The Free Press tells again how Coach Laimbeer ended up coaching the Shock. It's a great part of Detroit's amazing rise to the top.

I (like everyone else) used to hate him during his player days. It's still hard to believe that the affable, even bubbly, players'-best-friend coach we see today is the same person.

But it given his love for the game, maybe we shouldn't be surprised.

"I do not find it odd that I'm coaching professional basketball," Laimbeer said. "It's professional basketball. It doesn't matter if it's women or men. That's the point I'm trying to get across. That it happened to be women, well, OK. So?"