Raptors fire coach Sam Mitchell

[betplom]

Raptors fire coach Sam Mitchell

DENVER — Sam Mitchell is out as the head coach of the Toronto Raptors.

Team president and general manager Bryan Colangelo fired the 45-year-old Mitchell today, a day after a horrendous 132-93 loss to the Denver Nuggets dropped Toronto to 8-9 on the season.

[nick2060]

hmmm

lol damn i guess u beat me to it

[bmw530i]

Man looking at him coach in the Lakers game, his suit screamed Mens Wearhouse, owner must have been pissed?

[Sinister Cat]

Not Sam's fault J.O. is washed up... BC messed up, had to find someone to blame.

[Tsoprano]

[vassman86]

If Jermain O'Neal weren't such a cripple, the Raptors would make it to the playoffs. But, with him being in and out of the line-up so much, it's understandable that the team's chemistry is so imbalanced. Sam Mitchell was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

[MJFtheGenius]

hard to win with Black coaches

need to hire a white guy

[unit1884]

WOW, didnt see this one coming, Sam was a good coach...

Too bad the coach usually takes the blame in sports...

[donz88]

BC expects too much out of the raptors. They should have blamed the players, not the team.. Should blame Calderon, Anthony Parker, Moon, and all their bench players. Sam Mitchell was confused with this team because nothing seemed to work and yet he finally got the blamed.

[unit1884]

I am a raptors fan and I can tell you this was NOT Sams fault...

This team is HORRIBLE in the paint, and team rebounding is just terrible. Thats the reason they suck, not Mitchell

[crisp]

hard to win with Black coaches

need to hire a white guy

i'm tired about all the talk about how they need more black coaches. black coaches can't win because they're not as smart as white coaches. same thing with white players they aren't as good as black players. just shut the f up and go with what works.

[zentiense]

It's funny how coaches in the NBA are Coach of the Year one year and then a few years later are without a job...

Raps have needed rebounding for years. It's pathetic, really. Why not go out and grab Reggie Evans? He can play next to Bosh and rebound while Bosh trolls the perimeter.

In any case, Raps are kind of a mess. They have their go-to MVP (Bosh), a solid low-TO PG (Caldy), a few guys who know their role (Parker, three bombs), Moon (defense), but that's a bout it. They needed another high impact player (Oneal) and went out and got him, but, as it turns out, as predicated by his injuries the last 4 seasons or so, that player is totally worthless. Now they have Bargnani who, by my estimation, is more of a Hedo Turkoglu than a Memo Okur/Dirk shooting big man type. Bargy plays the C for them and he's softer than a cracked egg sitting on black pavement during a hot summer day. Bottom line: their frontline is awful. Bosh plays PF and is tremendous (MVP this year, anyone?) but his interior defense is lacking and he does not rebound the ball well enough to carry the load. Oneal, if healthy, would help and actually be the perfect piece -- but the problem is that he's not healthy, does not really fit into their offensive gameplan (which is to have Bosh shoot 15 foot jumpers all game), and doesn't work on the defensive end. What is the purpose of having all these guys mediocre guys who have no impact on the game (Delfino--who left already--, Moon, Humpy, Paker, etc.)? They're like a slightly better version of the Bulls, except their front court is worse.

[HabsAllDaWay]

i agree mitchell was a good coach and bonded well with the players but i think sometimes players just need a change of face...might workout for the best

[whoatommy]

hard to win with Black coaches

need to hire a white guy

thats why the white guy doc rivers won last year

[jjgold]

Toronto is just a bad team
Secondly basketball does not belong in Canada
Mitchell was not bad

[Sinister Cat]

Toronto is just a bad team
Secondly basketball does not belong in Canada
Mitchell was not bad

Mitchell is not a good coach, but this was known from when BC came on, so I don't see what the point in firing him now is.

Raptors have been very successful in Toronto, even though the town is Leaf-crazy, so I'm not sure why it wouldn't belong in Canada.

[MJFtheGenius]

thats why the white guy doc rivers won last year

name me the other black coach that won????

is Doc all you people got????

People like you disgust me

[Sinister Cat]

name me the other black coach that won????

is Doc all you people got????

People like you disgust me

Avery Johnson has the best winning % all-time.

KC Jones won 2 championships.

[cocknocker]

Sinister Cat, Bill Russel won some too as coach of the Celtics.

Listen MJFtheGenius,

There is no need for inappropriate comments like that. We have a Black President now, hot and fresh on his way into the White House. Are you going to say next that Black people can't lead the nation too?

Funny how Rick Carlisle took over Avery's team and Dallas is 1-7 ats in their last 8 home games and their record sucks too. Nate McMillan is doing a good job in Portland, and if you bet with that team you wouldn't be criticizing Black coaches with full pockets. Cleveland seems to be doing just fine with a Black coach. John Thompson won the NCAA Championship. Michael Cooper coached the Sparks to few championships, Tony Dungy in the NFL, Cito Gaston in MLB (2), and so on.

Now I have a question for you. WTF have you won? You're a nobody. A nickel bagger. To prove my point, start up a thread of your own with no racial theme, and see how many people visit your thread. you call yourself a genius yet what you know could fill only half of a thimble. Why am I wasting my time with you. You don't even know what a thimble is. Go look it up genius.

I will have over 3000 people hit my thread up by the end of the day each and every day. And guess what? I'm Black and proud of it. I write your name on my thread and you'll have people from all walks of life and colors come to this thread and clown you for your racist statement.

[AC1318]

they needed to do something after that ass whipping denver gave them

[BestPlay2day]

Sam Mitchell gets fired yet Randy Wittman is still coaching the Timberwolves!

[csimmalavong]

raps expectations >>> wolves expectations

[BrandonLaz]

name me the other black coach that won????

is Doc all you people got????

People like you disgust me

Wow that is a pretty sad statement if you ask me. There are plenty of great black coaches from multiple sports. I have loved Byron Scott with the way he took the Nets to the Finals all those years. So they lost to some great teams he was still a great coach in getting basically Jason Kidd to the finals. Tony Dungee in the NFL is a great head coach and an upstanding guy. I can think of barely any coaches that have more class and are as good at getting players to produce as he is. In case you are wondering I am white, and do not have a single problem with any coach as long as they are good at their job.

[2qwik]

cocknocker put up a lot of statistics that shoot down your POV MJFtheGenius. There is no need for such racist comments. I am not African American but I still will have to step in to defend african american coaches. It really dont matter what color you are and its really based on the talent and chemistry your team has. Cant we all just get along?

[fiveteamer]

Toronto is just a bad team
Secondly basketball does not belong in Canada
Mitchell was not bad

dumb.

[killersweet]

Toronto is just a bad team
Secondly basketball does not belong in Canada
Mitchell was not bad

First of all Toronto is not a bad team. 2 consecutive trips to the playoffs? How are they a bad team? They are not a bottom dweller anymore. They are 8-9 and it is still pretty early in the season. They can easily turn things around. I don’t know what basis u have for calling them a bad team.

Secondly who are u to say that basketball doesn’t belong in Canada? Raptors have one of the best attendances in the entire league and raptors fans have been known for being very passionate about their team. If Okalahoma city can have a team, then surely a mega city like Toronto can have one.

[killersweet]

hard to win with Black coaches

need to hire a white guy

What's wrong with you? and you call your self a genius.

[THE_LOCKSMITH]

Toronto is just a bad team
Secondly basketball does not belong in Canada
Mitchell was not bad

Toronto with a middle of the road team for all these years is still ranked 11th in team Value. If you get rid of them you might as well make the NBA a 10 team league and get rid of the rest of the teams that there ranked above!

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/32/nba08_NBA-Team-Valuations_Rank.html

[wangichu]

name me the other black coach that won????

is Doc all you people got????

People like you disgust me

ok there genious... you do realize that mitchell won coach of the year award not two years ago... a teams W/L record is a combination of coach and players... yeah bosh has looked good, but that team really hasn't gelled with o'neal yet so for mitchell to take the fall is not necessarily on him, it's just how pro sports work... if you're not winning consistently, you're going to lose your job.

I don't know if you pay much attention to the NBA or professional sports for that matter, or hell, even the nation, but this country is still fresh off centuries of racism and it hasn't even been a full century since african americans were allowed into sports. Even if some how they were inferior to white coaches (which is straight stupid to say imho), we haven't even had enough time to get sample data. The first 20 or so years that blacks were allowed into sports, there really wasn't an opportunity for black coaches yet.

1-not all the white players were accepting of blacks in sports yet... it took a while for white athletes to stop being blindly prejudice like you and realize that blacks sure as hell don't know LESS about sports
2-since they were just beginning to play sports, there were no former athletes or veterans that were black, it took at least a generation for there to be a black veteran class of athletes.
3-even in the 20+ years that blacks have even been considered for head coaching jobs, a lot of black veterans prefer other jobs to the heavy hateful scrutiny from uninformed haters like yourself, it's people like you that have kept black coaches from even having a chance to prove you and all the other racist dunces wrong... tell me a team wouldn't go to battle for charles barkley if he wanted to coach. Tell me that michael jordan and magic johnson don't know the game of basketball better than just about anyone to have played the game. or even espn analysts or commentators have to deal with less foolish scrutiny because of their race... how many white coaches can you think of that have failed, because it's a LOT more than black coaches that have failed... it's simple statistics.... there are a lot more white coaches, so more whites will fail, and more whites will succeed.

Did you ever think that YOU are part of the reason that black coaches haven't had the ability to prove there successful potential... by being an uneducated, blind hater, you are one of the lynch mob that would rather talk trash than look at something from a serious non-biased approach...

for the vast majority, black athletes have proven better on the whole than white athletes, at least in the NBA (if not NFL too) and there are a lot of them that are good and better because they know the game...

give it some time and you'll see a boatload of successful black coaches once the market balances out... simple economics will say that it's harder for new entrants to succeed in a preestablished market, and the market for basketball coaches has been established as white for years... yet still a lot of black coaches are getting chances to succeed in the market and many of them are doing a great job, and a lot of them get the attention of their players better than washed up white coaches..

for what it's worth... i'm a white boy, who voted for john mcshame, but i don't even think obama can't be president, i just didn't like his policies. black men are every bit as capable as white men, they just don't get as many opportunities because of prejudice that people like you still purvey. and it's prejudice like yours that keeps the "stereotypical" black thug or degenerate believing that they can't succeed in this country and becoming criminals or giving up on life early and not trying to educate themselves to prove uneducated white people wrong.

I know i can't convince you to become an educated genious, but track record or no, saying black coaches can't win is straight ignorant.

[wangichu]

oh and i would add byron scott to the fold... yeah the nets and blah blah blah, but honestly how good have the nets been since he left... meanwhile, look at what the hornets have become under his leadership... i'm a die hard lakers fan, but i would almost like to see the hornets do it just to show you how wrong you are again

[chipper8888]

No need for the racism, some friends of ours took offence - enough said !!!!

As for Sam, hes not Colangelo's guy and never was.....this bad start gave him his best chance he had to get rid of him

Liked the guy but they need a change badly

[chipper8888]

Toronto is just a bad team
Secondly basketball does not belong in Canada
Mitchell was not bad

Why doesnt ball belong in Canada ? You might as well say Hockey doesnt belong in the US - nice comment

Sam Mitchell was a bad coach who had to go

[BigMoneyMan]

Dam! I really think everything has been said except ignorance is bliss and intelligence is at a premium. Geniuses don't have to call themselves out because their actions tell others alll they need to know. You have shown your true smarts but I doubt you can understand that being a genius and all.

[OuchaDirkFan41]

MJF you are a dumbass dude, if you have problems with black coaches it must be tough to enjoy sports. Raptors couldn't be anybetter with Jerry Sloan at the helm, he is the most underated coach of all time.

[vassman86]

hard to win with Black coaches

need to hire a white guy

Ummm, we can leave racism out of this. Grow up