“Patrick Ewing has 15-years experience as an assistant coach!”: NBA Reddit and Twitter ask an accurate question to franchises snubbing Big men for Head Coach role

There has been a huge difference in the number of guards who have been head coaches of NBA franchises compared to the Bigs of the game. Patrick Ewing gets overlooked once more.

The Head Coach job of an NBA team has been one of the most prestigious management jobs in the sports world for a long time. Not just money-wise, but because of the consistently increasing popularity of the game since the 90s.

But over the last few years, there have been allegations by many over the selection process for the said job as there weren’t many coaches of color in the NBA despite the league being packed with African American players for more than 50 years.

Also read: “I was shot in the face by accident”: Darvin Ham’s hard-hitting response when asked about dealing with the pressure of coaching the Lakers

Franchises have been trying to resolve that issue over the past couple of years and have appointed Nate McMillan, Tyron Lue, Willie Green, Jason Kidd, Ime Udoka, Stephen Silas, etc.

But there’s another debate rising with the hiring of Darvin Ham by the Los Angeles Lakers and Mike Brown by the Sacramento Kings, that why do big men (Centers) don’t get the coaching job as many guards do.

Fans ask why NBA franchises keep snubbing big men for HC roles as Patrick Ewing is ignored while Mike Brown and Darbin Ham got jobs with the Kings and Lakers

From Red Auerbach to K.C. Jones and from Gregg Popovich to Steve Kerr, every legendary NBA coach was, by some coincidence or a pattern, a guard when they played the game at whatever level they played. Except for 6’8 forward Phil Jackson, maybe.

And the internet is asking how come it’s mostly guards who get these jobs when the big men have dominated the game equally, if not more.

— Chris Raine (@CraineRaine) May 30, 2022

Considering the time since the league started and was dominated through and through by bigs, guards have been dominating the game since the 80s. So, one must think the number of coaches in the same would also be even.

But that’s not the case at all. The average height of the 30 current NBA coaches is around 6 feet 3 inches with around 3.3 inches of standard deviation.

Even the Knicks legend can’t land a gig after having huge experience as an assistant coach of NBA franchises for 15 years and an HC for the Georgetown college basketball team for 5 years.

Also read: “Ime Udoka goes from playing against Stephen Curry to coaching against him in the NBA Finals”: Warriors MVP and Celtics coach’s rivalry goes more than 10-years back

Perhaps the guards are considered more for this role because the vision they have for the game is much broader than a forward or a center. Or could be I am wrong because I play at the guard position and have more inclination towards playmakers becoming coaches rather than the bigs.