Is There A Coach Of The Year Curse?

Posted May 14, 2010 – 3:39 pm in: Sports News

Before considering Oklahoma City’s NBA championship odds for next season, you may want to look at a potentially tough situation for Coach of the Year Scott Brooks, who may find that winning the award may not be the best for his career.

scott-brooks

The last five winners of the award for the NBA’s best coach haven’t fared so well, to say the least:

-Mike D’Antoni led the Suns to the conference finals in his first two years in Phoenix, then was fired two years later after a pair of defeats to San Antonio.  Now he coaches in New York, and well, it’s the Knicks.  He does have a gold medal from the Beijing Olympics as an assistant, however.

-Avery Johnson’s Mavericks lost to Miami in the Finals the same year he won, then he was dumped after two first-round exits in a row.  He should be coaching again very soon, though.

-Sam Mitchell improved Toronto by 20 games to win the award in 2007, but after two first-round exits and missing the postseason, the Raptors cut him loose.

-Byron Scott has two Finals appearances on his resume that came before he won the award with New Orleans in 2008, but after a first-round exit in 2009, Scott was stung by the Hornets.

-Mike Brown won just last year with Cleveland, and anyone who watched last night’s Game 6 loss by the Cavaliers would pretty much bet on Brown not being on the Cleveland bench next season.

The Thunder had a very promising year this season and are definitely the breakout team of the year, but expectations should be tempered for the young team and their equally young coach, who should be given time to make Oklahoma City a legitimate betting favorite.

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