Friday…Billy Donovan signs on to be the head coach of the Orlando Magic, leaving the University of Florida, Gainesville and his back-to-back NCAA titles for the riches of the NBA.
Monday…Billy regrets it.
ESPN.com’s Andy Katz is saying Billy wants out. I think that would be a terrible move. Billy you have already had your press conference and you have already said this was one of the toughest decisions of your life. Is there a huge chance that you will fail Billy? More than likely, that is just the trend and there is next to nothing that you can do about it. However, looking at this, Billy this is your chance to go to the NBA and to get that big payday. You have accomplished what few coaches can do and that is to win back-to-back NCAA championships. You and the whole world it is not getting any better than that. Your nucleus, your team is gone. The expectations and the pressure will not be. Noah, Brewer, Green, Horford and co. are not gonna be walking through that door when you’re 0-4 in the SEC. You are getting while the getting is good with your head held high. The nature of college basketball these days is ridiculously cutthroat. Coaches get dropped left and right like that. I hope Billy Donovan is not foolish enough to think that won’t happen to him.
Besides you can always go back to college.
- EDIT: The Orlando Sentinel is saying he IS out. Oh boy. I don’t know about you all but I am not a fan of the whole ‘guy gets hired as a coach, changes his mind and goes back to his old job’ thing and it has happened like three times this year. I am very annoyed with Billy Donovan, but there is your negative karma Orlando. You hired Brian Hill (for GOD knows what reason) he did his job and got you to the playoffs so you fired him for Billy Donovan who is going back to Florida anyways. Nice one guys.
- I don’t think Billy will be taking the fam to Universal Studios anytime soon…yikes.
- MJ and motorsports? This is pretty funny just to read the story of MJ meeting the bikers on a late night.
- This article about LeBron made my skin crawl. Another example of the ‘what have you done for me lately’ ideal from the media. I thought I was past this, I thought I was ok. I guess not. Why does everyone act like LeBron playing with Ilgauskas is such a terrible thing. Do people forget that MJ had the following guys as his centers; Dave Corzine, Bill Cartwright, Will Purdue, Bill Wennington, Luc Longley and Robert Parish way past being Robert Parish. But anyways Bruce Jenkins wrote this in his little article;
“See, that’s the thing about James. Guys like Bryant and Jordan didn’t make their teammates better — not unless you count the benefits of having Bryant and Jordan double-teamed. James, from his days in high school, lives to make the great pass. He’s the most exciting, creative distributor for a man his size since Bird. “Making teammates better” is truly looking out for them, delivering passes where players like to receive them, at specific spots on the floor, and enjoying it more than any personal glory.”
First of all…Daniel Gibson WAS the beneficiary of all the attention placed on LeBron James. He got to the line by going by defenders running at him, or he made wide open threes. Kobe does not make his teammates better..great point. MJ? False. I am not even going to entertain that thought. “The most exciting, creative distributor for a man his size since Bird.” Yeah, about that, there was actually this 6-8 guy who played for the Lakers…called himself Magic Johnson. Guy averaged more assists in his rookie season (7.3 per game at the age of 20) than LeBron has in his career. Making teammates better is far more than just giving them good passes.
- More talk of the demise of the Pistons. I could probably put up one of these a day for the rest of the summer.
- ESPN.com’s Chad Ford posted on his Insider Blog that Ante Tomic is out of the draft. He was a project anyways, but now we’ve got to go fix the damn mock draft.
- I am not really buying the Spurs as villains against Cleveland. Are the Spurs unlikable? Sure…but its more for being just really good than any sort of evil.
- Ya know…this LeBron vs. D-Wade article brings up come good points. There is no chance LeBron has the same Finals debut that D-Wade had…but no one brings up D-Wade in any of these montages or graphics. The guy won the Finals by himself last year. But LeBron is better.
- Complete sidenote…but has anyone ever thought that Kobe just has nightmares about shoving Shaq out of LA? I think he finally realizes how much easier his life was and could still be if he still had the Diesel. But his foolish pride got the best of him and now he has to look at Chris Mihm, Andrew Bynum and Kwame Brown. I wonder if one day he’ll just show up to the practice facility and attack them without provocation.
- Also…quick baseball tip…that was a nice little Yankees/Red Sox game last night. The Red Sox came back from down 4-0 but then the Yankees showed that they are still the Yankees with that late comeback, especially A-Rod’s *gulp* clutch home run. Baseball is too long and too weird so I am refusing to make any predictions. But do not count the Yankees out, its just the principle of the thing. I also thought A-Rod yelling ‘mine’ in Toronto was just hilarious but I guess that’s why black people don’t play the game.