Managers are not Leaders
Middle Management has never been viewed as particularly useful.
In 1977, Abraham Zaleznik wrote an article that compared leaders and managers. The dividing line, to Abraham, was about demeanor and problem-solving style. You can read that article here, on the Harvard Business Review. To summarize his beliefs, you need a mix of managers and leaders to make an organization successful. Those designations are necessarily complementary. In fact, leadership operates as a sort of boundless, artistic endeavor, requiring people to use delicate touch, envision possibilities, and work unmoored from the restraints of typical employ. The manager, then, must work within the confines of tradition, and carry out tasks to ensure that the bottom line is maintained, handling things like tracking deadlines, mitigating conflict in the workplace, and hiring and keeping talent.
That would be the idyllic situation, when everyone’s goals are aligned to making the organization as good as it can be. Their motivations are simply to be their best, and make the company as much capital as they can. The leaders motivations would be to lead the company and take care of the people who work under them. Everyone can be successful, and everyone can be secure.
Unfortunately, perceptions and personal beliefs matter. Oftentimes leaders see managers as plug-and-play problem-solvers, not capable of the politics and power dynamics of leadership that they alone could handle. They see the managers as not as good under pressure, and so, they hold leadership power closer to the vest. This kind of dictator-style leadership is not uncommon, and not entirely unsuccessful either.
But what’s worse, is when you have a leader so dynamic in a managerial role that the person hired above them is more of a manager. That’s what seemed to happen here at Alabama. Greg Byrne was hired in 2017, certainly with a main goal upon hire of maintaining Alabama Football’s relative prowess. You would think 2 titles during his 6 year tenure would be enough, but he came into a tradition of winning the title every other year. Now they’ve watched Georgia run off two in a row, and the fever is returning. Wouldn’t you know it, this year after the title game, Alabama fans woke up to see their team with a 25-4 record, and ranked by the Associated Press as the #4 team in the country. You’d think things were on the up-and-up, leadership wise. More on that in a moment.
it’s dumb, self-serving, and in the end, just a reminder that these people in charge might not be fit for the positions they’re in.
So, basketball…
Brandon Miller is a bonafide star. He was a top recruit in college, he’s expected to be a one-and-done and be taken in the lottery of the NBA draft. All that to say, he’s extremely talented on the basketbell court. He is not extremely talented at public relations. He should not be doing public relations, and frankly, shouldn’t be playing basketball right now either.
Miller is a person of interest involved in a capital murder of a young mother in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Miller’s lawyer has come out to claim his innocence and ignorance of the situation, but there is a fair amount of evidence to the contrary. Just to quickly sum up the situation, here are the facts:
- Michael Davis murdered Jamea Harris with Darius Miles’ firearm on January 15
- Brandon Miller dropped Miles off at the club the night of the murder
- Miller brought the firearm to the club where Miles and Davis were.
- Miles had texted Miller to bring him the firearm
- Miller’s car was parked in a way that ~at least~ made it difficult for the victim to leave the scene
- Miller’s lawyer has claimed that Miller did not have any knowledge that the firearm was in his car, that it was hidden under some clothes
- Miller’s lawyer has also claimed that he did not intentionally park in that way, and that another car pulled up behind his, blocking him as well
- Brandon Miller has not missed a basketball game since January 15
- He played in a game on January 17th, scoring 30 points
- He has scored 240 points for Alabama since that night.
Throughout this entire ordeal, the head coach has also handled it about as poorly as anyone could. He has shrunk within his shell, being too small to rise to the occasion and do what he should.
This has not been silent, either. It started during the NFL playoffs, which of course render NCAA basketball basically invisible. But once the confetti from the big game had settled and the story went mainstream, people got rightously indignant. It has been a leading story on sports talk shows, podcasts, radio shows, and myriad articles. Fans at away games chant “Lock him up” and commentators regularly embarrass themselves talking about it. No one seems to know what to do, because Alabama won’t do anything, even with all of this public pressure.
Nate Oats, Glass Jaw, No Arm, Weak As F*@K
“We’ve been taking it very seriously from Day 1. The first minute that I got the information, I called (athletic director) Greg (Byrne) and we talked about it and the severity of it,” Oats said. “Greg, I thought, did a great job addressing those comments on Wednesday, and I really don’t have much to add to it. We feel like we’ve done the right thing in this case. So I’m going to leave it at that with Greg’s comments.”
Nate Oats, on his players involvement in the murder of a young mother
Well, thank god they think they’ve done the right thing. Ironically, they most likely think they’re being the strong ones, fighting for this 18 year old’s reputation. Do you know what won’t help his reputation? Going out and participating in a fake pat down.
I’ll say what neither of these spineless men can. Brandon Miller should sit out until he is cleared in this case.
His draft stock will be fine. No one can deny his talent on the court. If he cares about the University of Alabama, he has three more years of eligibility. There is absolutely no justifiable reason for him to play in these games, other than what amounts to avarice.
I think the crux of the situation is this. Nate Oats is not that good of a basketball coach, or at least HE doesn’t think so. If he thought he was a good basketball coach, he would bench this guy, and he would find a way to win anyway.
But Nate is afraid. Nate (thinks/knows, choose one) that he would never, ever, be able to coach the #2 team in the country without this kid. And so, he’s willing to sell his soul in order to win a few amateur basketball games.
Greg Byrne recognizes this same fact. On top of that, Alabama football has just seen one of their rivals win back-to-back national championships. Combine that with decades of SEC basketball being dominated by Kentucky, Florida, and the other cast of characters, he is so hungry for this SEC championship that he’s doing the same.
The Vacuum
So, between Nate Oats and Greg Byrne, we have a fundamental problem. Nate is deferring to Greg, who is then deferring back to Nate. Neither of them will make a decision, and so, we’ve had no decision for forty-two days, as of my writing. They continue to claim that they are doing right by Brandon. I see why they’d say that, and I can even squint and see why they think it. But it’s dumb, self-serving, and in the end, just a reminder that these people in charge might not be fit for the positions they’re in.
Just yesterday, when being introduced, Brandon Miller’s teammates gave him a sarcastic pat down. Nate at least had the guts to say that this particular thing won’t happen again. But he can’t POSSIBLY be sure about that, because, again, Brandon will be in the lineup this week. Maybe he hits a three and pretends to hide a gun in his sock. Maybe he’ll do finger guns at an opposing player who’s shooting free throws.
Don’t.
Let.
Him.
Do.
It.
To.
Himself.
Take him out. For his sake. For your sake. He’s shown that he doesn’t think this is a big deal.
If you lose every game for the rest of the year, they’ll still talk about how good the team was until that one thing happened.
There is no excuse. It’s best for him, best for the school, and best for the sport. I don’t want to watch March Madness and have to hear Dicky V stumble through explaining the situation.
Take. Him. Out.
Anti-Standom 