Nate McMillan's firing leaves NBA well short of its goal of increasing Black representation among coaches
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Nate McMillan's firing leaves NBA well short of its goal of increasing Black representation among coaches
https://www.yahoo.com/sports/nate-mcmillans-firing-leaves-nba-well-short-of-its-goal-of-increasing-black-representation-among-coaches-164702544.html
Nate McMillan's firing leaves NBA well short of its goal of increasing Black representation among coaches
Ben Rohrbach
Yahoo Sports
August 27, 2020, 9:47 AM PDT
When NBA commissioner Adam Silver, National Basketball Players Association executive director Michele Roberts, NBPA president Chris Paul and their chief deputies met in June to discuss “the league’s collective response to the social justice issues in our country” ahead of the season restart, the two sides discussed “strategies to increase Black representation across the NBA and its teams,” according to their statement.
Not two weeks into the playoffs, three of the NBA’s eight Black head coaches this season are now in search of jobs. Alvin Gentry received his walking papers from the New Orleans Pelicans after five seasons, the last two landing in the lottery. Jacque Vaughn’s run as interim coach of the Brooklyn Nets ended with a depleted roster in a first-round sweep, although he remains a candidate for the position. And Nate McMillan was fired on Wednesday by an Indiana Pacers franchise he led to the playoffs in each of his four seasons at the helm.
This is not to say any of those moves were racially motivated on a conscious level. Gentry often fell short of expectations throughout his tenure in New Orleans, although injuries and roster turnover played significant roles. Vaughn at the very least earned himself serious consideration. And early reports have the Pacers potentially prioritizing an offense-first approach to McMillan’s defense-first mentality. Los Angeles Clippers assistant Tyronn Lue, who is Black, is considered a leading candidate for at least two of those positions.
But this should be of grave concern to a league that rightfully considered eight Black head coaches a shortfall in a billion-dollar corporation that counts three-quarters of its employees as African American, especially as players have peacefully led a strike in protest of the police shooting of Jacob Blake. You can bet the league office and the NBPA will be watching closely how the five vacant positions are filled.
“The league needs to do a better job in particular when it comes to hiring African Americans at every level,” Silver said on a conference call in June that included Paul and Roberts, among others. “It’s something that we have been focused on with our teams. We already used one of our most recent Board of Governors meetings to discuss it and to present specific data on where there are weaknesses in our hiring practices.”
Nate McMillan finished top-six in Coach of the Year voting each of the past three seasons. (Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
The New York Knicks named Tom Thibodeau, who is white, their head coach last month over a list of 10 other candidates, half of whom were Black. In December, when a Knicks team built to lose started 4-18, the organization fired David Fizdale, one of seven Black head coaches entering this season. Only Clippers head coach Doc Rivers, Detroit Pistons coach Dwane Casey, Atlanta Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce, Phoenix Suns coach Monty Williams and Cleveland Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff remain. Rivers and Casey are former Coaches of the Year. Williams, Pierce and Bickerstaff were all in the first year on those jobs this season.
In a league that has seen less turnover on its benches of late, Rivers is the only Black head coach who has held his position for longer than two seasons. That is evidence of a broken system. The annual list of top coaching prospects intrepidly reported by ESPN’s Kevin Arnovitz has no shortage of qualified candidates.
Look at the teams many of those aforementioned coaches have been tapped to helm. The Pistons, Suns, Hawks and Cavaliers have been dead-end jobs for much of the last two decades, save for when LeBron James was in Cleveland. Naturally, poorly run organizations are going to have more coaching vacancies, but many Black coaches have not yet enjoyed the luxury of choosing between jobs, which often means accepting positions destined for failure in the name of experience. Only, once they gain that experience, they have statistically been less likely to earn second and third chances, as Thibodeau just did in New York.
Of the handful of most desirable jobs in the past five years, all have gone to white head coaches. Look to last summer, when talks between the Los Angeles Lakers and Lue broke down when the head coach of the 2016 champion Cavaliers felt insulted by a three-year contract offer after first-year head coach Luke Walton had previously been given a five-year deal. The Lakers instead hired Frank Vogel to his third head coaching job in five seasons, and he has excelled, as have Mike Budenholzer on the Milwaukee Bucks, Nick Nurse on the Toronto Raptors and Mike D’Antoni on the Houston Rockets, all of whom replaced Black coaches.
The point is not to say those men have not proven themselves as stellar hires. It is that we have no idea whether a Black head coach would have excelled in the same position, because they rarely get the chance.
McMillan is a prime example of how exceptionally well a Black head coach must perform in the NBA, not only to stay on the job, but to earn the respect that comes with it, and the Pacers fired him two weeks after giving him a one-year extension, perhaps a parting gift for helping a small-market franchise stay relevant.
It is hard to reconcile what Pacers general manager Kevin Pritchard said in a statement on Aug. 12:
“What Nate has done in four seasons with our franchise merits this extension. Between injuries and changes in personnel, he and his coaching staff have adapted and produced positive results. He also represents the franchise, the city and our state in a first-class manner.”
With what Pritchard said in his statement on Wednesday:
“This was a very hard decision for us to make; but we feel it’s in the best interest of the organization to move in a different direction. Nate and I have been through the good times and the bad times; and it was an honor to work with him for those 11 years [in Indiana and Portland].”
After leading the Pacers to a Game 7 against James’ Cavaliers in their 2018 first-round series — as close as any other coach in the Eastern Conference has come to eliminating the four-time MVP from the playoffs this past decade — McMillan’s Pacers did nothing but exceed expectations, developing Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis into All-Stars along the way. McMillan won 60 percent of his games over the past two seasons, despite losing Oladipo for half of each. Oladipo missed last year’s playoffs, and Sabonis missed this year’s, when Oladipo still was not 100 percent healthy. Both ended in predictable first-round sweeps.
McMillan finished no worse than sixth in Coach of the Year voting each of the past three years. There is no excuse beyond McMillan not wanting to coach next season for him not to fill a vacancy in Brooklyn, New Orleans, Philadelphia or Chicago. If the NBA is serious in its effort to improve hiring practices, McMillan will not be the only Black coach to secure one of those positions, because three of them are highly desirable (sorry, Bulls fans). And even then, the league will only be where it started this season: Short of its goal.
bob
.
Nate McMillan's firing leaves NBA well short of its goal of increasing Black representation among coaches
Ben Rohrbach
Yahoo Sports
August 27, 2020, 9:47 AM PDT
When NBA commissioner Adam Silver, National Basketball Players Association executive director Michele Roberts, NBPA president Chris Paul and their chief deputies met in June to discuss “the league’s collective response to the social justice issues in our country” ahead of the season restart, the two sides discussed “strategies to increase Black representation across the NBA and its teams,” according to their statement.
Not two weeks into the playoffs, three of the NBA’s eight Black head coaches this season are now in search of jobs. Alvin Gentry received his walking papers from the New Orleans Pelicans after five seasons, the last two landing in the lottery. Jacque Vaughn’s run as interim coach of the Brooklyn Nets ended with a depleted roster in a first-round sweep, although he remains a candidate for the position. And Nate McMillan was fired on Wednesday by an Indiana Pacers franchise he led to the playoffs in each of his four seasons at the helm.
This is not to say any of those moves were racially motivated on a conscious level. Gentry often fell short of expectations throughout his tenure in New Orleans, although injuries and roster turnover played significant roles. Vaughn at the very least earned himself serious consideration. And early reports have the Pacers potentially prioritizing an offense-first approach to McMillan’s defense-first mentality. Los Angeles Clippers assistant Tyronn Lue, who is Black, is considered a leading candidate for at least two of those positions.
But this should be of grave concern to a league that rightfully considered eight Black head coaches a shortfall in a billion-dollar corporation that counts three-quarters of its employees as African American, especially as players have peacefully led a strike in protest of the police shooting of Jacob Blake. You can bet the league office and the NBPA will be watching closely how the five vacant positions are filled.
“The league needs to do a better job in particular when it comes to hiring African Americans at every level,” Silver said on a conference call in June that included Paul and Roberts, among others. “It’s something that we have been focused on with our teams. We already used one of our most recent Board of Governors meetings to discuss it and to present specific data on where there are weaknesses in our hiring practices.”
Nate McMillan finished top-six in Coach of the Year voting each of the past three seasons. (Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
The New York Knicks named Tom Thibodeau, who is white, their head coach last month over a list of 10 other candidates, half of whom were Black. In December, when a Knicks team built to lose started 4-18, the organization fired David Fizdale, one of seven Black head coaches entering this season. Only Clippers head coach Doc Rivers, Detroit Pistons coach Dwane Casey, Atlanta Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce, Phoenix Suns coach Monty Williams and Cleveland Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff remain. Rivers and Casey are former Coaches of the Year. Williams, Pierce and Bickerstaff were all in the first year on those jobs this season.
In a league that has seen less turnover on its benches of late, Rivers is the only Black head coach who has held his position for longer than two seasons. That is evidence of a broken system. The annual list of top coaching prospects intrepidly reported by ESPN’s Kevin Arnovitz has no shortage of qualified candidates.
Look at the teams many of those aforementioned coaches have been tapped to helm. The Pistons, Suns, Hawks and Cavaliers have been dead-end jobs for much of the last two decades, save for when LeBron James was in Cleveland. Naturally, poorly run organizations are going to have more coaching vacancies, but many Black coaches have not yet enjoyed the luxury of choosing between jobs, which often means accepting positions destined for failure in the name of experience. Only, once they gain that experience, they have statistically been less likely to earn second and third chances, as Thibodeau just did in New York.
Of the handful of most desirable jobs in the past five years, all have gone to white head coaches. Look to last summer, when talks between the Los Angeles Lakers and Lue broke down when the head coach of the 2016 champion Cavaliers felt insulted by a three-year contract offer after first-year head coach Luke Walton had previously been given a five-year deal. The Lakers instead hired Frank Vogel to his third head coaching job in five seasons, and he has excelled, as have Mike Budenholzer on the Milwaukee Bucks, Nick Nurse on the Toronto Raptors and Mike D’Antoni on the Houston Rockets, all of whom replaced Black coaches.
The point is not to say those men have not proven themselves as stellar hires. It is that we have no idea whether a Black head coach would have excelled in the same position, because they rarely get the chance.
McMillan is a prime example of how exceptionally well a Black head coach must perform in the NBA, not only to stay on the job, but to earn the respect that comes with it, and the Pacers fired him two weeks after giving him a one-year extension, perhaps a parting gift for helping a small-market franchise stay relevant.
It is hard to reconcile what Pacers general manager Kevin Pritchard said in a statement on Aug. 12:
“What Nate has done in four seasons with our franchise merits this extension. Between injuries and changes in personnel, he and his coaching staff have adapted and produced positive results. He also represents the franchise, the city and our state in a first-class manner.”
With what Pritchard said in his statement on Wednesday:
“This was a very hard decision for us to make; but we feel it’s in the best interest of the organization to move in a different direction. Nate and I have been through the good times and the bad times; and it was an honor to work with him for those 11 years [in Indiana and Portland].”
After leading the Pacers to a Game 7 against James’ Cavaliers in their 2018 first-round series — as close as any other coach in the Eastern Conference has come to eliminating the four-time MVP from the playoffs this past decade — McMillan’s Pacers did nothing but exceed expectations, developing Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis into All-Stars along the way. McMillan won 60 percent of his games over the past two seasons, despite losing Oladipo for half of each. Oladipo missed last year’s playoffs, and Sabonis missed this year’s, when Oladipo still was not 100 percent healthy. Both ended in predictable first-round sweeps.
McMillan finished no worse than sixth in Coach of the Year voting each of the past three years. There is no excuse beyond McMillan not wanting to coach next season for him not to fill a vacancy in Brooklyn, New Orleans, Philadelphia or Chicago. If the NBA is serious in its effort to improve hiring practices, McMillan will not be the only Black coach to secure one of those positions, because three of them are highly desirable (sorry, Bulls fans). And even then, the league will only be where it started this season: Short of its goal.
bob
.
bobheckler- Posts : 61563
Join date : 2009-10-28
Re: Nate McMillan's firing leaves NBA well short of its goal of increasing Black representation among coaches
I'm surprised at the McMillan firing. I liked his composed demeanor, which reflected the way he carried himself as a player. What did they expect him to do with that roster?
jrleftfoot- Posts : 2074
Join date : 2016-07-07
Re: Nate McMillan's firing leaves NBA well short of its goal of increasing Black representation among coaches
My claim to fame is I went to Enloe High School in Raleigh, NC and graduated with Nate McMillan in 1982.
I hated to see him fired. He was a great player in high school and college. Went on to NC State as well just after the 1983 Cardiac Pack had left town.
He'll bounced back no problem. Lots of vacancies.
db
I hated to see him fired. He was a great player in high school and college. Went on to NC State as well just after the 1983 Cardiac Pack had left town.
He'll bounced back no problem. Lots of vacancies.
db
dbrown4- Posts : 5359
Join date : 2009-10-29
Age : 60
Re: Nate McMillan's firing leaves NBA well short of its goal of increasing Black representation among coaches
Great article. Well written and well said.
Ktron- Posts : 8381
Join date : 2014-01-21
Re: Nate McMillan's firing leaves NBA well short of its goal of increasing Black representation among coaches
Nate really deserves a head coaching job as does Alvin Gentry, Mark Jackson, and a host of others
worcester- Posts : 11573
Join date : 2009-10-31
Age : 77
Re: Nate McMillan's firing leaves NBA well short of its goal of increasing Black representation among coaches
plus it would get Jackson off TVworcester wrote:Nate really deserves a head coaching job as does Alvin Gentry, Mark Jackson, and a host of others
jrleftfoot- Posts : 2074
Join date : 2016-07-07
Re: Nate McMillan's firing leaves NBA well short of its goal of increasing Black representation among coaches
Mama, here comes dat man!
worcester- Posts : 11573
Join date : 2009-10-31
Age : 77
Re: Nate McMillan's firing leaves NBA well short of its goal of increasing Black representation among coaches
jrleftfoot wrote:plus it would get Jackson off TVworcester wrote:Nate really deserves a head coaching job as does Alvin Gentry, Mark Jackson, and a host of others
Unfortunately, it may never happen. His management style wasn't the greatest. While some of the players put up with it and some even publicly supported him later, Jackson ultimately clashed with the owners and maybe even much of the coaching staff and other employees.
https://www.sbnation.com/nba/2014/12/6/7344165/mark-jackson-warriors-reasons-joe-lacob
Until now, thanks to a very frank Joe Lacob speech given to venture capitalists this week, as reported by Inside Bay Area Sports:
"Right now, (Kerr) looks great," Lacob said at the Western Association of Venture Capitalists/National Venture Capital Association luncheon Wednesday. "I think he will be great. And he did the one big thing that I wanted more than anything else from Mark Jackson he just wouldn't do, in all honesty, which is hire the very best.
"Carte blanche. Take my wallet. Do whatever it is to get the best assistants there are in the world. Period. End of story. Don't want to hear it. And (Jackson's) answer . . . was, 'Well, I have the best staff.' No you don't. And so with Steve, very, very different."
Jackson's staff, consisting of Lindsay Hunter, Brian Scalabrine, Pete Myers, Jerry DeGregorio and Darren Erman, clearly failed to meet the standards of management. Making matters worse, he publicly clashed with two of them. First, Scalabrine was reassigned to the Warriors D-League affiliate after what Jackson called "a difference in philosophy" and then Erman was fired for secretly recording coaches' meetings, allegedly to share them with front office personnel. There was clearly a dysfunctional environment among Jackson's inner circle.
But the problems extended further than that, according to Lacob's candid comments:
"Part of it was that he couldn't get along with anybody else in the organization," Lacob said. "And look, he did a great job, and I'll always compliment him in many respects, but you can't have 200 people in the organization not like you."
_________________
gyso- Posts : 22204
Join date : 2009-10-13
Re: Nate McMillan's firing leaves NBA well short of its goal of increasing Black representation among coaches
OK. Scratch Mark Jackson off the list. Add Sam Mitchell.
worcester- Posts : 11573
Join date : 2009-10-31
Age : 77
Re: Nate McMillan's firing leaves NBA well short of its goal of increasing Black representation among coaches
Nate has been an excellent coach for many years. He had to go because he has not fully embraced using the 3 point shot as a major weapon.
He is a great defensive coach but would be well served with having an offensive coach beside him that is more current with the style of play in today's NBA.
Gentry is 65. Age should not really be a factor but where can he take a team at this point?? I bet they will be trying to get Ty Lou but I think he gets with the Nets.
Maybe Nate gets the NOLA job. That team is allergic to defense but they have some impressive offense guys.
He is a great defensive coach but would be well served with having an offensive coach beside him that is more current with the style of play in today's NBA.
Gentry is 65. Age should not really be a factor but where can he take a team at this point?? I bet they will be trying to get Ty Lou but I think he gets with the Nets.
Maybe Nate gets the NOLA job. That team is allergic to defense but they have some impressive offense guys.
dboss- Posts : 18804
Join date : 2009-11-01
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