Brad Stevens Calls Kevin McHale Firing 'A Rash Decision'
BOSTON (CBS) – Six months ago, Kevin McHale had the Houston Rockets within three games of the NBA Finals. Now, he's out of a job just 11 games into the 2015-16 season.
Such is life for a head coach on a team with high expectations in today's NBA. Despite bringing back most of the team's core and adding point guard Ty Lawson via trade, Houston stumbled out of the gate this year. They stand at just 4-7 having lost five of their first seven games at home, including a blowout loss to the Celtics on Monday night.
Rockets GM Daryl Morey did not like the way his team was responding to McHale on the court and elected to give the team a fresh face to lead them: assistant coach J.B. Bickerstaff.
Before Wednesday's game against the Mavericks, Celtics head coach Brad Stevens spoke out against the move by defending McHale and his coaching track record.
"First and foremost, I think we're in a business where expectations certainly drive decisions at times," Stevens said. "And I don't agree with the firing. But it's not my choice to make. I think that Kevin is a great coach. Kevin has been great to me. Kevin is obviously a great Celtic. People love him everywhere they've been.
"Everybody that you hear from loves working with him, loves being around him. To me, from the outside looking in, it looks like 11 games in making a rash decision. But again, it's not my call. And I'm not going to be the one that can appropriately analyze that because I'm not in there every day. But I send my best to Kevin and wish him nothing but the best. And he'll be coaching again when he wants to be because he's a really good coach."
Stevens isn't one to take a controversial stance on most issues, so his strong words in opposition to the moves speak volumes.
Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle is an old teammate of McHale from his Celtic days and spoke about his own shock about the firing.
"[I was] extremely surprised that McHale was let go," Carlisle said. "You know, here's a guy that has such amazing integrity as a person. You watch him on the sidelines and he walks with a limp because of the sacrifices he made to be one of the greatest champions in history. And he loves and respects the game so much. It's surprising when something like this happens. Shocking even."
McHale will still earn the $12 million remaining on his contract, thanks to a contract extension he signed with Houston last year. Despite having plenty of money to fall back on, Carlisle is confident he'll get another opportunity somewhere.
"He's going to be fine. He's going to get a chance to get some rest here, and probably who knows, probably jump on TV and have a blast doing that. And there will be a lot of teams wanting to hire him because he did a fantastic job in Houston. If you look at their team over the last few years, their roster was constantly in flux.
"He did an amazing job putting that thing together. And bringing those guys back from down 3-1 last year to get to the conference finals. That's a guy with some great coaching credentials. And the other championship credentials really go without saying."
The NBA is a volatile business but with the bout of support McHale is getting from colleagues around the league, you can bet on the Hall of Famer sitting on a bench once again sooner rather than later.
Brian Robb covers the Celtics for CBS Boston and contributes to NBA.com, among other media outlets. You can follow him on Twitter @CelticsHub.
