Kiki Vandeweghe got my Coach of the Year vote by parlaying street cred and executive privilege into disassociating himself with the Nyets’ broken record.
Unless this was an aging problem and this is how long it takes Vandeweghe to get downstairs from the front office.
At any rate, Vandeweghe and co-coach Del Harris had to loathe what they witnessed from the stands Wednesday night at the I-Nod Center as the Mavericks slapped 48 points, plus a free throw, on the shell-shocked pinball machine . . . in the second quarter of a 117-101 loss.
During intermission, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee refused to commute Tom Barrise’s sentence as interim coach.
All of which brings us to tonight when New Jersey looks to get off the 0-18 blitzkrieg against the perennially tanned and debonair Next Town Brown and his Bobcats.
A 98-pound weakling not that long ago, Charlotte is no longer a day at the beach. Before getting sandblasted by Boston, the Bobcats had won straight.
Larry Brown likes what he has seen so much he has consented to stay put . . . at least until he gets a better offer.
Granted, this a stretch since Next Town once coached my Paper Clips (the playoffs, I must add), but tonight could be a first: He’s facing a team he used to coach that’s quit before he did.
Who else beside me is shocked the Knicks — one night removed replicating “Miracle on 33rd Street” against the pretend Suns — reverted to rhyme and reason by cruising to a 118-104 loss in Orlando?
The silver lining was the DNP-CWD (coach’s wise decision) of Incri-Nate Robinson. Against the Suns he played eight minutes (0-for-2) following a home loss to the Magic in which the “all-night chucker” skipped down court and looked at the crowd repeatedly in the fourth quarter after flushing one of many fourth-quarter baskets . . . that cut Orlando’s lead each time to low double figures.
What’s suitably ironic, I submit, is coach Mike D’Antoni waited until the Knicks were outside Disney World to discipline someone who acts like a 5-year-old.
(Author’s aside . . . no disrespect meant to the tykes. They send me some of my best stuff . . . by text or e-mail in Crayola.)
Nyets at Knicks Sunday afternoon: Donations cheerfully accepted.
Have you noticed how the team from north of the border has gone completely south? The Raptors have lost their last five games, giving up an unholy 596 points (119.2 per game) in the process — including 146 at Atlanta Wednesday night. The Hawks shot 59 percent, their highest percentage in nearly 17 seasons.
Even those unfamiliar with the current exchange rate know this can’t be a persuasive argument in the increasingly losing battle to re-enlist rising free agent Chris Bosh.
To the Raptors’ credit, during the offseason, team president Bryan Colangelo surrounded Bosh with nine reinforcements, yet they have continued to play the same lousy defense as always, near or at the bottom in every meaningful category.
The way things are going, I fully expected Colangelo to fire his coach yesterday before I had time to find out who he was.
Had Colangelo hired Frank Johnson last summer as a first assistant to what’s-his-name there’s a chance I could be convinced the head coach hasn’t run out of time. Not really, though.
Conversely, by bringing in Marc Iavaroni, a respected ally when both were Suns, surely meant only so many bad losses would be tolerated before it’d be “off with his head.”
Especially considering the prize asset at stake and how much money was invested in re-signing Andrea Bargnani for $50 million over five years and recruiting Hedo Turkoglu for a few million more, to show Bosh management meant business.
Instead the 7-13 Raptors are getting the business.
Should they become any more offensive and less defensive, this could deteriorate into the Vince Carter situation all over again. You know, when then-general manager Glen Grunwald lavishly overpaid Antonio Davis, Alvin Williams and Jerome Williams in hopes of brightening Wince’s outlook on the franchise by keeping his teammates, which might have worked had his support been talented enough to win more often.
Come back, Butch Carter and Darrell Walker. All is forgiven.
Was LeBron James‘ first public criticism of coach Mike Brown an indication he’s down on his coach or a warning light on the Cavaliers’ dash board he’s begun to distance himself from the organization?
Even if it’s neither, I’m not really feeling LeBron’s urge to call out Brown for keeping Zydrunas Ilgauskas in lockdown last Saturday night in Dallas. The beloved 11-year veteran whose foot injuries forced him to sit all but 29 games his second and third seasons in Cleveland, was about to pass GM Danny Ferry for most career franchise games, but his now ‘repentant’ coach reasoned the matchups unfavorable.
Aside from the quibbling notion Brown is starting the wrong center (Shaquille O’Neal), I don’t see the problem. It’s not as if Z’s benching cost him a consecutive playing record that would have broken A.C. Green‘s all-time mark. It’s not as if he didn’t set the record the very game against the Suns.
Seems to me, the closer LeBron gets to free agency the more seriously he’s taking himself. Yesterday, he suggested the only way to make up for the oversight would be to retire Ilgauskas’ No. 11 league-wide.