Bill Bayno back with the Trail Blazers
Bill Bayno, who resigned as basketball coach at Loyola Marymount last month because of what colleagues described as work-related stress and depression issues, is working again, as an assistant for the Portland Trail Blazers.
Bayno, who worked for Portland before taking the Loyola Marymount job last spring, returned in late January as the team’s “development coach,” a full-time position, a Trail Blazers spokesman said. He had been on medical leave at Loyola Marymount since November.
“Some people here at LMU and people who are fans question how a guy can take a job with another team when he couldn’t coach our team,” Athletic Director Bill Husak said. “The answer is it’s a different type of role, a different type of responsibility. It’s nowhere near the stress.
“I said before there’s a big difference between being an assistant coach where someone tells you where to be and when to be there, and being a head coach where you’re responsible for everybody,” Husak said.
“I’m happy he has an opportunity to work in coaching. For us, we’ve moved on.”
Max Good, previously an assistant to Bayno, was hired to a multiyear contract to coach the Lions, who are 2-26. Good said he has talked with Bayno since he returned to the Trail Blazers.
“He said as a head coach, on a scale of one to 10, his anxiety was a 15,” Good said. “As an assistant, it’s one or two.”
Bayno did not respond to a request for an interview that was relayed by the Trail Blazers.
--