Well before he was the head coach of the New York Knicks, and even prior to his run as the Memphis Grizzlies’ head coach, David Fizdale was an assistant coach in Miami under Erik Spoelstra. He was there before, during and after LeBron James’ run with the Heat.
Fizdale knows what it’s like for a head coach to establish a culture then have a larger than life superstar come to town. It’s not easy, but Pat Riley and the Heat stuck with their head coach, won a couple of titles and now they’re one of the better teams in the East again — and Jimmy Butler, their new best player, is a big fan of the way things are run.
The Heat’s approach is vastly different from the one the Brooklyn Nets took when the team and Kenny Atkinson parted ways on March 7, as Fizdale illustrated during a recent appearance on ESPN New York’s “Bart and Hahn“:
When it comes to players with power, a lot of it has to do — your front office has to really be strong and your culture has to be strong to weather disgruntled players. And you have to have a certain amount of support for their coach so when things get turbulent — and I’ll give you a perfect example: It wasn’t always perfect in Miami between Spo (Erik Spoelstra) and LeBron. But one thing we knew for sure: Spo wasn’t going anywhere, because he had the support of Pat, Andy Elisburg and the Arison family, from the standpoint of, ‘This is our culture, this is how we do things, and everyone has to adjust to that.’ And that’s the thing I respect so much about those teams like San Antonio and Miami, they make the players adapt to their culture. They don’t go the other way. I think more teams need to adapt that and give their coaches more support from that standpoint.
Fizdale was also asked about the idea of Kyrie Irving being a “culture killer,” given what’s happened in Brooklyn and what happened when the point guard was with the Boston Celtics:
I don’t really have an opinion one way or another on him. But you can’t deny the fact he won a championship in Cleveland and did enough to help a team get all the way to the end, and was a huge part of it. And the last two places, it just didn’t work out and I wasn’t in the building to know exactly what was going on. But it can be one of two things: He was either that guy who doesn’t adapt and kills culture. Or he’s a Jimmy Butler who needs to find the right fit.
The ex-Knicks coach has been in contact with Atkinson since the former Nets coach was relieved of his duties. For Fizdale, Brooklyn’s move was a “gut punch.” But he’s confident his friend will easily find get a new gig.
Kenny is, I know he’s a big boy, too, and he can take it. … But, at the end of the day, I think that Kenny’s gonna be right back in the saddle. He’s one of the bright coaches in this league, and someone’s going to recognize that and hire him up.