The Toronto Star’s Doug Smith on the latest accolade for one of the league’s emerging coaching talents.

According to a poll conducted by Sports Illustrated, 15 per cent of 248 players who took part (about 36 players) think Mitchell is the worst coach in the league.

“How do you respond to that,” Mitchell said of the anonymous poll.

“As long as my players, the guys who play for me or played for me in my short stint don’t feel that way, and the people above me don’t feel that way …”

The players were polled in late December and early January on a variety of questions and could not vote for anyone connected with their team.

“I know the polls. When I played and they would ask us polls, I probably took as much time and paid as much attention as any other poll,” suggesting a lot of thought never went into the answers.

Had players been allowed to vote for their own coaches, I wonder where Larry Brown or Byron Scott would’ve turned up on the list?