Brooks avoids hot seat even with 2-8 start
Coach has support from players
DALLAS — As usual, Scott Brooks walked out of the locker room and stood in front of a blue Washington Wizards backdrop. After every game, the coach has to share some sort of insight about his team’s play and eight times in the first 10 games of this season, Brooks has had to answer for a loss. There have been so many sterile defensive performances and so much evidence of disturbing apathy, that on Tuesday after the latest defeat, Brooks simply played the hits.
“There’s only way to do it and it’s doing it together,” Brooks said following the Wizards’ 119-100 loss to the Dallas Mavericks, using a familiar battle cry from previous defeats.
“Staying together, doing it together and believing in each other,” Brooks continued. “We’ve been here before. We have enough in our locker room.”
Despite the horrendous start for a team that expected to contend in a LeBron James-less East, it appears Brooks, in his third season as the Wizards’ coach, has more than enough collateral within the organization to remain protected from social media uprisings and hot-seat rumors. He also has the unwavering support of his players.
“He’s a guy who’s coming in and doing a job like the rest of us,” Markieff Morris said. “S--- happens. You take losses but it’s like, we started like this before. You know what I’m saying? We’re just trying to find it.”
Even more, Brooks has the security of working in Washington.
The NBA can be brutal for the well-dressed man at the front of the bench. In Cleveland, Tyronn Lue was fired only six games into the season. Luke Walton is currently coaching the Los Angeles Lakers but his boss, Magic Johnson, is reportedly growing impatient. It’s never a good thing when “private” meetings with the president of basketball operations become public.
In just about any other NBA market, a 2-8 start from a veteran team that has been together too long to be this disjointed might cast serious doubts on the job security of the easiest target, the head coach. But in Washington, things are different. Friday, 7 p.m. TV: NBCSWA Radio: 1500 AM