1) ’81-’82 Lakers: Paul Westhead
It all started with an innocent bike ride. A highly respected assistant coach, Jack McKinney was given arguably the best position in the league when the Lakers hired him in 1979. McKinney named his friend Westhead as his top assistant and the season got off to a solid start. Los Angeles had just defeated the Nuggets at home to improve to 10-4, when McKinney suffered life-threatening injuries crashing his bike while riding to Westhead’s house to play tennis. Westhead was named interim coach, brought over Pat Riley from the broadcast booth as his new assistant, and stuck to McKinney’s up-tempo strategy en route to a 1980 championship. When the ’80-’81 title defense was a complete disaster, ending with a shocking first round upset loss to the Rockets, Westhead decided it was time to change up the playbook. His offensive “System” was slower, more deliberate, and designed around Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, which didn’t sit well with young star Magic Johnson, who started openly bad mouthing Westhead to the press after the Lakers started ’81-’82 with a 2-4 record. Meanwhile, veteran All-Stars Abdul-Jabbar, Norm Nixon, and Jamaal Wilkes were grumbling to Westhead and to Lakers management over Johnson’s petulant behavior. It’s debatable whether Jerry Buss made the decision to fire Westhead because he considered the new offensive style boring, or if it was Johnson getting in his owner’s ear. Either way, Westhead was let go after 11 games and replaced with Riley, who led them to a championship at the end of the season and then three more by the end of the decade.
2) ’10-’11 Pistons: John Kuester
It’s difficult to imagine a more volatile situation than the one Kuester stepped into in his NBA head coaching debut. He inherited a Pistons roster headlined by aging franchise legends Rip Hamilton and Ben Wallace, overpaid disappointments Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva, and a broken-down Tracy McGrady. Detroit missed the playoffs in ’09-’10 for the first time in nine years and that was just the beginning of Kuester’s woes. About halfway through the ’10-’11 season, Hamilton berated Kuester during a practice in full view of players and staff. Kuester responded by benching Hamilton indefinitely but that only escalated things. The other veteran players boycotted a morning shoot-around in solidarity, then Kuester playing a six-man rotation in a game against the 76ers, leaving Hamilton, Wallace, and McGrady on the bench. When Kuester was ejected from that game after arguing a call, cameras caught McGrady and Wallace laughing on the sideline as their coach was escorted off the court. Kuester somehow lasted until the end of the season before getting fired after a change of ownership.
3) ’00-’01 Nuggets: Dan Issel
Issel’s first tenure as Nuggets coach wasn’t a total disaster. After guiding Denver to one of the biggest playoff upsets in league history in 1994, Issel seemed to lose control of his players the next year and stepped down as coach right before the All-Star break, citing exhaustion. But the franchise legend was back a few years later, first as general manager and then taking back the reins as coach in 1999 after firing Mike D’Antoni. Things in large part to Issel’s poor decisions as GM, Denver was five years removed from their last playoff appearance but showing some promise in ’00-’01 until Nick Van Exel started demanding a trade. Following a road trip in which the Nuggets lost four straight, the embattled coach scheduled practice on a planned off day. Van Exel and team captain George McCloud spurred a player boycott in response, which was only partially successful, but the locker room was essentially lost from there. Van Exel and Issel both departed during the ’01-’02 season, the former via trade to the Mavericks and the latter getting fired after he was caught on camera using a racial slur towards a Latino fan.
4) ’05-’06 76ers: Maurice Cheeks
A floor general extraordinaire for the 76ers in the ’80s, Cheeks was welcomed as a returning hero by fans and the media when he took over as coach in 2005. But Chris Webber and Allen Iverson were a different story, instead undermining Cheeks late in his first season in charge. The Sixers had just been eliminated from postseason contention when Iverson and Webber no-showed a meaningless game against the Nets. Cheeks didn’t realize until a reported pointed it out, then was further embarrassed when he attempted to feign that he knew all along they’d be absent. The whole crew somehow came back again in ’06-’07, the veteran pair somehow got even more surly and apathetic, and the Sixers again fell short of the postseason. Iverson was traded to the Nuggets, Webber was waived, and Cheeks was given one more chance to prove himself as coach. Things did get better with a 2008 playoff appearance but after a slow start in ’08-’09, star Andre Iguodala began openly questioning the team’s toughness and readiness. Cheeks was let go as coach and has not been associated with the 76ers organization since.
“Both Baylor and Pete Maravich had humble beginnings, transcendent skills, and an otherworldly drive to win. Unfortunately, they shared two more things that submarined any chance at mutual success: a lack of defensive effort and a major knee injury in their prime”
5) ’92-’93 Spurs: Jerry Tarkanian
You would never know it from the steady tenure of Gregg Popovich but the Spurs once had a reputation as a revolving door of coaches, from Morris McHone to Larry Brown to Cotton Fitzsimmons to Babe McCarthy. But all of them pale in comparison to the 20-game reign of Tarkanian. “Tark the Shark” had ruled over UNLV for nearly two decades before he finally bit on an NBA offer. He had previously turned down the Lakers in 1977, citing worries over being able to connect with pro players. This would prove prescient. He had David Robinson, yes, but Spurs veterans Dale Ellis and Antoine Carr were un-enamored with their new coach’s authoritarian style, almost immediately surreptitiously criticizing his strategy to the media. It didn’t help that San Antonio had a gaping hole at point guard and management’s refusal to address the position left Tarkanian fuming. After a 9-11 start he was mercifully fired and replaced by John Lucas, who subsequently led the team to the second round of the playoffs. Tarkanian vowed to never coach again at any level, but two years later he was back on the sidelines at his alma mater, Fresno State.
6) ’11-’12 Trail Blazers: Nate McMillan
After years of being a league laughing-stock for their self-perpetuating “Jail Blazers” reputation, Paul Allen attempted to rebuild Portland around three young potential superstars in LaMarcus Aldridge, Brandon Roy, and Greg Oden. Unfortunately for Allen and his hand-picked coach, Sonics legend McMillan, two of these three centerpieces were as fragile as porcelain dolls. By the ’11-’12 season, Roy and Oden were essentially retired, while Raymond Felton and Jamal Crawford were about to remind everybody of the “Jail Blazers” heyday. When McMillan reportedly chewed out Felton and Crawford, the pair of veteran guards led a slow-crawl revolt against their coach. After neither player was traded at the deadline, it was obvious that McMillan’s days were numbered. After an especially egregious 42-point loss to the Knicks in mid-March, the Blazers announced that McMillan had been fired, replacing him with assistant Kaleb Canales for the remainder of the year. Neither Crawford nor Felton returned for the ’12-’13 season, and soon the team underwent a much more successful rebuild around Aldridge and Damian Lillard, with Terry Stotts as coach.
7) ’01-’02 Bulls: Tim Floyd
Upon becoming Hornets coach in 2003, when asked to describe his previous tenure in Chicago, Floyd summarized it as “hell.” Bulls general manager Jerry Krause responded by sarcastically ruminating that he hopes Floyd’s players don’t turn on him again. Charles Oakley had harsher words, predicting that his old coach would last “three-to-four months, tops” in New Orleans. Floyd had taken that Bulls job in 1998 under the sincere expectation that he would be coaching Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, not Brent Barry and Kornel David. The Bulls floundered in the standings as expected but management remained patient and gave Floyd four seasons to turn it around. That fourth campaign, ’01-’02, was a complete disaster. Youngsters Eddy Curry and Tyson Chandler were complaining about playing time, Ron Artest was clashing over the dress code, Brad Miller frustratingly kicked a chair into the stands, and Oakley called Floyd an “amateur” coach after a historically bad 53-point loss. With the team holding a 4-21 record, Floyd finally resigned on Christmas Eve. Things were technically much more successful for Floyd in New Orleans with a playoff appearance, but he was still fired after just one season.
8) ’78-’79 Jazz, Elgin Baylor
Already a tragic figure as player, with eight NBA Finals appearances but no title, Baylor continued that trend into coaching. Just two years after retiring as a player, Baylor joined the coaching staff of the expansion Jazz in 1974. He had plenty in common with his star shooting guard. Both Baylor and Pete Maravich had humble beginnings, transcendent skills, and an otherworldly drive to win. Unfortunately, they shared two more things that submarined any chance at mutual success: a lack of defensive effort and a major knee injury in their prime. New Orleans seemed primed for a postseason debut in ’77-’78 until Maravich missed 32 games due to knee issues and they fell just short. Things came to a head in ’78-’79, starting with a disgruntled Truck Robinson holding out of training camp for a new contract. This set off a snipe war in the media between Robinson and Maravich, with Baylor caught in the middle. When the Jazz limped to a 26-56 record, Baylor was fired, a turn of events he later alluded to as “getting out of prison.” But Baylor self-institutionalized himself again soon after, becoming general manager of the Clippers.
Next up in Coaches, Execs, and Owners
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