The Detroit Pistons fired Monty Williams as their coach on Wednesday after only one season, during which the team racked up a league-worst 14-68 record and NBA-record 28-game losing streak. The Pistons still owe Williams $65 million for the remaining five years of his record-breaking six-year, $78.5 million contract, a record amount of “dead money” for NBA coaches.
Williams only lasted one year in the Motor City, but the impact of his hire will live on as arguably the single most important coaching contract in league history, in terms of driving coaching salaries higher. When Williams was hired in June 2023, only one NBA coach earned $10 million a year—the Spurs’ Gregg Popovich. Six more coaches signed eight-figure deals in the 12 months after the Williams hire.
Before he was hired by the Pistons, Williams’ coaching resume included five seasons as New Orleans’ head coach and four as Phoenix’s; he won Coach of the Year in 2022 when he led the Suns to the NBA Finals—a 4-2 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. After the Suns fired Williams in May 2023 following a second-round playoff loss, the Pistons desperately wanted him to be their next coach and kept raising their offer until he couldn’t say no. The final tally: $13.1 million a year on average and on par with Popovich.
The Williams deal had an immediate ripple effect. A month later, Popovich—who has coached five NBA title-winning teams—got a riaise with a five-year, $80 million deal to remain with the Spurs. Michael Malone, fresh off a title with the Denver Nuggets, reached a contract extension worth $12 million a year. Steve Kerr, who was due a bump from his $9 million-a-year pact after six NBA Finals appearances and four titles with the Golden State Warriors, signed a two-year, $35 million extension in November.
In January, Erik Spoelstra—the third active coach with multiple titles—reached an eight-year, $120 million extension with the Miami Heat. Three weeks later, the Milwaukee Bucks lured Doc Rivers out of the broadcast booth to replace the fired Adrian Griffin midseason with a contract worth $11 million annually. (Rivers earned roughly $8.5 million a year when the Philadelphia 76ers fired him after the 2022-23 season.)
During the last two months, two more coaches—Mike Budenholzer (Phoenix Suns) and Ty Lue (Los Angeles Clippers)—joined the $10-million-a-year club. Lue’s deal slots him fourth overall at $14 million annually. Mike Brown also reached an extension with the Sacramento Kings worth roughly $8.5 million a year, and worth up to $10 million, including incentives. Jason Kidd’s extension with the Dallas Mavericks is at a similar average to Brown’s, according to one source familiar with the terms.
Two NBA coaches—Popovich and Williams—cracked the top 10 last year in Sportico‘s look at the highest-paid coaches in U.S. sports. Before Williams’ firing, half the top 10 would have been NBA coaches in an updated list.
“Decisions like these are difficult to make, and I want to thank Monty for his hard work and dedication,” Pistons owner Tom Gores said in a statement. “I have great respect for Monty as a coach and as a person, and I am certain he will be successful in his future endeavors. I sincerely wish him and his family the very best.”
Gores’ 13-year tenure as Pistons owner has been rough. It includes just two playoff appearances—both four-game sweeps, losses in 64% of games, six head coaches and two third-place finishes in their division the only seasons not in the bottom two.
Yet, every NBA coach (and their agent) should send Gores a holiday gift for how he reset the bar for coaches’ pay.