Monday on Newsmakers Week was Dan Majerle and Jeff Hornacek

Every day of Newsmakers Week, the major decision-makers of our community answer our questions. It takes an incredible time commitment from our teams and events to come to our studios but it makes the interviews much more conversational. I think the conversations give you, the listener, more content and, hopefully, more entertainment.

The questions don’t end with us. We’re reading your questions from Twitter to the major players sitting in our studio. Every day, I’ll give you a quick run down of my highlights from the day. Feel free to give me yours @doug987FM.

MONDAY

DAN MAJERLE

Dan said he loved Phoenix and has no plans to leave. He doesn’t look at his position as the Grand Canyon baskeball coach as a stepping stone. He not only wants to stay but he expects to compete with Gonzaga, Butler and VCU to become the next NCAA darling.

Talking to him during commercial breaks or in the times we’re able to catch up, the GCU job is perfect for him.

Majerle knows he’s a star in Phoenix even though that’s not what he wants. He carries himself with the expectations that are put on a star but he never pretends something is beneath him. Most coaches with his pedigree would feel entitled to something bigger than GCU. Majerle is not doing this to prove to someone else he can coach in the hopes of landing another job.

He’s coaching to win.

JEFF HORNACEK

I love the honesty. Hornacek talked about how the problem isn’t the buzzer beaters, it’s the no-intensity first quarters that force them into comebacks.

Sure, it’s great the
Suns can come back on anybody, but if Phoenix came out and played hard early, maybe the comeback wouldn’t be necessary.

Hornacek also admitted what the team is missing. He said the Suns need an All-Star. Most coaches won’t admit that. Some would challenge those they have to become All-Stars. Others would say their job is to win with what they have, except they’d be losing games while they said that. Hornacek could care less if his players want to be upset because he didn’t call them an All-Star. If the Suns get to the point where they can get four on the floor to match the intensity he played with, the Suns would be higher in the standings.

If this was college basketball, Jeff should be challenged for not motivating his players. This is the NBA. If a player needs to be motivated to do his job, the owner should be motivated to not pay him. A coach can’t be the one to light a fire under a player 82 times a year. Tyson Nash always says during the Coyotes broadcasts that a “coach doesn’t decide ice time, the player does.”

It’s just as true for Hornacek. His job is not to motivate you. His job is to bench you if you can’t play with intensity.

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