Dantley "Fired"

[Powder Blue]

George Karl is the latest in that long line of disillusion-ists. Three days ago, reveals a source, the Nuggets head coach, whose opulent contract was extended several months ago, fired top assistant Adrian Dantley.

OK, fired might not be the correct word. Karl’s aide for eight seasons was not signed past this month. One way or the other, his immediate superior, theoretical friend and throat cancer survivor, who you’d think might have accrued approximate compassion for other peoples’ plights during his harrowing ordeal, did not notify Dantley he was done until the majority of jobs throughout the NBA were filled or promised. And, oh, yeah, with a league lockout looming a week away.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/more_spo ... z1QOdqLRAU

This is really worth a read. Surprised the Post hasn't written about it. If it's true then Karl did him dirty.

[DaFan334]

Odd that this is broken by the NY Post and as of now, the Denver Post has nothing on it. Its Peter Vescey at that. Hard to believe he has an inside scoop on something completely out of his market when he hardly has any real incites into whats going on in his own city.

Wonder if this has more to do with the lockout and not wanting to pay assistants who aren't already extended than how this article portrays it. Coaches salaries are still going to be paid during the lockout so this might be more of a cost cutting for the lockout.

The article says it is past the point of available positions being filled, despite the fact that there is a completely open staff in Minnesota and other places that AD could easily find an Assistant job with. It makes it seem as though he'll just be without a job because the Nuggets didn't reup his contract when that probably couldn't be further from the truth. AD will not have a terribly tough time finding a new home on someone elses bench and its not as though he didn't have any warning as his contract was set to expire.

In the end, it might have just been time to move on for both parties. A change may in fact be for the better for both sides.

Wonder who the replacement for him will be?

[dis4ryan]

We completely collapsed in the playoffs against Utah when he took over. With all these former assistant coaches rocking as head coaches in the NBA (Tom Thibodeau, Scott Brooks), the bar is higher for harder working assistant coaches. Dantley was obviously a great player. Could care less that he is gone as a coach.

[RRFB]

There's something fishy about this. Dantley is not happy.

From Chris Tomasson:

I just talked to Den asst. Adrian Dantley. He confirmed New York Post story on firing. “Oh, yeah, I’m done. (George Karl) fired me Friday.’’

Dantley’s contract actually was expiring. Asked why he was fired, Dantley said, “I got fired because I didn’t rotate on the bench.’’

Dantley said unnamed assistant coaches wanted coach George Karl to rotate assistant coaches on the bench. Only 3 allowed to sit on bench.

Dantley said sat behind bench and wouldn’t rotate. Said final 67 games of season Iske, Welch, Hunt on bench and in playoffs.

Adrian Dantley on being fired: "(George Karl) told me Friday. What upset me is the loyalty you show to someone and you get screwed.’’

[el loco]

We completely collapsed in the playoffs against Utah when he took over. With all these former assistant coaches rocking as head coaches in the NBA (Tom Thibodeau, Scott Brooks), the bar is higher for harder working assistant coaches. Dantley was obviously a great player. Could care less that he is gone as a coach.

He coached the Nuggets to 2 wins in the playoffs, which is better then what GK has done in the playoffs with Denver in all but one year

GK as the Nuggets head coach in the playoffs.
1-4
1-4
1-4
0-4
10-6
1-4
___
14-26 .35%

Dantley:
2-4 .33% was he really that much worse?

[Nutty Nats Fan]

Don't forget, AD also only had one healthy big, Nene, because GK played the other two in to the ground. Then Nene got injured. And yet, he still did better than GK ever did, besides one year.

GK just showing his true colors. Can't imagine the players who have been around for a while are happy with the dick move.

Edit: And to who said he can just find a job elsewhere, it'll be more difficult since GK waited so long to tell him. Why dick a guy over whose been loyal to you? If only AD had been a short PG with no skills, GK would be sucking him off instead.

[The Rebel]

About time they fired him, it should have been done a year ago. As for the bigs excuse, the Jazz were missing 2 starters who could not even get on the court, and the Nuggets had home court advantage and a much better team, Dantley was just an idiot.

now the job thing is just as much his fault as the Nuggets, you don't want to be unemployed in late June, then don't sign a contract that ends in late june, negotiate a different date.

[Teens On Acid]

meh, no big loss.

[The Rebel]

George Karl "inherited" Adrian Dantley from the Kiki Vandeweghe Era, and Dantley never seemed like the right fit on the Nuggets bench alongside younger (read: cheaper) and hungrier assistants like John Welch, Chad Iske, Jamahl Mosley and now Melvin Hunt.

Given Dantley's seniority, by default Dantley was the "lead assistant" after Scott Brooks left. But Dantley was clearly in over his head when taking over the head coaching reigns for a cancer-stricken Karl for the remainder of the 2010 regular season and the playoffs that came thereafter. For the Nuggets to lose to an injury-depleted Jazz team while their head coach was battling cancer was inexcusable. Just read any of the comments left by the readers of this site during that series to see how much confidence the fans had in Dantley.

That being said, Dantley was loyal and did the best job he was capable of doing, and was rewarded as such by remaining with the Nuggets last season. But to suggest that Dantley should have remained on board for the 2011-12 season is a bit of a stretch from my vantage point.

http://www.denverstiffs.com/2011/6/26/2 ... oming-back

[el loco]

^^^^ That's just his assumption, it means absolutely nothing because it could be completely off base.


Obviously, they take a good game of musical chairs amongst adults serious in Denver

[Powder Blue]

Kinda shady for GK to tank AD at the end like he did but you'd think a HOF player would have a little dough saved up.

I honestly don't know what any of the assistant coaches do besides talk to JR (cause GK doesn't like to)

If it was a money-saving move then it's cool, if it was because of performance they shoulda dumped GK too.

[Nutty Nats Fan]

Even if it was money saving, why wait so long to tell him? Why blame the assistant coaches for it?

[The Rebel]

Kinda shady for GK to tank AD at the end like he did but you'd think a HOF player would have a little dough saved up.

I honestly don't know what any of the assistant coaches do besides talk to JR (cause GK doesn't like to)

If it was a money-saving move then it's cool, if it was because of performance they shoulda dumped GK too.

If I remember right Dantley was supposed to be our bigman coach, and teach Melo how to play in the post. The guys he was directly responsible for never seemed to reach their ceiling, which does not help his case.

Even if it was money saving, why wait so long to tell him? Why blame the assistant coaches for it?

We do not even know if karl really did blame the other assistants, this is all what Dantley supposedly told a reporter, but even if he did it does not surprise me. That is what Karl does, he does not seem to like confrontation, and he always let's someone else take the blame. You have followed the Nuggets close enough to know that. The thing I do not understand is why Dantley would go public and blame it on something so dumb, I don't see many coaches wanting to hire an assistant that is going to go public with something like this, as opposed to just keeping his mouth shut, no coach is going to want to hire someone like that to be his top assistant.

[dis4ryan]

We were favored in the Utah series. All the other series we lost we were the underdog. Anybody with a memory knows it was the most shocking and disappointing post season series loss in the Karl era.

Anyway, Yahoo has a story that says Dantley got fired because Karl wanted him to sit in the front row of the bench and Dantley refused. If your boss tells you to do something and you refuse, you can't argue about being fired. I don't understand the Karl haters. He's the best coach we've had since Moe.

[DaFan334]

Most of GK's other assistants in the past left to go onto better jobs, a lot for head coaching spots. Dantley didn't live up to those sort of expectations. You can't tell me that he didn't see this coming, with his contract expiring.

[almost famous]

I don't see how this is Karl's fault. Obviously Dantley, for whatever reason, was a distraction to his staff. Could he have let the guy know sooner? Certainly, but it isn't like Dantley had no idea his contract was up. As soon as Karl said "I'll let you know", he should have been asking around. Dantley just sounds like a whiny bitch.