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This is old already. There's a reason the guy hadn't received another NBA head coaching opportunity in the past decade. He needs to quit whining.
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/b...s.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 le.
"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 le, 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."
This is old already. There's a reason the guy hadn't received another NBA head coaching opportunity in the past decade. He needs to quit whining.
He's not whining. Actually, he is right for what he feels and says. He experienced it, not you, so something like "quit whining" is easy for you to say. I loved him as a coach, but obviously enjoy Pop more, as the Spurs have turned around everything in the past 10 years.
I remember that year (96-97), the slogan was "I still love my Spurs." A lot of fair-weathered fans got off the bandwagon, saying "I USED to love my Spurs." Hmm
I hope we win by 50.
What. The. ?????
The same players who went to Pop begging him to do something? Those players gave him crdit for their Championship? Riiight.
Christ I hope the Spurs win by 50 too.
Since taking over in Seattle, Hill has whined enough about being fired 10 years ago that I think he'll earn himself another long vacation from the NBA as soon as the Sonics axe him too.
Christ. The guy had one season over .500 in Indiana and was 3-9 in playoff games there. In SA he was the beneficiary of a DRob in his prime, 3-15 without him. 14-11 in playoffs with big Dave. Then what, 2-26 at Fordham? 7-16 so far in Seattle, even worse than paper-soft Bob Weiss? These are the "record and accomplishments" he is so proud of?
If he was such a wonderful coach someone would have hired his ass after the Spurs canned him. Right now he's shooting for first-ballot election into the Whiner's Hall of Fame.
Good post. Even better quote in your sig.
"75% of Earth is covered by water. The other 25% is covered by Bruce Bowen." -- Jason Thompson
That's a keeper!
Listen.......... Bob Hill has alot of baggage that has not been made public. The guy is a complete IDIOT if he thinks for one second that Pop has not covered for his ass after all these years. Anybody who was close to that organization in those years knows that Bob Hill was a UP and that he was doing that would have had him fired even before he got the boot.
Ownership wanted him gone because he was a kiss ass behind closed doors and then would walk out the door and tell the players and those around the league that he had to TEACH Pop and the rest of the ORGANIZATION how to play with the BIG BOYS.
Bob Hill IS A LEGEND IN HIS OWN ING MIND!!!!!
Pop stuck up for him and Bob Hill knows it but this is who he is. He is an arrogant ass hole who nobody else around the league wanted. Bob Hill was begging for jobs but he was not wanted. He tells a story of wanting to take a break and everybody knows he's full of .
Bob Hill will try and jump tonight if they don't get the win!
Bob's biggest problem with the Spurs was his team(s) played too soft. Pop changed that and it wasn't just with Tim Duncan.
Did anybody here see the coach interference call when the Sonics played at the Pistons in January? He got in Rip's way on the sideline when he was taking a 3, and the rule is that the shot automatically counts and there's a tech free throw, and I think it was only a 4 pt game at the time in the 4th, so Hill very well may have cost his team a win against what was then the hottest team in the league. Great coach. Very aware.
To me Bob is behaving as if he is the only one to ever be forced to regroup after a major disappointment, which is as y as it is ridiculous.
A decade is way to long to indulge in this much mourning over what was and will never be again.
I think Bob would be best served if he gave up beating a long dead horse and focused on preserving his discretion and dignity.
I have been waiting for this game all week, and I have been expecting the Spurs to come out with a ferocity that will set a tone for the second half of the season. I really had not given any thought as to who was our opponent was tonight, only to the fact that we were going to demolish them, and when I realized it was Hill and the Sonics, anything less than a 30 point win will leave me dissapointed.
Hill is on a downward course to oblivion. Sadly he cannot let go.
I actually liked the guy back then too and thought he got a raw deal. However, Pop must have known something in that those Hill-coached teams never got past the WCF or the Utah Jazz.
Again, if Hill was "worth his salt" as a coach, someone would have given him a head coaching job before now. The same thing happened to Weiss and you don't hear him constantly ing and moanin'.
Whatever. That is old news from 10 years ago. Let's just say I am pleased with how things turned out. Both of you need to get over yourselves.
Bob Who?
I agree with everyone here. Boner wasn't a great coach, and it was the best thing for this franchise he was let go. However, the timing was awful. It was still pretty low of Pop to can him right when David came back from his injury. Riley did the same thing to Van Gundy this year with Shaq....
My biggest fear in this game is Hill using his thug Fortson to seriously injure one of our guys...
david robinson wanted hill gone and got him fired
pop just obeyed the star player of the spurs
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. Anyone and EVERYone should have a face to face meeting with the people they work for in order to be told they are being fired. The kid who cleans off the tables and mops the floors at McDonald's deserves that, and Bob Hill deserved that. No matter how good or bad you are at your job.
And, no matter how much I like Pop these days and how smart I think he is and how good at his job I think he is...I still feel exactly the same about that time that I do about the Riley/Van Gundy situation earlier this season.
There's no doubt that Pop ha "blood on his hands" from how he handled that situation with Bob Hill. I found it strange that he didn't take more of a public relations "flogging" for it.
However, would anyone trade the results of what haws transpired since then?
3 les in 7 years. Time to move on.
Ducks, DRob did not agree with the firing at first. To Pop's credit he never did give Dave the hard sell and try to make Bob look bad.
Behind the scenes Avery and Sean were two of the many who were hoping Pop would take the team over. Dave never called for Bob's head. DRob had a good relationship with Hill and genuinely liked the guy.
I'll never forgive the coaching legend for the '95 WCF. Pop went up against the entire city when he dropped Hill. Thank God.
The only coach I was ever sad to see go, was Lucas. I really don't know how I will feel when Pop leaves, I don't have feel a connection with him, other than appreciation for helping us get 3 les and staying out of Duncan's way. I guess it depends on how the Spurs do after he leaves. Funny, because up until '99, I hated his guts, not because of the Hill incident, but because Pop made what seemed like alot of boneheaded game decisions back in the day.
Do you have some fascination with underachievement?
The day that the Spurs fired John Lucas was the day that I was sure that ownership was committed to something more than mediocrity.
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