Grizzlies fire Dave Joerger

[Andrew]

Dolan.

[shadowgrin]

Ewing doesn't share the appreciation for jazz music like Zeke and Dolan have.

[benji]

But according to Brian Windhorst of ESPN, Ewing may not have a chance at securing a job. Windhorst revealed some vague but eye-opening comments about Ewing's reputation around the NBA on ESPN Radio's "Mike and Mike."

Windhorst paused and hesitated on the show when asked about Ewing's candidacy, seemingly looking for a way to not be too harsh, before awkwardly saying, "The people I've talked to aren't sure that he completely is the head coaching material that people are looking for."

He continued: "Other people who've worked with Patrick say he should've been a head coach years ago. But there's a stigma out there that he is not quite the greatest fit for a head coaching job. I'm trying to say that diplomatically, from what people have told me. He has gotten some interest before, but I don't think he's even in the top five for the Sacramento job."

Ewing is, by most accounts, a dedicated assistant who has earned his stripes leading big men through their paces in practice and doing all the behind-the-scenes things required of an assistant. But he’s never made it past the early-candidate stage, according to people who know such things. He interviewed with the Detroit Pistons in 2011 and the Charlotte Bobcats in 2012. Nothing came of it.

Is it because NBA front offices are biased against former centers when it comes to picking a head coach?

“He’s a smart player. He’s a great leader. But you very seldom hear intelligence associated with height in the NBA or in college. Therefore, they think that the people who are thinking on the floor all the time are guards. Patrick is suffering from that,” John Thompson Jr., Ewing’s college coach at Georgetown and a major proponent of his coaching bona fines, told The Post’s Michael Lee in February 2015. “You know what I respect most of all about him? He didn’t just expect you to just bring him in. He deserves an opportunity to coach. It wasn’t like he took the lazy approach, because my name is so-and-so.”

Ewing himself admitted that his size could be working against him to Yahoo’s Marc J. Spears in 2014.

“There probably is a big man perception,” Ewing said. “They think that all guards are the best thing. It’s a guard-oriented league right now, but it is what it is.”

Thompson and Ewing are onto something here: Kevin McHale was the league’s only big-man head coach when the season began, but the Rockets fired him in November after a 4-7 start. The last true center to be an NBA head coach — at 6 feet 10, McHale was more of a power forward — was 6-11 Kim Hughes, and he only was interim coach of the Los Angeles Clippers for all of 33 games in 2010.

Or is it possibly because Ewing has never actively campaigned for a head coaching job?

“He’s not at all a self-promoter,” Charlotte Hornets Coach Steve Clifford, Ewing’s current boss and another proponent, told USA Today in 2015. “We were together in Houston and in Orlando. And both times, when Jeff [Van Gundy] called him to come to Houston, and Stan [Van Gundy] called him to come to Orlando, his big thing was, ‘I’ll come as long as I’m doing everything everybody else is doing.’ A lot of guys don’t want all the work. He embraced all the work. But I don’t think that story gets out there because he doesn’t worry about it.”

According to Spears, the only head coaching offer Ewing has received was from Erie of the NBA Development League, an offer he turned down. Ewing has a higher goal in mind. Whether he ever gets a chance is anyone’s guess.

[benji]

Remember, Kareem could barely even get an assistant coaching gig for years.

[shadowgrin]

This big man bias against Ewing is too much, he's not dumb with his X & O's like David Robinson was in his playing days.

[air gordon]

Remember, Kareem could barely even get an assistant coaching gig for years.

i barely remember Kareem in general. lakers games were barely broadcasted here. the most i saw of him was on Airplane! and Diff'rent strokes.

i had heard some vague grumblings about Ewing not being head coach material when charlotte was in town but nothing specific

[Andrew]

As far as Kareem not getting coaching gigs, isn't it more about his reputation for being churlish and difficult than anti-big man bias?

[benji]

That hasn't hurt the career of [about twenty modern era coaches] as much.

[Andrew]

Better connections that helped them shake off bad reputations, perhaps.

[Jackal]

Can't ever be sure of how true it is or if it even plays a factor in Ewing being named a head coach but according to this podcast Ewing basically spends a lot of his time just staring at dancers during time-outs and isn't very participant with players/coaches during time outs.

I don't watch enough Hornets games to know if it's true or not but just throwing that info out there as well.

Source: 26-28 minute mark.

[NovU]

Pardon me for stereotyping but it's just how things work on this planet. Smaller guys tend to be less egoistic and willing to put in more work and effort. You go to a gym, you will see more short personal trainers and bodybuilders than Dwayne Johnsons. You go to a local martial arts schools, you will find your masters and instructors come in size of Mike Zambidis and George St-Pierre, and not Jon Jones.

[Jackal]

Or the shorter people outnumber the taller people and you see them at your gyms more often than the taller, larger people because they are more in abundance.

Then again it's your logic so..yeah.

[air gordon]

you go to the gym?

[Jackal]

He brought up the gym, but yes I do.

[NovU]

Yeah, it was just actually a jokingly said logic told by my coach back in the school days, lol. I guess his shorter guys were trying hard then.



btw topic leads to 'are big men unfit to coach an NBA team?' Their record is not that good even though it's only a sample size. McHale, Cartwright, who else is there? I don't think the league's biased against Ewing or any other big tbh. If qualification and talent were there, they probably have noticed and paid them to win.

[air gordon]

bill russell

He brought up the gym, but yes I do.

[Andrew]

Phil Jackson.