Monty Williams got fired on Tuesday.
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Immediately after the firing, Zach Harper of CBS Sports posted this video of Williams graciously dismissing any bitterness that he probably should have had towards management because of such an abrupt firing.
He was given an ultimatum before the season (make the playoffs or you’re gone), fulfilled that ultimatum, survived the two-week grace period following his team’s elimination when coaches normally get the boot, and STILL got the axe.
Monty has all of the reasons in the world to be a bit salty towards his former bosses. And yet, he just wouldn’t go there.
Wait, did I mention the letter yet? You know, the letter that Tom Benson sent out to congratulate Williams, his staff and New Orleans Pelicans players?
Completely disregard the notion that Benson is an old man and may be is ill fit to be running a professional franchise at this point in his life. You just don’t do something like that to a man when you are two weeks away from cutting ties with him. I don’t care how happy the Monty haters were on Twitter, nobody deserves to be put up and then shot down like that.
Especially a class act like Williams.
(I’m not even referring to Williams as a class act just because he is a an African-American, he truly is a class act!)
Imagine for a second that you are a boy (if you are a girl, flip the situation around) and you have a girlfriend that is struggling to find reasons to keep you in the picture. You’ve been together for nearly five years, but she suddenly is getting fed up with how things have been going.
She gives you two weeks to get your ish together (find a job, get a haircut, stop wearing sweatpants, learn some new, umm, moves) or else things are over.
So, you take those two weeks and make yourself to be a new man. You went to the barber and got a fresh cut. And not one of those “fresh cuts” that people are getting nowadays where they shave half of the sides of their head and leave a man bun on top. I’m talking about a traditional, faux-hawk type cut.
Then, you decided to take a stroll over to your neighborhood Kohl’s and purchase some suits, as well as some Dockers and perhaps even a matching polo shirt just as an extra little surprise. Sure, the subsequent job interviews still wouldn’t go as planned, but you look like you belong in the working world, dammit. At least you have a few things to hang your hat on.
Lastly — maybe even most importantly — you went on a rampant Google search to better familiarize yourself with umm … areas. In just two short weeks you from wandering around aimlessly through a dark, scary cave to finding freaking gold at every corner. You feel like you’ve arrived.
One week in, she even sends you a letter to commend your efforts and give you the impression that all if forgiven. Things are moving in a positive direction.
But then suddenly there are rumors of another dude that may be hitting the open market, a real brass individual with the moves and muscle to take your girl to heights that you simply cannot reach.
Pelican Debrief
As the rumors get louder, your girl abruptly ends things at the end of those two weeks just as you are going to tell her that you got that job down at that newly opened Dick’s Sporting Goods. You held up your end of the deal.
It just wasn’t good enough.
If you haven’t already figured out, Monty Williams is the helpless boyfriend and Pelicans’ management is the girlfriend. Tom Thibodeau is the hunky new guy that the girlfriend ends the relationship for and eventually pursues.
As crazy as that scenario sounds, it is exactly what is about to happen with the Pelicans. Stay tuned.
Oh, and Monty, don’t put on the sweatpants my friend. You’re going to land on your feet.
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