Blazers Fire Maurice Cheeks
As the Portland Trailblazers continue their slide down the standings in the Western conference to 12th out of the 15 teams, management fired Maurice Cheeks after three and a half years as the teams head coach, as reported on the Blazers website. Cheeks was the scapegoat for the team's failure to reach the playoffs last year, and they will likely miss the playoffs again this year, even though the team has the talent. The Blazers have lost 7 of their last 9 games.
At the same news conference, the Blazers announced that the team's president of player personnel,Kevin Pritchard, will take over as the interim head coach.
Cheeks had a tumultuous tenure as the Blazers head coach trying to manage the league's most immature team. Several of the players were arrested for possession of maurijuana, among other crimes, over the past three and a half years. Some of the trouble makers that the coach had to look after included Bonzi Wells, Damon Stoudamire, Rasheed Wallace, Qyntel Woods, and Darius Miles. Although most players like and respect Cheeks and consider him a "players' coach," it was almost impossible for him to make the players cooperate and stay out of trouble, on and off the court.
posted by Josh Hauserman @ 4:20 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
nice summary ... i imagine you will be posting links to nba team sites and news orgs that cover the nba on the right hand nav etc ? cheers, alex
I like your blog so far, I think pictures of Maurice Cheeks or the team would help liven up your blog.
sweet name
There you go guys, I posted links to all of the NBA team sites on the sidebar in the standings as well as other sites and blogs that cover the NBA. I also just put up a picture of Maurice Cheeks, thanks for the advice!
I feel like the coaches are always the scape goat. Sometimes there is nothing a coach could do to get their players to work better.
Amy, I agree, especially in this case. Mo Cheeks is a good, proven coach, but he was stuck to manage a bunch of delinquents. Plus, the main reason that he was fired was because the Blazers management wanted Cheeks to play younger players to help them develop, at the same time sacrificing more wins, so, in a way, he was fired for trying to win NOW, with the players that he has.
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