Dunleavy met with team president and general manager Bob Whitsitt for about three hours Tuesday, and Whitsitt announced the coach’s dismissal during an evening news conference.
“Probably nobody had a tougher decision to make than me, because there’s a lot of personal reasons why I’d like to see Mike come back,” Whitsitt said. “But ultimately I’ve got to do what I think is right for the franchise.”
The Blazers, plagued by suspensions and infighting, lost 17 of their final 25 games, including a 3-0 sweep by the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs.
The day after Portland was eliminated, Whitsitt took much of the blame, acknowledging that several of his roster moves had backfired. But he would not give his coach a vote of confidence.
After receiving assurance from owner Paul Allen that his own job was safe, Whitsitt spent much of last week meeting with the players, and at least one reportedly said Dunleavy should go.
Earlier in the day, after Dunleavy and Whitsitt finished their meeting, Blazers co-captain Scottie Pippen lamented the “tough situation” Dunleavy was put in.
Dunleavy, 47, had one year left on a five-year, $12 million contract he signed in 1997. He’s rumored to be a candidate for the vacant job in Cleveland. Dunleavy has known Cavaliers general manager Jim Paxson for years, and Paxson was Whitsitt’s assistant GM during Dunleavy’s first season in Portland.
Dunleavy was 190-106 in four seasons with the Blazers. He was selected the league’s coach of the year in 1999, when the Blazers went 35-15 in the lockout-shortened season and won the Pacific Division title.
But like Rick Adelman and P.J. Carlesimo before him, a winning record wasn’t enough to save Dunleavy’s job. His teams went just 18-18 in the playoffs, reaching the conference finals in 1999 and 2000 before falling to the Spurs and Lakers, respectively.
Last season, the Blazers were only a few points away from reaching the NBA Finals. After winning two straight games against the Lakers to force Game 7 in Los Angeles, led by 15 with 10:28 to go but then missed 13 consecutive shots. The Lakers ended up winning by four and went on to capture the title.
The Blazers never seemed to recover from that humiliation, but Dunleavy faced incredible pressure this season. The team’s marketing campaign, which included the slogan “One Team, One Dream,” made it clear that nothing less than a trip to the finals would satisfy this one-sport city.
Portland had the best record in the West in early March, but a five-game losing streak precipitated its downfall. The Blazers didn’t beat any playoff-bound teams from their own conference after March 22, and they stumbled to 50 victories — nine fewer than last season.
“We have confidence in him, but he can’t get out there and score for us and defend,” Pippen said. “It’s not anything that he did wrong that caused us to have such a bad season, it’s just that, as I said, coaches lose their jobs in this game when teams don’t perform right, and we didn’t perform to the right level.”
Dunleavy’s most difficult challenge was finding playing time for all the veterans Whitsitt acquired.
Along the way, several of Whitsitt’s maneuvers backfired. He traded popular forward Brian Grant to Miami and got out-of-shape, unproductive Shawn Kemp from Cleveland in return. Kemp was an $11.7 million bust, and left the team in early April to enter a drug-treatment program.
Little-used center Jermaine O’Neal also was traded to Indiana for Dale Davis. While O’Neal had a breakout season, Davis scored just one point in two playoff games and was suspended for Game 3 for elbowing the Lakers’ Robert Horry.
Whitsitt also brought Detlef Schrempf out of retirement and signed free agent Rod Strickland, further congesting the roster.
Players griped about playing time, and criticized Dunleavy for calling too many plays on offense. Following a loss in Denver three days before Christmas, the coach and players aired their differences during a meeting. Dunleavy agreed to loosen the reins, and the team won 10 straight games.
After they began their tailspin, however, Dunleavy resumed yelling and micromanaging, and many of the players resented it.
Dunleavy seemed to lose control of the team late in the season after Shawn Kemp departed to enter a treatment program for cocaine abuse and Bonzi Wells tore a ligament in his left knee. After Rasheed Wallace threw a towel into center Arvydas Sabonis’ face during a road loss to the Lakers, Wallace charged at Dunleavy in the locker room and had to be restrained by teammates.
Dealing with Wallace was a season-long headache for Dunleavy, who twice suspended the All-Star for his tantrums. Wallace received a league-record 41 technical fouls and was ejected seven times.
