Another Coach Needlessly Fired

The pressure to win is undoubtedly high in every sport, college or professional. Maybe too high. Just ask Avery Johnson. Johnson, who is the fastest to 50, 100, and 150 wins in NBA coaching history, was fired Wednesday by the Dallas Mavericks, less than 24 hours after guiding his team to a first-round series loss against the upstart New Orleans Hornets.

Outraged? You should be. Avery Johnson is two years removed from am NBA Finals appearance, in which they lost in six games to the Miami Heat. More importantly, Avery Johnson was not to blame for the Mavericks failures this postseason. That distinguished honor goes to Mark Cuban.

Cuban was the mastermind behind the Jason Kidd trade, and lets face it, that trade did not produce the results that were expected. Kidd averaged 8 points, 7 assists, and 6 rebounds in the postseason. Not enough production from someone who was supposed to make the team better.

But who often gets the blame when a key move doesn't work? Cuban can't punish himself. He, in fact, is the owner, the judge, the jury, and the executioner. So, you go after the coach who unsuccessfully could not fulfill your expectations with a move that you wanted.

I personally thought this Mavericks team was better with who they had before the trade. They had key players, and an emerging point guard in Devin Harris. An emerging player wasn't good enough for Cuban, he wanted a star past his prime. And he got results that echoed that players talent.

Avery Johnson will be back on the bench before you know it. He's an outstanding coach, but more importantly, he is a stand-up person.

Thursday morning at 11:25, we will replay the interview that Avery had with 103.3 ESPN in Dallas on Galloway & Co.

In the mean time, thanks to Dallasmavs2006, here's a tribute to Avery Johnson:

BIIF Baseball Tournament Schedule

I've been alotted one game per day to broadcast to you for the BIIF Baseball Tournament from Wong Stadium, so without further ado, here is our schedule of events.

THURSDAY:

1:30pm - Division One Semifinal: #4 Keaau vs. #1 Waiakea (pre-game at 1 pm)

FRIDAY:

7:00 pm - Division One Championship: Teams TBA (pre-game at 6:30 pm)

SATURDAY:

1:00 pm - Division Two Championship: Teams TBA (pre-game at 12:30 pm)

Some of the pre-game shows may get knocked out due to NBA Playoff coverage, because the games have not been determined yet. Hope you enjoy the coverage!

Oh, and hope you enjoy this baseball play of the day...thank you to href="http://awfulannouncing.blogspot.com"> for putting this up!

Good Luck Colt Brennan

Colt Brennan had to wait a little while, but after a day and a half of the NFL Draft, Colt was taken in the 6th round by the Washington Redskins. He was the only Warrior taken in the draft, with Davone Bess, Ryan Grice-Mullins, and Jason Rivers signing free agent deals. Two bad two of those three receivers had a year of eligibility left.

For Brennan, this was a great move. Now, the pressure is off of him. Brennan is not expected to compete for a starting job right away, and he shouldn't be. Often times, teams and players make the mistake of getting someone in "too early." Here, Brennan will be developed by Washington Redskins head coach Jim Zorn, who was formerly the Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator. The Redskins have a starter in Jason Campbell, and a number two guy in Todd Collins. All Colt needs to do is progress, keep his head up, and he may be in good shape.

I feel bad for Jordan Dizon. Dizon, the pride of Kauai and the former Buffalo of Colorado, was drafted in the second round by the Detroit Lions. Dizon is extremely good, don't get me wrong. BUT, it's the Detroit Lions. I wouldn't want to be stuck in that organization, and neither would you.

Who may play sooner? I think it would be Dizon, even though to some he is oversized, but I see some need for a linebacker in Detroit. He could possibly be on the field this season if he works hard.

As always, feel free to leave your comments while I finish up my Star-Bulletin Top 10 Softball poll. And, of course, I've gotta leave the video of the day. Thanks to LEONARDDAVISPROBOWL, here is the best of Colt Brennan.

Josh Pacheco Show New Time

Hi there everyone,

As you heard me somewhat mention on Friday's show, I mentioned that there would be an announcement on what the new time of my show would be. There was no announcement for Friday's show, because nothing was set.

Starting on Monday, April 28th, I'll be on from 10 am - noon. Last hour becomes the first hour, one less hour, you get the drift. This is taking place because we are making room for a new show which begins on Monday from 6:30 am - 9:00 am.

Now as for today's video to get you into the weekend, how's about some bloopers!

Guess who wants to coach again?

One commenter on ESPN.com who read the following story had this to say:

"Who has more? Larry Brown and jobs or Elizabeth Taylor and husbands?"

The Answer: Larry Brown. Brown has had 11 different coaching jobs. Taylor has had 7 different husbands in 8 different marriages.

Larry Brown wants to get back into coaching. He's been in the front office for the Philadelphia 76ers for a little while, and decided to resign in the intent of being on the bench for a college or professional team.

First off, the 76ers are in the playoffs, and their Vice President is stepping down to do his own thing? So much for being a team player...what's so hard about sticking around until the playoffs end and supporting your franchise? Oh wait, Larry Brown has always found a way to quit on teams. Which leads me to my next point...

Larry Brown has always found a way to spend a few years in one place and then move on...let's delve into this:

-1972 - 1974: 2 years with the Caroling Cougars in the ABA. The team moved, and he decided to move elsewhere. Not so much on him, but you'll see more of this later.

-1979 - 1981: Was at UCLA. First year, he led the Bruins to the NCAA Championship game. The Nets came along and offered him quadruple of what he is making. He followed the money.

-1981 - 1983: In his second year in New Jersey, Brown interviewed for the Kansas Jayhawks job. He accepted the job with a few games left to go in the year, and instead of letting him coach out the rest of the year, the Nets fired him.

-1991 - 1993: Brown was with the Clippers. Before you say "No wonder he would leave so soon," he led them to the playoffs twice before being frustrated with management. He would go to Indiana, where he said "I'm hopeful this will be my last stop." He had 3 more stops waiting.

-2003 - 2005: The Detroit Pistons. He was there for the Brawl at the Palace with the Pacers. He won a championship. But during the conference finals in his second year, it was reported that he had landed a front office job with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Buyout of his contract was in order. But instead of staying with Cleveland....

-2005 - 2006: He landed his eleventh coaching job with the Knicks. Granted he got fired, but nonetheless, followed the money trail, as this was the richest contract he had ever signed. 5 years for 50+ Million dollars. Yikes.

That's just some of his tenure. Would you want this man coaching your team? He has the urge to work with you one moment, but as soon as he loses interest or sees more money, goodbye! Not the kinda guy I want developing young talent.

Feel free to leave your comments and discuss. No video today...nothing clean enough to use. I guess people really didn't like Larry Brown, after all.

The Worst Word in Sports: TIE

I thought we learned our lesson from last year's Hilo / Kamehameha overtime game that ended up in a tie after 9 innings of play. It wasn't a popular decision, especially so close to the playoffs. But I guess not.

If you were listening on Wednesday afternoon, you heard a wacky, wild, and compelling extra innings affair between Kamehameha and Keaau on the Warriors home field. We saw 8 errors, 3 Cougars caught between the basepaths, batters hitting out of order, and an untimely rain delay. This game went to the top half of the 8th inning, and with one on and two out, the rain came down hard enough for the umpires to delay the game. That's where the chaos began.

The rain wasn't showing any signs of letting up, and both umpires met with both head coaches and decided to call the game. That's when I expected to hear that they would suspend the game and finish it either the next day. As I was wrapping up the broadcast, I was told that the coaches and umpires met and that they would play the game over again. But then, the law was set in stone for us.

After I got off the air, BIIF Executive Director Ken Yamase hurried to the field, met with both athletic directors and both head coaches, and made a different decision based on the letter of the law in the league. Here's how he described it to me after the fact (and I'm paraphrasing):

1: The game is called a tie. 7-7 is the final score.

2: Both teams remain with the same record, and if both win on Saturday, they will be tied going into the playoffs.

3: BIIF rules state that a playoff game is only called to decide the top seed / regular season champion in a respective division.

4: Because Keaau and Kamehameha are both tied for 3rd place, a playoff game cannot be played to decide who would be the higher seed, in the event that both take care of business on Saturday.

5: The next option to determine a tie is by head-to-head results. Since they only played once, and it ended in a tie, nothing remains decided (still following me?)

6: The last option to resolve a tie is by coin flip. Both teams defered to having the coin flip after Saturday's games, as long as both teams win or both teams list on Saturday. Both schools athletic directors will be summoned by Mr. Yamase either at his office or at an undisclosed location to flip the coin and determine who will be the 3 seed and who will be the 4.

Hope you caught all of that....why is this so important? The 4th seed would end up playing Waiakea. Waiakea beat Kamehameha by 2 to open the season, and Waiakea beat Keaau by 2 in 10 innings. The 3rd seed would end up playing Hilo, the 2 seed. Keaau beat Hilo earlier in the season, and Kamehameha lost to Hilo by 2 in a game we broadcast a few weeks ago.

What would I do? I would go back another day and finish the game....these players worked so hard and went into extra innings and to call it a tie is such a shame. No one likes to lose, every one loves to win, but all sides never play for a tie.


PS. For those of you listening to Wednesday's edition of the Josh Pacheco show, I said I would put up the clip of the Denver Nuggets coaching staff's intresting pre-game "moshing"...check this out:

Cincinnati's Big Mistake

If you have been following the Cincinnati Bengals / Chad Johnson fiasco, you've probably formed an opinion by now on who's side you are on what you would do. For those of you that haven't followed the story, here's the quick and dirty. Ocho Cinco is unhappy. He wants out. He feels like he is the scapegoat for all of Cincy's issues from last season. Oh, and in case you don't remember, here is what he said on SportsCenter a while back:



If you are an employer, and you are paying X amount of dollars to this guy, what would you do to react? I'm sure you would say that you would let him go on the spot. Not the Cincinnati Bengals. They maintain they will not trade or let go of Chad Johnson as long as he is still under contract with them, which he is for another few seasons.

Cincinnati today revealed that they had turned down a trade offer from the Washington Redskins for Chad Johnson. The Redskins offered two first round draft picks over the next two drafts for number 85, which the Bengals declined. Maybe this seems too common sense for me, but wouldnt you take the first good offer you get, and I think the Redskins offer is good, and run with it to get the distraction out of town?

The Bengals are playing with fire. If they keep him, he sits, and he causes an enormous distraction for the rest of the team. If they trade him, he could be good for someone else. In BOTH ways, the Cincinnati Bengals aren't a good team this coming season.

Feel free to comment and let your voice be heard!