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When Mike Brown was hired by the Cleveland Cavaliers last week, there were multiple feelings of déjà vu. One was obvious – Brown was returning to a team that had fired him three years earlier.
We have all been here before.
But the other was more subtle and had to do with the fundamental reality not only of today’s NBA, but also of today’s professional sports.
This has been a unique season in terms of NBA coaching firings.
There are always coaches who buy it somewhat early in the season (think Paul Westphal last season for Sacramento.) Typically those firings are reserved for particularly heinous starts to the season (think Lawrence Frank with the 2009 Nets).
In 16 unlikely years as a point guard who was shorter and lighter than his program listing of 5-10, 175, Avery Johnson overachieved slowly – but doggedly.
When he finished his college career at Southern University, a historically black college in Baton Rouge, La., Johnson found 25 disinterested NBA teams.
He had led the nation in assists with 13.3 a game and he was a showman – a miniature Magic Johnson with no-look assists and cross-court bounce passes to open teammates. But in 1988, 75 players were taken in the three-round draft and Johnson was not one of them.
The media train wreck that was and is the Brooklyn Nets firing of Avery Johnson continues.
A number of well respected media members have jumped on the story. Sheridan Hoops is also on the case:
