John Beilein didn’t make it beyond the All-Star break in his first season as Cavaliers head coach as the longtime college coach stepped down from his position on Wednesday.
The Cavaliers hold the worst record in the Eastern Conference, and much of those on-court woes were blamed on Beilein’s inability to adapt to the professional game. He couldn’t connect with his players, and he apologized to his team last month when he called the players “thugs” during a film session. He first said that he meant to say “slugs,” which only made matters worse.
It got to the point where some Cavaliers players actively trolled Beilein with their music choices. According to The Athletic, Cavaliers players made a point to play songs with the word “thug” in the lyrics around their coach.
Instead, multiple players began playing songs that included the word “thug” whenever Beilein was within earshot, sources said: Bone Thugz-n-Harmony’s “Thuggish Ruggish Bone” and Tupac’s “Thugz Mansion” among them. As the team boarded the bus a few days after the incident, one player was intentionally playing Trick Daddy’s “I’m a Thug” with Beilein a few feet away. Other players blasted songs with the word “thug” loudly during workouts in the facility. Players did this to make light of a very tough situation, according to one team source.
“The worst part to me was not owning that he said it,” one player told The Athletic.
Beilein initially signed a five-year deal with the Cavaliers, and according to ESPN, he worked out a settlement with the Cavaliers to receive a portion of the remaining money on this season’s contract. But he’ll walk away from around $14 million.
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