ATHLETIC COACHES ENJOY A FORM OF TENURE.

The Milwaukee Bucks made an early exit from the professional basketball playoffs, and now they're doing a coaching search.  Call Milwaukee sports pundit Brandon Sneide unimpressed.

The head coaching carousel in the NBA is underway, and the competition for hiring the best coach is starting to seriously heat up.

Don’t believe me?

Check this out…the best three records over the last three seasons belong our Milwaukee Bucks, the Phoenix Suns, and the Philadelphia 76ers – those are also three teams looking to hire their next head coach.

Maybe this is me being over dramatic, but I have yet to be thrilled or impressed with the list of interviewees the Bucks have brought in.

That list includes…Scott Brooks – No thanks, Mark Jackson? Nah. Kevin Young? Again, no. James Borrego? Ummm, not at all.

See a trend here? A lot of “No’s.”

You fired one of the most winning coaches in the association, and your list of interviews includes guys, with respect, nowhere near coach Bud’s level.

As an organization, why fire Bud only to look to hire someone a level or two, maybe three below his?

I'll take no position on whether the Bucks' window of championship opportunities is starting to close (Wisconsin fans are touchy about that, particularly with a quarter century of Packer quarterback play good enough for ... all of two Super Bowl wins) or whether that early exit might have reflected a Miami Heat squad that got hot at the right time.

Rather, note that once a head coach gets a pro basketball gig, he often figures in searches by other pro basketball teams.  Longtime Detroit Tiger manager Sparky Anderson quipped about he and his colleagues having tenure.  Call the roll: where is Ned Yost now, where was Billy Martin this year, how many teams did Gene Mauch or Dave Bristol or Harry Walker manage?  The manager gets a hearing before he gets fired; and, unlike the academician who upon failing to make tenure at a highly regarded place often finds a fit at a place U.S. News might not regard so highly, the pro basketball coach might still have a place in pro basketball.  The phenomenon appears to be present in college basketball as well; even an ethically challenged individual such as Rick Pitino does well enough at recruiting players to put spectators in the stands.