AILSA CHANG, HOST:
OK, imagine you are an NBA coach, and you're going in for a performance review. And you're feeling pretty good - right? - because your team just won the championship two years ago, and your star player has won three of the last four MVP awards. And so you walk into your boss' office, and guess what happens? You get fired. That is what happened to Mike Malone, the coach of the Denver Nuggets, this week. His boss, the general manager, was also fired, and the move sent shockwaves across the NBA.
But Malone is far from alone. Of the past five coaches to win an NBA title, only two still have their jobs. So what does it take to hold on to your coaching job in the NBA? Well, to help us answer that question is Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic. Welcome.
MIKE VORKUNOV: Hi. Thanks for having me.
CHANG: So help us understand what is going on here. Like, why would a coach who has seen this much success lose his job? Please, make this clear.
VORKUNOV: I wish I could tell you that it was an easy case of something, but it's not. It's a little bit complicated. You know, to your point, he did win an NBA title less than two years ago. Now he is out of a job. Part of it is that, arguably, the Denver Nuggets had been on a bit of a skid lately. You know, with the NBA and the Western Conference, it's a very tightly packed situation there, and so they're a little bit on the precipice with only three games to go in the regular season. And additionally, as you mentioned, the general manager was also fired, and there had been a bit of a schism in the organization between the head coach and the general manager that seemed to have helped contribute to the many factors that led to Mike Malone losing his job. But still, the timing of it was...
CHANG: Yes, the timing of it is weird. What does it take to hold on to your coaching job in the NBA? Like, why wouldn't winning a championship give you some job security?
VORKUNOV: Maybe it's too simple to say that only winning more championships can help you keep your job.
CHANG: (Laughter) Do you think these firings of coaches reflect something bigger going on in the NBA right now?
VORKUNOV: It does seem to show that there's less job security now for even, you know, title-winning coaches. You know, three of the last five coaches to win an NBA title have not only been fired but fired within two years of winning a championship. It seems like really, you know, the only coaches in the NBA that have this supreme kind of job security are Steve Kerr, Erik Spoelstra and Gregg Popovich. And everyone else is already on the clock almost as soon as the parade is over and the confetti is being picked up. And so everything does seem a little bit more pressurized in the NBA these days.
CHANG: Well, I am also wondering - you know, 'cause teams in the NBA are getting more and more valuable and - is that trend with coaches related to that? Like, the billionaires who have purchased these teams, they want their teams to win now. They want a return on investment now. Is that also part of what's going on?
VORKUNOV: Yeah, I think that could partly be part of the trend. I think it's hard to sometimes marry the two things. You know, in this case - and also another head coach, Taylor Jenkins, was fired from Memphis Grizzlies with about 10 games to go, even though the team was set to make the playoffs. The ownership groups for those two teams are not new. They've been owning teams for a while, but I think it is fair to say that as teams become more valuable, as there is more money being spent on players' salary, as everything is being more professionalized, there does seem to be a bit more of an expectation of results and less of a grace period for people who don't get them.
CHANG: OK. That is Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic. Thank you so much for coming on to our show.
VORKUNOV: Happy to do it. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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