As chaotic as the Houston coaching landscape has been over the last few years, we forget that for about four to five years, we existed in a period of relative peace on the coaching termination front. A period of time where all three major sports teams in town were experiencing success saw, not coincidentally, extreme stability at the head coach (or manager, for baseball) positions.
Bill O’Brien was hired as Texans head coach in January of 2014, and stayed on board for over six years. A.J. Hinch was hired as Astros manager prior to the 2015 season, and he, too, stayed into 2020. Finally, Mike D’Antoni was hired prior to the 2016-2017 NBA season, and had a nice four season run as Rockets head coach.
The last three years have been a jumbled mess here, though, and Stephen Silas is the latest coaching decapitation to take place, with the Rockets choosing this week to pass on his fourth year option and make a change at their head coaching position. This is the sixth coach or manager we’ve seen either fired or voluntarily leave their posts since 2020.
How shocking were each of these departures? Let’s power rank them!
6. MIKE D’ANTONI, Rockets head coach, DEPARTED September 2020
Throughout his last year or so employed by the Rockets, D’Antoni’s contractual status was a source of drama, as his negotiations for an extension were made very public, including Tilman Fertitta calling an impromptu press conference after the 2018 season to address D’Antoni’s status, and clumsily so. Once the 2020 season ended in the COVID bubble, the writing was on the wall, and D’Antoni had pretty much resigned before the plane touched down in Houston after the season ended.
5. STEPHEN SILAS, Rockets head coach, FIRED April 2023
Silas’ status was resolved on Monday this week, when the team officially announced they would not be picking up his fourth year option. With just 59 wins in three season as head coach, Silas has been a dead man walking for months now, Monday was confirmation. Not surprising at all, nearly zero shock value.
4. LOVIE SMITH, Texans head coach, FIRED January 2023
When Lovie Smith was somewhat awkwardly hired as the Texans’ head coach in February 2022, there were two schools of thought. On the one hand, the Texans never really announced Lovie as a candidate during the process, so he was being hired as the next placeholder for one year until they fond a real head coach. On the other hand, NO WAY the Texans fire two black head coaches after one season two years in a row. Well, as the 2022 season went on, it became clearly evident that Smith had to go. The bottom line, regardless of the circumstance that led to his hiring, was that he was not a good coach.
3. DAVID CULLEY, Texans head coach, FIRED January 2022
When Culley was hired, it became abundantly clear about five minutes into his opening press conference that he was not a long term solution. It was clear Culley was in way over his head. Presumably, he’d hold the head coaching job for, say, two seasons, and then give way to a real head coach. Somewhat surprisingly, Culley was SO bad, he couldn’t even last more than a year.
2. BILL O’BRIEN, Texans head coach/GM, FIRED October 2020
The Texans went into the 2020 season feeling like they were on the cusp of Super Bowl contention, which is odd considering their big move in the offseason was trading DeAndre Hopkins for a second round pick and a crappy running back. As it turned out, GM Bill O’Brien made enough bad moves to screw over head coach Bill O’Brien, and an 0-4 start was curtains for both of them.
1. A.J. HINCH, Astros manager, FIRED January 2020
It’s rare that a manager is fired just a couple months after getting a team to within six outs of a World Series victory. That said, it’s also rare that a manager allows for a trash can banging, sign stealing scandal to exist, enough to where his team gets ratted out and then punished by baseball. This was the most shocking termination of all, because we all thought Hinch would run this crew until the window of dominance was over in the 2030s sometime.
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This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
