Stephen Silas and Rick Higgins -"professional sons/nepotism beneficiaries" jointly hating on Alpi

So these two guys go back a long way.

For both guys, the main "achievement" in their life is to be "the son of".

We all know Stephen Silas is the son of the late Paul Silas.

What most people probably didn't know is that Rick Higgins is the son of former NBA player Rod Higgins, who played for the Bulls with Michael Jordan in 1982-1986.

Stephen Silas got his first NBA assistant job as an assistant to his father in Charlotte in 2000 at age 27, never having worked a real job except as "assistant executive director of the National Basketball Retired Players Association (NBRPA)", a job he undoubtedly only got because of his father's connections as well. After being an assistant with some other teams, he came back to the Bobcats to be daddy's assistant again in 2010, a job he kept until 2018 (even though his father got fired earlier than that).

Rick Higgins was a terrible college basketball player who got a job as "video coordinator" with the Charlotte Bobcats/Hornets in 2013, when - surprise - his father Rod Higgins was "President of Basketball Operations" of the Charlotte Bobcats (after having had to give up the GM job in 2011). Rick Higgins kept the job until 2018, just like Stephen Silas.

So from 2013 to 2018, both these "professional sons" who never achieved anything as players themselves and only got their jobs because their fathers hired them, were an assistant coach and video coordinator at the same team.

(At least Kenyon Martin Jr. is a legitimate NBA player in his own right.)

Later, when Silas got the job with the Rockets, he brought his old buddy Rick Higgins in.

Now, why does this all matter?

Here's why - Higgins is basically Silas' mouthpiece. It's like when children talk, you know what the parents think.

Silas doesn't hold back when he singles out Sengun for criticism, in a literally hateful way:



And guess what, this of course trickles down, Higgins talks with the same mean-spirited face of disdain about Sengun:



The guy would have rather bitten off his tongue than to say anything positive at all about Sengun.

Clearly, these two guys work in unison. Silas hates Alpi, this assistant coach goes back 10+ years with Silas and is loyal to Silas, not to the Rockets. It's not a coincidence that he will barely say a positive thing about Alpi either. There are plenty of examples of Silas hating on Alpi quite openly.

And by the way, Mike Batiste is presumably part of that same clique - he was an assistant coach with the Charlotte Hornets from 2017-2018, while Silas was an assistant coach there, and Rick Higgins was a video coordinator.

Lionel Hollins was coached by Paul Silas. Stephen Silas said that he would have brought him along in 2016 already, had he gotten the Rockets job back then. I don't know if he goes along with the Alpi hate, but he just seems kind of done with the world anyway. Doesn't exude enthusiasm or energy.

The only ones who historically don't seem to be compromised by being part of that clique appear to be John Lucas and Mahmoud Abdelfattah. It is unclear how they view Alpi, but as far as I know, Alpi has a very good relationship with John Lucas (even though Lucas also didn't give him more minutes in the two games he coached).

But as long as not only the head coach, but also at least 2 of the assistant coaches are quite openly against a young player, what chance does he have?

It must be so frustrating for Alpi to have to deal with these clowns on a daily basis. They keep holding him back.

Silas and his entourage must go. Sooner rather than later.

 

Stephen Silas' college stats are nowhere to be found, but this article says:

https://brownbears.com/news/2020/10/30/mens-basketball-stephen-silas-96-named-head-coach-of-the-houston-rockets.aspx#:~:text=Recognized as a an exceptional,career best 19 points vs.

So, Silas averaged about 5 points per game in four years at Brown.

Still better than Higgins:


After that, it was pretty much straight "ok daddy, please give me a job".

Pretty amazing how these guys talk in such a disrespectful manner about a very talented player like Alpi, singling him out for demeaning criticism at every opportunity.

 

The Rockets will not be THAT stupid.