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J.B. Bickerstaff, the third-year head coach for the Detroit Pistons and the National Basketball Coaches Association President, criticized the contract structure for the new Portland Trail Blazers coach Micah Nori in an interview with ESPN on Wednesday, June 24.
Bickerstaff, a finalist NBA Coach of the Year, emphasized his excitement for Nori, the first-time head coach who spent the past five seasons as the lead assistant coach for the Minnesota Timberwolves and interviewed for several coach openings years prior.

But Nori’s contract reportedly includes a three-year deal with the one guaranteed season of employment and back-to-back team options. His contract will also rank among the bottom of end of the coaching pay scale and include incentives tied to team performance, according to reporting from the Athletic.
“I feel like he was put in a situation that he shouldn’t be put in with having to make a choice of this nature because of the structure of what the contract is,” Bickerstaff told ESPN.
“It’s unfortunate that you have a dream, and from our perspective, it’s like someone’s taking advantage of your dream and devaluing what we feel like coaches have earned over the years.”
Additionally, the Blazers faced controversies earlier this year when during the playoffs, two-way players were left at home, employees were laid off due to restructuring in the business office, and amid negotiations over public funding renovations to the stadium, owner Thomas Dundon threated to move the team to Kalamazoo, among other places.

“It changes the math on where a coach stands, and it creates an environment where, how do you hold players accountable when it looks like you are easily replaced and removed if things don’t go the way that players may see it going?” Bickerstaff said. “It’s almost, which is disappointing, a mindset of the substitute teacher being there with no guarantee or support [regarding] what it looks like long term or in the future.
“I’ve talked to a lot of coaches − head coaches, assistant coaches − who are extremely concerned. It’s a very serious matter to us as coaches to make sure that we protect the value of coaching staffs. It’s years and years of work that coaches have put in to put ourselves in this position and to put future coaches in the position where our value remains and isn’t disregarded because of a power flux of ownership.”
The Trailblazers announced Nori’s hiring on June 23.
Jalen Williams is a trending reporter at the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at jawilliams1@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Why J.B. Bickerstaff is concerned about Nori’s Trail Blazers contract
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