Suns make huge mistake in hiring Lindsey Hunter as head coach
Jan 21, 2013, 3:17 PM | Updated: 4:27 pm
In the span of a weekend the Phoenix Suns fired the wrong guy and then they hired the wrong guy.
The whirlwind 48-hour so-called interview process that followed the surprising firing of head coach Alvin Gentry and subsequent hiring of Lindsey Hunter on an interim basis was nothing more than a charade. And make no mistake about it, Gentry was fired, it wasn’t a mutual decision to part ways.
Neither Elston Turner and his 14 years of coaching experience or Dan Majerle and his five-plus years had a snowball’s chance in hell of getting the job.
Not as long as general manager Lance Blanks, who has ruined this team with bad move after bad move, was still employed.
Blanks was always hiring his no-experienced buddy Hunter, whom he brought in not as a coach, but as a player development guy, who somehow was allowed to bark out instructions from behind the bench even though he wasn’t on the coaching staff.
Blanks even told people at the time he hired Hunter not to be threatened by Hunter because he wasn’t going to be coaching.
How loyal, experienced coaches who were next in line could be passed over by someone who has been here for just a few months tells you everything you need to know about Blanks.
The same Blanks who inked Michael Beasley to a three-year deal, but didn’t want O.J. Mayo.
The same Blanks who traded Goran Dragic and a first round pick to Houston for Aaron Brooks.
The same Blanks who signed Eric Gordon to a max contract offer sheet with no chance of actually being able to land him.
Yes, that Blanks who appears to be in way over his head as a general manager just as president of basketball operations Lon Babby is at his position.
The reality is that Hunter would have been hard-pressed to get a job as a head coach in the D League but somehow was good enough, with no experience, to get the head job here.
Look, this is the worst hiring since Michael Jordan pegged Sam Vincent to coach the Charlotte Bobcats. It’s downright ridiculous and proves that the Lance/Lon duo doesn’t have a clue.
The players were asked there opinion and the majority wanted Majerle. Neither Majerle or Turner were at Sunday’s practice and you can bet your bottom dollar they both will want out after witnessing this joke of a process. And that’s a shame as both are qualified good basketball men.
The sad part is that the owner Robert Sarver, who at times gets a bad rep but desperately wants to win and has spent the money to win, has been snowed by the duo he now has in charge.
Hopefully by the off-season Sarver comes to his senses and will find the right people to run his organization.
The boys he has in charge now are running it into the ground.