The Grizzlies fired Marc Iavaroni last night. Good job, here's a cookie. Unfortunately, they couldn't wait to screw it up. They had to name Lionel Hollins as the permanent replacement to Iavaroni less than 12 hours later. That was after announcing that there would be a league-wide search. Hollins has been the interim coach before, and we all know how well that went. This will be his third stint with the Grizzlies. Apparently I forgot about one of them last night. He is 18-46 in that time.
What is disgusting is that Michael Heisley is cheap, as my new hero Geoff Calkins pointed out in his column in the Commercial Appeal today. http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/jan/23/makes-no-cents/
Heisley and general manager Chris Wallace are not willing to spend the money it takes to make this franchise successful. It's going to take a financial commitment to lure a top-notch, or even mid-level coach to Memphis. They didn't even bother to try this time. Why even lie to us and act like you are going to look outside the organization? Really, Wallace is the problem. It's nothing new. I've said it before. I'm sure he's probably not done screwing the fans, so I'll probably say it again.
If you're going to make a coaching change, you better be sure it's for the better. It's a chance to start over and re-energize the players. At least commit to looking for a full-time guy once the season is over instead of locking down on the first guy you see. Seriously, if I had millions of dollars lying around, I could run this team myself. The bar is not being set all that high.
Keywords: Lionel Hollins, Memphis Grizzlies
