The infamous song by Queen seemed to randomly play in my mind after I read the sports news today. Another one bites the dust. Coach of the Sacramento Kinds, Reggie Theus, was sent packing earlier today, following a horrible home loss to the mediocre Knicks. It seems that job stability for coaches in the NBA has become as solid as the current state of our economy. Maybe even worse.
Did anybody honestly expect this Sacramento team to actually be a solid team? They traded their best all around player in Ron Artest over the summer, and received a raw rookie Donte Green in return. Not only that, but they started the season without Brad Miller for five games(suspension), sixth man Fransisco Garcia missed the first 17 games, and Kevin Martin(there franchise player) has only been able to play in nine total games. All these things have me confused. If these team was 100% healthy coming into this season I still picture them winning about 40% of their games, give or take. Now take away Miller, Garcia, and Martin for a huge portion of those games, and I don't see any reason this team wins games at all. I guess Petrie and the Kings management must of had some huge expectations for this young, inexperienced squad.
Is it me, or does it seem like this could be some kind of record for coaches getting fired so quickly? After doing some quick research: Theus is the sixth NBA coach to be fired before Christmas this season, joining Philadelphia's Maurice Cheeks, Minnesota's Randy Wittman, Toronto's Sam Mitchell, Washington's Eddie Jordan and Oklahoma City's P.J. Carlesimo. The previous NBA record for pre-Christmas firings was three.
Wow. So the previous pre-Christmas firings record has been completely shattered this year, doubling from three to six. That's not a great record to break. The league is now full of first time coaches, not that it's necessarily a bad thing, but it's unique. I'm starting to think that players are being given far to much control and power these days. It seems that if a team is struggling they can just sail through a couple games and publicly show that they have "given up" on their coach. That's all it takes these days for a coach to get fired.
What ever happened to discipline and respect? These players get paid way, way to much money to "give up on a coach". That term is driving me mad. If you are getting paid millions of dollars I don't care if your coach is an autistic midget(no offense), but you play your hardest and give your all no matter how poor the coaching. Anyway, I had to let some steam off there. I just think a couple of these firings have been a bit impulsive and unnecessary, but I guess only time will tell.
Good thing there's always a constant in Jerry Sloan. I know he's safe. You know why? Players, fans, management, and everybody else respects him. You don't question him as a coach, no, not even if you are a rising super-star like Deron Williams. There is a reason the Jazz have been so successful the last 20 years. You think other teams would follow suit and give more power, respect, and loyalty to their coaches. This whole idea of coaches being on a short leash is a bad idea.
I wonder who's next?
2 comments:
Thank you, somebody finally mentions Jerry Sloan. It's truly incredible, the time spent in Utah, if i'm correct I don't even think he's won Coach of the year. Which is probably good, it's a curse anyways.
No, THank you! At least real fans know that Sloan has been coach of the year probably 10 of the last 20 years....but that's a curse that needn't be put on him.
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