Cavs Fire Brown, COY Curse Lives On

The Cleveland Cavaliers fired Mike Brown late Sunday night and avoided a $4.5 million payoff. The news came down after weeks of speculation which followed an early playoff bounce-out at the hands of the Boston Celtics. Despite finishing with the best record in the East for two consecutive years, the Cavs have flopped in the playoffs under Brown and is now the first casualty in the "We Will Do Anything This Side of Assassinating a Foreign Dignitary to Keep Lebron" campaign.

First and foremost my reaction to this news is, "Duh." Mike Brown is one of the worst head coaches I have EVER seen in the NBA and I'm being serious about that. He does nothing in game to make adjustments to his "game plan" which is always "give the ball to Lebron and hope he does lots of good things." If Lebron is off, the Cavs lose and that's just the way it goes. I'm not saying he had a lot of talent to work with outside of Lebron but a good coach can find some ways to win a few when their superstar is having an off night. And he doesn't seem to be much of a motivator. The players seem to like him but that often seems to be because he doesn't ever step on their toes or get in their faces. Brown might be a solid assistant coach as a defensive specialist but his value as a head coach is next to nothing.

My second thought, however, goes a little deeper. Brown won Coach of the Year just last season. At the time I thought that was ridiculous, given the previous paragraph. But the truth is, mediocre coaches win this award all the time...and then are promptly fired. It's the Coach of the Year Curse.

The list:
2008-09: Mike Brown (fired 2010)
2007-08: Bryon Scott (fired 2009)
2006-07: Sam Mitchell (fired 2008)
2005-06: Avery Johnson (fired 2008)
2004-05: Mike D'antoni (resigned 2008)
2003-04: Hubie Brown (resigned 2004)
2002-03: Gregg Popovich
2001-02: Rick Carlisle (fired 2003)
2000-01: Larry Brown (left 2003)
1999-00: Doc Rivers (fired 2003)
1998-99: Mike Dunleavy (fired 2001)
1997-98: Larry Bird (resigned 2000)

With the exception of Gregg Popovich (one of the top five coaches of all time), no Coach of the Year winner of the past 12 years has lasted with that team for more than three years. Now, the NBA is not a league that supports coaches lasting a long time with one team. But all those guys together (minus Pops) averaged 1.75 seasons with their team before falling to the axe. That's an absurd rate for guys who are considered the best coach in a given year. The real problem is that this award is bull crap. More often than not, this award is given to the coach of a team that either jumps from the lottery to the playoffs or grabs hold of one of the top records in the league for a season or two. It has next to nothing to do with whether or not the guy can coach and everything to do with how well his players play that season. Maybe that sounds like the same thing or rather, the means to the end, but it's not. And Brown is the case and point. Brown is a terrible coach but he coached one of (if not the) best player in the league. Of course his team is going to win a bunch of games. That doesn't mean the coach is doing a good job, it just means his players are winning and sometimes winning in spite of him. But every year guys like Brown get votes for Coach of the Year. The system rewards coaches and franchises who have short term success rather than long term domination. Truth be told, you could give this award to Phil Jackson or Gregg Popovich or a similar guy (like Jerry Sloan, who has never won this award) every year. These are the guys who actually coach and coach well year in and year out.

Adios, Mike. Your coaching expertise will not be missed but your comical lack of anything resembling X-and-Os knowledge surely will be.