Kevin McHale: NBA Firings Sign of the Times

In a direct response to my blog post yesterday, NBA Coaches Enter the Unemployment Line, GM of the Timberwolves Kevin McHale believes that the recent firings in the NBA is a sign of the times.

Ok, maybe  McHale wasn’t directly responding to my post, but he does say the following and I am a blogger after all.

“I think you’re going to see more and more shorter term stuff in our league,” he said. “Just because the access now, there’s so much media availability and everything else. There’s just so many bloggers; everybody’s got an opinion. There’s all kinds of stuff going on. Sometimes that starts forming the opinion of people in front offices, too, and owner. It’s been kind of a crazy year so far.”

I tend to agree with McHale to a certain extent, and by agree, I mean with his above assessment and not with any basketball decision that he has ever made.

Sorry for the sidebar, yes, I agree with McHale that we are in a time of severe instant gratification that is brought on by the extensive media coverage from bloggers to big media. There is 24/7 coverage 365 days of the year and scrutiny is always at an all-time high.

However, the intense media scrutiny does not stop with just professional basketball. All of the major sports are subject to the same media coverage and it even crosses over to professions outside of sports, like politics. But, we do not see the same quick draw on the fire gun in these other professions. Granted, politics is difficult to fire quickly as there are terms in place instituted by our constitution, but should not other sports be the same as basketball?

I know people will be quick to argue that football is another animal as there is much more of a system in place and coaches need a few years to get it established. Firing a coach in the short-term can be too detrimental to the organization. I call that hog wash. Look at my Miami Dolphins this year as one example as they fired their coach after one year and now in contention to win the AFC East. Along with football, other sports such as baseball and hockey are not as fast to blame the coach.

What I would argue is that the structure of the NBA with the collective bargaining agreement, salary cap and luxury tax is the key factor to coaches being let go early. NBA organizations have learned that if your team is not in contention for the title, it is better to blowup the team, create cap flexibility and gather a nucleus of young guns to build a team around. Either those young guns will become the franchise of the future (TrailBlazers) or the young guns will be traded to create the franchise (Celtics).

The NBA is a copycat league and we have seen franchises become successful by going this route. What we see is teams trying to mimic the success, but by “blowing up” your team there are years of losing and losing equals coaches losing their job–it is a simple as that. The GM isn’t going to blame themselves first but will pinpoint the coach.

However, the GMs who have had the fortitude to stick with their coaches (Blazers, Celtics, Hornets), despite scrutiny from the masses, have seen the fruits of their labor.

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