There are few things that indicate futility more than when a coach loses the connection with his team. When that happens there is nothing to fix, nothing to do, nowhere to turn. It is over.
The wonder of team sports is the coming together of a group of people willing to put personal agendas aside for the common goal of winning. When that happens you truly get a whole bigger than the sum of the parts, and magic happens. When people work together, trust each other, and have a single mindedness, powerful things happen.
And on the other hand, when that relationship breaks down you feel like you are in a bad episode of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Coaches turn into whiners, self-interest rules the day, and the situation becomes untenable and unfixable.
Last week my former point guard Brian Shaw got canned in Denver when he reportedly lost control of his team. The Nuggets entered the season with high hopes that never materialized and the team fizzled, causing a wasted season. The team was overheard breaking a timeout huddle chanting what was initially perceived as a countdown to the end of the season.
While I did not spend any time with the Nuggets this season, I have been on a few teams where the season got away from us and the team fractured.
In the spring of 1994 I traded heart disease for leukemia. That’s an old school expression when you go from bad to bad. I was on the Bucks when they went into a rebuilding mode under Mike Dunleavy. We had a mix of veteran players and young players. As you would expect, Mike was retooling the roster looking toward the future. As an older player in that situation, I had little value to the team that was starting a five-year plan.
Near the end of the season I was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers for a salary slot. Nothing makes you feel more important than being traded for a slot. The Lakers were in the hunt for the last playoff spot, as they never rebuild (or didn’t until recently). The team was transitioning with a group of veterans including James Worthy, Kurt Rambis, James Edwards, Sedale Threatt, and myself. They also had some younger guys in Nick Van Exel, George Lynch, Elden Campbell, Vlade Divac, Doug Christie, and Anthony Peeler. The team was struggling to find the balance between the veteran stars and the young guys.
Randy Pfund was the coach, and when I showed up he seemed to be tolerated by the players but little else. After four games with the team it was announced that Magic Johnson would be taking over as the head coach and Randy was let go. Magic had a couple of commitments to fulfill, so long time assistant Bill Bertka took over for two games.
I was thrilled with the news. Magic and I had been friendly competitors for years with the Lakers and Nuggets. The two teams had some epic battles with Showtime running against the Doug Moe high-scoring teams in Denver. He was the one guy that I always wanted to play on a team with, as our styles were a perfect complement to each other.
When Magic came on, the first thing that he did was bring Lakers pride into the locker room. He was still only 35 years old and in shape. In practice he used to suit up and we played old guys against the young guys. He was working to instill the culture of winning to the group of nine players on the roster with four years or less of NBA experience.
For me the practices were better than the games. We had Magic and Sedale Threatt at the guards with James Worthy, Rambis, Buddha, and myself upfront. Magic ran the young guys in circles while Kurt, Buddha, and I beat the crap out of them with picks. I had a field day picking and popping while Magic fed me like a newborn.
We were about 10 games under .500 when the Magic circus came to town. The first home game was supernatural. There were so many press people on the court for warmups that the team could barely do layup lines. The change worked though, as we won five of the next six and got back into contention. Then we hit a rough patch and the wheels fell off.
The young guys just didn’t get into the fervor of the playoff chase. They were too happy being Lakers. One day while warming up for practice, a couple of guys were talking about drag racing their Porsches around town. Earvin called everyone over and gave the team the lecture about focusing for practice and doing what it takes to make the playoffs. As soon as the meeting broke up the guys went back to stretching and went right back to talking about their cars. The coaches and the vets were just shaking our heads in disbelief.
The next night we played at Phoenix and got embarrassed. We were down early and trailed by 35 in the third quarter. It was so bad that Dan Majerle shot two free throws left handed while laughing. Earvin was so mad that he benched the starters and played the vets so he would have players that would play hard. After the game we flew back to L.A. in silence and Magic called practice for 7 a.m. the next day.
We all sat in the locker room at the Forum waiting for the fun to start. I was particularly looking forward to it. I knew as one of the hard working veterans I had no worry of getting chewed out. I was there 20 minutes early. Luckily everybody showed up on time. Magic and Jerry West entered the room with very long faces and the fireworks started. Jerry started ripping the young guys for their bad attitudes and unprofessional ways. He shared how disgusted he was watching players in Laker uniforms playing with so little heart. He was passionate and cursed up a storm. We deserved every word.
Then Magic started off. He called guys out on how they just wanted to be Lakers for the parties and the girls. He reminded them how nobody at the parties cared about them, just that they were Lakers. Since they didn’t take care of business, next year they would be gone and the girls would be interested in whoever else was wearing the Laker uniforms. Right about then somebody’s beeper went off. It is 7:20 in the morning and a beeper goes off (remember it’s 1994). Magic stiffens up like a hunting dog and starts zooming in on the sound. It’s muffled like its in a gym bag but the room is pretty small and we can all hear what direction it’s coming from.
I’m biting my tongue trying not to laugh. This is going to be great! Luckily I didn’t have a beeper so I can just enjoy the show. The damn beeper won’t stop beeping. Finally Magic focuses in on Vlade Divac, who has his hand in his pocket trying unsuccessfully to turn it off.
“Vlade, hand me the beeper” says Magic. Vlade hands it over sheepishly. Magic holds it up and says, “See this is exactly what I am talking about” and he turns around and throws it like a fastball into the wall, WHAM. It shatters into a million pieces. Vlade looks like a fish on the dock. His gills are moving furiously but no sound is coming out.
At the next game I walked into the training room while Magic is telling the story to the long time trainer, Gary Vitti. He is howling with laughter when he gets to demonstrating Vlade’s expression. We all had a great crack up recounting the story.
Unfortunately, the team never got it and after going 5-1, lost the last 10 games of the season, finishing as the only Laker team to miss the playoffs in 20 years. Magic never did get control of the team and retired from coaching after 16 games. He’d had enough.
It makes for an ugly locker room when the players and the coach are at odds. My first year in Orlando the players lost confidence with head coach Brian Hill. As the season progressed, the players’ complaints grew to the point where they could not be ignored by management. Reports were in the press about the players’ discontent and stories were circulating laying the blame on star guard Penny Hardaway. After several player meetings that turned into bitch sessions, management had heard enough and Brian was fired.
While there was plenty of blame to go around, the bottom line is that when the relationship breaks, things go into the crapper at warp speed and there is little chance of fixing it.
For the Nuggets, it seems likely that major changes will result from this. Good chemistry is almost impossible to pull from a bad situation like this one. A new coach will naturally want to remake the roster, so look for the Nuggets to be bad for a while. It’s a shame for a team that was so close to getting over the hump. The team didn’t contend again in LA until they reworked the roster after getting Shaq and Kobe. In Orlando, the Magic weren’t good again until they gutted the roster and built around Dwight Howard.
Hopefully the Nuggets will have better luck, but I doubt it will happen soon.
Danny Schayes is a Director of Business Optimization at Intensity and a leader in the business of professional sports. Schayes frequently advises sports organizations in complex business matters that include contract negotiations, pricing strategy, marketing optimization, and executive leadership. Follow him on Twitter.
Great article. Great story about the journey.
Fans need more of this and less of mindless tweets.
Please keep sharing your insights with us all.