?

Over the weekend, the New York Times had an interesting article about Shane Battier, which featured Houston Rockets' General Manager Daryl Morey. Also on Sunday, Steve Kerr was replacing his hand-picked head coach with the Phoenix Suns.

Last week, I wrote about "Mistakes of Certainty." Yesterday, I spoke to a guy from a consulting firm who works with organizations to make better hires. One of my contentions is that people think they know what experience, skills and characteristics to fill a job, but those often are not the ones that will guarantee success.

The common perception is that in the 21st Century, to be an NBA General Manager, you need to have played in the NBA to understand the game. However, if you look at the best run franchises, few have former NBA players running the show.

Greg Popovich and R.C. Buford run the San Antonio Spurs. Kevin O'Connor is the GM in Utah. Kevin Pritchard has turned around Portland. Sam Presti appears to be turning around Oklahoma City. Mtch Kupchak runs the Lakers.

Joe Dumars certainly ranks as one of the top General Managers in the NBA (incidentally, at this point last year I wrote about the Nazr Mohammed trade and how Dumars kept the Pistons near the top with small deals like that one. Many said Mohammed was a good player and the Bobcats won the trade. Now, Charlotte desperately wants to trade his contract. Score another one for Dumars). Certainly, Danny Ferry and Danny Ainge have proven more than capable running the Cavaliers and Celtics.

However, Steve Kerr, John Paxson, Kevin McHale and Isiah Thomas are recent examples of former NBA champions struggling to run an NBA organization.

What's the difference? From the outside, there seems to be a certain arrogance from the former NBA players who struggle. They seem to believe that since they won as a player, they understand how to win as an executive. However, playing basketball and running an organization are two different jobs requiring two vastly different skill sets. They rely on their collected wisdom and believe in their own ability. They make mistakes of certainty because they believe that what they see and feel is the truth, even though it is colored by their perceptions.

Kerr saw the Suns' lose and saw a philosophy different than his own, so he tried to change Mike D'Antoni's philosophy. D'Antoni was not changing, so he left. Kerr hired a coach with an opposite philosophy to coach a team built to succeed with D'Antoni's philosophy. Kerr's perception of what a championship team should be did not allow him to see that D'Antoni was coaching in a way that maximized his players' ability, and changing the system would not move the team closer to a championship. The Suns' slip is not all Kerr's fault, as the change started before he was hired and Sarver deserves much of the blame for the way he handled Joe Johnson and the draft picks. People in Phoenix assumed the problem was the style of play and if they played more conventionally, they would win. However, it was the style of play which gave them a competitive advantage and maximized their players' talents. As they became more conventional, they lost that advantage.

Ferry served an apprenticeship under Popovich and Ainge hired Morey (I believe) in Boston. Ainge also is one General manager who relies heavily on different personality tests and the "sabremetrics" stats during the NBA draft process. They do not rely strictly on their background as a player and their assumptions.

The non-NBA guys do not have a background to rest on. They are open to ideas and different ways to think. Part of this comes from the owners. Paul Allen spends freely to help Pritchard, while Miller showed patience with O'Connor and Jerry Sloan. There was no knee-jerk reaction when they missed the play-offs for the first time; no need to fire anyone or make a big trade.

So, who is the best fit to run an organization? I think the biggest key might be one's open-mindedness. If one is closed to new ideas and believes things must be run one way, he is more likely to fail. However, if one is open to different possibilities, opportunities and thinking, he will not fall into the "mistakes of certainty" and he'll have a better chance for success (and, the importance of a supportive owner cannot be overstated).