<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'></p> After his first official day on the job, new Kings coach Reggie Theus gathered his team for dinner at the downtown Esquire Grill on Monday night and shared his vision of the season ahead.</p> He spoke of trust, an important element in what he hopes is a much-improved defense. He talked of passion and pride, saying he expected nothing less than maximum effort from his players. But the most revealing part of his message stressed discipline, as Theus informed his squad of what could be dubbed the Reggie Rules.</p> Theus will enforce a midnight curfew on nights before games on the road. There also will be no cell phone use while riding on the team bus.</p> "Discipline is a large part of what you've got to do," Theus said Tuesday after the team's first practice. "I'm not trying to take anything away from them; I'm trying to help them win games on the road. ... If this was a team that policed itself and did the right things last year, I wouldn't have come in here with that attitude."</p> The book on NBA curfews is a thin one, at least curfews that are enforced. In fact, Theus might be the only coach in the NBA with a curfew.</p> Utah coach Jerry Sloan, Theus' mentor of sorts, implemented a curfew after four Jazz players were accused of raping a woman in a Portland hotel last October. Those charges eventually were dropped, and Sloan has since lifted the restriction.</p> Ex-Kings coaches Rick Adelman and Eric Musselman did not use a curfew.</p> Theus' influences seem clear. He played under Sloan early in his 13-year career and entered his new job praising Sloan's teachings. What's more, Theus' first hire to his coaching staff was assistant and longtime Sloan sidekick Kenny Natt.</p> Sloan isn't the only Theus mentor of sorts to employ the practice, either. Before becoming Louisville's head coach and hiring Theus as an assistant in 2002, Rick Pitino adopted a road curfew during his three-plus seasons as Boston's head coach (1997-2000) in a move that wasn't received well.</p> As for the Kings, numerous players were surprised by the announcement but said they are prepared to abide.</p> "It just shows that it's about basketball and you can always have fun later," small forward Ron Artest said. "It's reasonable, very reasonable."</p> Artest said there was no dissension when the change was announced.</p> "I'm sure he'll be flexible, but it shows commitment," he said. "And for the veterans not to argue, not to really debate it, was a good sign."</div></p> Source: SacBee</p> Will this jive with Artest when Sacramento gets off to a slow start?</p>
It all depends on if he can get Artest to buy into what he is selling.</p> sounds like a fairly obvious statement but I really can see this going either way. I think that Artests biggest issue is having a coach that trusts him and can use him to play in positions that lend themselves to his talents. If Theus can get to Artest and Artest believes in the system, then things will go just fine until Artest goes nuts again. (that would be somewhere after the all star break according to my calculations).</p> </p> /just kiddin on the Artest going nuts part... //really we all know that hes already nuts ///slashies... you can dig em...</p>
Anyone who does his homework should have known that he is not afraid to discipline his players.</p> I remember when his team used fake IDs to get into a bar. Josh got drunk and Vince got into a fight. He benched all of them, and his message was received loud and clear.</p> He didn't care about winning the game. It was more important to him that his players win their own personal games. The game of life.</p>
