THE most vulnerable job in basketball is coaching. No coach is as untouchable as the team owner’s paramour. That’s a rule as old as the Old Testament.
This was proven again just very recently, when three coaches in the NBA (National Basketball Association) got fired in succession.
First to go was Michael Malone of Denver, followed by Taylor Jenkins of Memphis and Mike Budenholzer of Phoenix.
The three are not patsies. They boast of sterling credentials. Which only goes to show that one’s trophy collection means nothing in the end.
Malone alone was the 2023 NBA champion while coaching Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets. Malone had a sparkling 47-23 win-loss record this season, his firing coming in the middle of the playoff race.
Assistant David Adelman replaced Malone.
“It was not made lightly and was evaluated very carefully,” said a statement from Denver management.
The grape vine said Malone verbally clashed constantly with Calvin Booth, the Denver general manager. They stabbed each other’s back at every opportunity.
To be “fair,” Booth also got the boot.
Malone’s exit had a strong similarity with the case of coach Hubie Brown, who was fired as Atlanta coach with just three games left in the 1981 regular season after a 31-48 mark.
The NBA is actually notorious in sacking coaches.
Just recently, five of the seven coaches to win an NBA title have been fired: Malone, Nick Nurse of Toronto, Frank Vogel of Los Angeles, Budenholzer of Milwaukee and Tyronn Lue of Cleveland.
Are the NBA’s team owners practically heartless when dealing with their coaches?
Not really.
They just lean on data, stats, and, most important, reason to assess their coaches’ performance. No emotions at all.
Wasn’t Magic Johnson himself, one of the game’s greatest ever, fired as the Los Angeles’ general manager a while back for “inappropriate” hiring of a player?
But in the PBA (Philippine Basketball Association), it’s a different ballgame altogether.
PBA coaches are not easily fired. Instead, they get mostly demoted from head coach to consultant. But, in a little while, the sacked coach gets his job back.
One coach even got his contract extended after blowing a huge lead in a PBA championship series.
Yes, Pinoy psyche is as crazy as in marrying again after getting hitched the first time.