Mack Brown reacts to Dino Babers being fired by Syracuse
Syracuse made the decision to move on from Dino Babers over the weekend, and North Carolina’s Mack Brown is making his thoughts known on the matter.
Brown and Babers have a long history. During a press conference earlier this week, the Tar Heels leader revealed his messages the now-former Orange head coach after he heard the news, but it’s simply a part of the profession they’ve chosen.
“Dino’s a really good friend. I texted him last night. I hate seeing coaches get fired,” Brown started. “I know coaches make a lot of money. I know we’re in the entertainment business. If we’re not living up to the entertainment, we get fired. He’s done everything right. He’s got a hard job. He loves his kids, and they love him. They play hard for him.
“I’ve known him for 30 years. It’s one of the really disappointing things, this time of the year, to see people getting fired. We’re more like the NFL. There’s a coach fired in his first year, this year. I’ve never seen that before. So it’s here. It’s real. People are not satisfied very long. If you have a loss, everybody wants to fire the coach. If not the head coach, the assistants and then the head coach. But I hate it for Dino. His boss was my boss at ESPN, so I like him too. So it makes it tough. But I got it.”
Continuing, Brown evaluated how a coaching change could affect not just the head coach, but the entirety of the program, putting it all into some fascinating perspective.
“These are hard decisions for people. The business is harder than it’s ever been,” explained the UNC leader. “There’s less patience. There’s more talk, because of social media in our lives. It’s given people a voice. When you have a voice without your name, an anonymous voice is even more aggressive. I know Dino’s children. I know his wife. I know the staff. I know those people are trying to figure out what they’re going to do to eat. It’s not Dino. He’ll be fine. I’ll be fine, if I get fired. But there’s a lot of people in this building. There’s 73 people in this building that would have to find a job. Most of them have don’t have contracts past two weeks.
“So when people aggressively want somebody fired, they’re talking about firing buildings. It changes a whole lot of things. And then when someone’s fired, then all your players have 30 days to transfer. So you could lose your whole team. It’s different than it’s ever been.”
We’ll see what’s next for Dino Babers, but it’s evident he has a ton of Mack Brown’s respect. His next move will be something to watch.