No power in the NBA, either. Players run the show. Bench a guy, he’ll demand a trade or sit out. Or, they become awful teammates, a cancer to the organization.
There's some similarities, but there are some differences too. Good points.
The NBA coach doesn't need power in the same way a college coach does, because the players are playing for a paycheck, are more refined, and more capable of carrying out the roles required. Not all NBA players are stars and have that clout or long term contract. Many are playing on one year contracts or even less, and in those scenarios the HC certainly does have the edge in power.
NBA HC's are at least dealing with mostly grown ups. The mutiny can be complicated in the NBA. They run a risk of being blackballed (TWill), traded somewhere they don't wanna go, getting fined, or even cut if the franchise likes their HC(TWill). The players in the pros do have a risk of losing a lot of $ in these scenarios. A lot of high draft picks flame out with the quickness, and I don't think it's necessarily always about not being good enough (TWill).
If the player does force the trade, there is some value in return, though maybe not = value. For sure. Long story short, the NBA cancerous players do not always win in the end. Doc Rivers is still in Philly, despite Ben Simmons being a straight up mutt.
A malcontent in college just gets to leave when the semester is up, they don't gotta give their NIL back. They just get to start over somewhere and try again. It's painless, and can really set programs back, and make life miserable for the HC.
The pros don't have that cancerous situation to volume/ratio of the transfer portal, at least it doesn't feel like it. You have multiple guys on teams hitting the portal now in college, these cancer situations @ the pro level just aren't as rampant.
Yes the NBA has free agency to empower players, but the player pools are just so deep and more refined and more easily replaceable, the HC can just tell the new players the basic plays and they go play, or catch on quickly. In college the players just don't have the skill, the game is more complicated to teach, and the systems of the coaches are just more diverse.
There is high turnover rate for the NBA HC, but it's more about W/L.
Sorry for the novel. It's an interesting topic.
