Ty Lue and Gregg Popovich Should Not Be the NBA All-Star Coaches

Tyronn Lue will coach the NBA’s Eastern Conference All-Star team. Gregg Popovich will coach the NBA’s Western Conference All-Star team. This was a huge misfire by NBA in both instances. Often heralded as the most fun, forward-thinking, and innovative, the NBA made the most boring choices possible.

It’s not like going a different direction would have set some dangerous precedent. The NBA will never ever see another case like either Tyronn Lue or Luke Walton’s All-Star coach resumes ever again. Just look at these two things that both happened this season:

The assistant coach of the defending NBA champions will have a winning percentage of .907 midway through a season while the head coach is on medical leave.

The head coach of a defending conference champion will be fired midway through the season while his team has the best record in his conference.

Think about those things! Those are absolutely bonkers insane things that actually happened. I am willing to say that nothing close to either of these scenarios will ever again happen in our lifetimes. They fly in the face of all conventional wisdom and common sense.

Popovich will coach the All-Star game because Kerr coached last year’s game. If you have rules stopping the same person from coaching in back-to-back seasons because you want other people to get the experience, why give the spot to the guy who has already done it three times. Obviously, Coach Pop’s resume speaks for itself, but Luke Walton was the coach when the Warriors started the season 24-0. He had the Warriors sitting at 39-4 when Kerr returned. Wouldn’t it have been nice for Walton to be honored here?

As for Lue, he obviously makes much less sense as an All-Star coach than Popovich. And if you want to talk about how he was already a part of the coaching staff… how about Luke Walton!? Did he not have at least as much to do as the Warriors’ interim head coach as Lue had to do as a Cavs’ assistant coach? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills here.

And I’m not saying David Blatt should be the Eastern Conference coach because, well, he’s no longer a coach. That would just be awkward. Personally, I think Raptors coach Dwane Casey would have made a deserving coach. Why not give the nod to the guy coaching the 2nd best record in the East? You know, like you gave the nod to the guy coaching the team with the 2nd best record in the West.

The Raptors are currently on pace to set a franchise record for wins in a season. Lue will have coached a whopping 11 games by the time the All-Star break starts. If the Cavs play well over the next two weeks, when we get to the All-Star break, Lue might have more wins than Sixers’ coach Brett Brown.

Yeah. I think that about sums it up.