Jay and Jose enjoy a softer moment.
Shortly after the firing of Sam Mitchell was announced yesterday afternoon, the attention turned towards possible replacements with the names being thrown including some of the top coaches currently collecting unemployment cheques. It appears that most of that speculation was premature, however.
Jay Triano – an assistant coach who served seven years in Toronto under Lenny Wilkens, Kevin O’Neill and Sam Mitchell – will reportedly get a chance to lead this team for the remainder of the season. Or until things get really ugly.
NBA.com tells us…
The Canadian-born Triano, 50, has been an icon in his native country as both a player on and, later, coach for the national team. He joined Toronto’s staff four years ago as an assistant under Lenny Wilkens, becoming the first Canadian assistant coach for an NBA team. He continued to impress Bryan Colangelo with his work as an assistant on the U.S. Men’s Select Team that trained with the U.S. Olympic team in 2007. Triano was picked by Jerry Colangelo, Bryan’s father and the majordomo of the U.S. OIympic men’s basketball program.
“Jay has an opportunity to cut his teeth in a significant way,” Bryan Colangelo said.
With Chris Bosh’s impending free agency in 2010, Colangelo must truly believe in Triano to give him the keys for the rest of the season. I doubt he would risk throwing away one of the two years he has to impress Bosh by having a lame-duck coach in there. I have a funny feeling that Bosh was “consulted” before the coaching switch went down too, so I’m assuming he’s cool with the move too.
Things could obviously change if the ship continues to go down, but the talk out of Raptorland seems like they are extremely confident with Triano at the helm. I know Triano was extremely popular with his players as head coach of the Canadian National team, so much in fact that Steve Nash refused to play for the program anymore when Triano was let go in 2004.
And oh yeah… Triano becomes the first Canadian born coach in the NBA’s history. Yay Canada! The Niagara Falls native makes his debut as bench boss on Friday night in Utah.
