For the mutineers crowd, putting my org psych hat back on for a sec. Something to consider.
Now this isn't always true but usually it is. Looking at this through a more grounded lens of how teams and groups actually function - when you see near-total attrition, it almost always points to a breakdown in leadership, environment, or system vs detraction led by a single “bad actor.” Group behavior just simply doesn’t scale that cleanly around one person unless there’s a broader underlying issue.
The “assistant-led mutiny” theory would require every player to align behind one assistant strongly enough to override their own individual incentives, relationships, and decision-making. In today’s game, especially with NIL, transfer freedom, family influence, that’s extremely unlikely. Players act more independently now. In fact, they didn't even move as a cohesive unit like that on the court. This was not some uniform group. In general with groups, you don’t usually get uniform outcomes like this without a strong shared experience driving it.
Also, in almost every documented team conflict, you see variance. Meaning:
- some players stay
- some defend leadership - doubling down on this because it is one of the strongest indicators here that this is not a "mutiny" per se. Inciting a mutiny ALWAYS triggers defiance in people who have certain core values or drivers. Where are the Kim loyalists? Not one stayed and this is data.
- some split off
You don’t see total alignment unless the issue is systemic.
And then there’s the signaling piece — multiple players have gone out of their way to defend assistants, while there’s been zero public support for the head coach. That doesn’t prove intent, but in reputation dynamics, it usually reflects weak relational equity between leader and group.
Put all that together, and the simplest explanation, and historically the most consistent one, is that this has come from the very top.
Something at the top wasn’t working. Not necessarily one thing, but enough multiple things across leadership, system, and relationships that players all made the same decision independently.
