Dubious Raptor Moment #30

April 2004: Kevin O'Neill Fired
Normally, I don't find myself in a position to defend Mr.Weatherbee but when the Raptors hired him they certainly knew what they were getting.  Lenny Wilkens was fired the previous spring for his lack hard-nosed discipline, fiery temperment and defensive schemes.  A disciple of Pat Riley & Jeff Van Gundy, Kevin O'Neill had all of those in spades.

While the Raptor games during the 2003/2004 season were abysmal defensive affairs that forced a change to the long-standing Pizza Pizza 100-point promotion, at least the post-game press conferences were entertaining as O'Neill routinely spit out rage and cuss words.  One night O'Neill even smashed a lamp in his hotel room upon finding out that Jalen Rose broke his hand (Notice how O'Neill didn't bust anything whenever VC got injured).

At the end of the season O'Neill was summarily fired for the exact same reasons he was hired: the team was too defensive and the coach was too hot-headed.  Fittingly, the day before he was fired O'Neill unleashed a nice tirade at the team that included this apt epitaph...

"I can just tell you right now, the focus is not on winning here all the way through the organization all the time. There needs to be drastic measures taken."