NBA: Pitino Is No Leader

Head coaches are supposed to be leaders.

They are supposed to be the one who sets the example for his players to follow. The being that projects the image that his team should assume. Rick Pitino embodies none of these qualities.

Sometime Monday, it is reportedly going to be made official that Pitino is stepping down as Head Coach and President of the Boston Celtics, giving up on rebuilding a once proud franchise after three-and-a-half years attempting to rebuild it.

The Celtics should consider themselves lucky he stuck around that long.

Apparently, Coach Pitino was discouraged by the lack of defense displayed by his team. Defense in the NBA is best described by one word: desire. It takes hard work and drive and if these things are missing it is the responsibility of no one but the head coach to instill a sense of urgency in his players. Any efforts were fruitless, as the Celtics have stumbled to a 12-22 record, putting them on pace to win a paltry 28 games. They are ranked 26th out of 29 NBA teams surrendering 98.3 points-per-game, a big problem when your offense is only scoring 93.8 per night.

The Celtics are not a bad team on paper. With the likes of Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker, the core is there to build around. The problem is with getting consistent effort a nightly basis. Their biggest win of the year was a 20 point drubbing of the under-manned Detroit Pistons opening night. Since then a series of close games, both wins and losses, and the occasional 10 point win. If this team could find any kind of consistency, fans in Boston would be hailing Pitino instead of ridiculing the man responsible for putting this team together.

That’s the point though, Pitino alone is responsible for the product being put on the floor. And what is his answer to the struggles? Give up and get out while the getting is good. That doesn’t sound at all like the character I would want my head coach to have.

Head coaches should never quit, resign, step-down, or whatever other term they try to spin it with while their team is struggling. There are only three reasons a coach should leave his team: age, medical reasons, or there simply is nothing left to prove (commonly known as Phil Jackson’s Syndrome). Bailing on the team he put together is the one of the most cowardly acts I have witnessed in sports and a sad testament to the state of one of the most storied franchises in the history of sports.

Assistant Coach Jim O’Brien will take over on an interim basis, but the question that everyone in Beantown will want answered is who will take on the task of cleaning up Pitino’s mess. In a perfect world, there is only one answer: Larry Joe Bird. He’s proven himself more than capable as a head coach, but health concerns cut his coaching career short. But we can dream, can’t we?