Whipped Cream Difficulties

Darvin Ham out as head coach of the Lakers.

The Lakers went 47-35 this season, the eighth-best record in the West. They won their play-in tournament game and advanced to face the Nuggets, who they again lost to in a tightly contested five-game series.

Why can’t LeBron James make change for a dollar?

Because he doesn’t have a 4th quarter.

Ham, who had two years remaining on his contract, went 90-74 (.549) during the regular season and 9-12 (.429) in the postseason — which does not include his two play-in tournament wins — since being hired to replace Frank Vogel in 2022. He also guided the Lakers to the inaugural in-season tournament title in Las Vegas in December.

This kind of stretches the definition of “firing” just a little bit, but I claim noteworthiness.

Jontay Porter, forward for the Toronto Raptors, has been banned from the NBA for life.

The NBA said that Porter provided confidential information to bettors, limited his own participation in games for gambling purposes and bet on NBA games.
“There is nothing more important than protecting the integrity of NBA competition for our fans, our teams and everyone associated with our sport, which is why Jontay Porter’s blatant violations of our gaming rules are being met with the most severe punishment,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement.
“While legal sports betting creates transparency that helps identify suspicious or abnormal activity, this matter also raises important issues about the sufficiency of the regulatory framework currently in place, including the types of bets offered on our games and players. Working closely with all relevant stakeholders across the industry, we will continue to work diligently to safeguard our league and game,” Silver said.

…

Porter, the league said, gave a bettor information about his own health status before Toronto’s game on March 20. The league said another individual, known to be an NBA bettor, placed an $80,000 bet that Porter would not hit the numbers set for him in parlays through an online sportsbook. That bet would have won $1.1 million.
Porter took himself out of that game after only a few minutes, claiming illness, with none of his stats meeting the totals set in the parlay. The bet was frozen and not paid out, and the NBA started an investigation.
The NBA’s investigation found the Porter placed at least 13 bets on NBA games using an associate’s account, with the bets ranging from $15 to $22,000, totaling $54,094. The NBA said the total payout from those bets was $76,059, a net winnings of $21,965. None of Porter’s bets involved games in which he played. Three of his bets were multigame parlays that included one Raptors contest — and Porter bet that the Raptors would lose. All three bets lost, the NBA said.

“List of people banned or suspended by the NBA” from Wikipedia.

As critical as I’ve been of Gregg Easterbrook’s “pro-topless, anti-gambling” trope, I find myself thinking he’s right: the growth of sports betting has already had a negative impact on major league sports. And I think it is likely to just get worse.

Kellie Harper out as head coach of Tennessee women’s basketball.

108-52 in five seasons.

There’s been a lot of activity over the past two days. I guess the period between the end of the tournaments and Selection Sunday is the NCAA basketball equivalent of the NFL’s “Bloody Monday”.

Why don’t we get to it? In violation of my general rules, I’m using ESPN links mostly because I just don’t have time to go through the local papers.

Juwan Howard out today at Michigan. 8-24 this season (3-17 in conference), and an overall record in five years of 87-72.

Jerry Stackhouse fired yesterday at Vanderbilt, also after five seasons. 9-23 this season (4-14 in conference).

Jerod Haase out on Thursday at Stanford. 14-18 this season (8-12 in conference) and 126-127 overall in eight seasons.

Mike Boynton out at Oklahoma State after seven seasons. 12-20 this season (4-14 in conference).

I think that covers all the firings. If I’ve missed any, please leave me a heads-up in comments.

Kenny Payne out as head coach of men’s baskeball at Louisville. ESPN for the archive challenged.

12-52 in two seasons, with one road win. 8-24 this season, 3-17 in conference.

Roberto D’Aversa has been fired as manager of Lecce. Lecce is a team in the Italian Serie A soccer league.

This is not ordinarily something I would take notice of, but the reason for his firing is interesting:

D’Aversa, 48, head-butted Verona striker Thomas Henry in the aftermath of their 1-0 home defeat on Sunday.

Hellas Verona was the opposing team, and is in 13th place in Serie A. Lecce is in 15th place.

The New Jersey Devils fired coach Lindy Ruff. ESPN.

Ruff, 64, departs the Devils after coaching the team to a 128-125-28 record in 281 regular-season games over three-plus seasons.

Jacque Vaughn out as coach of the Brooklyn Nets.

The team is 21-33 this season, and lost their last game before the break to Boston by 50 points. Vaughn was 71-68 in “two plus” seasons, and 0-8 in the playoffs.

In not exactly firings related news that I don’t have another place to put, I didn’t pay a darn bit of attention to the All Star game, but I did read the stories this morning.

The Eastern Conference won, 211-186. Yes, one team scored over 200 points. Yes, Adam Silver is peeved.

“And to the Eastern Conference All-Stars, you scored the most points,” Silver said flatly. “Well … congratulations.”

And the players still aren’t taking it seriously.

Instead, it was another game with virtually no defense and with little to no life inside the building — to the point that the Los Angeles Lakers’ Anthony Davis said his most memorable moment was when the hype teams from the Chicago Bulls and Indiana Pacers went through their dunk routines between the third and fourth quarters.
“I think the best [moment], we were talking about it, was the Bulls and the Pacers dunkers,” Davis said. “With the trampoline? They were very, very impressive.”

…

Then there was Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards, who admitted he wasn’t interested in playing all that hard in an All-Star Game, period.
“For me, it’s an All-Star Game, so I will never look at it as being super competitive,” he said. “It’s always fun. I don’t know what they can do to make it more competitive. I don’t know. I think everyone looks at it … it’s a break, so I don’t think everyone wants to come here and compete.

I actually have a three part proposal for improving the All Star game:

1. Eliminate the All Star Game.
2. Shut down the NBA.
3. Profit.

Alternative proposal: no rules, no penalties, no substitutions, and the teams play until only one man is left standing.

Very quick, because I have a meeting tonight (and maybe some smoking hyenas to update):

Jarmo Kekalainen out as general manager of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

ESPN:

The Blue Jackets have the worst record in the Eastern Conference with a .404 points percentage in 52 games (16-26-10). The Jackets last made the playoffs in 2019-20. Under Kekalainen, Columbus qualified for the postseason five times but won only a single playoff series — their shocking 2019 first-round upset of first-place Tampa Bay in a sweep.

San Francisco fired Steve Wilks as defensive coordinator yesterday.

In Wilks’ lone season with the Niners, the defense had its share of ups and downs. A unit that led the NFL in multiple categories in 2022 under DeMeco Ryans — including fewest points per game allowed (16.3) and defensive expected points added (89.58) — took a step back in 2023.
San Francisco still finished third in points allowed (17.5) this season, but the 49ers were ninth in defensive EPA (41.48) and sprung significant leaks against the run in the playoffs, allowing the Green Bay Packers, Detroit Lions and Kansas City Chiefs to average 5.1 yards per carry and 149.3 yards per game in the postseason.

Billy Eppler has not been fired as general manager of the Mets, because he actually resigned October 5th.

But he won’t be involved in baseball this year: Rob Manfred placed him on the ineligible list through the end of the 2024 baseball season.

Sadly, it’s just a year, not “permanently ineligible“, which is my favorite form of ineligible.

Prithee, good sir, you may ask. Why the suspension?

…he directed the team to fabricate injuries to create open roster spots…
Manfred said in a statement that Eppler directed “the deliberate fabrication of injuries; and the associated submission of documentation for the purposes of securing multiple improper injured list placements during the 2022 and 2023 seasons.”
The scheme involved fabricating injuries for up to a dozen players, sources told ESPN’s Jesse Rogers. Sources also said that an anonymous letter from within the organization tipped off MLB.

Todd McLellan out as head coach of the Los Angeles Kings.

No big firings still, but a few coordinators lost their jobs. I’m playing catch-up here, so please forgive the ESPN links.

Vic Fangio has been let go as defensive coordinator of the Miami Dolphins, supposedly by “mutual decision”.

Joe Barry fired as defensive coordinator of the Green Bay Packers. That’s the Green Bay Packers who made it as far as the divisional round of the playoffs.

Sean Desai out as defensive coordinator of the Eagles.