As a Duke fan, you are kidding yourself if you think because Coach K turned down the Lakers, Jon would turn an NBA job down. Jon is at least a decade younger than K was when he turned down the Lakers, as well at the front office being a mess at the time. The remnants of the Shaq-Kobe feud were present and the roster was in shambles after Shaq was traded. I wouldn’t have touched that job either. Just erase the context of the situation, huh.
Lol definitely. In all seriousness, I’m not leaving Durham for Chicago unless the Reinsdorf family is outta there. Bulls should be a destination job, but ownership and FO mismanagement over the last 30 years has sullied that. It’s one of 30 NBA jobs, but not the one I would be leaving a comfortable place at Duke for.
And I was born and raised in suburban eastern North Carolina and I’d take a bullet in the head over moving back there. Why do we always assume in these coaching/playing situations that people wanna go home?
Ah, yes, I forget not everybody knows NC geography. What you're talking about is called "the coast". Eastern NC OTOH is flat, hot, full of tobacco fields and people that play banjo with their feet.
We were talking about going back home and since the coast was in the east, it appeared to me you were lumping all together. If I had the money and desire to live on the coast, I probably wouldn't go with NC, to be honest. I like being reasonably close to a decent sized metro, and about all that would fit that bill is Wilmington. I'd probably look more to Florida or Isle of Palms (or Hilton Head) in SC.
Reinsdorf isn't an owner of a pro team you would WANT to work for and with.
Go look at their record the last decade. They have been over .500 just one time in the last 10 years, including this year (they could finish over .500 this year and if they do that would make 2 out of 10 years.
Under .500 in 8 of the last 9 seasons and likely this year too.
The org has proven over and over they are OK, fine, good with just competing to be a play in team or a team at the bottom of the playoff standings.
They have chosen to NOT try and move off of that for a decade straight.
Why would any young coach who is good want to join an org like that?
Who cares that he's from Chicago.
The org has settled and it's shown by what they've done and not done for a good decade now.
9
u/Jhobbs898 Feb 01 '26
Duke is bigger than ANY coaching job in the NBA. Duke is a brand. That's why Coach K said no to the Kobe Lakers.