The Minnesota Timberwolves’ hiring of its new head coach, Chris Finch, was strange. Plenty of teams have fired their coaches midway through the season, especially, like in Minnesota’s case, when the team has more than three times the number of losses than it does wins. However, it is rare for teams to name a new head coach in the middle of the season, especially in less than twenty-four hours of firing their previous head coach - Ryan Saunders. Yet this is exactly what Minnesota did. Minnesota’s hiring of Chris Finch was rushed and portrays the organization as being poorly led.
Although both Finch and Saunders are
white, there is a level of hiring due diligence that is expected in
professional sports. Part of this due diligence is the expectation and, in some
cases like the NFL with the rule, that
teams will interview a diverse panel of candidates for head coaching and front
office positions. Minnesota failed to conform with that industry standard. The
National Basketball Coaches’ Association stated, in response to Minnesota’s
hiring process, “[I]t is our responsibility to point out when an organization
fails to conduct a thorough and transparent search of candidates from a wide
range of diverse backgrounds.”
This failure for Minnesota to conduct a
proper hiring is shocking due to the climate that the NBA has built. According
to The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports (“TIDES”), the NBA, in 2019,
scored an A+ in terms of their head coach diversity, with 26.6% of NBA head
coaches being non-white. For comparison,
the NFL scored a dismal D+ in the same TIDES report. The Timberwolve’s rushed
hiring of Chris Finch puts into question the true efficacy of the NBA’s TIDES
grade and by extension the NBA’s true feelings towards ensuring equity in their
hiring practices.
The NBA is also the most vocal league in
terms of social justice awareness. In the 2020 Playoffs, which were held
exclusively in Orlando due to COVID-19, the players in Orlando voluntarily and
abruptly forfeited a day of playoff games in order to bring awareness to the
police shooting of Jacob Blake. Subsequently the NBA’s players and owners
worked together to start social justice initiatives, such as allowing NBA
arenas to be used as voting centers during the 2020 Presidential Election. The
fact that a league that promoted social and racial equality failed to properly
ensure that one of its franchises follow proper hiring protocols dampens the
message league is claiming to portray.
Before moving any further it is important
to note that your correspondent is not trying to suggest that Finch is not
worthy of being an NBA head coach. He was a finalist for the Timberwolves head
coaching position in 2018 before Minnesota chose to go with Saunders. Finch also
has vast NBA experience. He spent time
as an assistant coach with the New Orleans Pelicans and Toronto Raptors. What
your correspondent is trying to suggest is that the NBA failed to uphold the
values, such as diversity, that it has aggressively marketed and that the
Timberwolves unnecessarily moved too fast in making their head coaching hire.
The Timberwolves are a young team with a high ceiling. Their team is built around “do-it all” big-man, Karl-Anthony Towns and a highly talented point guard, D'Angelo Russel. Minnesota also has the extremely young and extremely talented rookie, Anthony Edwards. Furthermore, the Timberwolves are likely to have a top five lottery selection in the upcoming NBA Draft. The Timberwolves have assets to create a competitive head coaching hiring process.
Moreover, the Timberwolves would have
been able to get a full view of the available and well-suited head coaching
candidates if they waited until season’s end to hire a coach. In the meantime,
the Timberwolves could have promoted an assistant coach, such as David
Vanterpool, whom Portland Trail Blazers’ guard, Daminan Lillard, thought should
have been given the nod. The promotion of an interim head coach, who was
previously an assistant coach under the terminated head coach, is par for the
course. J.B. Bickerstaff was promoted as the interim head coach after the Cleveland
Cavaliers fired John Beilein during the season. Nate McMillan was named the
interim head coach of the Atlanta Hawks, just this week, after the Hawks let
Lloyd Pierce go.
The promotion of an interim head coach,
especially in a season that is a lost cause like the Timberwolves are
experiencing is an act of responsibility. The promotion of an interim head
coach clearly shows that the organization is sending a message that they wish
to exhaust all of their avenues before naming a new head coach. Additionally,
naming an interim head coach is a way for the organization to, odd as it sounds,
salute their now terminated head coach. In promoting an interim head coach, the
organization is also showing that they were fully committed to the team and
head coach and had no other choice but to terminate the head coach. The
Timberwolves’ firing of Saunders was needed, but the subsequent record pace at
which the Timberwolves hired Chris Finch smelled the same as a husband
divorcing his wife of five years in the morning and posting selfies with his
new “bae” by dinner.
Like adultery, an organization “cheating”
on its head coach doesn’t just affect the head coach, but also inadvertently
creates collateral damage. The collateral damage in this case is, first and
foremost, the young players who compose the Timberwolves and by extension the
value of diversity and equality that the NBA puts so much effort into
promoting.
