Here is the complete list of the coaches who have made the playoffs the last four years in the NBA: Larry Brown, Jerry Sloan, Flip Saunders, Gregg Popovich, Rick Adelman, Phil Jackson, Paul Silas.

That list does not include Pat Riley. Or Lenny Wilkens. Or Rudy Tomjanovich. Or George Karl. Or Don Nelson.

So why is it that Silas got canned on Sunday?

I racked my brain trying to think of something that would make sense. It was Silas, after all, who came to the franchise's rescue after Dave Cowens quit on the Hornets early in the 1998-99 season ("early" being relative that lockout year; Silas actually got the job in March 1999 and finished 22-13 after Cowens's 4-11 start). It was Silas, after all, who guided the team through the tragic days following the death of Bobby Phills in an automobile accident and made guard David Wesley, who was with Phills at the scene, feel like part of the team again. It was Silas who kept the Hornets focused during their last two seasons in Charlotte, while ownership flitted from city to city willing to give a sweetheart deal that would fill the owners' pockets.

	Paul Silas was the face of the Hornets when Charlotte turned on George Shinn.

While the citizens of Charlotte grew to despise the owners, George Shinn and Ray Wooldridge, they respected and admired Silas. While the fans stayed away by the thousands, and the crowds at Charlotte Coliseum resembled those at the JV game at your local high school, Silas would never let his players use their lame-duck status as an excuse. And the Hornets, of course, made the playoffs. In fact, they made the second round, and without their best player, Jamal Mashburn, who missed most of the postseason with positional vertigo.

Then, it occurred to me. I must say I'm ashamed that it took me so long.

Shinn and Wooldridge ... may not be very bright.

Not when it comes to basketball, anyway. They're obviously good businessmen; they each amassed individual fortunes in the hundreds of millions of dollars. And they're clearly good salesmen, getting the state of Louisiana to fork over tens of millions in giveaways in order to bring the Hornets to Nawlins. But when it comes to hoops, they are in way over their heads, or they're getting really bad advice.

Here is what is being leaked to the local media: The Hornets want to make the Finals (who doesn't?), and they think they only have one more real shot at doing that -- next season -- because after that, they're moving to the Western Conference, where the ballers ball. And because the Hornets have assembled championship-level talent, they should be in the Finals. (Let's ask Bob Whitsitt where amassing talent gets you.)

More ominously, there are suddenly concerns that Silas' X's and O's aren't what they should be, that he got outcoached by Larry Brown in the first round. Chief among this supposition is Silas' decision not to play Jamaal Magloire during the fourth quarter of Game 6. Nor were players aware of their roles. And because of Silas' shortcomings, the Hornets need to get themselves an A-list coach to push them over the top.

Oh.

On this list are the Browns and Rileys and Jacksons and, one supposes, Van Gundys and Fratellos. They and they alone have the magic elixir that will get New Orleans playing in June. While Silas is, one supposes, the stand-in name the local party throws on the ballot until it can convince a real candidate to run. Good enough to fool around with in the back seat, but not smooth enough to bring home to mom and dad.

Forgive me if I raise a hand in objection.

All Silas has done is win under the most godawful circumstances, with star players falling by the wayside at every opportunity. This year it was Baron Davis, who missed 33 regular-season games with a bad hamstring. Last year, Mashburn not only was out of the playoffs but he missed half of the regular season with an abdominal strain. The year before that, Derrick Coleman played in just 34 games. The year before that, Phills, the team's emotional leader, died. Are these excuses? Only to the condemned, I suppose, although they usually refer to them as "evidence."

If Silas should have played Magloire in the fourth quarter ... well, all I can say is that Don Nelson didn't play Mike Finley much in the fourth quarter of Game 5 of Dallas' first-rounder with Portland, and that left lots of folks in the Mavs' camp baffled. Does that mean Nellie can't coach?

I would agree with Shinn and Wooldridge about replacing Silas if they're talking about the likes of Brown. If Silas was outcoached by Brown, he wouldn't be the first, nor will he best the last. Brown is the best coach in the business, period. He wins and his teams are intelligent and hard-nosed. If he's available, they should move heaven and earth to get him. But I could have sworn that he has two years left on his contract -- and that Ed Snider, the Sixers' owner, has no intention of letting him out of that deal. If Snider wouldn't let Larry talk to Dean Smith, why would he let him talk with the Hornets?

I would agree if PJ (Jackson, not Carlesimo) was ready to leave Shaq and Kobe, but a) he isn't, as far as I'm aware, and b) he said as recently as last week that when he's done with the Lakers and he's done with coaching. I might even agree if the prize was Riles; no matter what's happened in Miami the last couple of seasons, he's still a brilliant tactician and motivator. (Although you might take notice of his won-lost record since his superstar, Alonzo Mourning, has been sidelined with a kidney disorder. You might also note that, when head-to-head in the playoffs a couple of years ago, Silas waxed Riley's Armani-clad butt in the first round.) Do Shinn and Wooldridge know something I don't? Is Riles going to walk away from the mega-payday (eight figures) he's going to receive in South Beach the next two years?

So that leaves the likes of Van Gundy and Fratello -- who just happens to be a close acquaintance of Wooldridge, who isn't from Charlotte, but Atlanta. As was Fratello during his stint as the Hawks' coach. Both VG and the Czar are terrific coaches. Are they head and shoulders better than Paul Silas? Forgive me; I don't think so.

There's no arguing the fact that Van Gundy was brilliant in guiding the eighth-seeded Knicks to the Finals in '99 and that he seems to inspire the same kind of loyalty from his players that Silas did from his. But -- I hate to be a killjoy -- there is the small matter of Van Gundy quitting on his team two years ago, when things weren't so hot. And besides, the Knicks have given no indication they'll let him talk to teams any earlier than Aug. 1, the day after his contract expires.

Fratello has won in Atlanta and Cleveland, playing up-tempo and slowdown according to his personnel. He's won more than 500 games for those two franchises and forgotten more about X's and O's than I'll ever learn. This isn't a diss of his skills. But he's never made it out of the second round, either; the closest he came was when Larry Bird and 'Nique had that ridiculous Game 7 shootout in the Eastern semis in '87. Is there someone else out there? Danny Ainge? John Thompson? Paul Westphal?

So I come back to where I started: Why was Silas fired, exactly?

	If they had said 'Hey, we gave Paul four years, and he didn't win, so we're going to give somebody else a chance,' I would still disagree, but it's their team and they can do what they want. But to hide behind non-attributable gossip is small. It's not worthy of a guy that was the public face of your organization while you couldn't show yours around town, because the public hated you so much.

Everyone insists it wasn't about money, but I happen to know that Silas was never offered anything approaching even average dollars ($2 to $3 mil per) for an NBA head man last summer, the last time Silas and the Hornets tried to work out a contract extension. How does $1.5 per year sound for a coach that never won fewer than 44 games in a non-lockout season? I also know that no one in the organization would stand up and vouch for Silas' skills as a coach to Shinn and Wooldridge, and by "no one," I mean no one. Ownership made it clear then: We'll keep you if you win, but we're going to do it on the cheap. If we have to shell out big bucks, it won't be for you. Silas' supposed mates in the organization also made it clear: You're on your own, bud.

Now, of course, ownership leaks that it would be more than willing to pay a new coach $3 million. Just not Paul Silas.

I wouldn't object as much to Silas' dismissal if Wooldridge and Shinn had had the decency to explain themselves in public, instead of hiding behind a press release. If they had said 'Hey, we gave Paul four years, and he didn't win, so we're going to give somebody else a chance,' I would still disagree, but it's their team and they can do what they want. But to hide behind non-attributable gossip is small. It's not worthy of a guy that was the public face of your organization while you couldn't show yours around town, because the public hated you so much.

I wouldn't object as much if this kind of foolishness wasn't rampant around the L this time of year. Rick Carlisle is suddenly an idiot, Mo Cheeks is suddenly a moron, Flip Saunders is suddenly a misfit, Doc Rivers is suddenly stupid. I heard those same whispers about Carlisle's job status as recently as a week before the playoffs, dismissing them as folly. How could Carlisle -- the Coach of the Year 12 months ago, possibly be in trouble? How could anyone in Portland blame Cheeks -- the island of sanity amid chaotic waters -- for the Blazers' dysfunction? (I asked Mo before Game 7 if coming back from an 0-3 deficit would be redemptive for him personally. "For me?" he asked, incredulously. "I didn't do none of that stuff.")

Everyone wants to win; that's understandable. The pressure to advance is incredible, and coaches like Silas get paid good money to deal with it. But management everywhere needs to get a grip. Good coaches don't fall from trees, nor are they all silversmiths with a chalkboard. My criteria for a good coach is simple: Does his team play for him? That's it. Do they play hurt? Do they play smart? Do they get the most out of their ability? If the only criterion is winning a title, then Phil Jackson, Gregg Popovich and Rudy T are the only coaches since 1991 worth a damn.

Silas isn't a stupid man. He's known for months that the day he lost in the playoffs was likely the next-to-last day he'd be in New Orleans. But that makes none of this right. The near-frenzied need to get a ring doesn't trump all the good that Paul Silas did, on and off the court, for the Hornets.

No doubt Shinn and Wooldridge will talk now about finding a world-class coach.

They already had one.

David Aldridge, who covers the NBA for ESPN, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.