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A swift, decisive fall for Vincent
Inexperience, inconsistency, conflict marked Vincent's Bobcats tenure
RICK BONNELL
rbonnell@charlotteobserver.com
Charlotte Bobcats managing partner Michael Jordan wanted a coach with great teaching skills. He wanted a vocal leader, and someone who could mold a young team.
Experience as a head coach didn't matter, he said, so long as the coach was a student of the game: The next Avery Johnson, who had risen from Dallas Mavericks assistant to hot, young head coach.
The description fit Sam Vincent.
He was inexperienced, but studied the sport in remote outposts like Nigeria. He was seen as a teacher. He was vocal and optimistic at the outset, predicting a playoff berth before his first season began.
So how did Vincent, fired Saturday after one season as coach of the Bobcats, go from hand-picked prodigy-on-the-rise to unemployed so quickly?
There were warning signs from the beginning.
Before his only training camp with the Bobcats, Vincent was asked about his mentors. He offered few names, saying he had his own ideas and didn't feel the need to second-guess himself by consulting much with others.
That I-know-best attitude marked Vincent's tenure and, as much as anything, might have sped his downfall, although Vincent said Saturday his relations with players and management were good by the end of the season.
"If people think it had something to do with relationships with the players, that's inaccurate,'' Vincent told the Observer. "There's talk that it was rotations. But we had so many injuries early in the season and before that, it affected what we were trying to do.
"I can't agree that it was job performance that was sub-par.''
Vincent declined to discuss specific incidents Saturday, saying, "You've got to have incredible loyalty with your coaching staff. You've got to have trust with your players. And you've got to have a working relationship with management where you're working with them on what you want and need.
"I think we were at that point with all of that by the end of the season.''
Players were generally negative in their assessment of Vincent in season-ending interviews conducted by team officials, a source familiar with the situation said.
A typical complaint: His attitude was insistent, but his decision-making fickle.
That combination perhaps most visibly affected guard Raymond Felton.
Before a December home loss to the Washington Wizards, Vincent said he needed to wean himself off using Felton at shooting guard because it hurt Felton's development at point guard, where the team would need him most in the long run.
Three days later in Orlando, Vincent reversed himself, starting Jeff McInnis and playing Felton primarily at shooting guard.
When asked by a reporter about the change, Felton looked baffled, shrugging but saying nothing.
Vincent's explanation: "When Jeff and Ray are on the floor together, they're pretty productive with Jeff pushing it up to him and Raymond attacking and scoring. Whatever that makes (Felton), it makes him, but it makes us a better team.''
Two months later, the Bobcats cut McInnis to re-install Felton as the primary point guard.
That wasn't the first or last time a Bobcat was mystified by Vincent.
Vincent explained away a December loss in Toronto by speculating his players must not get enough sleep or eat right. Told that, Felton looked miffed, then abruptly announced he had nothing to say.
Then there was Vincent's January assertion, following a home loss to Philadelphia, that the players didn't care enough.
"The coaching staff cares an awful lot about winning, but the guys on the floor have to care about winning more than the coaching staff,'' Vincent said. "We need that fire, we need that passion, from the players.
"We need them to really want to win.''
Bobcats leading scorer Jason Richardson looked stunned and hurt by that assertion, responding, "I'll take any one of these guys (as teammates.) We play tired, we play sick. Maybe it's frustration from (Vincent), but I don't understand that.''
Costly inexperience
Vincent wasn't the first NBA coach to rip his players after a loss or to make sudden lineup changes. But it was clear from his players' reaction that some found him impulsive.Some of that could have come from inexperience.
His only previous NBA coaching experience was a season in Dallas, where he was not Mavericks coach Johnson's lead assistant.
The inexperience might have cost the Bobcats a trophy victory in December, when they seemingly had the Celtics beaten. Disregarding assistant coaches and players suggesting a late timeout, Vincent chose not to remove Emeka Okafor -- a 52 percent foul shooter at the time -- with the Celtics having little choice but to intentionally foul.
The Celtics converged on three other Bobcats in a late-game in-bounds play, trying to force Richardson to pass to Okafor. Boston stole the pass Richardson forced elsewhere, and Boston guard Ray Allen won it with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer.
He was no Bickerstaff
The contrast between Vincent and his predecessor, Bernie Bickerstaff, was dramatic. Bickerstaff, still a Bobcats executive, has spent three decades in the NBA as a coach or talent evaluator. Bickerstaff held players accountable -- he cut Kareem Rush late in the team's second season over an attitude problem -- but earned loyalty with his humility, often blaming himself for losses.
Vincent made bold playoff predictions. When they fell through, he deflected criticism with complicated rationalizations.
The day he was hired, Vincent said he'd be "incredibly discouraged and disappointed'' if the Bobcats didn't reach the playoffs this season. Before training camp he went a step further, saying his players should aim for a top-four finish in the Eastern Conference.
Two months into the season, with his team struggling to stay near .500 in the easier half of the schedule, Vincent was asked about those predictions.
He replied that it was unfair to hold the team accountable for making the playoffs after it lost 40 points-per-game of scoring through injuries to Adam Morrison and Sean May.
Vincent's conclusion disregarded that Morrison probably wouldn't have started, and that May's knee problems have allowed him to play in only 58 of a possible 246 games as a Bobcat.
Later in that same interview, Vincent reminded reporters that the Bobcats lost their starting point guard from the previous season. But that player, Brevin Knight, wanted to return, and the team paid Knight $1.5 million not to play in Charlotte.
Clashed with others
Vincent's personality could grate on players. During one practice he engaged in such a heated discussion with Okafor that the typically even-tempered center could be seen repeatedly slamming his right fist into his left palm. Asked later about the Okafor incident, Vincent said, "We're pushing guys more. We're going to jump on them a little more.''
The front office staff wasn't immune: Two sources confirm an argument between Vincent and then-director of player personnel Kenny Williamson weeks into Vincent's tenure.
Jared Dudley was delayed flying in for a pre-draft workout, and Vincent didn't want to reschedule. Williamson said they had to work out Dudley, because showing up a player and his agent over a flight problem would hurt the franchise.
Ultimately Dudley's workout happened, and the Bobcats drafted him 22nd overall. He made 14 starts as a rookie and has a bright future.
Williamson is now with the Memphis Grizzlies.
Vincent also frustrated those at the top of the organization.
The night of Dec. 21, after a home victory over the New York Knicks, Vincent postponed a team charter flight to Milwaukee for a game the next night against the Bucks.
Weather was deteriorating in the Midwest, based on a description by athletic trainer Joe Sharpe, so Vincent figured the plane would never get there before Milwaukee's airport closed.
But Vincent didn't consult with Jordan or general manager Rod Higgins before postponing the flight. In the NBA, the show must go on, and had the team not arrived (it flew out the next morning, landed in Chicago late afternoon, and reached Milwaukee by bus shortly before tip-off) the Bobcats were liable for a fine from the NBA that could have reached $5 million.
Vincent said it was a common-sense reaction to a winter storm more than his failure to keep his bosses in the loop.
Jordan, who controls basketball decisions, saw it otherwise.
"Sam made a call that Sam was not supposed to make," Jordan told the Observer earlier this month. "There's protocol and that could have cost us a fine.''
Instead, it helped cost Vincent his job.
Staff writer David Scott contributed
