Lynard Stewart sees active future for Flournoy

Dec 2 2009 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

LYNARD Stewart has urged Newcastle Eagles player-coach Fabulous Flournoy to learn to cope with sitting on the sidelines as he fears his fellow American will retire from basketball when he can no longer play.

Flournoy has been a phenomenal success as Eagles player caller and one of the franchise’s star players, but he has always suggested he will retire from the sport as soon as his body stops him from combining the two roles.

But Stewart is convinced the 36-year-old will become an even better coach once he devotes all his attention to that side of the game after praising the New Yorker for helping to lift Newcastle out of a slump.

That slump was partly caused by an injury to Flournoy, although his and the team’s recovery has gathered momentum with back-to-back wins against Leicester Riders and Everton Tigers last weekend.

The Eagles lost three successive games for the first time in more than five years while Flournoy recovered from a badly broken finger and Stewart admits they missed his presence on court.

He said: “We have had spells like that before when we’ve lost a few games and we’ve bounced back. It happened last season as well when we weren’t playing as well as we should have done, but we went away, worked on the problems and put it right. No team is going to go the entire season undefeated and I believe teams can become stronger when they are forced to deal with defeats and problems.