Kori Ellis
02-21-2006, 02:15 AM
Decade later, Hill firing painful
Web Posted: 02/21/2006 12:00 AM CST
Mike Monroe
San Antonio Express-News
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/basketball/nba/spurs/stories/MYSA022106.1D.spurs.d248d57.html
Bob Hill was warned he could get stung in San Antonio.
You can never be too cautious, he was told. Those critters lurk where you can't see them. They'll strike when you least expect it.
Hill listened to well-meaning Texas friends and promised to be careful, but he let his guard down. One day, about 10 years ago, he got nailed.
"I was working out, and I felt something moving in my shoe," Hill said. "I didn't know what it was, and then it stung me. I took off my shoe and found a scorpion."
It would not be Hill's only painful experience in San Antonio.
On Dec. 10, 1996, 18 games into his third season as Spurs coach, Hill was fired. Compared to that, getting stung by a scorpion was just a pinprick.
Playing without injured center David Robinson, the Spurs were 3-15 when then-general manager Gregg Popovich told Hill he was done.
The two men haven't spoken since.
Tonight, Hill will be on the sidelines as a head coach during a Spurs' game for the first time since that day. This time he will coach the Seattle SuperSonics.
Both coaches call it just another game, but don't expect a warm pregame greeting.
"I'm sure in some people's minds there will be some drama to it," Hill said. "I'm just going to be there to coach the game, and I'm sure he's going to be there to coach the game. In the NBA, it's not about the coaches."
This time, Hill is the one who replaced a fired head coach. The Sonics dismissed Bob Weiss on Jan. 3 after the Sonics started 13-17.
Until he joined Weiss' staff last summer, Hill had been out of the NBA since leaving San Antonio. He worked as a commentator on TNT's NBA broadcasts but said that wasn't a good mix. In 1999, he signed a 10-year contract to coach Fordham, a decision he now calls a mistake. Fordham fired him after his fourth season, when his team went 2-26.
Longtime Spurs fans recall Hill's 1996 dismissal as a flashpoint. In Hill's first two Spurs seasons, his record was 121-43. Some fans thought his firing unfair, as much for its timing as its rationale. Robinson was about to return under the new coach, Popovich.
Popovich wouldn't revisit the past.
"I have absolutely no interest in going back a decade and rehashing anything that happened in the program, whether it be coaching, players, trades or anything else," Popovich said. "At that time, a decision was made by the organization that we thought was necessary and right, and as the GM, it was my job to carry that decision out, and I did. Period."
After a playoff loss to Utah exposed defensive deficiencies, the Spurs believed the team lacked toughness and that Hill had taken it as far as he was capable.
Avery Johnson, the Spurs' point guard under Hill, felt bad for Hill when he got fired but understood why Popovich made the change.
"More than anything, Pop felt it was his responsibility to do something," said Johnson, now coach of the Dallas Mavericks. "He gave it 21/2 years, and it just wasn't going right. Part of it, too, was that Pop wanted to coach."
The decision stunned Hill.
"I was absolutely shocked that, as an organization, they would do that after all the success we had," Hill said recently. "Shocked speechless, to have five guys out of the lineup and to have won 121 games in two years, and to say, 'Oh, we need a change.'"
Hill insists he thinks about the dismissal only when asked about it and acknowledges the decades-old resentment returns when he does.
"I'm beyond it, but when it's brought up again, yes," Hill said, "because it was so wrong to begin with, the way they treated us. It was the way they did it, and it was just classless."
Hill said he wishes he had handled the dismissal better.
"I tried, but I wanted to get away from basketball for a while," he said. "When you work so hard at something and you have success at it and then you still get kicked to the curb, you have thoughts: 'Maybe I should do something else. Why did this happen? What did I do wrong?'
"I didn't think I did anything wrong in San Antonio."
Hill, the first coach to take the Spurs to the Western Conference finals in the Robinson era, recently told Seattle reporters he had built the foundation the Spurs used to win their first NBA title.
"So I feel real good about that," Hill said. "And the players, all of them, said 'Thanks for creating a winning foundation for us. We can win a championship because of you.'"
By the time the Spurs won a title, of course, only four players remained from the teams Hill coached: Robinson, Johnson, Sean Elliott and Will Perdue.
Hill now has a new challenge: keeping the Sonics in the hunt for a Western Conference playoff berth while helping the team's young players to develop. His first adjustment was to get tough with players who admitted they had taken advantage of Weiss' easy nature.
"He came in yelling," All-Star guard Ray Allen said, "telling us what we weren't, what we didn't do, how bad we'd looked, how much passion we hadn't had.
"In a sense, we got Bob Weiss fired because we didn't convert games into wins."
Hill also began playing 7-footers Robert Swift and Johan Petro, both 20. It is difficult to win with raw young big men, but Hill decided it had to be done.
"These two 7-footers needed to play," Hill said. "They just needed to be on the floor."
If Hill's partial season is an audition for getting the Sonics' job on a permanent basis, his bosses are going to have to go more on faith than results. Seattle is 7-16 since Hill took over.
"I think I've done enough in the NBA, my record and accomplishments in San Antonio and Indiana are enough," Hill said. "At the end of the season they've got to decide on a direction they're going to go. But I'm at a point in my life where I just really don't worry about it, and that's the honest-to-God truth. I just do my job as hard as I can do it, every day, like I've always done."
Web Posted: 02/21/2006 12:00 AM CST
Mike Monroe
San Antonio Express-News
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/basketball/nba/spurs/stories/MYSA022106.1D.spurs.d248d57.html
Bob Hill was warned he could get stung in San Antonio.
You can never be too cautious, he was told. Those critters lurk where you can't see them. They'll strike when you least expect it.
Hill listened to well-meaning Texas friends and promised to be careful, but he let his guard down. One day, about 10 years ago, he got nailed.
"I was working out, and I felt something moving in my shoe," Hill said. "I didn't know what it was, and then it stung me. I took off my shoe and found a scorpion."
It would not be Hill's only painful experience in San Antonio.
On Dec. 10, 1996, 18 games into his third season as Spurs coach, Hill was fired. Compared to that, getting stung by a scorpion was just a pinprick.
Playing without injured center David Robinson, the Spurs were 3-15 when then-general manager Gregg Popovich told Hill he was done.
The two men haven't spoken since.
Tonight, Hill will be on the sidelines as a head coach during a Spurs' game for the first time since that day. This time he will coach the Seattle SuperSonics.
Both coaches call it just another game, but don't expect a warm pregame greeting.
"I'm sure in some people's minds there will be some drama to it," Hill said. "I'm just going to be there to coach the game, and I'm sure he's going to be there to coach the game. In the NBA, it's not about the coaches."
This time, Hill is the one who replaced a fired head coach. The Sonics dismissed Bob Weiss on Jan. 3 after the Sonics started 13-17.
Until he joined Weiss' staff last summer, Hill had been out of the NBA since leaving San Antonio. He worked as a commentator on TNT's NBA broadcasts but said that wasn't a good mix. In 1999, he signed a 10-year contract to coach Fordham, a decision he now calls a mistake. Fordham fired him after his fourth season, when his team went 2-26.
Longtime Spurs fans recall Hill's 1996 dismissal as a flashpoint. In Hill's first two Spurs seasons, his record was 121-43. Some fans thought his firing unfair, as much for its timing as its rationale. Robinson was about to return under the new coach, Popovich.
Popovich wouldn't revisit the past.
"I have absolutely no interest in going back a decade and rehashing anything that happened in the program, whether it be coaching, players, trades or anything else," Popovich said. "At that time, a decision was made by the organization that we thought was necessary and right, and as the GM, it was my job to carry that decision out, and I did. Period."
After a playoff loss to Utah exposed defensive deficiencies, the Spurs believed the team lacked toughness and that Hill had taken it as far as he was capable.
Avery Johnson, the Spurs' point guard under Hill, felt bad for Hill when he got fired but understood why Popovich made the change.
"More than anything, Pop felt it was his responsibility to do something," said Johnson, now coach of the Dallas Mavericks. "He gave it 21/2 years, and it just wasn't going right. Part of it, too, was that Pop wanted to coach."
The decision stunned Hill.
"I was absolutely shocked that, as an organization, they would do that after all the success we had," Hill said recently. "Shocked speechless, to have five guys out of the lineup and to have won 121 games in two years, and to say, 'Oh, we need a change.'"
Hill insists he thinks about the dismissal only when asked about it and acknowledges the decades-old resentment returns when he does.
"I'm beyond it, but when it's brought up again, yes," Hill said, "because it was so wrong to begin with, the way they treated us. It was the way they did it, and it was just classless."
Hill said he wishes he had handled the dismissal better.
"I tried, but I wanted to get away from basketball for a while," he said. "When you work so hard at something and you have success at it and then you still get kicked to the curb, you have thoughts: 'Maybe I should do something else. Why did this happen? What did I do wrong?'
"I didn't think I did anything wrong in San Antonio."
Hill, the first coach to take the Spurs to the Western Conference finals in the Robinson era, recently told Seattle reporters he had built the foundation the Spurs used to win their first NBA title.
"So I feel real good about that," Hill said. "And the players, all of them, said 'Thanks for creating a winning foundation for us. We can win a championship because of you.'"
By the time the Spurs won a title, of course, only four players remained from the teams Hill coached: Robinson, Johnson, Sean Elliott and Will Perdue.
Hill now has a new challenge: keeping the Sonics in the hunt for a Western Conference playoff berth while helping the team's young players to develop. His first adjustment was to get tough with players who admitted they had taken advantage of Weiss' easy nature.
"He came in yelling," All-Star guard Ray Allen said, "telling us what we weren't, what we didn't do, how bad we'd looked, how much passion we hadn't had.
"In a sense, we got Bob Weiss fired because we didn't convert games into wins."
Hill also began playing 7-footers Robert Swift and Johan Petro, both 20. It is difficult to win with raw young big men, but Hill decided it had to be done.
"These two 7-footers needed to play," Hill said. "They just needed to be on the floor."
If Hill's partial season is an audition for getting the Sonics' job on a permanent basis, his bosses are going to have to go more on faith than results. Seattle is 7-16 since Hill took over.
"I think I've done enough in the NBA, my record and accomplishments in San Antonio and Indiana are enough," Hill said. "At the end of the season they've got to decide on a direction they're going to go. But I'm at a point in my life where I just really don't worry about it, and that's the honest-to-God truth. I just do my job as hard as I can do it, every day, like I've always done."