Top Five Reasons Jordan Fired by Wizards
The Top 5 Reasons the Wizards fired Eddie Jordan:
#5 To Receive the Caps Lucky Karma:
The Caps have bungled countless decisions only to be bailed out by the greatest luck in sports in the area. They fired a coach early in the season last year without any real plan and it’s seemed to work out well.
Let’s recap –
• The Caps replace Wilson with an unproven minor league coach who alienated players and confounded fans. The Caps let go of all talent and receive little back in return to go from division winners to bottom dwellers to purge payroll due to the impending salary cap. It sounds eerily familiar to Casserly’s panic stricken purge for the Skins. Both led to the decline of the franchise.
• The Caps hopes lay upon a ping pong ball. The odds are long and thin to win the first pick. Not coming up with a franchise player like Ovechkin could prolong the poor team assembled and long on talent to perennial losers. As the ball bounced, Ovechkin became a Capital. The Caps replaced one minor league coach with another and then fired Hanlon during the season with no real plan and turned to the third consecutive minor league coach. Who really knows if Bruce would have been the first choice at the end of the year, but appears to be the right choice now.
#4 To Keep Up With the Jones’:
• PJ Carlesimo was fired from the Oklahoma City Thunder after going 1-12. Wait! The NBA is in Oklahoma City? Are you sure it’s not an Arena Football League team? It’s stylish to fire a coach early this year. Look at NFL teams this season.
#3 Everyone Else in Town Has Changed Coaches:
• Every other professional sports team has had coaching changes the past couple of years. Of all the professional teams in the area, Jordan had the longest tenure as a head coach. Jordan can now pursue other endeavors such as his dancing career. No, that was Jason Taylor. Ok, maybe it was his music career. No, wait that was Lastings Milledge. Ok, it must be to pursue other winning opportunities.
#2 To send a Message to Players and Coaches:
• The Wizards want to start a trend in sports that bad auto dealership commercials will not be tolerated.
#1 The Wizards Didn’t Want to Tarnish Jordan’s Name:
• Eddie Jordan was the only head coach to take the Wizards to the playoffs and not only win a game but a series since the 1980s. Not wanting Jordan to break his string of consecutive playoff appearances with the organization, they decided not to sully his name and reputation.
In retrospect, everyone should have seen this coming. Last year the defense was improving and the team had gelled with and without agent zero. They played at a high level and were able to sustain it in his absence. Even a lay fan should have had some trepidation coming into the season. How will the team hold up from the start? After a few quick losses it was easy to see where the team was going. How could they stop someone and where else after Butler would they receive consistent scoring?
This season the team had the time to prepare for playing without Arenas. With an aging and injured Jamison and Daniels the loss of Haywood was the final straw. The player that created the most friction with Jordan ultimately was the one that could have helped him the most. The only true shot blocking and defensive safety net was lost for the season.
As human nature would have it, with all the time to prepare for the loss of Haywood and Arenas self doubt would begin to appear if losses continued to mount. After all how much improvement and tinkering could be done mid stream if all of the pre-season adjustments failed. Releasing Jordan wasn't as much about this year but about next year and the direction the team takes. Allowing a team to potentially become complacent as the season would wear on sends the wrong message about winning to the players. To allow the team to limp along with Jordan in the hopes the team would respond better next year with him would be unacceptable after such a potential lackluster season.
Eddie Jordan should be acknowledged and thanked by more fans for bringing back quality basketball to DC. He along with Grunsfeld helped restore the image of the franchise and for that he should be thanked.
Disappointment:
In sports, changes in an organization are inevitable over time. Some changes are good some bad some needed and in some cases like Jordan's they're an unfortunate set of circumstances where it leaves both party's with an opportunity to move on and take a new course. That's why missing the Dupree interview on 20/20 while attending a Md game was more disappointing then hearing the news in a downward spiraling season. The Wizards appeared reluctant to make such a move that no one really wanted to see whether it was ownership, players, or fans, but everyone understood why the move was made. Which is why the Dupree/Spitzer story was far more intriguing.
Occasionally meeting Big Money Tony for a sporting event after work from time to time places me down the path of passing the now infamous Mayflower Hotel. The curiosity can't be helped. The need to peek a glance into the hotel while passing by on the outside chance of witnessing a five thousand dollar woman of the evening can't be denied. It's like passing by a restaurant on the street that you know you'll never eat there. Sometimes you just want to look at the menu.
In the sports world, fans generally have a strong opinion about players coaches and teams. In this instance there didn't appear to be an outcry or disapproval by fans. Usually there's a build up and tension leading up to a decision by ownership. In this particular instance, the release of Jordan seemed quiet and understated when compared to his peers in the sports world. There didn't appear to be any bitterness or hostility which seems so rare in the sports world. Several teams could benefit from Jordan's talent now that he's on the open market. The only disappointment for Wizards fans is looking towards next year for hope when it's so early in the current season.
