"Paul Silas might be 68, but he's no curmudgeon. You won't hear him ramble about the days when televisions had three channels and you adjusted rabbit ears to get the best picture of Doris Day.

But in his two stints as an NBA coach in Charlotte - first with the Hornets, now with the Bobcats - Silas has always honored what made him a great power forward: A commitment to work, an appreciation of how lucky he was to make money playing a game.

Now he wonders, at the tail end of his career, how those values got lost in modern sports culture.

Thursday in Philadelphia, the Bobcats had a rare full practice in this compacted, post-lockout schedule. Silas didn't like his players' body language, their apparent lack of energy. So he got on them.

He used words Silas would never say in front of his grandchildren, threats that he'd get tougher still, and ordered wind sprints for all.

It was meant as an attention-getter, and Silas wondered why a 3-16 basketball team wouldn't already be at full attention.

And then, following that practice, Silas answered his own question.

"This is so different than when I came through because of the guaranteed contracts. They know they're going to get paid," said Silas."