The Sixers’ Huge Coaching Problem
There are plenty of reasons the Sixers haven’t won anything since 2001. But the major problem they have selecting head coaches may be the biggest reason of all.
In the NBA, coaching consistency plays as big a role in building a championship team as the players do. Since the 1989 season, 19 of the 21 NBA championships were won by 5 teams (Pistons, Bulls, Lakers, Rockets, Spurs). Besides talented players, all of those teams had head coaches that can consistently lead their teams to championships. Many of the coaches started in the building phases of the team and led them to greatness multiple times during their tenures.
That’s clearly missing from the Sixers. Since 1979, only 2 of their head coaches have lasted 5 years or more. 1 was Billy Cunningham who brought a championship to Philadelphia in 1983 and the other was Larry Brown who led the Sixers to the NBA Finals in 2001. Both of them are in the Basketball Hall of Fame and their consistency and ability to stick around for a while propelled the Sixers to greatness.
When you look at the incredibly poor decisions made by Sixers management when it comes to head coaches since Brown’s departure, it’s obvious that there’s something they’re not getting. Since Brown left in 2003, the Sixers have had 6 different head coaches and 2 were fired midway through a season. You simply can’t win in turbulent situations like that.
This Summer, I got excited when I looked at the names of coaches available for the Sixers to go after. They seemed to be open to anything. The news was being spread that guys like Doug Collins, Kurt Rambis and even Jay Wright were all possibilities. The path the Sixers took was a much less exciting one. They hired Eddie Jordan and we’re all witnessing how that’s been working out for them.
Judging by the way things are going this year, the Sixers may be looking for yet another new head coach for next season. This time they better hire someone else to do the job search because the people that have been making the decisions for the past decade just don’t get it. Bring in someone who can stick around for a while and build this young talent into a championship team. Just think about what the Sixers could have done over the past 15 years with coaching constancy like the Lakers, Spurs or Jazz have…
