You win Coach of the Year, you get fired. Unless your name is Mark Daigneault, that has been the reality in recent years for the recipients of that award. Kenny Atkinson could be the next victim of that brutal trend.
The thought of firing the Cleveland Cavaliers' head coach recently surfaced in a rumor mill round-up from Marc Stein. The NBA insider noted the murmurings that have come his way from Northeast Ohio.
Stein wrote, "I've been hearing rumbles in coaching circles for weeks, amazingly, that pressure is indeed mounting on Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson. ... One source close to the process, however, pushed back to The Stein Line on the idea."
Stein, himself, did not sound convinced of the rumor. The source mentioned above noted that frustrations from Dan Gilbert would not impact Atkinson. The Cavaliers owner was cited as having 'perhaps the strongest voice' in supporting the current bench boss as J.B. Bickerstaff's successor.
NBA's Coach of the Year award has doomed its victors
Atkinson can probably breathe easy if even the messenger of the rumor has disbelief in its validity. However, if it does prove to be more than just smoke, the Cavaliers coach will have more than a few people to reach out to for support on how to handle similar circumstances.
Of the last 10 head coaches to win Coach of the Year, seven of them have been fired.
The aforementioned Oklahoma City Thunder head coach joins Atkinson and Steve Kerr as the only men still with the teams they won those awards with. It's an ugly track record for the rest.
Mike D'Antoni won with the Houston Rockets in 2017. He's no longer a head coach in the NBA. The same can be said of Dwane Casey, who won in 2018 with the Toronto Raptors, and Mike Budenholzer who took home the honors in 2019 with the Milwaukee Bucks.
Nick Nurse, who also got the award while employed by the Raptors, has since moved to the Philadelphia 76ers. 2021's winner, Tom Thibodeau, just got booted by the New York Knicks in the 2025 offseason.
Monty Williams is out of the league despite winning the award as recently as 2022. Finally, Mike Brown, who won in 2023, is now with the Knicks after getting fired by the Sacramento Kings last season.
The point is clear: there is no job security to be found in being named Coach of the Year. Atkinson will hope to avoid the fate that so many before him have encountered. The Cavaliers have had plenty of problems in 2025-26. Their head coach is far from their biggest one.