Kori Ellis
02-21-2006, 02:12 AM
Buck Harvey: Poor Bob? Nature of the business
Web Posted: 02/21/2006 12:00 AM CST
San Antonio Express-News
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/basketball/nba/spurs/stories/MYSA022106.1D.buck.d248db8.html
This story is too old. Too tired. Too appropriate for tonight.
It's about the Spurs firing a coach just when it looked like David Robinson would play. The coach had to leave San Antonio to find work, and he once went a long time between NBA head coaching jobs. Then, just this season, Seattle gave him another chance.
But the opportunity he lost in San Antonio still haunts his career, because he wasn't able to build upon his reputation as a winner.
Goodness.
Doesn't Bob Weiss have the right to be bitter?
If Weiss is sour, he's never shown it. He was the same this season after the Sonics fired him.
That happened in January. Weiss spent 14 seasons in Seattle as an assistant, then got the ax after only two months as the head coach. He's said almost nothing for public consumption since, though his wife had a few, sad words ("I'm heartbroken for him").
His peers added the usual.
"I was disappointed he only got 30 games to try to prove he can coach," said Utah's Jerry Sloan, who played with Weiss on the Bulls for six seasons. "But that's the nature of this business."
The nature of this business can be impatient and sometimes unfair. Yes, Weiss went only 13-17 with the core of a team that challenged the Spurs last season in the playoffs. But the coach who replaced Weiss comes into tonight against the Spurs with a 7-16 record.
Too old, too tired — and too much like what Weiss faced in the '80s with the Spurs. Then, the late Angelo Drossos gave Weiss his break, hiring him off the Dallas bench where he was an assistant.
There wasn't much to work with in San Antonio, and Weiss' first season was dismal. But along with it came the lottery jackpot, Robinson, as well as a decade of promise.
Weiss thought he was set. Drossos liked him, rewarding him with a new three-year contract during his second Spurs season, and Weiss paid back Drossos a few months later. The Spurs, albeit with only 31 wins, made the playoffs.
If Robinson could cut his two-year commitment to the Navy in half — as many thought possible — wouldn't Weiss have a chance to prove himself the next season?
Then came the bolt that changed the franchise, when Red McCombs stepped in with $47 million and about as many ideas. McCombs' first move was to fire Weiss, and his second was to go after Larry Brown.
Why not stick with Weiss?
"I had no ill feelings toward him," McCombs said last week. "But he was tied to failure. I couldn't sell that."
It was smart, bold — and expensive. To obtain the credibility that Brown would bring, McCombs offered a $700,000 annual salary, a record then for an NBA coach.
Several league owners met with McCombs to complain. Among them was the same Jerry Buss who now pays Phil Jackson about $10 million.
McCombs anted up because it made business sense. He low-balled his last Vikings coach, Mike Tice, for the same reason.
But then came a twist. Robinson didn't get out of his Naval commitment as hoped, and Brown was left coaching Weiss' leftovers. The expensive and credible Brown then won 10 fewer games than Weiss had the year before.
Weiss' reaction then: "It's Red's team now, and he has to have somebody he's comfortable with. I can certainly see his viewpoint. My feelings are more of disappointment that I couldn't see this through."
Professional. Egoless. Diplomatic. Weiss understood the nature of the business that Sloan talked about — that coaches are well paid yet also vulnerable. He understood he wasn't the first coach to lose his job because of someone's subjective analysis, and he understood that protesting wouldn't help his standing within the league.
That attitude likely helped Weiss get other chances in Atlanta and with the Clippers. He failed in those places, as he did in Seattle, believing reason and intelligence can win out. Maybe an NBA coach needs more of an edge, and maybe Weiss always has been a better fit as an assistant.
But what if McCombs had given him a chance? What if Weiss had coached Robinson, and what if Weiss had started his career as a winner?
"I informed Bob Weiss that he would no longer be in the role as head coach," McCombs said in 1988. "And he was a gentleman."
Goodness.
Web Posted: 02/21/2006 12:00 AM CST
San Antonio Express-News
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/basketball/nba/spurs/stories/MYSA022106.1D.buck.d248db8.html
This story is too old. Too tired. Too appropriate for tonight.
It's about the Spurs firing a coach just when it looked like David Robinson would play. The coach had to leave San Antonio to find work, and he once went a long time between NBA head coaching jobs. Then, just this season, Seattle gave him another chance.
But the opportunity he lost in San Antonio still haunts his career, because he wasn't able to build upon his reputation as a winner.
Goodness.
Doesn't Bob Weiss have the right to be bitter?
If Weiss is sour, he's never shown it. He was the same this season after the Sonics fired him.
That happened in January. Weiss spent 14 seasons in Seattle as an assistant, then got the ax after only two months as the head coach. He's said almost nothing for public consumption since, though his wife had a few, sad words ("I'm heartbroken for him").
His peers added the usual.
"I was disappointed he only got 30 games to try to prove he can coach," said Utah's Jerry Sloan, who played with Weiss on the Bulls for six seasons. "But that's the nature of this business."
The nature of this business can be impatient and sometimes unfair. Yes, Weiss went only 13-17 with the core of a team that challenged the Spurs last season in the playoffs. But the coach who replaced Weiss comes into tonight against the Spurs with a 7-16 record.
Too old, too tired — and too much like what Weiss faced in the '80s with the Spurs. Then, the late Angelo Drossos gave Weiss his break, hiring him off the Dallas bench where he was an assistant.
There wasn't much to work with in San Antonio, and Weiss' first season was dismal. But along with it came the lottery jackpot, Robinson, as well as a decade of promise.
Weiss thought he was set. Drossos liked him, rewarding him with a new three-year contract during his second Spurs season, and Weiss paid back Drossos a few months later. The Spurs, albeit with only 31 wins, made the playoffs.
If Robinson could cut his two-year commitment to the Navy in half — as many thought possible — wouldn't Weiss have a chance to prove himself the next season?
Then came the bolt that changed the franchise, when Red McCombs stepped in with $47 million and about as many ideas. McCombs' first move was to fire Weiss, and his second was to go after Larry Brown.
Why not stick with Weiss?
"I had no ill feelings toward him," McCombs said last week. "But he was tied to failure. I couldn't sell that."
It was smart, bold — and expensive. To obtain the credibility that Brown would bring, McCombs offered a $700,000 annual salary, a record then for an NBA coach.
Several league owners met with McCombs to complain. Among them was the same Jerry Buss who now pays Phil Jackson about $10 million.
McCombs anted up because it made business sense. He low-balled his last Vikings coach, Mike Tice, for the same reason.
But then came a twist. Robinson didn't get out of his Naval commitment as hoped, and Brown was left coaching Weiss' leftovers. The expensive and credible Brown then won 10 fewer games than Weiss had the year before.
Weiss' reaction then: "It's Red's team now, and he has to have somebody he's comfortable with. I can certainly see his viewpoint. My feelings are more of disappointment that I couldn't see this through."
Professional. Egoless. Diplomatic. Weiss understood the nature of the business that Sloan talked about — that coaches are well paid yet also vulnerable. He understood he wasn't the first coach to lose his job because of someone's subjective analysis, and he understood that protesting wouldn't help his standing within the league.
That attitude likely helped Weiss get other chances in Atlanta and with the Clippers. He failed in those places, as he did in Seattle, believing reason and intelligence can win out. Maybe an NBA coach needs more of an edge, and maybe Weiss always has been a better fit as an assistant.
But what if McCombs had given him a chance? What if Weiss had coached Robinson, and what if Weiss had started his career as a winner?
"I informed Bob Weiss that he would no longer be in the role as head coach," McCombs said in 1988. "And he was a gentleman."
Goodness.