Two seasons ago, Mike Woodson guided the Atlanta Hawks to the playoffs for the first time in nine years and came within a win of knocking off the NBA’s eventual champions. Last season, he took the Hawks to the Eastern Conference semifinals, the first such visit for the franchise since 1997.
So what did Woodson and his coaching staff acquire as a reward from the Hawks?
Nothing.
Woodson will likely enter this season in the final year of his contract, and, for now at least, the Hawks haven’t expressed any interest in negotiating an extension for him.
“Every year, people have me fired,” Woodson told Yahoo! Sports by phone. “I can’t worry about that. I really can’t. Am I a little disappointed that none of my staff and I were extended contracts this year? You’re damn right I am because we deserve it. We deserve it with what we’ve done this past year. Any other coach probably would have been extended without a doubt.
“For us not to be extended is not right. But it is what it is. … I still have a job to do.”
Though Woodson’s lame-duck status is complicated by the Hawks’ dysfunctional ownership group, it also serves as an example of how a growing number of NBA teams are determined to rein in costs for their coaching and scouting staffs. With ticket and sponsorship revenue limited by the slow economy and the league facing a possible lockout in two years, some teams have decided to cut costs on the sidelines...........................
