This whole story about Mike Montgomery leaves a bad taste in my mouth.  Out of nowhere, the Golden State Warriors have dumped Montgomery after only two years and have replaced him with crusty veteran Don Nelson.

This is disturbing for a lot of reasons.  First, training camp gets underway in five weeks.  Second, though Montgomery was struggling a bit at the NBA level, he is a proven coach.  Third, it goes to show the amount of disorganization at the top of the Warrior chain.

So, now you need to ask yourself, why would anyone want to take a job with a dysfunctional franchise?  Why would 66 year-old Don Nelson agree to coach a team that seems like the Titanic?  Because Don Nelson is bored consulting the Mavericks and living on a beach in Hawaii.  And, at some level, he's thinking that since he groomed Avery Johnson, he must still be a great coach and therefore wants the opportunity to give it one more shot.

For Mike Montgomery, it proves the old axiom that if you are a successful college coach you should continue to be one.  Colleges are much more patient with their programs and very rarely, except in cases of NCAA scandal (or idiots like Myles Brand) does a basketball coach get taken out in August.  Montgomery did a great job at Stanford and should still be there, not on the beach accepting severance checks from the Warriors. At least not this soon.

The NBA highway is littered with the bodies of successful college coaches who have taken the big check but failed.  Coaches such as Lon Krueger, Rick Pitino, Leonard Hamilton, P.J. Carlesimo and the ever popular Tim Floyd have crashed and burned so badly you would think teams and coaches would have learned their lesson by now.

Some life lessons to remember from this: If you have a job you like, even if somebody offers you more money, you might be best served by keeping the job you have.  And, before you come to an organization as the anointed savior, you need to ask a lot of questions and get a lot of answers before you accept the job. 

Although Warriors GM Chris Mullin was never happy with Montgomery, somewhere down the line Don Nelson will make a play for his job (it's a pattern with Don).  And, somewhere along the line, the Warriors ownership will have to decide if they want to fire their GM or the man they have promised their fans is coming back to Golden State to rescue the franchise.  Long term, the prospects for Mullin and the Warriors look pretty dim.

For Mike Montgomery, it's be careful what you wish for.  And for Chris Mullin, the devil you know may be better than the devil that you don't know.  For Warrior fans, it's just business as usual.