Monroe: Decade later, Hill firing painful

[ShoogarBear]

LMAO at how a lot of people feel they have to be "for" or "against" Pop with no in-between.

The facts are that
-Hill, in retrospect, turned out to not the answer to winning championships.
-Pop, in retrospect, turned out to be that answer (with a miniscule assist to Tim).
-That in retrospect things turned out best for the Spurs does not in any way, shape, or form change that obvious impression that the manner in which Hill was fired was underhanded. It makes what happened to Steve Van Gundy look almost good in comparison.

So, Hill wasn't a great coach, and he's bitter, but he probably has some right to be. And Pop clearly had a better plan, and has established his reputation over the years as a good guy, but this is clearly a black mark on his record.

Unless you believe that winning justifies everything. In which case Phil Jackson is your man.

[ambchang]

To me, it's a case of right decision, wrong execution.
Management didn't have the guts to take on the whole city after 95-96, and has to wait till the team did badly to fire Hill. They couldn't do what Dumars did with Carlisle, and if I remember correctly, the reaction to that was, at best, mixed.
I was shocked that Hill was fired back then, I didn't like Pop a bit till 2000 or so (not even after the 99 championship), I always thought his offense was predictable, and he is choking the life out of some of the Spurs players, but he improved through the years, and I am glad he is the Spurs coach.

[exstatic]

Once again, I never had any problem with the actual firing of Bob Hill by the Spurs. The only thing I had a problem with was the way it was done. I felt the method they used was beneath the organization...I felt that way then, and I still feel it was beneath them. They have more class than that. No one, especially in a high profile position like an NBA coach, should find out they have been fired from a parking lot attendant at the Phoenix airport; that's just wrong.

Where did you hear THAT ? Read the other Hill thread. Boo Hoo Bob describes Pop taking him to a room at the team hotel, and firing him. It's in Kori's post of a second article.

[Peter]

The only thing Pop should've done differently is have let Hill go in the summer prior. The fact that it's 2006 and what happened in 1996 is still in the news says enough about Hill.