Milwaukee is getting a close look at the high pressure world of professional sports.
This week, the Milwaukee Bucks dismissed first year head coach Adrian Griffin after just 43 games. The Bucks won 30 of those contests. But team general manager Jon Horst told the news media Wednesday afternoon that he thinks the Bucks can do better with a new head coach.
"The dynamic of the team has changed. The team itself has changed since we hired him. We felt an opportunity to improve and get better. We wanted to take advantage of that opportunity," Horst says.
Horst says since Griffin came on board in early June, team superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo signed a contract extension. Starters Khris Middleton and Brook Lopez signed new deals keeping them with the Bucks, and the team traded for superstar guard Damian Lillard. The website Basketball Reference says the Bucks payroll this year is $184 million.
For that kind of money, sports journalists have said the Bucks were making too many errors on defense and in late-game strategy and that Antetokounmpo was trying to come up with on-court changes.
At a weeknight game at the Fiserv Forum, fan Sheron Hunter says firing Griffin seems awfully harsh.
"I think he should have had a longer deal. A longer stay to finish out. I mean, they are at number two," she says meaning the Bucks have the second best record in the Eastern Conference of the National Basketball Association.
But another fan, Sameer Pardiwa, says it was better for the Bucks to change coaches now.
"You have a lot of talent on the roster, and you have players like Giannis, Khris Middleton, Brook Lopez, who have that mentality. And if they're struggling to hold up to their standards, then I think it's appropriate to make that change," Pardiwa says.
The Bucks defeated the fourth-best team in the Eastern Conference, the Cleveland Cavaliers, by ten points on Jan. 24. A former Griffin assistant, Joe Prunty, has become Interim Head Coach.
After the game, Antetokoumnpo told reporters that Griffin's departure is tough to experience.
"You know, you build a relationship with people. And all of a sudden, boom! They're not here," he says.
But Antetokounmpo says he realizes pro sports is a business.
"This is the business of the NBA. I've been in situations like that in the past. I understand how things work. I gotta keep on moving forward. Today, Joe Prunty is our head coach," Antetokounmpo says.
But many sports media are reporting the Bucks are on their way to hiring former Marquette University star and longtime NBA head coach Glenn "Doc" Rivers to take over the team.
If the new head coach meets Horst's expectations of success, the Bucks will go deep into the NBA playoffs this spring. That would mean more profit for downtown bars and restaurants and more paydays for the hundreds of people who work at the basketball games. That's another part of the NBA being a business.
