Why?

NBA coaches are supposed to be retreads. They are supposed to be guys like Don Nelson who is best known for coaching the Golden State Warriors, Dallas Mavericks and then the Golden State Warriors again with stops in Milwaukee and New York on his resume. They are supposed to be guys like George Karl who had coached in Cleveland, Golden State, Seattle, Milwaukee and now Denver.



NBA coaches aren’t supposed to be the youngest and brightest minds from the college ranks. For some reason they just don’t work! See Rick Pitino, John Calipari and Tim Floyd for examples of how the best college coaches fail miserably in the NBA. Despite all that the crown jewel of college basketball coaches is leaving his self-made dynasty in Gainesville, Florida for the millions of the NBA.

Billy Donovan was introduced today as the new head coach of the Orlando Magic leaving Gator fans and anyone with logic questioning why. For every Larry Brown success story there are a dozen guys like Pitino.

Perhaps Donovan really thinks he can win on this level. Possibly he thinks he’ll be the one to buck the trend and his motivation is to win an NBA championship to go with his two college titles. I don’t think so. My opinion is that Donovan’s motivation was five years of service for $27.5 million dollars thus selling out his established success and possibly happiness for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.