Seemingly out of nowhere, the Houston Rockets fired their head coach Kevin McHale yesterday. Houston started the season 4-7 and it seemingly was all blamed on McHale. While there are some reports that frustrations might not have all been about McHale, he was the one who took the blame for the issues.
Now McHale is out of Houston and there might be some old friends looking to bring him into the fold of their team as a special consultant for some big men.
Following from ESPN.
Kevin McHale, who was fired as coach of the Houston Rockets on Wednesday, may not be out of work for long if Boston Celtics president Danny Ainge can help it.
Ainge, who played with McHale on the Celtics, said McHale would be a welcome addition in Boston.
“I’ve always tried to get Kevin to come work with me and work with my big guys,” Ainge told the Boston Herald. “I told Kevin that today. … We’ve got a spot for him. I know we could figure something out for him in some capacity, but I think he’s just in a wait-and-see mode.
“He appreciated me reaching out to him, but I think he’s just going to lay low. He’s probably got bigger and better things to do — or more relaxing things to do.”
“Maybe when the dust settles, I can get him out to teach the ‘slippery eel’ to Kelly [Olynyk] and Sully [Jared Sullinger] and Amir [Johnson],” Ainge told the Herald.
League sources told ESPN.com’s Marc Stein that the Dallas Mavericks also would have interest in hiring McHale if he was prepared to switch teams immediately.
The Mavericks have employed McHale as a consultant before, bringing him to training camp in 2009 before McHale’s hiring in Houston. Mavs owner Mark Cuban is known to be a McHale admirer, and Dallas coach Rick Carlisle is one of McHale’s closest friends.
