Show some respect for Herb yall!
You gotta remember that Herb went head to head with Patrick and Oak for years in practice that cant be discounted!, plus Herb was a 20 pt per game Center in an era that consisted of Ewing, Hakeem,Ralph Sampson,Kareem (past him prime though) and Robert Parish!
Sometimes we look too much into a players legacy to determine how well they can mentor, but Pat Riley (I believe Van Gundy too) said it himself that he thought of Herb as a player/coach for us, that is saying a whole about Herbs knowledge of the game.
I mean Kareem Abdul Jabbar worked with Shawn Bradley, Michael Olawakandi (spelt wrong) and Michael Sweetney and looked what it amounted to!
A player's legacy is not contagious!
What's contagious is work ethic and a positive attitude and Herb had both as a player and coach
Larry Brown who's legacy was built in The CBA has mentored some of the best PG's to ever play the game. While Rick Barry was hired to work with Bob Hurley and.....yeah you get my point!
So I get the argument, but having Herb as a mentor to our players in terms of skill development is just as good as having anyone, yes the respect for legendary players will warrant the respect, but that really is about how coachable a player is because a smart player will listen to anyone with experience
Hakeem maybe working w/ Dwight, but I assure you Dwight wont be dribbling through his legs, doing the "Dream Shake" and then dropping a fade away over anyone any time soon!
Hakeem will show Dwight the same exact things Herb will show Mozgov and if Mozgov has the skill and desire he will develop, point blank!
because after all what legendary Center mentored Ewing, Shaq, David Robinson, etc.? they were probably shown the ropes by former NBA Big Men whose name will not show up in anyone's Top 10 list...someone like Herb!