CLEVELAND, Ohio – Give John Beilein credit for realizing it was a bad idea for him to coach the Cleveland Cavaliers.
He admitted to the Cavs this wasn’t working, and the two sides agreed to a settlement on his five-year contract. Beilein could have coached to the end of the season and forced the Cavs to fire him, which would have probably been more financially lucrative.
But he also knew that would be wrong. At times in life, quitting is the right thing to do.
That’s what Beilein did during the NBA All-Star break.
It’s admirable, because Beilein knew he was not about to adapt to life in the NBA. He climbed a lot of coaching mountains, from being a head coach at the high school level to leading his University of Michigan Wolverines to the NCAA national title games in 2013 and 2018.
The NBA was the only remaining challenge for him.
It was irresistible, as he told me when I interviewed him for a story last month.
“I was going to do something else,” he said, meaning something besides college coach.
THE BIG LEAP
The former Michigan coach thought he could jump to the NBA after 42 years of being a college coach.
That’s 42 years of only being a college coach, having no experience in the NBA.
And coming to the NBA at the age of 66.
As for the Cavaliers, General Manager Koby Altman desperately wanted to find a coach who could teach his young players.
Three key parts of the Cavs future are Kevin Porter Jr., Darius Garland and Collin Sexton. Their ages . . . between 19-and-21.
It’s the same age range Beilein has coached for most of his career.
One difference, his players at Michigan, West Virginia, Richmond and other college stops were not instant millionaires, as is the case of NBA first-round draft choices. Nor did Beilein have to deal with older NBA players who approach any coach who has not had success in the NBA with at least some degree of suspicion.
The Cavs and Beilein hoped some of these obstacles could be overcome. Beilein is a very decent man. He is recognized as one the best pure teachers in college basketball.
Maybe he could defy the odds and become one of the few coaches in NBA history to jump directly from college to the pros and find long-term success. Boston’s Brad Stevens is the most recent, as his previous stop was Butler.
Some others who flopped in the pros include Lon Kruger, Rick Pitino, Leonard Hamilton, Tim Floyd, Jerry Tarkanian and John Calipari.
TOO MUCH CHANGE
The NBA game is different, starting with the relentless 82-game schedule that leaves little time for serious full-court practice sessions.
Beilein knew this going into the job, but didn’t fully comprehend how hard it would be to adjust.
As he told me, practice is critical because it’s his classroom. The coach has full control.
In the NBA, coaches realize how little control they have of their own teams. Stars have their own agendas and ways of approaching games that have been successful in the past.
The front office wanted Beilein to use his young players a lot, even if it meant losing.
And he wasn’t ready to handle all the losses that were a part of the 14-40 season.
Beilein now moves on, and he will be prized as a college coach by several top programs if that’s what he wants next season.
The Cavs turn to assistant J.B. Bickerstaff to take over the team. He has been a head coach before. He is an NBA lifer, better suited for the challenges any coach in Cleveland will face.
Beilein showed his integrity by walking away at this point in the season, because the Cavs had a natural replacement already on the bench to take over.
The team should admit the Beilein experiment failed, and thank him for being humble enough to admit it.
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