And when he managed the Orioles early in his career, he came close to breaking the game's color line by trying to pass off Charley Grant, a young black ballplayer, as Chief Tokahoma, a Cherokee Indian. Some of McGraw's teams were tightknit, others were made up of guys who hated each other's guts. Nearly all of them won. Bill Parcells, Pat Riley, Chuck Daly, Phil Jackson. The last two are the only ones in the NBA who could deal with Dennis Rodman, and they both won championships with him.
Teams often blunder when they get rid of players for issues unrelated to their athletic performance.
The best move the Knicks ever made was getting the coach-choking Latrell Sprewell. 25 guys took 25 cabs to the ballpark. It didn't seem to have any effect on how they played. Still, this baseball season, writers and broadcasters won't stop genuflecting at the altar of team chemistry. The Yankees, for example, are always talked about that way.