Ignore the billboard. Hire the right coach for the right reasons.

[Smartacus]

A billboard has risen near the Celtics practice facility.

“Hey Brad, it’s time to shake it up, Hire Kara or Becky!”

www.boston.com/sports/boston-celtics/2021/06/14/celtics-female-coach-billboard/%3famp=1

Now that there are two high profile female candidates for the head coaching positions many people in Massachusetts are foaming at the mouth to hire one of them.

Becky Hammon and Kara Lawson are both qualified candidates for coaching but I do not believe for one second that the majority of support they are getting has anything to do with basketball. The extremely vocal supporters are not interested in the prospective coach's schemes or professional experience or ability to lead a locker room. They know little about who Hammon or Lawson are as people. They are only interested in which demographic boxes the potential coach checks. They want to read the tweets that says "The Boston Celtics have hired the first Female Head Coach in NBA history"

The Celtics are on the verge of contention and the Head Coach is far too important a position to be chosen based on anything other than merit and organizational fit.

Earlier this year the mob was clambering that Brad was too soft spoken and mild mannered to command the locker room. The team needed to bring in a former player that could relate to the guys on the court. Now suddenly we need to hire a female candidate because it will make people feel good about themselves.

Hire the right candidate. I think it should be Chauncey or Sam Cassell but if its Hammon or Lawson just be sure it is because they are the best fits and not because of progressive pressure from entitled billboards.

Edit: Spell corrections including Becky Hammon's last name.

[JohnBoy65]

Man this just reeks of misogyny . We fans don't know anything about any of the candidates. How do you know Chauncey will be a good coach but Kara won't? The actual only difference you bring up is gender. You've even compared soft spokenness to being female. Just a yikes for me on this one.


Edited: Word choice.

[arctic 3.0]

Lot of people clamoring to hire a former player.
If a billboard went up saying “hire an ex-nba player” would you you feel as compelled to put all those word to paper?

[RJD1974]

I think it should be Chauncey or Sam Cassell but if its Hammond or Lawson just be sure it is because they are the best fits and not because of progressive pressure from entitled billboards.

Gotta say, that's a first.

[Vermont Green]

This is a sensitive topic to debate.  I will try to wade in carefully.  There are a lot of people saying that the credential of being a previous NBA player is really important for this young team at this point in time.  I don't know if that is true or not.  Of course there is not going to be any female candidate that would be a former NBA player, it just isn't possible.  That candidate (female and former NBA player) does not exist.

Statistically, it seems that there are fewer top coaches that are former NBA players than not.  There have been really good coaches in either category.  I just can't say how much that matters.  The Celtics have had a lot of former players as coaches.

In terms of a woman coach in general, I wonder how the players would react.  Would players be more likely to tune out a women over a man (players tuning out a coach happens a lot).  I don't know this either but I feel there is some risk.  If they do decide to hire a woman, I hope they are doing it for the right reasons and not to make a statement.  Celtics' ownership is pretty savvy.  I am sure that if they do hire a woman, that they will have considered the potential "tune out" factor and every other aspect.

They have every right to make a statement if that is what they choose to do and I can see that there is some good in that, to have the courage to be the first to hire a woman, but as a fan, that isn't what I want my favorite team to do.  Even if a woman has the highest coaching credentials, scores the highest, whatever, there is still going to be more risk and pressure on that first one, both for the coach but also the players and organization.  I know that is somewhat of a "not in my backyard" kind of position (supporting the concept of a woman coach in general but not really wanting my favorite team to be the one to take that first big chance), just trying to be honest in my analysis (for better or worse).

[SDceltGuy]

Stupid billboard.  Hire the best person, not a woman. 

[liam]

"Becky Hammond and Kara Lawson are both qualified candidates for coaching"

[JohnBoy65]

"Becky Hammond and Kara Lawson are both qualified candidates for coaching"

Yeah. It's like the OP put that in there just to make him (or her I suppose) feel better about the blatant misogyny.

[gift]

Too bad Ainge stepped down. Otherwise this could be solved by Hammond taking the Trailblazers job and we could read stories about how close the Celtics were to hiring her. 

[gift]

"Becky Hammond and Kara Lawson are both qualified candidates for coaching"

Yeah. It's like the OP put that in there just to make him (or her I suppose) feel better about the blatant misogyny.

Blatant or projected?

[johnnygreen]

Stupid billboard.  Hire the best person, not a woman.

At least the OP said they were both qualified coaches. You took it to Defcon 1.

[johnnygreen]

There are some people who want the team to hire a former player, an African American, or a female head coach. No matter which of the 3 you wish for, you are severely narrowing down the list of candidates based, in some cases on race or gender. I have no problem with the sign or if the team decides to hire one of the female candidates, as from afar, they seem qualified. However, from my perspective, I think the team should hire a former black NBA player ala Chauncey Billups or Sam Cassell, as I believe those are two qualities that are important to the players on this team. I think a hire like that would go a long way for the relationship between the players and Brad Stevens/ownership.

[td450]

This post went off the rails when you stated one of your preferences was for Chauncy Billups.

Becky Hammond has been an assistant under Pop in San Antonio since 2014. Pop probably has had more assistants become NBA coaches than anyone else. She was also an accomplished professional player. Chauncy Billups has one year as an assistant in LA. His resume just doesn't compete with Becky's.

This tells me you really haven't thought this through at all.

[Big333223]

"Becky Hammond and Kara Lawson are both qualified candidates for coaching"

Yeah. It's like the OP put that in there just to make him (or her I suppose) feel better about the blatant misogyny.

Blatant or projected?

Pretty blatant. The post might as well start with, "I'm not a misogynist but..."

He says we know very little about the coaching schemes or experience of Lawson or Hammon but then advocates for two candidates without bringing up their schemes or coaching experience at all. His criticisms of those advocating for Lawson or Hammon is really telling on himself.

fwiw, I'm a Cassell guy.

[LilRip]

Why don’t we just hire a random black woman who is also LGBTQIA?

At the end of the day, I don’t care what ethnicity or gender or <insert non-basketball reason> the C’s coach will be. I’ll root for them to succeed because of their affiliation with the organization. I don’t want to waste Tatum’s years or have our youth develop bad habits or “lose the locker room” because we hired an underqualified coach for a feel-good story.