Post by rmq2323 - BAL on Jun 13, 2008 8:48:58 GMT
The new NBA expansion team, the Baltimore Bullets owned by New York Yankee's owner George Steinbrenner has finally named a General Manager and a Head Coach. The new Baltimore Bullets have no affiliation with the former Baltimore Bullets team that is now known as the Washington Wizards. The new Bullets are starting their history from scratch and have taken steps in the right direction towards starting a winning tradition of basketball in Baltimore by naming their new coach and GM.
The Bullets have named former Timberwolve’s and Piston’s coach Flip Saunders as their new Head Coach. Flip Saunders was recently fired by the Pistons for failing to advance past the Eastern Conference Finals for the 3rd consecutive year.
Saunders jumped at the chance to become the Bullets coach and says the challenge of starting a franchise from nothing will be difficult but he looks forward to it and looks forward to the season starting and getting to know his new team. “I am very excited about the opportunity here in Baltimore and I believe we will start a winning tradition in Baltimore for years to come”, said Saunders during his press conference after he was named Bullets coach. Saunders has a career coaching record of 587-396 with a .597 winning percentage over his 13 year coaching career.
The Bullets have also decided to name former Baltimore Bullet great Wes Unseld as the team’s General Manager. Unseld who did not have a very successful career as GM for the Washington Bullets feels that this time things will be different.
Bullets owner George Steinbrenner wanted to bring in Unseld because he was the face of the Bullets franchise once before and he hopes he will help start a winning tradition in Baltimore again. Unseld made the following statement during the press conference where he and Saunders were named to their respective positions in the Bullets organization.
“I played for the Bullets my entire career and this is definitely something I want to be a part of. I want to thank Mr. Steinbrenner for giving me this tremendous opportunity to help bring back NBA basketball to the city of Baltimore. Baltimore has great fans and I know everybody is very excited about the team coming back. Even though the Bullets I played for are now the Wizards I am still a Bullet at heart and the city will still treat the new Bullets as if they had never left.”
The City of Baltimore is very excited about the Bullets being back and so far through the expansion draft Unseld and Saunders working together are trying to put together a team that can be competitive both now and deep into the future for years to come hopefully.
