Compare and Contrast

Shakespeare must’ve been a big sports’ fan back in the day. I mean, why else would he have written “ we few, we happy few, we band of brothers,” if not as a motivational tool for use by the coach of his favorite team? That phrase, or some derivation thereof, has probably been a locker-room staple from the second those words were first uttered onstage at The Globe Theater. Of course, when Matt Nagy goes into his “band of brothers” mode, he sounds like he’s trying to rally the Keystone Cops, cue the Benny Hill music. Billy Donovan of the Bulls, though, has it down pat, maybe because he perfected it during those twenty years he spent as a college basketball coach. Plus Donovan throws in a certain “Happy Warrior” vibe that helps fans forget the bad old days of ex-coach Jim Boylan. Nagy addresses a press conference, and he talks in circles. Donovan, he keeps it short and simple. That in itself won’t win a championship, but it sure is refreshing.