One of the big themes of this postseason's press coverage has been apologies to Mike Thibault. Before the season, lots of people picked the Sun to finish poorly this year, and lots of people thought Thibault had made a mistake by trading Pee Wee and staking so much on Whalen.

Now, everyone is running to the other side of the ship, saying Thibault is a genius. Nancy Lieberman has gotten on that bandwagon.

Nancy says we should have known better because Thibault had a "long and accomplished" coaching resume. I agree with the "long" part, but it's arguable whether it was really that accomplished. Thibault essentially spent three decades as a journeyman scout and assistant, someone who failed to move up the NBA coaching ladder.

Some of her supporting facts, in any case, are wrong. She says that Thibault was the Milwaukee Bucks head coach for four years. I may have been living in an alternate universe, but as I recall, Thibault was an assistant under George Karl. (How can ESPN.com mess that up?)

[UPDATE: ESPN has fixed that error.]

Nancy also says that "Thibault was one of the guys responsible for deciding to draft Michael Jordan." Last night on air, she made an even stronger claim, saying something to the effect that Thibault was "the person who drafted Michael Jordan."

That's just not true.

Thibault was a Bulls scout in '84 when they drafted Jordan. Drafting Jordan wasn't exactly going out on a limb. MJ had been a college star since his freshman year (when he led the 'Heels to a championship), and he was the national Player of the Year in '84.

In any case, the decision to draft Jordan was made primarily by then-GM Rod Thorn. Until yesterday, I don't think anyone had ever claimed that Thibault deserved sole credit -- of even any significant amount of credit -- for the decision. You have to wonder where Nancy got that idea.

Putting aside those factual quibbles, I remain unconvinced the Thibault is a great coach. The Sun are in the Finals, which is an accomplishment. But they finished only two games above .500 in a conference without a good team in it. To reach the Finals, they've only had to get past the Mystics and the Lib, neither of which was a very good team, both of which were without key players, both of which had scrambled into the playoffs after a season of turmoil. From watching the games over the past week, it looks to me like the level of play in the Eastern Conference Playoffs isn't close to the level of play in the West.

Of course my feelings toward Thibault are somewhat skewed by my lingering bitterness over the way he handled the Whalen trade talks (though people around here say the real asshole in that situation was Sienko, not Thibault). If the Sun can somehow beat the Storm or the Monarchs and take the title, I will give him big props. But I would be shocked if that happened.