The NBA has a problem with all of their coach firings, and Carmelo Anthony has a solution to fix it.
The Denver Nuggets on Tuesday shockingly fired Michael Malone with just three regular-season games remaining. Malone was fired despite leading Denver to eight straight winning seasons out of his 10 years as the team’s head coach, and despite having led the Nuggets to the championship two years ago.
Malone’s firing continued a disturbing trend in the NBA where coaches get fired regardless of what type of success they’ve had recently. Mike Brown was fired by the Kings despite being the Coach of the Year two years ago. Mike Budenholzer was fired by the Bucks two years after winning the championship. Nick Nurse was fired three years after winning the championship with Toronto.
Anthony was talking on this week’s episode of his Wave Original show “7PM in Brooklyn” and proposed a solution that would fix the problem.
“Why are y’all paying these coaches that much money and are willing to just say go, and we’ll pay y’all [anyways]. No, if I pay you four years, you stay here four years. I don’t give a f-ck what the record is. I’m not wasting 75 million on a coach like that. To coach two years and get rid of him. Now I got to pay you? Nah, you going to coach, whether we great, whether we a-s. You going to coach until your contract is over with I don’t care what no fans say, you gonna coach until your contract is out. And that’s why I said the coaches’ salaries should be a part of the overall salary cap. Because if you add that, if you add that to the overall salary cap, these teams will be reluctant to let these coaches go like that. They would be reluctant,” Anthony said (profanity censored by LBS).
Only player salaries are figured into the salary cap. Teams are allowed to spend as much as they want on coaches and front office staff.
The only way a concept like this would gain traction would be if the NBA owners had an interest in putting a cap on spending for coaches, and if the coaches unionized and collectively bargained a deal like the players have. Coaches are making so much money that they probably wouldn’t have an interest in limiting their pay.
