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Hamilton officially takes Wizards' job
Posted: Wednesday June 14, 2000 05:58 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Michael Jordan wanted a college coach for his Washington Wizards, a team short on discipline and fundamentals. He also had to find someone who does not mind starting at the bottom. Leonard Hamilton fit the bill. Though he was not Jordan's first choice, the University of Miami coach signed a five-year, $10 million contract with the Wizards on Wednesday and accepted with relish his new lofty assignment. "I'm not sure I wouldn't be more excited about this challenge than I would taking over a team that just won the NBA championship," said the 51-year-old coach, who has rebuilt programs at Oklahoma State and Miami over the last 14 years. "This separates different kinds of personalities. I just get excited about taking those things over that appear to be difficult." Difficult is the optimal word. Hamilton is the Wizards' fifth coach in three seasons. The team hasn't won a playoff game in 12 years, with the only postseason appearance since 1988 coming in a three-game, first-round sweep by Chicago in 1997. The Wizards are in need of a roster overhaul, but the huge salaries of underachieving veterans Juwan Howard, Rod Strickland and Mitch Richmond make it nearly impossible for Jordan to move players under the league's salary cap guidelines. Furthermore, the Wizards do not have a first-round draft pick this year. Also, Hamilton must buck a recent trend of successful college coaches, such as Rick Pitino, P.J. Carlesimo, John Calipari and Jerry Tarkanian, who have struggled in the NBA. "Sure, it hasn't really been proven properly that a college coach can make the transition from college to the pros," said Jordan, the Wizards president of basketball operations. "That doesn't mean he can't be the first. The idea that we have is to try to surround him with knowledge about the game and let him utilize that knowledge. We will have to support Leonard as much as possible and help him understand the professional game." Jordan fired Gar Heard shortly after joining the Wizards front office Jan. 19, but the hiring of Hamilton is His Airness' biggest management decision to date. The search was long and not always smooth. Lenny Wilkens, the NBA's career leader victories, said he had been offered the job when he hadn't, and St. John's coach Mike Jarvis turned down Jordan in a disagreement over money. "It doesn't always work out the way you envision, so you've always got to prepare for that. That's a big lesson for me to learn," Jordan said. "Sure he was not the first choice that I had, but I wasn't the first pick in the draft either." Jordan said he didn't want a recycled coach from another NBA team. He said a college coach would symbolize a new beginning and help repair the lack of fundamentals that "a lot of players on this team need." "They need that type of attention, to the little things that have been skipped in their education of basketball," Jordan said. "Let's start with the basics." Those were much the same thoughts uttered a year ago, when disciplinarian Heard was hired by general manager Wes Unseld. Heard's back-to-basics approach never clicked, and he lost the players' respect within weeks. The negotiations between Jordan and Hamilton took 3 1/2 weeks. Hamilton couldn't take the job until he found a way to get out of his new seven-year, $5.5 million contract extension with Miami. Hamilton agreed Saturday to buy out the contract for $1 million. Hamilton also wrestled with leaving the school where he had coached for 10 years. It took five seasons before he got the Hurricanes winning again, and now they have been to the last three NCAA tournaments. "I've always been close to my players," Hamilton said. "It was difficult to make that decision to leave at this point where it appears were are very close to being very, very special."
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