Over the weekend, the Brooklyn Nets shockingly fired their head coach, Kenny Atkinson. It has been reported that Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving had no interest in playing for Atkinson and that they felt like he wasn't the right guy to lead them to an NBA championship. Now, the Nets are playing with an interim head coach and this summer, they will be looking to hire someone for the full-time gig.
Early reports suggest Irving wants Ty Lue to be the head coach although it remains to be seen if that comes to fruition. During a recent episode of ESPN's First Take, Stephen A. Smith spoke about the Nets head coach situation and had an interesting suggestion in terms of who should take the lead. Of course, Smith mentioned Lue but he also mentioned Mark Jackson who now works as a color commentator. Perhaps the most shocking suggestion was legendary head coach Gregg Popovich.
Popovich has been coaching the San Antonio Spurs for over 20 years now and has led them to five championships. Smith makes the case that Coach Pop has plenty of proteges in San Antonio and that if the Spurs miss the playoffs, he may want to hand the team off to someone else. In this case, Popovich could be a great candidate for the Brooklyn job.
Of course, Coach Pop is a very unlikely hire and the rest of the First Take crew made sure to mention this. Regardless, Smith definitely opened a can of worms with this one.