Sonics hire Weiss for his fourth NBA head coaching job
By TIM KORTE, AP Sports Writer
July 18, 2005
SEATTLE (AP) -- The SuperSonics hired Bob Weiss as coach Monday, promoting the 11-year assistant who worked under former coaches George Karl, Paul Westphal and Nate McMillan.
This will be the fourth NBA head coaching job for the 63-year-old Weiss, who agreed to a three-year deal. He coached the San Antonio Spurs from 1986-88 (going 59-105), the Atlanta Hawks from 1990-93 (124-122) and the Los Angeles Clippers in 1993-94 (27-55).
``It was a simple decision,'' Sonics chairman Howard Schultz said. ``What Bob demonstrated to us privately was absolute unbridled enthusiasm.''
The jovial Weiss noted he's going into a much different situation this time.
``We don't have any players on a respirator,'' he joked. ``The first couple of jobs I had were complete rebuilding jobs. In fact, they weren't even done deteriorating yet.''
Weiss led the Spurs to the playoffs once and reached the postseason in two of his three years with Atlanta.
He has been known to perform card tricks on Seattle's charter flights, making him popular with players. He was endorsed last week for the top job by Sonics star Ray Allen, who recently agreed to a five-year, $85 million contract.
Good news for the Sonics!
EDIT: Fuck, I didn't even remember we had a Weiss thread, sorry bout that...
