The Brooklyn Nets ousted Kenny Atkinson as head coach during the 2019-20 season. He got the last laugh on Monday, winning the 2025 Coach of the Year Award. Atkinson led the Cleveland Cavaliers to a 64-18 record and the Eastern Conference’s top seed during his first season with the team. It was a long-awaited head-coaching opportunity following his Nets firing, which he admitted fueled him. “I just look at it as part of the story, a part of my growth,” Atkinson said earlier this season of being let go by the Nets. “You have good things happen, and you have setbacks. And it’s like a player: how do you bounce back? And it was definitely a bounce back. I think, in the long run, the journey after Brooklyn really helped me grow as a coach. Who knows, if that doesn’t happen, maybe I’m not in Cleveland. Maybe I don’t improve as much as a coach if that didn’t happen. So I kind of look at it more as a positive now.” “But I will tell you, I’m competitive. And when you have setbacks, you remember things. Players do the same thing. If something happens or a team beats you or you get fired, you’re motivated. You’re motivated to prove people wrong, and that’s kind of how I took it. It’s a chip on your shoulder or whatever you want to call it. There’s definitely some of that. I think any competitor feels the same way.” Kenny Atkinson on being fired by Nets: “You remember things, players do the same thing. If something happened or a team beat you or you get fired, you’re motivated to prove people worng. That’s how I took it. You can say a chip on your shoulder… There’s definitely some of that. pic.twitter.com/5BNbg70ALb — Erik Slater (@erikslater_) December 16, 2024 Atkinson led a dramatic Nets turnaround during the 2018-19 season. Under his watch, D’Angelo Russell earned his only All-Star appearance while reclamation projects such as Spencer Dinwiddie and Joe Harris enjoyed breakout seasons. Brooklyn earned the East’s sixth seed before losing to the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round. How Kenny Atkinson bounced back from Nets firing to win NBA Coach of the Year Russell Lansford-Imagn Images Kenny Atkinson appeared to have earned himself a long-term position as the Nets’ head coach. However, the picture changed after the team signed Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving during the 2019 offseason. The head coach struggled to manage the shifting locker room dynamic that came with welcoming two of the NBA’s most prominent personalities. Several lineup decisions were sources of internal turmoil, such as Atkinson starting 21-year-old center Jarrett Allen over veteran DeAndre Jordan, who signed alongside Irving and Durant. “Him and the max guys [Durant and Irving] weren’t necessarily on the same page,” Spencer Dinwiddie told Matt Sullivan in the latter’s book, Can’t Knock the Hustle. “If we’re not all on the same page, then somebody’s gotta go, and it’s not going to be them.” The Nets fired Atkinson in March 2020 and later replaced him with Steve Nash, whom Irving felt was a better fit alongside him and Durant. “We don’t need someone to come in with their coaching philosophy, change everything we’re doing, change up the wheel, and we’re going to start running on the first day of practice. No, I want somebody that’s going to understand that I’m a human being first, I serve my community first. And then basketball is something I come and do every day because I love,” Irving said. “That’s no disrespect to Kenny [Atkinson] or any coaches I played for. It’s just Steve coming in at this moment and following up with putting together a great coaching core was going to make us more successful… It’s going to change the way we see coaches. I don’t really see us having a head coach. KD could be a head coach; I could be a head coach.” Atkinson took a step back after his Nets firing, spending one season under Tyronn Lue with the Clippers and three under Steve Kerr with the Golden State Warriors. He turned down a head-coaching offer from the Charlotte Hornets during that span, also serving as an assistant coach for the French national team during the 2024 Olympics. “I’ve grown a lot. I’ve changed a lot as a coach, which is a good thing. I’ve progressed. I’ve developed,” Atkinson said. “The range of experiences I’ve had from [the] conference finals with the Clippers… obviously Golden State and the championship in 2022. And then the experience I had [last] summer, being in the Olympics. That’s kind of been my philosophy: How many experiences can I get in this league? “And that was part of the thought process after I got fired in Brooklyn, I was like, ‘Man.’ You’re a little taken aback. And then you’re like, ‘OK, how do we turn this into how can I get better?’ And, luckily, I felt like I’ve made the right decisions.” His short stint with Durant and Irving and time under two of the NBA’s top coaches served as learning experiences on how to manage a roster. “[I’m] more patient [now], more of a manager,” Atkinson said of how he’s changed from his time with the Nets. “In Brooklyn, I was a real coach. I was really coaching the game hard, which is typical for a first-time coach. You’re trying to make sure every shootaround is perfect, every practice is perfect… [With] my experience with Steve [Kerr] and Ty [Lue], and my international experience being around other coaches, [it’s] just having more of a big-picture feel. I do a better job of managing the locker room, managing players, don’t get so stressed out about the little things like I used to. I’m sure that comes with age, too.” Atkinson has now gotten to the toughest part of his job: leading the Cavaliers through the gauntlet of the NBA playoffs. Cleveland swept the Miami Heat in the first round, outscoring them by 122 points, the largest margin of defeat in a series in NBA history. However, they’ve fallen behind 0-2 to the Indiana Pacers in round two, with Darius Garland, Evan Mobley and De’Andre Hunter missing games due to injury. Atkinson and his team will be back in action on Friday for Game 3 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.