So I’m sitting in my dorm room last week watching the 6 p.m.
edition of SportsCenter, and it happens. Byron Scott, head coach of
the New Jersey Nets, was fired. This is a guy who has led the Nets
to two consecutive appearances in the NBA Finals, was recently
named Coach of the Month and whose Nets stood atop the Atlantic
Division in the Eastern Conference at the time of his firing. I
know that the NBA has become increasingly less popular ever since
Michael retired–for the third and (as of right now) final
time–but I must beg the question because I’m really starting to
wonder: Is the NBA trying to lose its fan base?
In addition to Scott, Rick Carlisle was fired by the Detroit
Pistons before the start of the season after consecutive 50-win
seasons and coming just short of a berth in the NBA Finals; Isiah
Thomas was fired by the Indiana Pacers a year after he coached at
the All-Star Game; and Orlando fired Coach of the Year Award winner
Doc Rivers, whose Magic got off to a
slower-than-a-snail-stuck-in-molasses pace earlier this year.
Being a coach in the Eastern Conference (and the NBA in general)
is definitely not something to brag about these days. The Nets are
the latest–and probably not the last–team to jump on the
firing-the-successful-coach bandwagon. Since the end of the
2002-2003 season, 17 coaches have been replaced. Blaming the coach
for a team’s woes is the biggest copout in all of sports. Instead
of admitting that the players aren’t good enough, general managers
assure fans that coaching is at fault, and as soon as the coach is
fired the team will return to prominence.
This kind of treatment used to be reserved for coaches on
last-place teams. Nowadays, however, no job is safe; quality
coaches from the East are fired despite having successful seasons.
When Byron Scott took over the Nets three years ago, New Jersey was
a perennial cellar-dweller in the East, which, to borrow a phrase
from Bobby Knight, is “one or two steps above prostitution.” New
Jersey, like every other team in the East, is a one-trick pony.
Nearly every team in the East boasts one bona fide star leading a
bunch of would-be-benchwarmers in the Western Conference. The NBA
Finals is a mere formality, and is also the most anti-climactic
spectacle in pro-sports. Each year the East sends its best team to
the Finals knowing they have no chance of winning. It’s been a
regular David and Goliath ever since Michael’s heyday–and David
has been out of rocks for quite some time.
What the East fails to realize is that different personnel, and
not different coaches, is what is going to restore balance in the
league. Coaches can only do so much; they can spoon feed their
players but they cannot do the chewing for them. Ultimately, it is
up to the players to execute and win games. No one-man show will
ever lead a team to a title; championship caliber teams take years
to build in order to establish chemistry and create a sense of
loyalty between player and coach.
In the end for Scott it was Jason Kidd, the player most
responsible for his success, that was also most responsible for his
demise. This incident shows that professional athletes are still
nothing but cry babies who need to be protected, coddled and given
whatever they demand.
Because the East remains so wide open, every general manager
feels that his team has a legitimate shot at going to the finals
each year. If they don’t, well, it’s time to find a new coach. Look
at the coaches in the Western Conference. After 16 years with Utah,
Jerry Sloan has never led the Jazz to an NBA title. After five
years with Sacramento, Rick Adelman has never guided the Kings to
the Finals. After eight years with Minnesota, Flip Saunders has
never gotten the Timberwolves out of the first round of the
playoffs. But imagine how sweet it will be when they do.
