Mitch Johnson: “I don’t get into social media. I think I’ve probably been fired 212 times, and we’ve traded Fox 72 times…”
so he gets into social media
Nah this is just known knowledge
No bro just knows ball
He’s like Doc where he knows he should be fired for what he’s doing but won’t not do those things
I just don’t get this. He should be fired for bringing a bunch of 20-25 year olds to the NBA finals his first year as a HC? Do you guys really think that this Spurs team is so fucking talented that a bad coach can do that?
These kids don’t know shit, just being here is like a fuckin miracle with how stacked the west is. Coaching had a huge part in it.
100%, completely felt like Spurs out-coached the Thunder in the WCF.
Relatable tbh
Heno ball
honestly, he would be dumb to act like he did nothing wrong last game. he clearly shut down at the end of the game. i SCREAMED at my TV “YOU HAVE TWO TIMEOUTS, USE THEM” like 3 times at the end of the game. total failure and honestly shows more of him to make a comment like this regardless of what he’s seen on social media
one of those synthetic a priori judgements
Mitch, I’m in your head!
(I make shitposts about firing Mitch and trading Fox sometimes)
He didn’t just come up with those numbers as a hypothetical, he counted.
Exactly 😭
Lmao exactly, or he’s implying that’s what he thinks they deserve lol
He’s a couple thousand short on both of those assumptions so he’s definitely not on here
No, he actually gets fired a lot.
and another thing: i’m not mad. please don’t put in the newspaper that i got mad.
He can simply feel the vibrations in his ears
LOL
What’s his burner account?
Not really. If he did his number would be way higher
HAHAHAHA
If he did he’d know it’s way more than 212
He’s definitely seen social media then
He could be any one of us….
GetoffmyWembyson
GetoffmyJohnson*
With his coaching, hes probably got a Knicks flair
He could be you…
You don’t have to read social media for that. Every coach gets fired like 200 times by their fanbase during a season.
Only a bit more than 200 of them though since there’s gotta be way more posts than that.
Or reporters have asked him about 72 times questions that begin with “Online people are saying…”
Well, mistakes happen. Gotta look at what they can improve and try to take next game with better preparation.
Not coaching for an entire half isnt a mistake. Allowing wemby to keep playing like a guard is just throwing.
I don’t think I saw 1 drawn up play to throw a lob to Wemby in the entire second half
He missed like three of those in a row
Didn’t he get to the line on most of those? That’s the only place the Spurs were scoring in the second half. If it gets you free throws and puts the other team in foul trouble keep doing it.
I think he had a couple were he didnt
Not coaching for an entire half isnt a mistake
That would be so messed up! Thankfully it didn’t actually happen
What do you call making mistakes and not learning from them?
Wasting an opportunity.
Great comment :)
It’s crazy how many people online want his head when he literally made the Finals in his second year and beat the defending champions.
The absolute worst you can say about them is they are the third best team in the league this year if you want to make the argument a healthy OKC team beats them. If you change 4 plays across 2 games, they’re up 3-1 instead of the Knicks. What feels like half the team is under 23.
He is doing just fine.
I kinda forget this is our “first run” lol this playoff run has been quite eventful, I swear I feel like it’s been 5 years with this core and we need to win immediately
Probably cause no team besides the heat and Celtics have made the finals twice since 2018. It feels urgent to win because you don’t know if you’ll get back
It doesn’t happen often that a young team is good enough to make the finals (OKC are another exception to what’s a pretty solid rule!!) but it happens all the time that a young team is very solid then the maxes start ticking, the rookie contracts end, and then you hemorrhage role players and vets, and your stars get better but the team can’t
Pistons for example will lose major players this off-season as Duren stops making chump change. People shit on Tobias Harris so much for being worse than a max w Philly but he’s an extremely solid role player DET probably just loses outright
2012 okc are like the best example of this, a team that was extremely young and early that made the finals, but they never made it back again
Difference is Wemby is KD and Ibaka combined so no need to trade Harper
Wemby might be the next guy who outperforms a max contract by a max contract lol
But prime KD was already an all-time talent who way outperformed a max, fits with other stars, etc., and OKC did have a contender level team when KD left it!
Nuggets, Lakers, Wolves and Thunder all likely improve. Portland will definitely get better too. Warriors maybe make some moves. Nothing is free regarding the Finals
Yup that 2nd apron is always in the background
Wrong nephew. Warriors made it in 2019 and 2022
Lwk forgot about the warriors
It’s because the KD Warriors and the non-KD Warriors are thought of as two entirely different teams
The feeling is exactly this. When you get the opportunity you have to take it, and instead we royally flubbed it.
Including the Warriors, that means there was a returning team in 5⁄8 finals. The odds don’t seem bad.
Before the playoffs, i was telling my friends that they will inevitably make some mistakes due to the lack of experience and then everyone will overreact and call them frauds bla bla.
I just never thought said mistakes would be in the finals.
If people paid attention to the normal season they are playing like they have been. They are absolutely horrid at playing in choke positions and give up massive leads all the time.
Exactly. Obviously he’s no Pop, but expecting him to be in his second year is insane lol.
One of the big criticisms of him is he isn’t using his rookie guard enough.
Rookie.
In the Finals.
And while I think I probably agree with it it’s also a case in point of how far ahead of schedule the Spurs are. The best players on finals teams are usually like 28. They’re 2 years ahead of being 2 years ahead.
Don’t you know, Dylan Harper is the second coming of MJ and Mitch clearly can’t see that despite all the months spent watching him in practice/regular season.
Actually one of the biggest criticisms is that he isn’t using his time outs properly.
I said one of and I didn’t outline the others.
This is such a reductionist comment. He was their best player in game 1 and got benched when they needed offense. He’s been their most consistent offensive option and he isn’t getting playing time when their issues are all on offense. Sometimes a rookie is just that good
My comment said I probably agreed with the criticism. Good stuff happens when Harper has the ball.
Pop wasn’t Pop for quite a while either. He needed strong willed players around him early on because he was so stubborn. Avery Johnson was his guy for that reason. Tim disarmed Pop’s yelling using deadpan humor and sarcasm. Manu broke the man’s basketball brain entirely and taught him to let go, trust the work you’ve put in.
Idk what Mitch Johnson will need to grow, but he’s shown enough to give him the chance.
Pop wasn’t Pop in Year 2 either
Actually the Hawks beat the Knicks 2 times vs. the Spurs only once so Hawks are #2 ^/s
I genuinely want to know what Mike Brown told the team after that game 2 loss
for sure gunna find out in that book a journo’s been writing
Plot Twist – he gave them a bottle of MJ’s Secret Stuff from Space Jam
“Hey guys, let’s not do that again! Team on 3!”
Knicks will win game 5 solidifying the Hawks as the 3rd best team behind New York and healthy OKC. Knicks Hawks round 1 was the real finals.
Hawks clear
lol fuck a healthy OKC team. They had their dick ridden all year about how deep their bench was. They should’ve stepped up when people were injured. Next man up. Oh they didn’t? Sounds like the bench was as deep as everyone made it out to be. Pick one. Deep bench or nah?
Both can be true. We have a deep bench. Missing our 2nd and 3rd best ball handler dramatically affected our offense. It’s not that complicated.
Yeah if anyone can “just replace” an all-nba wing like JDub it’s probably the Thunder but taking out Mitchell as well is obviously going to test any team’s depth- and they still brought the series to seven against an excellent Spurs team.
Sometimes good players don’t play well and winning titles is extremely difficult. Most issues in life require the application of nuance and cannot be crammed into grossly oversimplified “yes or no” “right or wrong” questions and answers.
Pin this comment to the top of every single sports sub.
Next scott brooks, bad coaching loat the 2012 finals and so is this one.
Man I’m not calling for his head or anything but that’s awfully close to Kenny “ we’re winning analytically” Atkinson line of thinking
That’s true but elite young talent made Scott Brooks and Mark Jackson look like they were good coaches.
Sean Sweeney leaving you guys this summer is a bigger deal than I think people realize. I’m very high on him
Same. I think the schemes will be significantly worse next year without him.
Yeah I think the west will be even harder to get out of next year than this year tbh. Could be spurs only chance
They need to hire Thibs to replace Sweeney tbh
Mark Jackson was a good coach, he was just a terrible person. Scott Brooks used to be a good coach, but wasn’t able to keep up with the times. I’m not saying Mitch is perfect, but let’s wait 5 years before we determine if he’s Doc Rivers incarnate lol
Mark Jackon was a fine coach. He comes from the Nate McMillan school of raising your floor and lowering your ceiling.
Yeah I can see that for sure.
Idk Mark Jackson never sniffed another HC job after GS and the offense he ran was fucking awful
Cause he went into broadcasting immediately lol
He was a broadcaster before he was a coach for GS though so it isn’t like that means he suddenly didn’t want a job
Maybe it does, coaching isn’t for everyone. Larry Bird was a great coach and dipped after 3 years.
I don’t think it did. There were known issues with those coaches at the time. With Jackson that was cultural as well, which is not what we’ve heard or seen out of Mitch Johnson.
The truth is, even with everything that went wrong before it, if KAT doesn’t tip that pass, we’d be praising him for drawing up a play that got Stephon Castle wide open at the basket to win the game. People would be asking about his deep bag of ATOs. One fingertip is all it takes to change that.
Oh it definitely helped. We aren’t talking about Scott fucking Brooks if he doesn’t make the finals. That’s exactly the point he was trying to make.
Yeah I understood his point. I disagreed. I think Mitch Johnson clears the low bar that is Scott Brooks as a coach.
Yes, him and Dags in the last series was a coaching masterclass. He’s doing fine this series too overall. He should’ve rested Wemby more last night, but he’s doing great overall.
This team is LOADED. I don’t think the casual fan understands how good Castle actually is. They are so deep, every player they put in the court is a good or great player. And they have Wemby.
they made the finals because of Wemby not because of his coaching, Tyron Lue made the finals 3 times sure as shit wasn’t because of his coaching
That piss poor coaching the other night will do that.
Respectfully (I don’t know you personally, I’m sure you’re great), your comment is the perfect encapsulation of the hyper-reactionary culture that has taken root in the fandom and I absolutely hate this mentality
The guy shit the bed, no argument there. But to throw away a coach who had a fantastic success of a season (even in a hypothetical sweep, only 2 teams in the entire NBA made it to the finals…) because of one night, no matter how bad that night was, is bullshit IMO
Aren’t the Spurs known for giving up big leads? I saw several comments about it over the course of this series. Giving up big leads, and the absolute worst case example of it was the last game, falls primarily on coaching. The coach needs to adjust the strategy and reign in their team if they just keep chucking up threes early into the clock.
The analytical “good, efficient shot” is the right play most of the time, but that fails to account for score and game time. The Fox play where he tried to go for a layup near the end summed up the entire half, it was the “good, efficient” shot but it did not account for score and game time. You don’t just keep doing what you did before, that’s exactly how and why teams lose big leads in the three ball era. They play dumb and get sucked into taking quick shots when using up more clock is way more valuable to winning the game.
The Spurs could have literally just held the ball for last second shots after halftime, and they would have given the Knicks way less time to overcome a 27 point deficit. Instead they played fast and shot early into the shot clock over and over again. The only way you lose a 27 point half time lead is by gifting your opponent extra possessions. It was brain dead basketball, which you can excuse a young team for falling into, but not a coach. We aren’t talking about one play or a single momentary lapse, it was an entire half.
Every coach makes mistakes lol.
EDIT - didn’t Rick fail to call a TO in the 2024 ECF?
Yes. Rick actually made a lot of mistakes in the 2023-24 Pacers run, especially around end of game execution. He’s one of the best examples that coaches can get better over time IMO.
And that was years after he’d won a Ring with Dallas, showing it’s always a learning curve with each new era of basketball.
Coaches aren’t perfect, same way the players aren’t.
Every Reddit commenter is perfect though. That’s why they’re highly successful internet posters
He’s chasing Pops ghost though
Some members of our sub thinks firing Ime was wrong and want Mazzarella fired.
Let’s be real Pop is still involved in running the team behind the scenes and critical for morale and wisdom. The in-game decisions are all Mitch though.
There’s no way Mitch gets them this far without Pop.
Not a 1:1 comparison but I remember people similarly wanting the head of Joe Mazzulla after the Celtics lost in the ECF his first year as head coach. No matter how the series ends this is definitely a feather in his cap.
If you are an NBA player or coach, you should genuinely check social media as little as humanly possible. That shit will feed incorrect narratives into your head that will destroy your skills.
its also just different tiers of narratives. its kinda sad what this subreddit is, its all about the narratives revolving around like 2 plays and its usually always just the drama about some stupid ass foul call. or the split second choice of dearon fox to not hold the ball. These aren’t basketball narratives these are drama narratives, they have a way different idea of what matters between games than, did this 1 particular foul go our way or theirs.
That’s not even taking the degenerate gamblers into account lmao
I’m sure most of them try, but it’s nearly impossible to avoid completely.
If a I was a pro athlete I would avoid all internet and news for the entire season.. maybe in the off season when it’s calmed down it’s fine.. no way I would look at it during the season.
I don’t remember stomping Eddie’s couch.
Yeah I stomped his couch
Darkness is spreading
Unity!
what an interesting thing to say
those estimates are very low, Coach
He watched Flightreacts
Sounds low.
And he should stay off social media. They made it to the finals, he’s doing a great job.
Does YouTube count? I know somebody showed that RDC sketch to him lol
Anthony Davis showed it to him
STFU Mitch and learn how to call timeouts
It ain’t Fox that’s the problem. It’s the coaching letting all their players shoot 3s in the entirety of the 3rd quarter and not calling a timeout to address it.
Instead, rookie Dylan Harper was the only one trying to make the right plays.
Pretty conservative estimates imo
Fuck social media, tell us what Pop said when he reamed you out.
Kind of funny to think he’s dodging social media. Meanwhile, Wemby probably moderates a Reddit sub or runs a discord server for nerds in his off time.
There have been some brainfart moments and wemby management hasn’t been the greatest but do not take away from what this guy’s achieved. As the young team is learning so is this guy, he’ll be an elite coach in no time with what he’s shown regular season/post season. “Experience” was all that team needed and they just got that.
So he’s definitely been on social media lol
Those are rookie numbers, we gotta pump those numbers up
Don’t worry, both of these things can/will only happen once.
deliver a loss right
Congratulations to the New York Knicks
Mitch definitely a reddit user
Can’t lie this is a pretty funny response
If you play or coach in the NBA I see no upside to be on social media, listening to NBA podcast, or watching talk shows about the NBA.
Good. This is the way it should be. With social media we feel like any mistake we make is gonna be subjected to the clowning or scrutiny of millions of people. It’s stupid. The only opinions that should matter are the people around you who you’re moving forward with.
The scrutiny of millions, mistake of whom don’t even know wtf they are talking about.
He helped get his team to the finals which is better than all the other coaches who still have jobs and didn’t make the finals. Social media is just reactionary as hell. People are bored so they have to stir up something controversial in their own mind to occupy time until the next game.
This is gonna age funny when they trade fox in about a month or two.
Theyre comin at him relentless but legit i do think hes a really good coach. I feel like people want him to be terrible as opposed to Brown making some really smart moves. That final play last night on the inbounds btw from the spurs was genius if not for the fact KAT got a tip on the ball.
Should’ve called a few time outs here and there too
212 is Manhattan’s area code. 72nd St is an express stop on the 2 and 3 trains, which run right under Penn Station.
Mitch Johnson is a Knicks plant, confirmed.
De’Aaron Fox will have the ball in his hands at the end of the game tomorrow
Uh oh, shouldn’t have revealed that. Now they gonna double-team Fox and make him turnover.
Directly contradict yourself even if you’re getting the information from elsewhere it sounds like you’ve been tapping in one way or another.
Those are rookie numbers, Mitch, we’re in, at least, the 500s on you getting fired and 1000s on Fox getting traded
Lmaoooo he’s neck deep in social media then
The numbers are way higher on those, bud.
When is the last time a player or coach (besides KD) confessed to watching a talk show or looking at social media?
He must have assurance that his job isn’t in jeopardy because coaches get fired for less lol
“But unfortunately we’ve still gotta show up and play tomorrow and I’ve gotta coach”💀
Yeah that’s right good judgment Mitch
So what youre telling me is this is the last game of season. Got it Mitch
He’s adored Fox all season. Fox will never come off the bench for as long as he is the head coach.
So both should have happened then
Hes getting a lot of hate rn, and i hate his face. But due is objectively a good coach. I rarely see spurs games where the players aren’t playing hard.
He should be fired.
Mitch is the main culprit tbh
Out coached. It’s that simple. Just part of the learning experience.
How are we all looking past the statement “unfortunately we all have to show up and play tomorrow”? Holy shit they gotta fire this guy. Hes just dumb as rocks
Well he is on Social media then
Did he just throw Fox under the bus? I do believe he did
“…i’m just assuming that’s what they’re saying! like i said, i don’t get into it.”
Much, much more than 212 and 72 times LMAO
Well it needs to be 73 times
“Next man up”
Shaq
Oh it’s way more than that
That kind of happens when you underperform and don’t get the job done
Dude always sounds like he’s got a sore throat
Did he say unfortunately we gotta show up and play tomorrow
Never read the comments. ~Toe da Slow Jogan
How do you know about the 212 firings if you don’t get into social media
He needa to hire an ex head coach to replace Sweeney as assistant
Erik did it despite Pat being there and he became a better coach pre Heatles
I dont usually talk about another mans intellect but this mans logic and reasoning skills as a head coach is SMOOTH.
“Unfortunately we have to play tomorrow” Man sounds like he’s dreading that defeat already
Yeah Fox will have the ball in his hands, dribbling it out as the confetti starts to fall tomorrow
make it a 213.
Good for him. Social media is so toxic.
fox might stay but mitch should be out
Oddly specific.
As a spurs fan I think he’s made a lot of bone headed calls BUT he’s a new coach and he needs to learn as well as the team being super young, they said 2 to 3 years and here we are, if we’re gonna lose the finals just learn from it and get better, yeah it sucks to get this far and lose but when we were not expecting it to go this far it’s not as painful in a way.
Only 72 ? That’s probably just the amount of posts that was deleted on the Spurs reddit after game 4.
Try at least 500 lol.
Fox is making $55 million a year and is by far the highest paid player on the team. Yet he has been responsible for blowing several playoff games so far and this rookie coach doesn’t see what everyone else does. That’s a big problem for the Spurs.
La la la can’t hear criticisms la la la I’ll never change
The numbers are WAY higher than that, I’m sure.
Just a reminder this sub and basically all of r/bostonceltics wanted Mazzula fired and thought he was an incompetent bozo when the heat went up 3-0 against a much more talented Celtics squad in 2023
Then he turned it around and nearly won the series and now is considered one of the best head coaches in the NBA
Mazzula was new then. Mitch is new now. People got to give him grace
I don’t necessarily want Joe fired but I do want him surrounded by experience. Coaching has been a weak point for us since Brad was pushed into the executive role.
Ime was able to get massive player buyin and defensive grit, but he couldn’t quite max the talent of the roster.
Joe needs to back off the analytics and get more into drawing up plays.
If someone could combine the traits of all 3, I’d be down for that.
The fans calling for his job is just overreaction. He’s a young coach leading a young team. People forget he got them to the finals.
That’s a very specific number