National Basketball Association

Report: Pelicans planned to fire head coach and GM

Published Apr. 15, 2015 11:08 p.m. ET

foxsports

Talk about performing under pressure. According to Yahoo Sports/FOX Sports 1 NBA Insider Adrian Wojnarowski, the New Orleans Pelicans would have fired head coach Monty Williams and general manager Dell Demps if the team lost last night's game against the San Antonio Spurs and didn't qualify for the playoffs.

It's no secret that Pelicans owner Tom Benson badly wants his team in the playoffs, especially since drafting franchise powerhouse Anthony Davis. Over the past few seasons, Demps freely traded draft picks and operated with an obvious win-now mentality.

If true, and ownership hadn't changed its mind heading into last night's game, nothing about this mandate is fair or even rational (sacrificing long-term growth for a short-term gain rarely turns out well).

A coach and general manager should be judged by process over results; losing their job over one game, as could've essentially happened against the Spurs, is silly.

But so goes life in the business of professional sports, where peculiarity is the norm and patience is overrated.