Adrian Griffin out as head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks. I’ve been having intermittent problems with archive.is again, so here’s the ESPN link as well.
This was his first year coaching (he was hired over the summer) and the team is currently 30-13.
Dave Heeke out as athletic director of the Arizona Wildcats.
(TMQ Watch is about 90% done, and will be going up later. It would be going up now, but I have two breaking news stories to do.)
I saw this earlier and was surprised given the team’s record. I hate to make assumptions when I don’t have all the facts, but it would appear that there must have been friction, either between coach and players, or coach and his bosses.
I don’t follow the NBA much, ever since the Detroit Pistons with Isaiah Thomas and company was so very good way back when. But I think it is not fair to fire Griffin given that it will surely affect his future employment possibilities.
It is a small world and word will quickly get around to other NBA teams the actual reason for his firing, which will likely have a major impact in his being hired as head coach for another pro team.
There is always college basketball programs. They often pay more than some NBA programs to keep a very good head coach.
I hadn’t thought about the interpersonal conflict aspect of this. Generally, if a coach and a team (or even a big-name player on a team) aren’t getting along, there’s rumors of it in the media before the firing. I had not heard any of those, but I also don’t follow basketball and Milwaukee sports that closely.
Thinking about it, it does seem odd to me that Griffin got fired with a 30-13 record, while (and no disrespect intennded, pigpen) Detroit hasn’t fired their 4-39 coach yet.