SLAM DUNK: Head Coach Firings Changing Traditional Professional Sports Culture

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SIMEON LAM
Sports Editor
In this modern era of sports, many aspects have evolved in a way that the traditional styles have almost become forgotten. For example, coaching has changed in that there are barely any traditional coaches left in each sport. In fact, the coaching job has changed entirely. The trend is that many more coaches are getting fired every single year. The leash and patience that coaches are given today are so quick that it’s hard to remember how coaches of the past slowly built up great teams and programs.

Let’s start with the NBA. There has been an average of 11 firings per season, 221 total since 1997. In the NFL, 22 teams have changed head coaches over the past four seasons. Half of those teams have had two or more changes. Consequently, those same teams have posted losing seasons year after year. It is not surprising that these teams are not successful after changes. The fact is that it takes time to build up a program and team chemistry and clear bad habits of the past. But owners are so quick to pull the panic button that it ends up hurting the franchise even more. For instance, Cleveland Cavaliers head coach David Blatt was fired recently despite reaching the NBA Finals last season and leading the team to a great record this season. He had the best record of any fired coach in the history of the league. As ridiculous as it sounds, this is the modern era where almost no coach has a guaranteed contract.

In contrast, some of the most successful traditional coaches today were not always winners. New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick posted a 5-11 record his first season in 2000, before becoming one of the most successful winners in NFL history. In the NBA, San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich only won 26.6 percent of his games in 1997. Despite this, he became one of the greatest head coaches of all time. What do these coaches still have in common? They both struggled before figuring things out. Yet, if these coaches were fired as quickly as today’s coaches, history would have been changed.

All in all, the coaching culture needs to reverse back to the past when coaches were given time to make a franchise better. Constant change is not a solution, but a problem. Hopefully, owners will begin to realize that success takes patience as seen through the coaching masters of each sport.