Two ex-NBA stars had taken the hop into the gloomy Christmas bandwagon of fired coaches. With the sacking of Philadelphia's Maurice Cheeks and Sacramento's Reggie Theus, a record number of six head coaches now had been given the pink slip even before the completion of the season's first two months.
Cheeks, a member of the 76ers 1983 championship team, took the management decision in stride and even blame himself for the team's poor start this season in a press conference three days after his dismissal. When asked by the media for the real reason behind the 76er's slow start, he simply blurted "In my case, it was the coach". Before his Sixers coaching stint, he also coached the Portland Trailblazers. Cheeks was replaced by Philadelphia's assistant team manager Tony DiLeo as interim head coach for the remainder of the season.
After a 6-18 start, the Kings decided to let go of Theus and look for a new lease on life with assistant coach Kenny Natt at helm for the rest of the season. Natt is likewise a former NBA player, who had a journeyman career. Theus was tapped to coach the Kings before the 2007-08 season and led the team to a 38-44 finish despite having a ragtag squad. Kings guard Bobby Jackson summed it all up regarding the coaching change, "We feel for him, because Reggie is a great guy who did a lot for this organization. Coach Natt, he’s like a drill sergeant. He’s from the old school, and I’m looking forward to that. If you work hard, you’re going to play. That’s his philosophy.” In addition, erstwhile assistant coach Chuck Person, yeah the rifleman of yesteryears, was also fired by the Kings organization.
Cheeks and Theus's recent ordeals just shows that being great players in the past are not an assurance of a likewise outstanding coaching career. Just ask Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and Isiah Thomas. Usually, marginal players do better like Doc Rivers, Rick Carlisle, Don Nelson and George Karl to name a few. Will Natt be not far behind? The Kings are keeping their fingers crossed.
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Only a week remains from the much-awaited Christmas day game between last year's finalists, the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers. So what are you waiting for? Keep those votes coming on our polls section on who do you think will win. The Celtics and the Lakers are currently showing the way in the Eastern and Western Conferences with win-loss records of 23-2 and 20-3, respectively.
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Only a week remains from the much-awaited Christmas day game between last year's finalists, the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers. So what are you waiting for? Keep those votes coming on our polls section on who do you think will win. The Celtics and the Lakers are currently showing the way in the Eastern and Western Conferences with win-loss records of 23-2 and 20-3, respectively.
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