It’s hard out there for a coach

Whenever people talk about the pluses and minuses of coaching in the NBA and the NCAA, people always seem to forget one critical fact: in college, you are WAY more likely to hang onto your job -- hence why Lawrence Frank is the longest-tenured coach in the Eastern Conference. In college, it’s forgivable to go twenty or thirty years without winning a title; as long as you’re competitive, or have done enough in the past, you can pretty much coach until you die. In the NBA, however, only three teams have the same coaches that they did at the start of this decade as they will at the end of it: the Lakers (Phil Jackson), Jazz (Jerry Sloan) and Spurs (Greg Popavich). That’s a small list.

In the NBA, you can”t build up a lengthy career based solely on what you’ve done in the past, even if that past was just a few years ago. To best illustrate this I bring up Byron Scott, who was fired on Thursday as the coach of the New Orleans Hornets. Scott, who was also fired from the New Jersey Nets not even a season after they went to the finals, won the coach of the year award just 18 months ago. Now he’s looking for a job.

In fact, there’s pretty much no trust in the NBA anymore when it comes to coaches and owners. Just take a look at the last six coach of the year winners:

What does it say about the NBA that the 2004-2008 winners all left their job or were fired not even three years after winning the pinnacle coaching award? I’d be worried if I was Mike Brown -- that 66-win season won’t mean jack if the Cavs can’t win with LeBron while they have the chance. If he does get fired, he should look on the bright side. After all, there’s always college.