Being 'Hired to Get Fired?' Coaches Have the Best of Both Worlds

Published on 7-Mar-2013 by Bridgett Davis

Basketball - NBA    NBA Daily Review

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Being 'Hired to Get Fired?' Coaches Have the Best of Both Worlds

If most of us get fired at the age of 43, we would be frantically trying to find a new job. There would be a sense of desperation and a longing to make sure we can provide for our families. Very few would think about retirement, unless you are Mike Brown, former coach of the Los Angeles Lakers.   

Does Brown miss the excitment and fullfilment of coaching? No doubt he does. But maybe not as much as you and I if we get canned.
 
No idea as to what he thinks of the tackiness. Being fired to ease the late Jerry Buss' death spiral is not exactly a lingering thought anyone would want to have.
 
There are much more pleasant sides to the situation. Such as? Well, Brown is going to earn over $10million because he had another full year remaining on his contract after this season along with a partial guarantee for 2014-15.
 
What is he doing with his newfound freedom? Not updating his résumé or applying for unemployment. On Monday, Brown returned to Ohio to help bring his son's high school basketball team from California to play St Edward High School in Lakewood.
 
Brown said he was thrilled about making the trip. Before the game, he met with old friends and signed a few autographs. Maybe that gave him a glimpse of the old lights of Hollywood.
 
Retirement, temporary or not, seems to fit Brown well.  While the Lakers are scrambling to put together all the pieces, and struggling to become an eighth seed, Mike Brown is living the life ... and richly so.
 
Whether they work or not, coaches who stick around a few years at the top level of our major sports have guaranteed their future as much as the average players have.
 
For those of us living in the real world and gazing into theirs, we can only imagine what it's like to arbitrarily quit our day job, much less trying not to get fired.
 
Our severance wouldn't be enough to be "like Mike." Not even this Mike.