INDEPENDENCE, Ohio -- On his final day as Cleveland Cavaliers head coach, in the darkest moment of his illustrious career that spans four decades and could eventually earn him a spot in the pantheon of college basketball legends, John Beilein showed his true character.
And kept coaching until the very end.
Prior to Cleveland’s first practice since the All-Star break, one led by new head coach J.B. Bickerstaff, Beilein gathered everyone inside his beloved film room (of course) at Cleveland Clinic Courts and explained his painful decision to step down after just 54 games. He looked everyone in the eye, those same players that pushed back against his methods and tuned him out at various points, and showed them honesty, dignity, authenticity and vulnerability. One last lesson.
In that room, where he often shouted at guys for sloppy play, sluggishness and poor habits, and tried to find positives in double-digit defeats, Beilein poured his heart out, taking ownership for faults while also offering encouragement. He wanted to get a specific point across.
We’re not that far away.
Ironically, that perspective was too often elusive for Beilein during his first NBA season. He had a difficult time seeing the bigger picture through the pile of losses. It didn’t matter that Larry Nance Jr. had made more 3-pointers than at any other point of his career. Nor did it matter that second-year guard Collin Sexton had improved across the board and was named a Rising Star. It didn’t resonate that Kevin Porter Jr. was growing into a key piece of the rebuild.
The continued blowouts and lengthy losing streaks weighed heavily, zapping his joy and leaving him beaten going into the All-Star break. But with a fresh perspective and new attitude, feeling content with his decision to quit, the 67-year-old Beilein pointed to 11 games that the Cavs could’ve -- or should’ve -- won. He attempted to explain how the season slipped away because of small details and some late-game giveaways.
He also told players in an honest, emotional moment that he didn’t feel, in his current state, he could make a positive impact any more as their coach.
This was his goodbye.
“It took a real man to do that today,” Kevin Love said. "Seeing him being vulnerable and treating us with respect and empathy, I thought it was super powerful. He came in and we all, I think the players, the coaches, himself, we all talked about some of the successes and failures that we had and talked about how it’s really, really hard to lose in this league.
“So I respect the hell out of him. He walks in, just lays it all out on the line. I’ve had to walk the walk of everything I’ve talked about (in terms of) being vulnerable as a man and being vulnerable in any situation in life and having to speak the truth and it was really ballsy and hard I would imagine. So for him to come in and do that and look us all in the eye and acknowledge that integrity and willingness, that’s big. That’s real man s--- right there. Everybody you talk to will say they respected the hell out of him."
Love, the only player who spoke about Beilein’s sudden departure, admitted the players could have made it easier on their first-time NBA coach. They could have been more empathetic, recognizing the merciless transition Beilein was trying to make. As much as Love hopes Beilein can learn from his first real failure from a coaching standpoint, Love believes everyone in the organization can as well. There’s even some hindsight about the team’s struggles, petty drama and poor attitude and how it all drove Beilein to an early exit.
“In a lot of ways, we could have been a lot better,” Love said. “Naturally, you have a lot of young players on this team and the veterans are trying to figure out ways to help the young fellas as well as the coaches. But when you look at things in their entirety as an accumulation, that’s when you start to see the story.
"It’s not just one man.”
The Cavs went 14-40 in Beilein’s 54 games -- the worst mark in the Eastern Conference. It puts them 29th in the NBA, only the wounded Golden State Warriors looking up at Cleveland in the standings.
Throughout the season, players anonymously attacked Beilein’s coaching style. Many felt he treated them like college kids instead of professionals. Love had a few temper tantrums -- on and off the floor -- that fueled chatter about Beilein losing the locker room. The end result: One of college basketball’s brightest minds couldn’t even last a full season.
"We have to do a little check on ourselves too,” Love said. "We have to look at ourselves in the mirror. Definitely myself. I’ve been a s---head at some points in the season and let the losing get the best of me. I always look at situations like this and I think you always feel you can do better. I have that human-like masochistic instinct to put that dangling carrot outside of what I consider real success and success in general. I think you always feel like you can do better.”
In his final public comments, Beilein thanked everyone in the organization -- owner Dan Gilbert, executives, coaches, players, training staff. He said reflection over the last few days gave him clarity, believing a resignation was in the best interest of all parties.
Beilein didn’t take this decision lightly. It’s a job he wanted for years, a challenge he craved. It was a chance to punctuate an incredible career. But it wasn’t for him. He spoke about the toll losing took. It was more than he expected. He even grew concerned over the consequences the brutal start could have on his own health and his family’s well-being.
Losing 40 games in such a short amount of time wasn’t easy, especially for a guy who has tasted success every level, leaving each of his stops in a better place than when he arrived and hanging plenty of banners.
“I think losing definitely drove … you saw me, I went a little crazy myself,” Love said. “After winning for so long and having such an elite program and you’re winning so many games, it’s a shock.
"So many things are different at this level, but even wins and losses, sometimes you try too hard not to become numb to it, but when they’re stacking up so fast and in the fashion that you lose and it’s the middle of January, you’ve played so many games, it’s not like you get that much happiness out of winning. Coach has said it before, ‘You get relief. You just get relief and it’s on to the next one.'”
Love knows all about that. Sure, he was part of Cleveland’s best four-season stretch in franchise history, helping to deliver an NBA title. But he’s also been at the depths of the league.
Last season, the Cavs won just 19 games. In his first season with the Minnesota Timberwolves, he was thrust into a rebuild, with what he calls a revolving door of teammates and staff members. For someone who won 35 games in his lone college season, he didn’t know what to expect, was clueless on how to handle the continued losing. In the first few games of the 58-loss campaign with the Wolves, he often went home dispirited and inconsolable, almost pushed to tears.
Beilein carried that look many nights. He appeared miserable. Members of the front office, some of whom had strong bonds with Beilein going back years, frequently checked in on him.
Through it all, he kept trying to make it work. He was hoping to lay a foundation, get the franchise to a place of comfort and then hand the job to Bickerstaff, allowing his assembled staff to step forward. That was always the plan, language essentially built into Bickerstaff’s contract. It just wasn’t supposed to be like this. And it wasn’t supposed to come halfway through Year 1.
Kevin Love (0) talks with John Beilein during a December home game against Houston.David Petkiewicz, cleveland.com
“He came in every day, busted his ass, wanted to be better, wanted to change the culture,” Love said. “But sometimes, what do they say? ‘If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.’ Sometimes it doesn’t always shake out or work the way you want it to.”
In many ways, Beilein’s emotional farewell provided needed closure.
“For a guy with his credentials to walk in front of a room of A-type personalities and to be vulnerable, is very difficult,” Bickerstaff said. “So you got to give him a ton of credit for that, and I think the guys, because they are quality people, they felt that. And they were moved by that. And, from there, it allows you to move forward, without the questions of ‘what if’ or ‘why.’
"To have that conversation face to face and see somebody as a human being, making a decision as opposed to something that’s in text or in writing, it makes it different. And I think that was a huge step by Coach to do that.”
Now it’s time to make the most of the final 28 games of this season -- and beyond.
But before Beilein left Wednesday evening, facing the reality of no longer being an NBA coach and stepping into a new, undetermined role within the organization, he pulled Bickerstaff aside -- a figurative passing of the baton -- and delivered one last message.
“Go after it,” Bickerstaff replied when asked what Beilein said to him. “I think he showed us a lot, and taught us a lot as we moved through it. He was confident in the group that we have, and he had an idea of what he wanted it to look like when it was over with. And he told us to go make it happen. We’ve had a lot of conversations about the future and how we get there, and he was clear on that picture.
"So, now it’s our job to go out and get that done.”