Blurb

I want to keep this brief since I've written so much today. I saw that Scott Layden, the former president of the Knicks, was hired as an assistant coach for the Jazz today.

Layden Article

My first thought was, "how humbling this must be for Scott "The Statue" Layden." He goes from the top job in the NBA's biggest city to being an assistant in the league's smallest city. From press conferences and recruitment dinners at Nello's and Peter Luger's Steakhouse to wearing sweatpants and having staff dinners at the conference table catered by Outback Steakhouse. A definite demotion in status (well-deserved, by the way, since he not only fouled up the Knicks good and proper but stood by and watched it all go down the toilet with a deer-in-the-headlights look on his face).

My second thought was, "wow, there really is racism in the system." How else to explain how a number of qualified minorities can't score a 3rd assistant's job in the NBA but a complete failure of a basketball executive gets to bounce back and re-start his career. Pointing to Nate McMillan and a few other black guys in suits in the NBA doesn't qualify as legitimate opportunity, by the way. Other than the fact that there are probably only two dozen black guys in all of Utah, I can't imagine that there isn't an in-state minority coaching candidate from the high school or college ranks that deserves the opportunity to cut his teeth in the NBA.

Sad.