Brooklyn Nets and New York Knicks, and the Blueprint of Dysfunction
The Brooklyn Nets and the New York Knicks will be linked in the Big Apple for a while. First, the Nets moved to Brooklyn with Mikhail Prokhorov and James Dolan taking shots in the media. Then the Nets moonwalked their way into the playoffs while the Knicks suffered their way to the worst season in their storied history. Then the similarities of these franchise started to mirror each other.
After less than two years as head coach, Lionel Hollins was fired by the Brooklyn Nets.
After less than two years as head coach, Derek Fisher was fired by the New York Knicks.
Now the Brooklyn Nets are mired in a serious losing streak, losing 16 of their last 20 games. Now, that includes winning two of their last three.
The New York Knicks are in a losing streak of five straight and nine of their last ten.
The Brooklyn Nets are close to 30 days since the firing of Lionel Hollins and they still have…
NO IDEA OF A COACH! …Just an interim coach in Tony Brown
This is badoodles.
The New York Knicks are about 30 hours since the firing of Derek Fisher and they have…
NO IDEA OF A COACH! …Just an interim coach in Kurt Rambis.
The Brooklyn Nets are close to 30 days since the alleged reassigning of Billy King and still…
NO IDEA OF A GENERAL MANAGER!
Now that might change real soon. The Brooklyn Nets have reportedly started their search this week. But it is still not a good look for a franchise to not have some sort of order so close to the trading deadline. But there is some comfort for Nets fans these days knowing the next General Manager will have a clue…
The New York Knicks have that issue locked up with Phil Jackson.
For at least one day, they don’t have the New York Knicks’ problems. At least not as embarrassing.
Since the season has started, there have been a ton of NBA coaches being let go. The funny thing is that the Brooklyn Nets are seemingly around the scene of the crime. Sure they fired Lionel Hollins, but they have gotten a lot of head coaches fired after a loss to the Brooklyn Nets.
Remember the first head coach to be sent packing? That would be Kevin McHale, the same coach that led the Houston Rockets to the Western Conference Finals last season. What’s the Nets connection?
Brooklyn’s first win was on the road at Houston. Starting to catch the drift?
Does anyone remember Tony Brown’s first win as the interim coach?
Yep, you guessed it… against the New York Knicks.
Derek Fisher was fired Monday despite a 23-31 improvement over a 17-65 season last year. But let’s be clear here, there were some very obvious dysfunctional reasons as to why this guy got fired.
Let’s start with that, ahem, situation with Memphis Grizzlies forward Matt Barnes just before the preseason.
The coach (Derek Fisher) and player (Matt Barnes) had a physical altercation one Saturday night back in October in Los Angeles, according to the New York Post who broke the story first.
Derek Fisher had traveled to California to see his children in California on his day off between practices. The timing at the time in my opinion was always suspect in my opinion. Here’s why…
The team was awful.
If your team was coming off the worst season in team history, with rumblings that you have no clue in what to do to coach this team, wouldn’t you have your head in a playbook somewhere? How about locking yourself in a film room with your assistant coaches? Just asking?
After spending time with the kids, Fisher reportedly went to the house that Barnes shared with his estranged wife, Gloria Govan, the former star of the “Basketball Wives” franchise.
Now there are a thousand and one stories as to what happened, according to sources. But what was reported was that Barnes had concluded training camp himself in Santa Barbara and drove to the house where the physical altercation occurred.
Then Fisher missed the next practice.
Now we can all look at the losing streak. We can all look at the record or the inability to develop the players to the satisfaction of Phil Jackson’s liking, but that is a moot point.
The NBA is a player’s league. Don’t believe me? Take a flight to Cleveland and ask people that AREN’T afraid of LeBron James.
Truth be told, there was no way Fisher could come back from this. The NBA is a small world and players look out for each other no matter if they are teammates or not. Matt Barnes has done some stupid things throughout this ordeal, but Fisher is held to a higher standard being a coach.
With Matt Barnes being suspended for two games and Fisher seemingly getting off scot free, there is no way respect wasn’t lost in the locker room.
Frank Isola on Twitter…
The beginning of the end for Derek Fisher was his situation with Matt Barnes. Needless to say, that did not go over big in the locker room.
How about Ramona Shelbourne’s take…
You could throw last year out, but starting off this year with the embarrassing incident with Matt Barnes wasn’t a good look for Fish.
When Lionel Hollins was fired, he would have rants that would infuriate fans and management alike. He seemed so aloof. The “my prerogative” explanation for bad rotations, only without any explanations, is a good example. Nets players stopped playing for him while others had no clue to what their role was.
Derek Fisher struggled as well with his rotations. The Knicks could not execute down the stretch and man this bunch struggles to score in an efficient manner.
Sound familiar?
Maybe Fisher’s mouth did him in.
ESPN reported that the Knicks management was not happy with his progression as a coach. Fisher couldn’t have gotten the memo saying this about their playoff chances and if there would be “disappointment”…
“No. Disappointed in what? Fisher said in an interview on a ESPN radio affiliate. “We’re a developing team with a ton of new players…We have to be reasonable about who we are and where we are and accept what is and not get caught up in what we should be and allow other people to define what our success is.”
If you thought Mikhail Prokhorov is in a rush to win a title, Phil Jackson is thirteen times worse.
As in rings. Two as a player and eleven as a coach.
Derek Fisher should have known better.
