Stephen Jackson has blasted the Phoenix Suns’ front office in the wake of its firing of Monty Williams, with the ex-NBA journeyman predicting the team’s next head coach will be hired based on race.
Appearing on an episode the I AM ATHLETE podcast – founded by former NFL wide receiver Brandon Marshall – the 2003 NBA Champion (with the San Antonio Spurs) said: ‘When teams come together like this, they quick to go find a white coach, just throw him in that position so that he can get all the credit.’
Monty Williams was in charge of the Suns for the last four seasons and fell short of expectations after his side – built around All-Stars Devin Booker and Kevin Durant – were eliminated by the Denver Nuggets, led by two-time MVP Nikola Jokic, in six games.
What’s more is that Phoenix not only lost its last playoff game of the year at home but also by 25 points – considered a blowout. It’s the second time in consecutive years that the team ended up crashing out of the postseason in humiliating fashion under Williams, taking into account the Suns’ 33-point loss to the Dallas Mavericks, led by Luka Doncic, last year.
Ex- Suns head coach Monty Williams was fired after an embarrassing Game 6 loss to Denver
However, this reason alone isn’t enough for some NBA analysts and former players, including Jackson, to explain Williams’ dismissal. This does not overlook the work that the 2022 NBA Coach the Year has done over the last four years in the Sun Valley.
Williams had great success in his four seasons in Phoenix, winning 63 percent of his games with a 194-115 record. He almost led the Suns to glory when the team took a 2-0 lead in the 2021 NBA Finals, only to eventually lose in six games to the Milwaukee Bucks.
But after that, three consecutive years of playoff frustration was likely too much for the Suns front office to overlook this time around – especially after two straight years of Phoenix trailing by 30 points at halftime of elimination games at home.
It’s the second major move made by Phoenix in the three months or so since new owner Mat Ishbia closed the sale that gave him control of the club.
In February, Ishbia green-lighted a blockbuster trade that brought Kevin Durant to Phoenix and gave the Suns a core – him, Devin Booker, former No. 1 pick Deandre Ayton and Chris Paul – that the team hoped would be enough to deliver a title.
The Suns were expected to go deep with a core of Devin Booker, Chris Paul and Kevin Durant
It just didn’t work, at least, not this year. Paul got hurt in the playoffs to continue his run of bad luck on the health front in the postseason, Ayton sat out the finale and Booker and Durant simply looked gassed by the time it was over.
‘I take that personally, not having our team ready to play in the biggest game of the year,’ Williams said. ‘That’s something that I pride myself on and it just didn’t happen. […] That’s something I have to take a deep look at, everything I’m doing.’
Williams had been the coach with the fifth-longest tenure with his current team entering Game 6 against Denver – just four years. Gregg Popovich has been coach in San Antonio since 1996, Erik Spoelstra in Miami since 2008, Steve Kerr in Golden State since 2014 and Michael Malone in Denver since 2015.
Suns owner Mat Ishbia (center) wants to bring back a title in Phoenix after trading for Durant
Phoenix becomes the fourth team to currently have an opening, along with the Raptors, Bucks – who are said to be in talks with Williams – and Detroit Pistons. Of the last nine coaches to take a team to the NBA Finals, only Kerr and Spoelstra are still with the franchise they got to the title series.
The others – Boston’s Ime Udoka, the Los Angeles Lakers’ Frank Vogel, Cleveland’s David Blatt and Tyronn Lue, along with Budenholzer, Nurse and now Williams — have all been fired by the team that they brought to the finals.
‘When you look at really good coaches who have lost their jobs shortly after winning a championship, that’s something that is just different about our business,’ Williams said Friday, a day his the Suns crashed out of the postseason, adding that ‘it’s just a part of our NBA economy.’
The Suns were 12-1 in Durant’s first 13 appearances, five of those in the playoffs. And then they went 2-4 against the Nuggets, all four losses by double figures.
And Williams took the fall.
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