The Last of the Great Young Coaches:
Felipe Alou is one of the best coaches of this generation. Ron Wilson has had great success with other hockey teams. Oakland has brought in three coaches: Bill Callahan, Ken Maccha, and Eric Musselman, who have been long time assistants and were cheap replacements. So it comes as no surprise to me that the 49ers decided to let Steve Mariucci go with one year remaining on his contract.
Dusty Baker, Art Howe, Jon Gruden, and Darryl Sutter all took their teams to the playoffs the season before they were asked to leave. Mariucci did the same. If you include Tyrone Willingham leaving Stanford for Notre Dame, the Bay Area has lost some of the best minds in sports. And it all comes down to two things: Power and Money.
The 49ers and Sharks came under new ownership while their two young successful coaches were bringing home division titles and playoff wins. The A's were in too much of a budget crisis to pay for the 200 plus wins their coach brought in two seasons. The Raiders and Giants owners were struggling for more credit then they deserved for their coaches winning with less.
In August of 2000, Bill Walsh said "there is a hot seat for Steve (Mariucci). As years pass, if we were to lose, lose, lose, lose, then obviously we would make a change." Who knew Bill actually meant four losses.
Darryl Sutter was blamed for the bad start to the 2002-03 season which had more to do with Evgeni Nabokov and Brad Stuart's holdouts then his coaching style. His coaching took the Sharks to the playoffs every year, and improved record every year, as well as a Pacific Division title last year. The new owners didn't look at that.
The Oakland A's did respect Art Howe, but didn't like him enough to keep him from leaving. Instead they looked at the money offered by New York and said goodbye.
Al Davis was born on the same day as George Steinbrenner. That should explain why he took draft picks and cash over the most successful coach in the organization since Art Shell.
And Dusty Baker spent 10 seasons in San Francisco which, by today's standards, is like George Halas or Casey Stengel. Peter Magowan didn't like that Giants fans forgot that he is the reason the Giants are not in Tampa and why Pac Bell Park is the most beautiful stadium in sports.
The Warriors are the only Bay Area team who has improved their coaching situation, but how could it have been any worse. After seeing how Brian Winters handled Marc Jackson and Larry Hughes (the Warriors lost both players and in return got a 2nd round pick in 2007) a carboard cutout of the late Wilt Chamberlain would have been an improvement.
As a young man interested in coaching, I am so frustrated with the results of the last 12 months. All 5 replacements so far seem to be doing a good job. That is an understatement for Callahan, and the rest have yet to be tested. But with the combination of talent and age of Baker, Howe, Sutter, Gruden, and Mariucci, the Bay Area had a chance to have five coaches stay and coach for decades. Instead we see that Money and Power will always take a Shaquille O'neal size boot to Respect.