Jamahl Mosley against Chauncey Billups. This duel between two of the five black coaches propelled this season on the NBA benches (with Ime Udoka, Wes Unseld Jr. and Willie Green) did not take place. The former was indeed placed in Covid quarantine as his team hosted the Blazers that night. An absence badly experienced by the Orlando coach, the 17th to experience isolation this season, who knew the symbolic significance of this meeting scheduled for “Martin Luther King Day”.
” It’s such an important day with special meaning to me and so many others having this opportunity, in view of what Dr. King fought against.”, he told ESPN. “Our locker rooms are representative of his dream. His words, his example of leadership, his fight for equality and his strength are just as important today as they were then.“
His presence on the bench of the Magic would have had all the more flavor that he would have faced for the first time a former University of Colorado, like him.
” I will really miss being on the field against Chauncey, a fellow Buff (Editor’s note: for Colorado Buffaloes)”, dropped before the meeting Jamahl Mosley, who passed through this college from 1997 to 2001.
He had not been drafted at the end of his university course. Unlike his Blazers counterpart, drafted very high in 1997 (3rd choice) after two years in Colorado. The two men of the same generation – 45 years old for Chauncey Billups, 43 years old for Jamahl Mosley – had displayed a shared pride in becoming a “head coach” during the same recruitment cycle last spring.
In the absence of Jamahl Mosley that night, as well as his first assistant Nate Tibbetts also placed in solitary confinement, Jesse Mermuys took over as interim. Without much success since Portland largely imposed itself with a second period of domination.
Holder of a four-year contract, the Magic coach will have to wait until next year to experience his first “Martin Luther King Day”.
