Mike D'Antoni resigned as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday night. Whether the move was of his own volition or forced upon him from above is ultimately irrelevant.
D'Antoni went 67-87 in two seasons as the Lakers' head coach, and both sides seemed miserable for each of his 154 games at the helm. After going 45-37 and getting swept out of the first round of the NBA Playoffs by the San Antonio Spurs a year ago, D'Antoni's Lakers were 27-55 this season, good for the second-worst record in the Western Conference.
Shortly after the announcement, Magic Johnson tweeted this:
Again, a parting of ways is justified here. But, still, this is a pretty public takedown (with 20,000 retweets) by the most visible living alum of one of America's glamor pro sports franchises.
Coaches, is this an unfair destruction of a guy doing the best he can at a hopeless job, or par for the course at one of the elite jobs in all of coaching?