For a second consecutive night, a pro sports championship was decided, and for a second consecutive night, it was won by a virgin franchise on the road. Luckily, Mike Yeo, shitcanned Head Coach of the Stanley Cup Champion St. Louis Blues, is only Poor Bastard Of The Moment for one day, because he is being replaced by a man who was also fired by a team just before that team won a title: Dwane Casey.
He was a veteran HC of the Toronto Raptors, and while he helped resuscitate the Raps from mediocrity and into repeated playoff appearances, the organization had failed to break through to a 'Chip, suffering several years of heartbreak and mind-boggling upsets. In the same summer last year, when they swung for the fences and traded for Kawhi Leonard even though he had only one year left on his contract, Raptors management decided to fire Casey, even though he was unable to suit up and help his team avoid embarrassing defeats and chronic underachievement on the court. In came Nick Nurse (who?), and all he did was, admittedly, help engineer upsets of the Milwaukee Bucks and then of the Golden State Warriors in a year where everybody thought the Warriors were going to just saunter to a title. And even though the Head Coach has something to do with a team's success, it is really more about the timing of events that makes it look as though the obstacle holding back Toronto from basketball glory was Casey.
This doubly hurts because I remember Casey as HC of the Timberwolves. He had very little help with his roster, and yet he got his players to buy in and play as a team. He was even able to get one squad to play close to .500 basketball, which for that year had them contending for a playoff spot ... only for dumbass Kevin McHale to fire Casey mid-season because McHale said he thought the team could do better than their record indicated. So he installed Randy Wittman -- McHale's friend -- and the team proceeded to take a nosedive down the standings. Everybody who follows that club for a long time knows that Casey got fucked over.
And now Casey's gotten fucked over twice, this time obviously being much worse. Dwane Casey is now coaching the Detroit Pistons. He got them into the playoffs. Detroit got swept by Milwaukee, but the Timberwolves didn't even make the playoffs this year. Casey can get a ragtag group of players to overachieve. You just have to get rid of him if you are close to winning it all, apparently. And that sucks for him.
Poor Bastard.
He was a veteran HC of the Toronto Raptors, and while he helped resuscitate the Raps from mediocrity and into repeated playoff appearances, the organization had failed to break through to a 'Chip, suffering several years of heartbreak and mind-boggling upsets. In the same summer last year, when they swung for the fences and traded for Kawhi Leonard even though he had only one year left on his contract, Raptors management decided to fire Casey, even though he was unable to suit up and help his team avoid embarrassing defeats and chronic underachievement on the court. In came Nick Nurse (who?), and all he did was, admittedly, help engineer upsets of the Milwaukee Bucks and then of the Golden State Warriors in a year where everybody thought the Warriors were going to just saunter to a title. And even though the Head Coach has something to do with a team's success, it is really more about the timing of events that makes it look as though the obstacle holding back Toronto from basketball glory was Casey.
This doubly hurts because I remember Casey as HC of the Timberwolves. He had very little help with his roster, and yet he got his players to buy in and play as a team. He was even able to get one squad to play close to .500 basketball, which for that year had them contending for a playoff spot ... only for dumbass Kevin McHale to fire Casey mid-season because McHale said he thought the team could do better than their record indicated. So he installed Randy Wittman -- McHale's friend -- and the team proceeded to take a nosedive down the standings. Everybody who follows that club for a long time knows that Casey got fucked over.
And now Casey's gotten fucked over twice, this time obviously being much worse. Dwane Casey is now coaching the Detroit Pistons. He got them into the playoffs. Detroit got swept by Milwaukee, but the Timberwolves didn't even make the playoffs this year. Casey can get a ragtag group of players to overachieve. You just have to get rid of him if you are close to winning it all, apparently. And that sucks for him.
Poor Bastard.
No comments:
Post a Comment