Avery Loses His Team, the Series, Then His Job

So Mike D'Antoni may still be around, for now, but not so for his brother in first-round failure. Today, the Mavs closed the book on the Avery Johnson era, i.e. they fired his ass. The easy answer? The Mavs' playoff failings. But there's some behind-the-scenes drama that probably contributed, or at least foreshadowed, the split.

From the Dallas Morning News:

A source confirmed that Monday's practice imbroglio was sparked by Howard's attendance at his own birthday party hours after the team's Game 4 loss to the New Orleans Hornets. Howard passed out fliers in the locker room inviting teammates to celebrate his 28th birthday bash at a Dallas nightclub in the wake of the team going down 3-1.

Johnson confronted his team about the party Monday – the source said only a few of the players attended – and canceled practice, prompting the players to practice on their own without the supervision of the coaching staff.

That's two nebulous strikes against Howard in the past week, both of which were bad for public perception of Howard and his team. But really, Johnson would rather make a point about uprightness and image than practice? Isn't that blatantly ignoring the mission of the team: To get out of a 3-1 hole? If he's thinking "you messed up, so I'll slack, too," well, that's not leadership. Maybe Avery lost the Mavs a while ago, but this practice episode wasn't a mutiny—it was the captain abandoning his post. Excuse me: a li'l general abandoning ship.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.