Quick Exits

The Laker coach never saw it coming. Although he had lost control of the team, he never expected the ax to fall on him with the season barely underway.

No, not Del Harris. He lasted 12 games into this season. Nearly 20 years ago, Paul Westhead beat Harris to the exit by a game, fired after the Lakers had gotten off to a 7-4 start. And Westhead was given his pink slip after the Lakers had won five in a row.

But no coach in Los Angeles sports history can top George Allen. He was fired by the Rams in 1978 before his first regular-season game. Allen, on his second tour of duty with the Rams, was let go by owner Carroll Rosenbloom after the Rams had lost two exhibition games.

Westhead, taking over after Jack McKinney was seriously injured in a bicycle accident 13 games into the 1979-80 season, went on to lead the Lakers to an NBA championship.

“I’m a substitute teacher,” said Westhead, a former Shakespearean college professor.

But by the early part of the 1981-82 season, Laker owner Jerry Buss was looking for a substitute for Westhead.

Most of Westhead’s players felt that he was sacrificing their welfare for the benefit of his ego, designing an offense that put the decision-making in his hands and often took the ball out of guard Magic Johnson’s hands.

After Westhead and Johnson clashed following a game in Utah, Johnson got the blame for Westhead’s firing the next day.

But the decision to remove Westhead had already been made by Buss.

Asked on his final night as Laker coach about the heavy criticism he was receiving for his unpopular game plan, Westhead replied, “The almond tree bears its fruit in silence.”

In replacing Westhead, the Lakers rolled the dice, taking a chance on a former player and broadcast analyst with only one full season of experience as an assistant coach, a guy named Pat Riley.

The curious case of Allen occurred at the end of a tumultuous training camp. Four players had already walked out of the camp and others sharply criticized conditions they thought were too harsh and practices they felt were too long.

But what finally caused Allen’s brief reign to crumble was the crackers.

In the interest of saving time, Allen took time off from his duties as coach to design two lines for those players interested in having soup with their meals, one for those who wanted crackers and one for those who didn’t.

“I’m shocked,” said Allen after learning of his dismissal.

He shouldn’t have been.

Both early firings proved to be wise moves for the respective teams involved. Riley went on to coach the Lakers to four NBA titles. Ray Malavasi, who replaced Allen, led the Rams to the 1980 Super Bowl, the only such appearance for the Rams.

There have been quick exits elsewhere in sports, but the strangest in baseball might have been in the 1977 season, when two men managed big-league clubs for one game each.

Atlanta Brave owner Ted Turner put his manager, Dave Bristol, on a leave of absence after the team had lost 16 in a row.

Under Turner, the Braves lost their 17th, to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 2-1.

“I’m not stupid,” Turner said. “The only stupid thing I did was buy the franchise.”

National League President Chub Feeney was smart enough to order Turner out of the dugout after the one game.

Eddie Stanky was smart enough to figure out he didn’t want to be a manager after one game. Taking over the Texas Rangers in June for Frank Lucchesi, who had been fired, Stanky managed his team to a 10-8 victory over the Minnesota Twins.

Then, saying he was “homesick” for his family, Stanky quit.

He told reporters, “I should have known better.”