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Anyone who has ever held a steady job understands the impact a terrible boss can have on their lives. Even non-working hours are spent contending with the shackles thrust upon their proverbial wrists as a result of another person’s incompetence. Peace of mind becomes an elusive and seemingly impossible pursuit, and all hope for change is stifled and suffocated out of your being.
It is, for lack of a better term, psychological imprisonment.
While this scenario may be familiar to those of us struggling to pay bills, and to put food on the tables to satisfy the relentless hunger of our families, don’t for a second believe it isn’t also applicable to those with a higher station in life. Frustration is frustration, regardless of your income.
It was only five short weeks ago that Brian Shaw publicly steamrolled his players after an embarrassing road loss to the Memphis Grizzlies.
“I don’t feel like we came and competed from the very beginning of the game,” Shaw said. “And I wish in these kinds of situations, I’d have more respect if guys just told me they didn’t feel like playing tonight from the start.
These statements were made on the back of a stretch where the Denver Nuggets had lost eight of nine games, having been trampled by some of the Western Conference’s best teams in the process. The players were frustrated, fans were once again losing hope on a season that had seemingly been recaptured, and the person ultimately accountable for steering the ship to safety, instead decided to toss his players into rickety lifeboats in stormy and shark-infested waters.
I have to believe it was at this moment that Shaw lost his team for good.
What played out over the next month and a half was one of the messiest situations the NBA has ever seen, with the players participating in inordinately unprofessional behavior, and the coach responding in an equally, and publicly, despicable way. As we now know, this ultimately culminated in Shaw’s dismissal on March 3rd.
Now, the players, interim head coach Melvin Hunt, and the front office are left to pick up the pieces of the Josh McDanielsian hurricane that left town.
Who’s To Blame?
To genuinely learn from any mistake, the first step must be to retrospect, and to honestly assess one’s role in what unfolded. In the curious case of the Nuggets, there is plenty of blame to go around, but perhaps the most overlooked aspect of this all is the role of management in this nightmare season.
It is easy to point fingers at the coach, or at the players. They are tangible, familiar and consistently available figures. They are akin to the boss you see everyday that makes your life miserable. But, what if your boss is simply carrying out the culture demanded of him by his superiors? After all, he presumably has a family to feed too.
The installation of culture begins and ends with the ownership and executive group of any NBA team. All you have to do is look at the last two decades of champions to understand this fact. Without Pat Riley and Micky Arison, there are no Miami Heat championships. Without Jerry Buss, the Los Angeles Lakers don’t produce the era-defining team they have over the years. Without Peter Holt, the San Antonio Spurs aren’t the epitome of sustained excellence they have become.
All of these teams have one thing in common. They have, or had in the case of the Lakers, a clearly defined culture, that they demand their players cultivate and strengthen.
To juxtapose this, the Nuggets have become a culture defined by their loser’s mentality over the past two seasons. When Josh Kroenke and Tim Connelly finally decided to relieve Shaw of his coaching duties, they appointed Hunt as the interim coach, and proceeded to usher him out in front of the media to field the difficult questions all of us were so desperate to have answered.
The media, to its credit, was easy on Hunt, recognizing the shameful situation he was placed in. And Hunt, to his credit, handled himself with incredible poise, doing his best to serve as the face of the franchise. Connelly would later pull a group of media together to answer a few questions, but did so much more out of the public eye, and presumably only after he realized how he would be perceived for not doing so. Kroenke was conspicuously absent for the entire day.
This is the culture of losing epitomized. It was what I like to call “the loser lifestyle.” This is not an intended knock on Connelly. I actually really like the guy, and I’d like to see him get a real shot to execute on his vision. I have to think this is another case of the boss being subject to his boss’s orders. At least, that’s what I hope.
As for Kroenke, there should be no excuses. He needed to be visible on a day that should have stood for transparency and accountability. The fans needed to see him much like they saw Pat Bowlen stand up four years ago for the Denver Broncos, and admit their mistakes as a franchise. We have a forgiving and understanding fanbase, but only if you are willing to join us in admitting we aren’t perfect.
Picking Up The Pieces
The question that lingers heavily on the minds of everyone interested in seeing the Nuggets become a model of success, is where do they go from here?
Well, until there is a mindset of shared accountability embedded into those that run this organization, I’m afraid the answer to this question is “nowhere.”
Over the next few months, we will see this roster undergo a makeover. We will see a new coach named, and it will likely be someone with vast NBA experience, and one that fans recognize. We will see a young man put a Nuggets cap on his head after being taken with a lottery pick in June.
But, the sad fact is that he will likely be overcome with doubt as he dons that powder blue cap, staring into the abyss of audience members and cameras with his bravest game face on. Until that perception changes, nothing else matters.
But hey, at least they got a win last night. The loser lifestyle has be shed, and it has to start somewhere.
Court Zierk is a Columnist for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @CourtZierk, “Like” him on Facebook or add him on Google.
