Mike D’Antoni will begin coaching the Los Angeles Lakers, a couple of weeks removed from former coach Mike Brown’s firing. Brown’s untimely dismissal after five games this season, and a lockout-shortened 2012 campaign last season, prompts the following question:
Photo by Charles Hallman
Are Black coaches put on a shorter patience leash than their White counterparts?
The Lakers players reportedly didn’t like Brown’s Princeton offense. “The pros are set up for two or three passes that go to your main guy, who is going to get you the majority of shots,” explains U-M Assistant Coach Vince Taylor, a former Minnesota Timberwolves assistant coach. “The Princeton is more equal opportunity to keep the floor spread…backdoor passes, and I think it just didn’t fit the Lakers because [guard Steve] Nash has to have the ball for the pick-and-roll. The pick-and-roll is the best play in the NBA. You are looking for mismatches.”
The Black Coaches and Administrators (BCA) released last week its first men’s college basketball hiring report card: Almost 23 percent of the current Division I head coaches are Black, down two percent from 2007.
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