Throughout my life, watching coaches meltdown has been an interest of mine. Observing these guys who are usually by the book, guarded, and boring (basically walking cliches) lose their minds is hilarious to me. These men of integrity and supposed class, can transform into Frank Booth on the drop of a dime. So in their honor, I've put this top ten list together.
10. John McLaren-The Seattle manager pretty much sealed his fate with this f-bomb laden rant. He should have just quit right on the spot, like this fast-food employee did...
9. Mike Singletary-Samurai Mike left us this gem when Vernon Davis turned into a cry-baby diva on the sideline. Memo to Vernon: He will "strike down upon thee with furious anger."
8. Avery Johnson-After Game 5 of the 2006 finals, a game in which Dwyane Wade shot as many free-throws as the entire Mavericks roster, Avery Johnson went gangster in his post game presser. When he sternly warned the writer, "don't stutter", I thought he was going to follow-up with, "I hope you find your way down Compton Ave. muthafucka!"
7. Mike Brown-What's so funny??? I'll tell you what's funny, the Celtics went on to mostly dominate the series, eliminating the Cavs in 6 games. Then Mike Brown got fired and LeBron "took his talents to South Beach". No one's career has imploded this suddenly since a certain intergalactic head-hunter went into self-destruction mode. Now that's hilarious!
6. Hal McRae-All it took was this question: "Did you consider Brett for Miller with the bases loaded in the 7th inning?"And McRae turned into a drunken rock-star in a hotel room. He destroyed anything and everything in his path and ended his tantrum by shouting, "Put that in your pipe and smoke it". It was like a skanky crack whore asked him, "Where's my cat?"
5. Kevin Borseth-This could easily be number 1 on the list. The main reason being, he's a women's college basketball coach. That's right, women's college basketball! Nobody cares "how you feel" Kevin, just coach this boring sport and go away. Of course this is the most memorable thing to ever happen in the history of women's b-ball, so maybe we need more of this. Dude is so pissed, it's like somebody stole his fizzy lifting drink or something...
4. Dennis Green- What causes a coach to meltdown? How about this scenario: Your team is leading the Bears by 20 points late in the 3rd quarter, Matt Leinert fumbles and the defense returns it for a touchdown. Then Edgerrin James fumbles and the defense takes it to the house again. But what caused the meltdown? A rookie named Devin Hester (looking like Deion), returned a punt for another 6 to give the Bears the lead and the eventual win. As for Dennis Green, the word ass hasn't been said with such conviction, since this LAPD lieutenant got downright spiritual with it...
3. Bob Knight-The man, the myth, the legend is on top of his game during this presser, where he completely belittles a reporter. Most people would just answer the question but Knight turns it into a comedic performance for the ages. Every coach who blows a gasket owes a little something to the "Maestro of Meltdowns". Imagine going to breakfast with Bob Knight and it's his turn to order, I bet he would act a lot like this Hollywood icon.
2. Jim Calhoun-Famous quote: "My best advice to you, shut up." Picture Calhoun addressing a graduating class at UConn with these inspirational words of wisdom. I wonder if that reporter ever did get some facts and go back and see him? Maybe Mitch and Murray sent Calhoun to that presser just to verbally murder that poor sap.
1. Mike Gundy-The Gettysburg Address of coaching meltdowns. Something that's been forgotten because of this historic rant, Oklahoma State actually won this game (OSU 49-Texas Tech 45, Michael Crabtree had 14 catches for 237 yards and 3 touchdowns for Tech) . In his presser, Mike Gundy decided it was an opportune time to lay out a female writer, who had labeled his back-up quarterback "fat" in a recent article . Boy am I glad she wrote that because Gundy went bananas. "Come after me! I'm a MAN(iac)! I'm 40! To put it bluntly, Mike Gundy is as "mad as hell".
