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With three games in four nights, his franchise in freefall, the coach was planning tee times in SoCal.
?Yeah, that bothered some people,? one Hornets source said.
This wasn?t out of character for Scott. His players wanted a more sophisticated playbook, management wanted longer hours and more diligent preparation and, well, Byron Scott wanted to hit the links. To be fair, this was Scott when he was the NBA?s Coach of the Year, and this was him now.
Embarrassed by the Lakers on Sunday, the Hornets beat the Clippers on Monday, and the team?s departure to Phoenix for Wednesday night?s game had been pushed back to accommodate the coach?s golf game. Scott played 18 holes with his last two allies in the organization, superstar Chris Paul(notes) and his brother/business manager, C.J. Paul.
Six years ago, Jason Kidd(notes) inspired a locker-room revolt to push Scott out of the New Jersey Nets. This time, Paul was still on his coach?s side, when everyone else had left it. ?Chris is heartbroken and he?s angry,? a source close to him said Thursday. ?Byron is the only coach he?s known in the pros, and he?s practically in mourning right now. The only thing that made this worse for him was that [Jeff] Bower took over.
?Jeff?s got a lot of work to do to win Chris over.?
the team wanted Paul to stay, wait out the news conference and give a brief statement to the press. He wouldn?t do it. His best friend, West, stayed and declared publicly what he had been saying privately: The Hornets desperately needed a change, and West made no apologies for it.
Privately, West bluntly told friends: ?We really don?t run any plays.?
