Sources: Hawks hiring Drew By Marc J. Spears, Yahoo! Sports 39 minutes ago Email Print The Atlanta Hawks have promoted assistant Larry Drew to become their next head coach, sources told Yahoo! Sports. Drew has been a Hawks assistant for six seasons and has 16 years of coaching experience but has never been a head coach. Drew, who also played 10 seasons in the NBA, was popular with the Hawks players, which helped him land the job after Mike Woodson was fired following a second-round loss to the Orlando Magic. More From Marc J. SpearsLakers realize Odom's value to bottom line Jun 9, 2010 Nets reach contract agreement with Johnson Jun 9, 2010 Drew, who was working out final contract details with the team, was hired over Dallas Mavericks assistant Dwane Casey and NBA television analyst and former player Mark Jackson. Hawks ownership made the decision following a conference call with team officials. The Hawks made it to the playoffs three straight seasons, but were dominated in the second round the last two years. Marc Spears is an NBA writer for Yahoo! Sports. Send Marc a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast. Updated 39 minutes a http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=AqDMFtiNiiLfXudiiLm0ptO8vLYF?slug=mc-hawksdrew061110
If Jackson doesn't get the Hawks job, he's expected to emerge as a top candidate for the Los Angeles Clippers position. Casey also is expected to be looked at by the Clippers if not hired by Atlanta. "It's a great job,'' Jackson said of the Clippers' position. "So we'll see how it plays out.'' Jackson said he wasn't concerned about mentioning the Clippers while still a candidate in Atlanta. "It's not like I'm the only guy (the Hawks are) looking at,'' Jackson said. "It's a great job. I'll say that today.'' A source close to the situation believes the Clippers might wait until after July 1 to hire a coach, believing that could aide their chances of landing Cleveland star LeBron James, expected to opt out of his contract and become a free agent that day. Jackson, 45, played in the NBA from 1987-2004, including 1992-94 with the Clippers. He was Rookie of the Year and appeared in the 1989 All-Star Game. http://nba.fanhouse.com/2010/06/10/hawks-expect-to-name-coach-by-monday/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mark Jackson actually lives in LA and apparently the job he really seems to want is the Clipper job.
Not sure why Mark Jackson gets all these interviews, he's never coached on any level and he wants his first job to be an NBA head coaching job. Whatever happened to paying your dues, even Adelman had to coach at a community college before making the leap to the big time. I think someone needs to be up front and tell him being an ESPN commentator does not qualify him.
If he actually gets a head-coaching job, then I'll wonder. But if teams just interview him and take a pass, no problem with that. You can't hurt yourself (or the candidate) by granting and interview. Eventually he'll figure out nobody will give him a top job with zero experience. The failed Vinny del Negro experiment should teach all NBA teams a lesson.
Why are so many people convinced that Mark Jackson will be a good coach? Judging by his commentating, he's an idiot
Even idiots can understand the minuet mechanics of a game. I mean, Barkley is an idiot as well but he knows his basketball. He's an idiot but when he's not pretending to be cool by spewing off one-liners or arbitrarily arguing with JVG simply for the sake of, he does display a clear comprehension of what's going on. Surround him with some people and he'd do fine since, as a new coach, he'd have to listen to his assistant coaches. The real question is, how would Mark Jackson communicate with his players? That's the essence of a coach.
