Twitter and the blogosphere has been on fire since the Brooklyn Nets fired head coach Avery Johnson yesterday. After just coming off of an NBA Coach of the Month award in November, many are questioning the move as being a little too quick on the trigger after a poor playing streak of games from the Nets. In the last few days leading up to the firing rumors were rampant that Deron Williams was unhappy with Coach Johnson. Much of that stemmed from Williams’ comments that he was unhappy in the Nets offensive system.
So not surprisingly after coach Johnson was fired, Nets fans supporting Coach Johnson took to twitter blasting Deron Williams and labeling him as a ‘Coach Killer’ given his past history in Utah and the perception he forced Jerry Sloan into resigning or being fired.
“I was surprised,” Williams said in a telephone interview with Daily News. “I never had any conversation with (GM) Billy King about not liking coach, nothing about coach Johnson. Avery was a big reason I came back, because him and Billy. So I was surprised.”
Deron went on today to discuss the perception that fans already have of him as a coach slayer from his days in Utah. At least he’s self aware.
“So, I think it was more kind of what happened in Utah, people still saying I got coach Sloan fired even though he resigned and that’s going to stick with me for a while.”
So apparently Williams will have us believe that the Nets ownership and senior leadership team didn’t consult their star franchise player at all before firing their head coach. Even if they didn’t ‘consult him’, at the very least they must have let him know it was coming, no?
(Quotes via NY Daily News)
