Say Goodbye Nate By David Kronfield December 4, 2003 I'm already in vacation mode, preparing for two weeks in Mexico prior to Christmas, so this will be short & sweet. I'd previously looked at the upcoming 19 game stretch, including the first four games in January & decided I didn't want to add to the funk that a typical Seattle winter finds me in by sticking around. Talk about slaughtering lambs! It wouldn't surprise me in the least to see us lose 12 of these games as we say goodbye to .500 for the season, Ray of hope or not. This predicted turn of events, if it comes to pass, will no doubt result in second guessing everything about our Sonics from the front office, to individual players, to Nate’s rotation, substitutions, & coaching in general. In fact, it’s already started. I see repeated musings about how much management is interfering with Mac 10's coaching & dictating some player's playing time. Some of Nate's own comments have added fuel to the fire by indicating there is a difference of opinion within the organization on how things should be run. To be sure, you can read between the lines & easily come to the conclusion that Nate is being asked to look at certain guys more than he would prefer to. Just HOW exactly anyone knows the extent of this rancor is beyond me. But the fact that it is happening AT ALL is amazing in & of itself. Let's take a walk down memory lane & speculate why Nate was hired in the first place. The disharmony & tension between Wally & George Karl was palpable. So much so that you wouldn't have been surprised if their war of words one day had erupted into actual fisticuffs. Actually, now that I think of it, watching that probably would have been more entertaining than Sonic basketball of late. When Wally was finally able to rid himself of what he considered to be one big pain in the ass, you knew the next coach was going to be a Republican. Sure enough, Wally eschewed my choice of Paul Silas in favor of Paul Westphal. But whatever you thought of the latter’s coaching abilities, he didn't seem able to relate to the players we had and that was his downfall. So Wally was forced to deviate from his comfort zone & choose someone we were all ecstatic with at the time. My guess is that Mr. Sonic was as much a PR move as a coaching decision. Walker needed someone who would have the respect of the players & the love of the public, but more importantly than that, someone who wouldn't rock the boat as George had. Nate was an inexperienced, soft spoken company man who could be expected to coach in the same hard nosed style that he played. But more importantly, it was assumed that he'd be so grateful to be given such an opportunity at his relatively young age that he'd keep his mouth shut. He was, all in all, the perfect fit. And so this marriage made in heaven got off to a marvelous start. Wally bought himself time to further muddle what was once a great team. The players & the public were happy, seemingly oblivious to the fact that they were daily becoming ever more mired in mediocrity. You never heard boo from Nate. There were some indications that he was in over his head, but who could dislike a guy with his attitude & work ethic? After a couple of years, some of us began to wonder why more of his players weren't absorbing more of his toughness at least by osmosis if not through the coach's teachings. But hey, this was a young team, & we kept telling ourselves things would get better. Then came the implosion of last year, & the grousing became more widespread. Still not wanting to blame Nate any more than an unfaithful wife, a significant portion of fans turned on Gary. It was all his fault! He wasn't patient enough in dealing with the lack of passion evident amongst the youngsters, many of whom thought they would get burned if someone lit a fire under them. GP simply wasn't the right guy to baby-sit this precocious group of prima donnas. Besides, Ray Allen was better looking. When we started to win last season with Sugar Ray, all the questions about lack of talent & proper coaching were forgotten. It was like a second honeymoon until this year when the team began to swoon again as surely as all Ray's admirers do whenever he walks into a room. And suddenly all the old explanations were dusted off for another incarnation, & we were treated to every possible explanation of why Nate can't coach yet again. But let's be honest, people. Could even the best coach in the NBA will this motley crew to playoff respectability? Take your pick. The best tactician, motivator, innovator etc. all rolled into one could only be expected to get so much out of this group. I'll grant you that Nate is not the best this league has to offer, but considering what & who he has to work with, he's not doing that badly. You know where I'm headed with this. The weakest link is NOT Nate MacMillan. The problem is with the people that put this team together. And don't try to tell me that Nate had any more than minimal input in that process. He can tell them what he thinks the team needs, & what he'd like to have just as many of us do on a daily basis. But he can't go out & get those guys. Guys like Chris Bosh who is averaging 15.6 points, 7.4 rebounds, & 2.3 blocks over his last seven games, but who was considered by management to be too much of & too costly a project to trade up for. Yes, Nate's hands are pretty much tied by the guys who control the purse strings & make the personnel decisions. That's the way things are, like it or not. Things would be bad enough if that were as far as it went, but it's not. You know when Nate starts to go public with little hints about the discord between management & himself over the use of, & playing time allotted certain players, things are not rosy. The chinks are starting to appear in the armor, folks. Don't expect this mild mannered southern gentleman to start sounding even REMOTELY like George Karl regardless of how the team is doing. Nate won't publicly duke it out with Wally the way George did in a contest to see who could make the biggest fool of himself. If things get too bad, HE'LL JUST GO". One day we'll wake up to read about how Nate's mom has taken a turn for the worse; that his heart just isn't in it any more & that he feels an obligation to his family in their time of need to go back home to North Carolina. There'll be no big blow up or finger pointing as Nate is not the kind of guy to burn bridges behind him. He'll leave thanking the team & the city for the many happy years he's enjoyed here & tell us how much he appreciated being a part of it all. What's more, he'll be telling the truth as he always does. What's really sad is you won't hear a word about what the real problem was/is that caused him to abandon ship. We'll all be left to speculate. We'll give Wally the benefit of the doubt giving him another excuse & yet another couple of years to get his never ending act together during this unfortunate period of transition. And some people STILL won't have a clue why we continue to lose.   The legendary and infamous David Kronfield has been a SonicsCentral.com columnist since day one. David can be reached at heavyd@sonicscentral.com. Got an opinion on this column? Discuss it in the SonicsCentral message boards. The Curmudgeon's Corner Archive All opinions expressed in this column are solely the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of other columnists or the SonicsCentral.com staff.