Trail Blazers hire McMillan
July 6, 2005

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Nate McMillan is leaving the Seattle SuperSonics to coach the Portland Trail Blazers.

The Blazers late Wednesday night hired McMillan, who led the SuperSonics to the Northwest Division title this past season. He will be introduced Thursday at a news conference, the Blazers said in a statement.

McMillan's contract with the Sonics expired Thursday and the Blazers aggressively pursued him. The terms of his contract were not immediately available.

McMillan replaces interim coach Kevin Pritchard, who took over for the fired Maurice Cheeks when the Blazers embarked on a youth movement in midseason.

McMillan had coached the Sonics since Nov. 27, 2000 and compiled a 212-183 record. McMillan spent his entire 12-year playing career with the Sonics.

He comes to a team that has lost its way recently after being one of the NBA's most consistent franchises. The Trail Blazers have missed the playoffs for two straight seasons, snapping a streak of 21 straight years reaching the postseason in 2004.

The team finished last season with a 27-55 record, their worst mark in 31 years and even saw its attendance decline.

Off the court, Trail Blazers players have faced accusations ranging from drug use to dogfighting.

Blazer officials could not be reached for comment Wednesday night.

And the Sonics went through all that trouble to get Ray back just to have Nate leave?

This is a bit of a shocker

This kind of sucks. Things were looking so good with Allen agreeing to sign.

I know a coach's salary doesn't count against the cap, but does this in any way free up money to sign Daniels, Radmanovic, James, Evans, Wilkins, etc. to deals?

fuck shit ass cunt bitch fuck ass fuck shit cunt bitch fuck ass fuck

Goddammit. I for one will be there to boo his ass out of the building the first time he's back at the Key. Way to pull an A-Rod, Nate. Thanks alot.

the trailblazers are going to pwn the sonics now.

Doh!


fuck shit bitch cunt damn ass @Q%^$#^@#!

(I'm afraid you might be right)

No. The coach's salary has nothing to do with the salary cap.

Daniels, James, and Evans are as good as gone. Wilkins will probably stay. Radmonovic will likely go if offered starting time elsewhere.
Bad times for Sonics fans.

it's not mcmillian's fault at all. the sonics should have taken care of him when they had the chance.

They tried. They offered him a deal that would have made him the 3rd highest paid coach in the NBA. Nate left because he wanted the challenge of building a team with a new organization.

And they offered him one more year on his contract than Seattle did.

I think he just took the bigger contract.

Q: Why uproot your family, and basically your entire life (he's been in Seattle for over 15 years), and move everything to a completely new city? Make your kids change schools, make your wife have to find a new social group. Why?

A: $

(And for the record, the Supes offer of - I think - a multi year contract at $4.5M per isn't exactly pocket change. He would have made out just fine staying here).

Watch the interview today, it was for the new environment, not the money. If he wanted the money he could have re-upped with Seattle last fall when they asked him to talk contract and he said no. He could have had a guaranteed deal BEFORE this huge season the Sonics had, instead he asked to wait and see how the team performed, putting himself at risk.

Fair enough. I just don't understand why in the world he would go to a franchise with the reputation it has over a playoff team that just re-signed Allen.

Word is that he's going to have a fair amount of say over personnel in Portland, he had no say at all in Seattle. He also gets a really young team and a great owner with deep, deep pockets.
The Sonics are in a fair amount of financial trouble, they lost $17 million this season due to a really bad lease deal on Key Arena. Key is also the smallest building in the NBA and has few suites compared to other arenas, so it's hard for them to have a lot of revenue without sky high ticket prices.
Considering the players Seattle is going to lose this off-season, it's probably a good move for Nate. Allen just turned 30 and the history of shooting guards over 30 shows performance going downhill rather rapidly.

so who are the sonics gonna hire? any ideas?

It's not even been 24 hours yet, but they're tossing around Flip Saunders, Paul Silas, and one of the Phx assistants right now. Who the heck knows.

pretty soon the media will start talking about how larry brown might go there. please end this whole brown thing already. he needs to say he's coaching the pistons already so everyone can move on.

Getting more news on Nate as the day goes on..

Nate and Wally Walker (GM) have never seen eye to eye on a lot of topics.
2 seasons ago, the front office told Nate he had to run an up-tempo style and develop X player or Y player no matter what.
Nate's made a lot of comments about being bored, about having never been a free agent.
Sonic front office has been very vocal about how broke they are, that's gotta scare any coach.