Patriarch of Bulls : Ex-Trojan Winter, 69, Designed Chicago’s Triple-Post Offense

CHICAGO — Tex Winter’s influence on the success of the Chicago Bulls as an assistant coach is revolutionary only because it is so outdated by NBA standards that no one else uses it. But that’s OK. Tex hasn’t been a Texan for a long time, either.

He really is from Huntington Park, where he moved with his family from Lubbock, Tex., when he was 12, and thence from Compton Junior College and USC.

At USC, class of ‘47, he played on a team that included a couple of other prominent coaches and players of the future, Alex Hannum and Bill Sharman. Tex--officially Morice Fredrick Winter--got many of his offensive concepts there from his Trojan coach, Sam Barry.

Much of what the Bulls do now reflects Winter’s six seasons in Chicago and 44 years at the professional or collegiate Division I level, said to be the longest tenure of any active coach. That includes five years as head of the program at Cal State Long Beach.

“I think of him as a Hall of Fame coach who’s never been put in there,” said the Bulls’ head coach, Phil Jackson. “He’s never been given the credit he deserves.”

Winter’s triple-post offense, as it’s most commonly called, is built on the concept of motion and reacting to what the defense gives rather than set plays. That makes it difficult for the opposition to scout.

“A thinking man’s offense,” Bull General Manager Jerry Krause calls it. Krause is the man who brought Winter out of retirement to come to Chicago.

The problem is, the triple post creates equal chances for all players to score. That’s fine in the youth leagues, but whether any coach wants Bill Cartwright to have the same opportunities for points as Michael Jordan is questionable.

Winter counters that Jordan will still have the most chances to score off the formation, one in which a triangle of players clusters on one side of the key, because he will get open more than anyone else. Not that he worries about it.

“That’s immaterial to me,” Winter said. “Basketball is a five-man game, and I think Michael is smart enough to know that.”

Safe to say, Jordan was skeptical of the plan.

“By far,” Jordan said. “You have to realize, it was Tex Winter’s offense, and what had Tex won with it? That’s reason to doubt.”

Said Winter: “I sensed that early. Not so much Scottie (Pippen) as much as Michael. I don’t know if he’s sold on it now.

“I think we have prolonged his career. He doesn’t have to work as hard to get shots. If there is a fault in his play, it’s that he tries to overdo it. He doesn’t have to score every point.”

Jordan and Pippen take creative license anyway, sometimes holding the ball to survey the defense before moving to the basket. Either way, the Bulls finished seventh in the league in scoring.

Winter will turn 70 Feb. 25 and has his sights on retirement, perhaps after this season. He probably would have been gone by now had it not been for trouble selling his real estate investment--four acres in suburban Bannockburn.

“People used to ask my age,” he said the other day. “I’d say, ‘Retirement age or employment age?’ If I wanted employment, all of a sudden I was seven or eight years younger.”