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Saturday, September 18
Yet another coach bites dust in Denver

By Mike Monroe
Special to ESPN.com

There have been two things you could count on through much of the final decade of the 20th century: The Chicago Bulls in the NBA Finals and the Denver Nuggets making another coaching change.

Whenever Michael Jordan decided to retire -- in 1993 and again, in 1998 -- the Bulls stopped going to the Finals.


	Mike D'Antoni only got one season with the Nuggets.

Nothing, it seems, can stop the Nuggets from changing coaches.

The ax dropped on Mike D'Antoni on Tuesday, as unkind a cut as ever befell a coach in the league. It was a move that surprised nearly everybody, including D'Antoni, but history suggested it was inevitable.

Check this dubious distinction for the Nuggets, who have rivaled even the Clippers for ineptitude over the last decade: No NBA team has made more coaching changes in the 1990s, not even the Clippers, Mavericks, Nets, Raptors or Grizzlies.

The decade began with Doug Moe on Denver's bench. All Moe did was get the Nuggets in the playoffs each of the eight full seasons he was on their bench, winning Coach of the Year honors in 1987. But misguided, absentee ownership deemed such excellence worthy of dismissal, and Moe was replaced by Paul Westhead, who lasted two seasons.

That, it turned out, was longer than most. Westhead has been followed by Dan Issel, Gene Littles, Bernie Bickerstaff, Dick Motta, Bill Hanzlik, D'Antoni and now, for the second time in five years, Issel.

That is nine coaches in nine years. Further, the last three coaches have had an average tenure of 277 days, which suggests the motto for a smart man, if named Nuggets coach, would be: "Rent, don't buy."

Perhaps it is time for someone to suggest that the Nuggets ownership and organization qualify as the NBA's worst this decade.

Issel, himself, did just that on the day he added the head coach's title to the general manager's designation he accepted little more than a year ago. Asked why he thought he could succeed as Nuggets coach now, when frustration led him to resign in 1995, his response was unequivocal: "If I said we now have the resources to do things the Denver Nuggets couldn't do before, would that imply that (franchise owner) Ascent was a cheap SOB?" Issel asked in response. Assured that it would, he said: "Good. Then write that down."

Ascent Entertainment will own the Nuggets for only a few more days. Denver multi-billionaire Donald T. Sturm will close his $461 billion deal to buy the Nuggets, NHL Colorado Avalanche and the Pepsi Center in which both teams will play, before the end of the month.

Evidence of Ascent penury crippling the ability of any coach to lead the Nuggets out of the NBA wilderness stands seven feet, two inches tall.

"See: Mutombo, Dikembe," said Issel, more painfully aware than anyone that the center around which he had assembled a team capable of overachieving to within one game of the Western Conference finals in 1994 had been allowed to depart for Atlanta simply because a board of directors refused to authorize the money to pay him the going rate for dominating big men.

Asked why he thought he could succeed as Nuggets coach now, when frustration led him to resign in 1995, his response was unequivocal: "If I said we now have the resources to do things the Denver Nuggets couldn't do before, would that imply that (franchise owner) Ascent was a cheap SOB?" Issel asked in response. Assured that it would, he said: "Good. Then write that down."

Sturm, said Issel, already has opened his fat wallet to try to turn around a team that began to look competitive last season.

"Has he let me do everything I've wanted since he became owner?" Issel said. "No. But has he spent $3 million to let me do a deal with Boston for Ron Mercer that I think will ultimately take this team to the playoffs? Absolutely. Has he let me sign George McCloud, a veteran who will be invaluable to this young team? Absolutely. And did he step up and make a big-time commitment for Nick Van Exel? Absolutely."

Issel, then, returns to the Denver bench just four years after quitting the job because he hated what ownership and management had done to his chances of winning -- and he does it because he believes Sturm will give him the tools, as GM, to succeed as coach.

As for D'Antoni, as affable an Italian as ever coached in the NBA -- as dual citizen of both the U.S. and Italy, he is the only Italian ever to coach in the NBA -- even Issel admits firing him wasn't justified.

"It stinks," he said.

To succeed, though, a coach needs major input in player personnel decisions. Issel wouldn't let D'Antoni have that kind of say in the decisions he saw as right for the club, so he sent him packing and took the job himself.

Nobody could have coached the Nuggets to respectability last season under the circumstances D'Antoni faced -- short training camp, compressed season, dramatically revamped roster, new coaching staff, losing his promising rookie center 12 games in. And that's according to Antonio McDyess, the team's best player.

"I don't care if you were Phil Jackson," McDyess said, "it was going to be tough. I think he (D'Antoni) just needed a chance."

No Nuggets coach has had a real chance this decade. Issel is the lone coach to produce a winning record for a Nuggets team in the 90s, a modest 42-40 in 1993-94.

He believes he has a chance to do it again.

Mike Monroe, who covers the NBA for the Denver Post, writes a Western Conference column for ESPN.com. You can e-mail him at monroe128@go.com


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