NBA Coach of the Year: 5 coaches that were fired after winning award

The NBA Coach of the Year award is the highest honor a coach can receive. Let’s take a look at five coaches who were fired shortly after winning the award.

After coaching the Toronto Raptors to their best regular season in franchise history, and a fifth straight appearance in the playoffs, Dwane Casey was named the 2017-18 NBA Coach of the Year. In a twisted sense of irony, he was fired by the Raptors six weeks before receiving the Red Auerbach trophy.

The NBA Coach of the Year award is issued by a panel of sportswriters from the United States and Canada, and can be highly subjective. The argument can be made that Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens should’ve won the award last season. After overcoming the early season injury to small forward Gordon Hayward, he coached the Celtics through one of their best seasons in recent history and helped them earn the 2-seed in the Eastern Conference.

Since its inception in the 1962-63 season, the Red Auerbach trophy has been awarded to 40 different head coaches. Gregg Popovich and Steve Kerr are a couple of recent winners who continued to succeed after winning the award.

However, there are coaches other than Dwane Casey that went from the top of the mountain in the NBA to being ousted shortly thereafter. After winning the NBA’s top honor for coaches, most of the men on this list had limited success in the league afterward.

Let’s take a look at five modern-day coaches who joined Casey in the category of being fired not to long after taking home Coach of the Year honors.