So I’m probably gonna get some blowback for saying this but I’m gonna go ahead and do it because it’s kind of the underlying elephant in the room with all of this.
Will this team really have the balls to fire two young African American coaches, in consecutive years, after each in their only season had over 50 wins and was at the top of their conference.
……AND on top of that, replace him with a white head coach. Jaylens head will explode along with the entire sports media.
Ain’t gonna happen. They’ve already endorsed him, I doubt they’ll fire him. And if they do, there’s zippy chance you’ll see Nurse or Vogel brought in.
Sorry to make this political, but it’s going to be a factor
100% people will bring this up and not because they think the Celtics organization is prejudice but because they know it will get them attention. It will get people talking and draw attention which talking heads love to do. It's all about clicks and viewers. What is a good way of doing that? Creating a story just like that. Guaranteed they fire Joe and we will hear about racist Boston for sure. Forget the fact that Mazzulla is in way over his head and should be let go, that isn't a sexy story. Saying Boston fired two young black coaches in consecutive years, now we are talking.
I love when speculation becomes something to be angered about. Greg - It’s your guess, it isn’t real, it’s what could be, but hasn’t happened. When Wyc and Brad keep a bad coach only because he’s Black - then be mad about it. Till then it’s just being mad for the sake of being mad.
Well, first off, I apologize for taking this thread down a road it shouldn’t have gone down. I regret making it my original post, but if I’m being honest, it’s not because I don’t think it has merit, but because I did something that I normally get upset with others for doing. Which is making a topic about politics when it doesn’t need to be about politics. For that I’m sorry for anyone who needs to hear it
That being said, I need to clarify the intentions of my comments. I’m not angry, nor did I write this post out of anger, which your reaction leads me to believe was your impression. Perhaps I’m wrong here, but at least where I’m from, after Ime was suspended/fired, whatever you want to call it, there was a lot of discussion about how white coaches get a much longer leash than black coaches, and to banish Ime for year bc of a consensual relationship was some sort of validation for that thought. I remember it being discussed a lot on ESPN, but also locally where I’m from in the DC area.
The point I was simply making was that regardless of how validated the Cs felt in firing Joe after a playoff failure this year, the PR optics of the whole thing would be terrible. It would simply validate everything all these talking heads were talking about the year before. People provided other scenarios where teams fired a coach of the year the year after they won it, but we’d be firing a coach that won over 50 games and got us to the finals, and then firing his replacement after he won 57 games the following year. It would just be a very odd dynamic IMO. Then you factor in that both of these coaches are black, coaching in a city that always seems embroiled in some sort of racial controversy, it would just seem like it would be the hot take sports writers dream of and a PR nightmare for the Cs. Even more so if they followed it up by hiring a Nick Nurse.
And look, our star player Jaylen, who is also vice president of the players association, has openly said before that he wants to rapidly increase the amount of black coaches in the league regardless of whether they’re the most qualified or not.
Whether we all like it or not, race does become a factor when it comes to the hiring and firing of coaches. It might not be the deciding factor but it’s something management needs to consider, especially in regards to how it can affect the locker room.
But look, if you feel all of this talk is in bad taste, I get it, just reread the first paragraph I wrote and let’s leave it at that.
Oh and to the person who claimed that this discussion was validation for Jaylens opinions in The NY Times article, if that was in response to my post, well, I’m not from Boston. So regardless of how you feel about my opinions, don’t let it be a reflection of New Englanders