A veteran of the Chicago beat reporting scene, David Schuster regularly writes about the sights and sounds of Chicago sports from the press box and locker room for MOUTHPIECE Blog.

When you’re a new coach in the NBA I guess you’ll try almost anything to rally and motivate your team. That’s what Vinny Del Negro is doing so far with the Bulls. He’s trotted out one motivational speaker after another to try and light a fire under his troops.

Del Negro’s latest attempt was bringing in former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz to speak to the players after a practice down in Orlando. Some of the Bulls players probably had no idea who Holtz was. And what possibly could he say that would make them better? Would his words make them play the pick and roll better? Would his jokes make them play defense harder? Or would his mannerisms and lisp confuse those players to the point where they would actually ask, what is that dude saying?

Plenty of coaches over the years have brought in B-list celebrities to speak to their players, but it almost never has any effect, other than laughs. Some coaches have tried all kinds of motivational tools to reach their players. Phil Jackson was famous for handing out books that were so high brow and above his player’s heads that they asked for the CliffsNote versions. Michael Jordan sometimes took Jackson’s books and quickly gave them away.

Holtz has been prone to say a few foolish things in his time and most recently compared Michigan coach, Rich Rodriguez to Hitler. Let’s hope he didn’t compare any Bulls to him too, huh?