Reply With Quote
Oh yea!!!!!!!!! Great news!
I've had all my fingers crossed he would stay.
Mitc close to new deal with Raptors, sources say
Mitc DealMay 18, 2007 04:30 AM
DOUG SMITH
Sports Reporter
Sam Mitc is closer today to returning as head coach of the Raptors than he was when the season ended.
According to league sources, talks between Mitc 's agent and Raptor president and general manager Bryan Colangelo are progressing well enough that a framework is close to being in place for a deal that could be finalized next week, keeping the 43-year-old with the franchise he's coached for the past three years.
The head coach, whose contract expires on June 30, was a guest during ESPN's broadcast of the Detroit-Chicago playoff game last night and sounded optimistic that he'd return to Toronto with a new contract, saying he expected to return to the team he led to a division championship this season.
It was the most emphatic he's been about his future since leading Toronto to its first post-season berth in five years.
Colangelo maintained his long-held stance of not commenting on the specifics of negotiations with his coach but said last night he remains "optimistic" that Mitc would return.
The general manager has already denied one unnamed team official permission to discuss its coaching vacancy with Mitc and dissuaded another that make an official inquiry into the timeline.
Colangelo did say last week that the May 29 start of the NBA's pre-draft camp in Orlando would be a key date in talks with Mitc 's agent.
Mitc 's future has been the biggest cloud hovering over the Raptors since the team was eliminated from the playoffs earlier this month.
While both the general manager and the coach expressed optimism that a new deal could be reached, the presence of other potential suitors and the financial terms of a new deal were complicating factors.
Mitc is finishing a three-year deal worth less than $6 million (all figures U.S.) a season, a salary that puts him far down the list of NBA head coaches.
It's been widely speculated that he would be looking for something along the lines of a four-year deal worth more than $16 million.
Mitc and Colangelo, in the one year they worked together, conspired to turn the Raptors from a laughingstock into an Atlantic Division champion. The team won 20 more games this season that it did in 2005-06, Mitc was the league's coach of the year and Colangelo was named the executive of the year.
Another paper says it is going to be a three-year deal at about $12M.
Oh yea!!!!!!!!! Great news!
I've had all my fingers crossed he would stay.
I actually don't like Sam as a coach...It's funny, you add some talent to the team and he wins Coach of the Year...big deal. Doc Rivers won as well...where the is he...
Oh ... oh well, Raptors is going to waste away a few more of Bosh's prime years by having one of the worst coaches of the years ever (Doc Rivers being the other).
Sign Rick Adelman if you want to run, sign Paul Silas if you want discipline and structure.
Did you notice how all the players instinctively ralied around Coach Mitc when Stern presented Mitc with the Coach of the Yeaf award?
I think that speaks volumes of the type of coach that Coach Mitc is as do the results that he and his team attained this season.
To sum up: Don't hate, congratulate.
I am sure rasho is rejoicing
because he did get to play how many minutes in the postseason
Mitc : 'It's not done until it's done'
http://www.globesports.com/servlet/s...asketball/home"Why wouldn't I want to come back? Bryan is good at what he does, I've got a great group of guys; my all-star [Chris Bosh] is a very coachable person; I've got a guy with unbelievable potential in Andrea [Bargnani] and a group of guys that play hard and play together.
"Why would I want to hand over such a sweet job to someone else, especially when I went through for two-and-a-half years to get it there?"
Mitc said an important message was sent by Colangelo when he denied other teams — believed to be Indiana and Charlotte — the permission to talk to Mitc about coaching opportunities with their teams when they inquried earlier this week.
"It made me feel good that Bryan didn't allow other teams to talk to me. It made me feel wanted, and that's what everyone wants," said Mitc . "I think the players want me back; I think the fans want me back and I think Bryan wants me back.
"It makes me feel good."
They need to extend Mitc . Well deserved.
You would have to ask him. Or if you like, I would be glad to do so for you.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
