A historic NBA coach firing ... again
But I also needed to fix something in my research and have updated the story below
(Editor's note: This article, published late Tuesday night, has been updated after I was notified of a much-needed addendum to my research.)
The headline on March 29, or so I believed, was absolutely accurate:
An NBA coaching change unlike any other
The Memphis Grizzlies' firing of Taylor Jenkins was historic because it marked the first time in league history that I could find a team with a winning record that had sacked its head coach with less than 10 games to go in the regular season.
An NBA coaching change unlike any other
It is completely understandable, when reacting to news events in today's NBA, to say nothing that happens anymore is legitimately stunning.
Then came Tuesday's dismissal of Michael Malone in Denver with just three to go in the regular season … followed by an overnight e-mail apprising me of one more important entry to work in.
According to both The New York Times and Basketball Reference, Larry Brown's exit from the New Jersey Nets with six games to go in 1982-83 was recorded as a resignation rather than a firing. That's why it hadn't factored into this discussion until now. The Nets, though, essentially axed Brown despite their 47-29 record because owner Joe Taub learned that he was planning to leave for Kansas and return to the college game. So Brown was forced out with six games left and thus has to be included in this history lesson.
As for Malone …
The Nuggets dumped him 11 days after Jenkins' ouster to make new history. They also fired GM Calvin Booth, because as Nuggets chairman Josh Kroenke revealed, he and father Stan Kroenke had decided that both would be dismissed after the season … and after a longstanding chill between them. So why not throw the Hail Mary now, they reasoned, to see if the sheer shock can inspire a salvage-the-season response from the players?
Those players had been increasingly tuning Malone out. Just like you heard in Memphis with Jenkins. Yet it's still quite a shock to see coaching changes happening now when — apart from Brown's sudden removal more than 40 years ago because he was secretly plotting to land his next job — they have literally never happened at this juncture of any previous NBA season with teams in 50-win range.
You know it's league-shaking when the National Basketball Players Association president is tweeting that late-in-the-game coaching changes this late are unfair:
It was also pointed out to me that the Booth-led Nuggets have not made a single in-season roster transaction. Their last move, before ownership fired Malone and Booth in unison, was signing Aaron Gordon to a contract extension on Opening Night Eve.
The whole episode convinced me to bring back these tremendous finds from researcher extraordinaire Keerthika Uthayakumar after I asked her in the wake of Jenkins' dismissal to try to locate every late-season NBA firing that she could despite the scarcity of bankable databases out there when it comes to NBA coaching history.
In LeBron James' second NBA season, Cleveland fired the highly respected Paul Silas in March 2005 with 18 games to go in the regular season and the Cavaliers holding a record of 34-30. Those Cavs wound up narrowly missing the playoffs at 42-40 after going 8-10 under their interim coach: Michael Malone's father Brendan Malone.
Every other NBA coach found via Stat Keeks research who was dismissed with 15 games or fewer remaining in the regular season was let go by a team with a losing record. (Once again: Brown was omitted initially only because of the multiple listings of a resignation.)
That list:
🏀 Brooklyn's Kenny Atkinson in March 2020 (28-34 and who only made this list because the 20 games remaining on the schedule at the time were unexpectedly reduced to 10 by the COVID-19 pandemic)
🏀 Sacramento's Garry St. Jean in March 1997 (28-39 with 15 games left)
🏀 Washington's Gene Shue in March 1986 (32-37 with 13 games left)
🏀 Atlanta's Hubie Brown in March 1981 (31-48 with three games left)
🏀 Cleveland's Bill Musselman in March 1981 (25-46 and re-assigned to a new position with 11 games left)
🏀 Atlanta's Cotton Fitzsimmons in March 1976 (28-46 with eight games left)
Like CJ said: #thisleague
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Thank you, KBD. For everything!
This space normally belongs to Numbers Game, but some shuffling was required on this Newsletter Tuesday once it was announced last Friday that Kevin De Bruyne is leaving my beloved Manchester City after 10 years of absolutely sumptuous football.
Quite simply: I love this man.
I’ve cherished every opportunity I've had to watch him play in person. I was at Newcastle on a bitterly cold day in November 2019 when he scored this worldy below that I've probably watched 25 times since he posted his goodbye letter. It is impossible to hit a ball better than this:
I’m not really ready to imagine City without him, so I felt like I had to do something here to salute the best technical footballer that I have ever seen with my own eyes. There is pretty much nothing in his sport that 17 can't do.
Thank you KDB. For everything!
(Substack) Note of the Week
To preview a basketball game of note Wednesday night in Dallas …
The head-scratching evil that is Stan Kroenke was not satisfied with taking our football team