Nothing significant has been reported on the Pokey Chatman story today. Many visits to this blog from people trying to find out who the player she was involved with was. I didn't find one speck of rumor on the 'nets about the player's identity. They must have been very discreet.
Or maybe Pokey is just a really nice person who made a mistake. Her star center, Sylvia Fowles, was fulsome in her praise of her now former coach yesterday. The ESPN selection show had Stacy Dales going on and on about how great a person Chatman is, even going to far as to predict Pokey will be back in coaching soon. They've toned down Stacey Dales on ESPN, but I still don't think she's the sharpest knife in the drawer. Or maybe she just doesn't know the history of women's coaches.
Male coaches can come back from anything. They go to strip clubs (Mike Price, fired by University of Alabama, hired by UTEP), kill people with their cars (Craig McTavish, killed a woman while driving drunk in 1984, now coach, Edmonton Oilers,), lie on their resumes (George O'Leary, fired by Notre Dame for lying on his resume, now head coach of the University of Central Florida), you name it, if they're a good coach they've got another head coaching job in a few weeks.
Female coaches? Transgress and work no more. The case in point is Marianne Stanley. Now, you may not like Marianne Stanley, as she seems to be fairly abrasive, but she is one of the winningest womens's college basketball coaches of all time. She's still the youngest coach ever to win the NCAA Championship (Old Dominion, 1985, age 31). First, she got shitcanned by USC because she dared -- she dared to ask to be paid equally as the men's basketball coach, George Raveling, since they did the same job. Oh, you know they fired her for that. And she lost her federal lawsuit, don't get me started on how the federal courts have eviscerated the Equal Pay Act (but for you law junkies out there, here's a law review article reviewing the court's mishandling of Stanley's federal court claim). That's a whole other post.
It took her two and a half years to get another job, at Cal Berkeley. Stanley then got forced out of Cal because she stupidly told one of her assistants who got pregnant that she should get an abortion or quit. (That laser beam focus on winning -- how can you get out there & recruit if you're pregnant -- definitely overrid Stanley's common sense.) But that didn't come out at the time. She just got fired for having a losing record as far as the world knew. And again, it took her two years to get hired as a head coach again, by the WNBA Washington Mystics. When the Washington Post dug up that she'd been fired by Cal for the pregnancy discrimination claim, out she went again. And she has been nothing but an assistant ever since, currently beside Vivian Stringer at Rutgers. I have a sneaking suspicion that is she were male, she'd be a head coach again.
Pokey can only hope that Stacey Dales is prophetic. I doubt it, and doubt that she'll have an easy time getting back into coaching. Maybe the WNBA; but they only hire men these days.
UPDATE: My sister calls to remind me of the most recent case of a male coach who transgressed and was immediately rehired: Larry Eustachy, head basketball coach at Iowa State until 2003. In 2003 he was photographed at a student party after a basketball game, drinking and posing for pictures kissing students. He was the highest paid employee of the state of Iowa at the time. What happened to Larry Eustachy for this public drinking and cavorting with impressionable young people? Well, he did resign from Iowa State and admitted he was an alcoholic. But it wasn't so hard for him. He got a $960,000 settlement on his way out the door (male coaches always have long-term contracts; women's coaches rarely do) and didn't miss a step in coaching, as he was hired by Southern Mississippi where he continues to coach today. Just another example of my point. If a man messes up, he can always get a job again. Always. Here are the photos that ended Eustachy's career with Iowa State (but not his coaching career). Party on, dude.
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2 comments:
Of course the odd thing is that her assistant, Berry, who revealed this whole thing (according to ESPN) could also be the "former player." She and Chatman played together at LSU, but Chatman was a year ahead, so was hired as a grad assistant on the coaching staff in Berry's senior year. IF they had a relationship, AND IF they continued that through Berry's senior year, then she would definitely have first-hand knowledge, right? LMAO
Hmmmmmm, interesting point.
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