Some things just make you shake your head in confusion.
Hearing that Mike Brown was “relieved of his head coaching duties” by the Cleveland Cavaliers has to be at the top of my list of recent head-shaking events.
Last year Brown was named “Coach of the Year”, had LeBron James as the undisputed leader of the Cavs with his first MVP award, and was sitting on top of the NBA with the best record in the league. They lost, but we all had great hope.
This year Brown still had LeBron, the Cavs went out and acquired the legendary Shaq to “get the King his ring”, again came up at the top of the entire league with 61 wins, had the best home record, and everything seemed possible for the Cavs to go all the way to the NBA championship. Again LeBron won MVP, only the 10th player in NBA history to win that prestigious award back to back.
A year ago Mike Brown had it all, except that elusive Championship. Again this year Mike Brown had it all. He had everything necessary to go the distance with a team full of chemistry and talent, belief in themselve,s and the record to back it up.
And yet, this year Mike Brown got a pink slip instead of a title. Hence the head-shaking confusion on my part.
Up until the last four games of the regular season, everything was going along just great!
The team was back to full strength, LeBron was his usual Super Star self, Mo Williams was backing him up, Antawn Jamison had fit very well into the mix and quickly learned to play to LeBron’s strengths. Ilgauskas was reaquired, but for some reason wasn’t playing up to par, so J.J. Hickson stepped in to fill Big Z’s very large shoes and J.J. did a remarkably good job creating points and needed energy when it counted. Delonte West was back and contributing, and crazy, floppy Anderson Verajao was always a delight to watch as he tormented his opponents and scored with great regularity.
Their pre-game sideline antics delighted the home crowds, and seemed to not only loosen them up, but helped them infuse each other with a camaraderie that inspired them to play with enthusiasm and a team mentality that spurred them to 11 straight victories. It was all good!
Then they won their division title and Mike Brown started making some odd decisions. He pulled LeBron out of the last four games. He pulled Mo out of the last two games. He pretty much stopped playing J.J. Hickson altogether in the post-season, which seemed a terrible waste of talent and youthful exuberance at a time when momentum was crucial and so easy to sustain.
But Mike Brown blew it. He had it all right in his hands and he blew it.
I know that LeBron held a strange, almost co-coach status in the Cavs organization, but when all is said and done, the Coach needs to be the Coach, and Mike Brown almost seemed like he’d checked out at the end of this season. It didn’t really occur to me during the playoffs, but after their loss to Boston I started comparing Head Coaches, and Mike Brown seemed to have lost his edge. Everyone has their own style, and his is a more quiet, pacing, arms folded, blank stare approach to coaching. Well, that worked well during the last two regular seasons, and no one can deny it. And, he won Coach of the Year with that style last year, so who would say anything negative, right? Only one team can advance during each round of the post-season, and it can’t always be the one you want it to be.
BUT, when the same scenario plays out two seasons in a row, when you have all the tools at your disposal to get to the Finals, and you fall apart in the second round, well, maybe that blank stare approach had something to do with it after all!
I’ve always enjoyed Stan Van Gundy’s approach to coaching. He paces, he pulls at his thinning hair, he yells at his players and the officials, he diagrams plays and pleads with his guys to do what they do best, right up until the last second of each game. He wears his heart on his sleeve, and even when the Magic lose, everyone knows that Stan and his team tried, and cared, and left it all on the floor.
Doc Rivers has a similar approach with his team as he paces, grimaces at bad officiating, exhorts his players to find what’s deep inside each of them and use it when they need it most. Doc and Stan coach with their heads, but more importantly, they coach with their hearts. I just don’t feel that Mike Brown is in their league, despite having the two-time MVP, best overall record two years in a row, and home court advantage throughout the post-season. What good are all those great bits and pieces if you can’t turn them into a cohesive, winning outcome when it counts?
Post-game interviews are when you get to see who people really are, off the court, after the sound and fury of the game has subsided. When the Cavs ended their season in ignominious defeat, it didn’t surprise me that Mike Brown came out and said nothing that meant anything. He had nothing to say. We all watched a great team play flat, uninspired, disjointed, disappointing basketball. In our hearts we all knew it very well might have been LeBron’s last game as a Cleveland Cavalier. He couldn’t even wait until he entered the locker room before he pointedly peeled off his Cavs jersey, as if to say to all of his fans, “I’m so done with this team.” Wow…that hurt. That was unnecessary to do on camera, but it was done with such intent that you couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to create such negative feelings?
The next question I ask myself is whether Mike Brown’s departure may clear the stale air in that locker room and give the Cavs a fresh start with a new coach? And might this Head Coaching change pave the way for LeBron to re-sign and stay with the Cavs? In my humble opinion, it would be a real shame for James to leave his home town team, leave all of the great chemistry and winning records he’s worked so hard to create with this truly first-class group of guys. I know the post-season was almost impossible to explain, but look at the top-ranked regular season(s)! Every good part of that team is still there, just waiting to be harnessed and put to better use by a new coach! Every player on the Cavaliers still wants to play to win, and will be hoping that LeBron will be their leader after July 1st comes and goes.
A new coach may just be the last piece of the puzzle that will allow the Cleveland Cavaliers to go all the way next season. But if LeBron decides to leave, to go and start all over again somewhere else, his ring may well be a long way off. If he decides to go for the bright lights and big city, the Knicks won’t be up to his standards for several years. The Nets are a joke, and he doesn’t want to play in Josiey! The Bulls just barely made it to the playoffs this year, and even with LeBron’s talents and star status, the rest of the team will need at least a couple more years to play up to his level.
But the Cavs are there now! This team needs a transfusion of new blood, and the firing of Mike Brown just might be the right diagnosis and treatment to correct their anemic play in this year’s post-season. They’ve got great talent. Now all they need is a great coach who’ll take control, a guy who’ll come in and inspire them, encourage them and show up on the sidelines every game with his heart on his sleeve.
Jeff Van Gundy, are you available?
