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There are a few glaring problems with the modern NBA which are now very common throughout the league.  The officials are extremely inconsistent, the arenas throughout the league are looking emptier, and teams will fire their coaches after minor losing slumps. 

The New Orleans Hornets have continued a very impractical practice of firing their coach, Byron Scott, at the first sign of trouble. Byron Scott, a coach who took the Hornets, with the assistance of Chris Paul, from a perennial loser into a competitor in a very difficult Western Conference. 

Byron Scott coached his team to back-to-back winning seasons.  He is also the winner of the 2007-08 NBA Coach of the Year award.  So what great fault led to him being let go by the New Orleans Hornets?

He started the year 3-6!  Is it a great start, no; however, the Hornets are a mere three games under .500. It does appear as if the Hornets might have been a little hasty pulling the trigger on letting go of their coach. 

Was there a single person shocked that the Hornets fired Scott?  Any person who follows the NBA should have greeted the news of Scott’s firing with the same shoulder shrug reserved for finding out there are surprise twists at the end of M. Night Shyamalan’s movies.  The endings should be surprising, but completely expected. 

Scott’s firing is another sign of how difficult it is to have success in the NBA—both as a NBA head coach, and as a successful NBA franchise. 

The NBA Coach of the Year award is suppose to given to the coach who did the best job with his team over the course of the NBA season.  The award really has become nothing more than an over-sized paper weight.  It really should be called “The Coach in the Right Place at the Right Time Award.”  If it really was given to the best coach each year Phil Jackson would probably just schedule a yearly appointment to pick up the trophy.

To see the sorry state of coaching in the NBA just look at the history of past Coach of the Year winners. A person has to go back to 2002-03 to find a Coach of the Year winner who both is still employed by the team he won the award with, and a coach who really deserved the award.

·         2008-09 Mike Brown, Cleveland Cavaliers (Still with team)  – That Mike Brown won a Coach of the Year award is laughable; however, it is embracing the league didn’t take it away from him after he was completely out-coached in last year’s Eastern Conference Finals.  Mike Brown might be the worst head coach currently in the league, and that is really saying something.  The truly shocking news this season is he wasn’t the first head coach fired.

·         2007-08 Byron Scott, New Orleans Hornets (Fired)—Scott is not just a good coach, he is a great coach.  Scott actually desired receiving the Coach of the Year trophy. 

·         2006-07 Sam Mitchell, Toronto Raptors (Fired)—He is another one year wonder with a mediocre Raptor team.  Team let him go at the first sign of trouble.

·         2005-06 Avery Johnson, Dallas Mavericks (Fired)—He took a young team filled with potential and underachieved. 

·         2004-05 Mike D’Antoni, Phoenix Suns (Resigned)—He  installed his eight second offense with Steve Nash, or as it is better known, an absolutely brilliant coaching move.  His reward is an ugly dispute with the Suns, and the opportunity to coach the New York Knicks(Ouch!).

·         2003-04 Hubie Brown, Memphis Grizzlies (Retired)—Sat on the bench and basically didn’t trade Pau Gasol to the Lakers for pennies on the dollar.

·         2002-03 Gregg Popovich, San Antonio Spurs (Still with team)—Popovich is a NBA coaching legend. 

What this shows us is it is tough for NBA coaches to keep their jobs.  There are very few franchises that support their coach when things aren’t going well.  Furthermore, the data also shows there is a lack of good coaching in the NBA.

Teams will fire their coaches in hopes that change brings success to their franchise.  There are many problems with this philosophy.  Especially for teams who win championships.  The 2005-06 Miami Heat are the only team in the last twenty years that fired changed coaches during the season and won a championship (although really Pat Riley was rumored to be forcing out Stan Van Gundy long before the 2005-06 season started). 

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