The NBA is starting to resemble the Watergate era now that it is known that current Celtics scout Dan Erman was fired from the Golden State Warriors for taping private conversations by coaches and players. The Warriors termination of Erman comes on the heels of Clippers owner Donald Sterling being banned for having his private conversation recorded, which unveiled his racial bigotry.
Initially, it was reported that Erman was let go because of “a violation of company policy.” However, according to Chris Broussard of ESPN sports, the violation was that Erman had recorded coaches meetings, meetings between coaches and players, and general team meetings without their knowledge. Moreover, with some of the recordings Erman wasn’t physically present, but left his cell phone device on to record the meetings.
According to SB Nation, it wasn’t until Erman had recorded three weeks of conversations that his deception was discovered. Although Coach Mark Jackson let Erman continue with his coaching duties for another week, ultimately the Golden State Warriors management issued Erman his walking papers.
Evidently, Erman’s firing didn’t detract the Boston Celtics from adding him to their payroll by hiring him as their director of NBA scouting. What’s more, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports rejects Broussard’s assertion that it was a series of recordings. Instead, he reported that it was a single conversation of the coaches, “who had been working to undermine his game preparation and relationships with players.”
According to Danny Ainge the general manager of the Celtics, “Darren worked with us for four years and he was one of the hardest working, most competent and intelligent members of our organization,… We welcome him back.”
Photo: Lance Murphey/AP
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