This might be one of the least controversial controversies that comes up every couple of years. Interim coaches not getting to keep their wins for their career record. The most obvious and famous of these was likely a couple years ago when Luke Walton officially had a 0-0 record but somehow managed to win the NBA Coach of the Year. If someone only told you that line you’d think it was made up, or they were stupid. But if you remember that season, Steve Kerr was missing with health issues so Luke Walton stepped up and was the interim coach for the Warriors that season.
If that was a fluke season, then I don’t know what you’d consider this one. In both the NBA and the NHL interim coaches made deep runs in the playoffs. In fact, one is playing in the Stanley Cup Finals right now. Nate McMillan just had the interim coach tag removed, less than a week after ending their season in the Eastern Conference Finals. Both are going to miss out on career numbers that could help them boost their next contract, or be nice additions on their Wikipedia page.
It’s unreasonable that this is a practice. We’re able to track all sorts of stats, we don’t count a players wins when they’re out injured. Why do we do the same when a coach is out, even if it’s only one game? I haven’t looked into what happens to the wins when the head coach is fired mid-season like what happened for both the Hawks and the Canadiens. Neither option makes any sense though. Give them to the old coach and everyone will be confused why they left the team. Leave them vacated and you’re denying the contributions the interim coach made to the team. We’re already tracking who collects the wins, so why not give them to the interim coach and let that boost their legacy.
Some might say the real reward for an interim coach making moves like McMillan and the Canadiens Dominique Ducharme is getting a contract as a head coach. But that’s not a guarantee, nor does it replace the fact that their all time stats will be docked because they served under coaches who got fired, rather than being the coach at the start of the season. Coaches only get 2 stats, Wins and Championships. There’s no reason they shouldn’t be allowed half of their stats in the record books.
This really needs to change, it’s not like these wins are going anywhere. They still are up in the record books, just given a little flair with an asterisk. That asterisk needs to be removed and counted like any other win. Sure, the asterisk could be seen as a badge of honor showing that in the same season they achieved something that was already proven by another coach to be incredibly difficult. It might be even more difficult to overcome the dysfunction that happens when a team fires their head coach than overcoming a dramatic slump in the middle of the season as a head coach. So in that sense the asterisk should be worn as a badge of honor. But we all know it isn’t. Asterisks are used to qualify someone’s achievements. Roger Maris wore the asterisk on his home run record for years (technically baseball didn’t hold official records so this was added by press who wanted to keep Ruth’s record, but I digress). Qualifying an interim wins in such a way is demeaning to the achievements of these coaches.
A win is a win, and whoever is behind the bench, on the bench, or on the sideline deserve to get the credit for those wins. Sure there’s a lot more that goes into a coaches job than what you see on game day. The results though are the only thing that matters in the end. We only measure what happens in the games, not what goes on during practice. Therefore the coach who is active for a game deserves to get credit for their success.