Not heartbroken over Izzo

I'm neither surprised nor disappointed that Tom Izzo has chosen not to become the next coach of the Cavaliers. Izzo left some money on the table in the short-term, as the Cavs were offering him $6 million a year — double what he's making at Michigan State. But he traded that for the job security of his college coaching gig, which is much greater than any NBA team could ever offer. He's pretty much guaranteed a job in East Lansing until he dies or decides to retire, and there's just no parallel in professional sports. Somebody like Phil Jackson will probably never get fired, but even he couldn't coach until he's in his 80s, like Joe Paterno has at Penn State. I know it's a different sport, but the principle is the same.

It's pretty obvious that if Izzo had been able to get some kind of indication from LeBron James that he's planning to stay in Cleveland, his decision would have been different. Izzo claims that if he found out LeBron were staying, that wouldn't necessarily change his decision. That may well be true, but it would clearly have shifted the equation in that direction, and Izzo admitted as much.

So now we know one person who's NOT going to be the Cavs' next coach. But who IS it going to be? I expect and hope that Dan Gilbert will look at other coaches with NBA experience, and not continue to go fishing in the college ranks. They've reportedly already talked to Mike Krzyzewski, whose situation at Duke is very similar to Izzo's at Michigan State, but even more so, if that makes sense. Coach K has already passed, which suits me just fine. Jeff Van Gundy apparently wants to stay a TV analyst, which is too bad, because I think he would have been a good choice. Byron Scott is available, but he wants to wait and see if Phil Jackson's going to stay with the Lakers, the team Scott spent most of his playing career with. That strikes me as a bit greedy, because there's no guarantee he'd get that job even if it did become available, but he's a grown man and can make his own decisions.

So who knows who the &#@$ it'll be. Whether LeBron stays or goes changes the whole package for any coach, that's for sure.