Rant of the day.. Why David Stern should put an end to coach tampering

by Pliny the Elder on Jun 6, 2010 12:27 AM MST

So it looks like Tom Thibodeau is going to be the new coach of the Bulls. Congratulations and good luck to him.. he'll need it in Chi-town.

However, I can't help but wonder how this is affecting his current job on the Celtics, who trail the Lakers in the finals, partially due to some substandard defense. Clearly, there was some stress caused by the Hornets organization, who basically gave Tom an ultimatum to accept their offer or walk away. If the Hornets can negotiate with Tom, why not the Lakers? And what's to stop the Lakers from interviewing him, just to mess with the Celtics?

Here's the point: David Stern has been swift and almost medieval in his punishment of anything resembling the tampering of players during the regular season, to the point where it's almost impossible for a coach to say he'd like to coach a specific player, in case that statement of admiration gets misinterpreted as a future offer of employment.

But Stern does *nothing* to stop organizations from interviewing coaches and assistant coaches, during a time of the season when they are needed the most, when they have to work the hardest. A question we have to ask here is how was Dan Majerle affected by his interviews with the Sixers organization, and did we lose any games because of it?

Members of the coaching staff on teams still in the playoffs are stuck with a serious dilemma: on the one hand they want to help their team go as far as possible, but on the other they have to look out for their own futures and careers, competing for those jobs with people who have already been eliminated. It's a high pressure situation, no doubt.

There's a simple solution: put in place a moratorium for organizations to contact any member of a team's coaching staff from the end of the regular season until the last finals game has been played, and treat any such contact as tampering. Certainly he must not allow any job interviews or other personal meetings that could be interpreted as such.

The 2010 draft is going to happen on June 24th, which would probably be at least a week from the end of the playoffs. Given that GM can negotiate complex player trades in a few hours, or over a couple of days, that time should be sufficient for a team to negotiate terms with a coach they want to hire. If need be, the draft and the summer league could always be pushed back one or even two weeks.

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I see where you're coming from but..

“If the Hornets can negotiate with Tom, why not the Lakers? And what’s to stop the Lakers from interviewing him, just to mess with the Celtics?”

Employees of teams in playoff contention can only be interviewed with organizational permission. Danny Ainge granted New Orleans permission to speak with Thibodeau and would certainly prevent the Lakers from talking to him (or anybody else that would do it just to “mess” with him).

by Rohan on Jun 6, 2010 5:00 PM MST reply actions

I was thinking about this...

actually, your statement is slightly inaccurate. For personnel under contract, permission must always be sought for another team to speak to them, regardless of whether it’s the playoffs or not.

However, the Suns pretty much have to give permission to allow conversations involving a promotion, otherwise they’d get sued big time for restraint of trade. So, in the unlikely event that the Lakers announced that Phil Jackson was going to retire at the end of the season, they’d be well within their rights to negotiate for his successor. The only person they wouldn’t be allowed to talk to, by the Suns, is Alvin Gentry.

And there’s always the possibility, even less likely of course, that one GM does a favor for another, for some consideration down the line (Grizzlies cough).

But actually, the scenario that worries me most of all, generally involve Aaron Nelson and his team: In addition to money, a team like the Lakers could offer him all kinds of perks and access to facilities he could only dream of (e.g Mount Sinai, UCLA Medical School, Caltech/JPL, The Laker Girls, etc…) back here in Arizona. And as far as I can tell, he’s the kind of guy who’s truly interested in pushing back the boundaries of sports medicine, so I’m sure he’d be tempted by that kind of offer. And if he’s tempted, and thinking about an offer that’s been made, you can be sure he won’t be 100% attentive to the task at hand. No insult directed at Aaron, but that’s human nature.

"True glory consists of doing what deserves to be written, and writing what deserves to be read".

by Pliny the Elder on Jun 6, 2010 5:28 PM MST up reply actions

and the other thing...

the permission requirement only applies to formal interviews.

If I were trying to be sneaky about this, I’d try to get a member of my staff to invite the targeted staff member from the other team, and invite them to dinner, along with their agent, perhaps.

Then I would talk vaguely: for instance, I’d mention that my team would be expecting an opening soon, and that we’re finding it difficult to attract the “right kind of candidate”, and would you know anyone who would be interested. As long as I don’t make a direct approach, i.e by asking the guy I’m after whether he would be interested, then no rules would have been broken, but everyone at the table would understand what was being said and what was being asked.

If I were Jerry Buss, who just happened to drop in “by accident” on dinner between the Lakers trainer and Aaron Nelson, I would mention something along the lines of thinking about trying to get to the next level, and funding a tenured post at the UCLA Medical School (which would cost way less than $1M/year), with that person serving as senior medical consultant to the Lakers training staff. And I’d ask Aaron whether he thought it was a good idea, or what would be needed to make it a good idea, never actually making any semblance of an offer, but strongly intimating that the job was Aaron’s.

"True glory consists of doing what deserves to be written, and writing what deserves to be read".

by Pliny the Elder on Jun 6, 2010 6:26 PM MST up reply actions

by RMason on Jun 7, 2010 9:04 AM MST reply actions

A question we have to ask here is how was Dan Majerle affected by his interviews with the Sixers organization, and did we lose any games because of it?

Perhaps you’re using this as an example but I kind of doubt it.

Blogging Suns Basketball. Twitter: @willcantrellphx

by Wil Cantrell on Jun 11, 2010 9:23 AM MST up reply actions