With NBA head coaches getting fired left and right these days, logic would dictate that anyone leading a sub .500 team would be nervous about their job security. This is probably true for most coaches in the L, but not all.
Take Jim O’Brien for instance, he of the 8-16 Indiana Pacers. He’s not losing any sleep over his team’s slow start, mostly because he expected it.
From the Indy Star:
“Does it concern me? Frankly, it does not,” O’Brien said. “When I came on board here, (Pacers president) Larry (Bird) hired me and told me the first couple of years were going to be pretty difficult.”
“I didn’t come in here and have Larry say, ‘I’m expecting you to win 50 games.’ He said that we have a lot of work to do,” O’Brien said. “We changed our whole team around this year and we had seven new players. We weren’t sure what we had.”
Holy lowered expectations, Batman!
Jim O’Brien must give the best motivational speeches ever. “Hey, guys. Listen up: Don’t worry so much about winning and losing tonight. The important thing here, is that we have fun. OK? Fun on three!”
