Hawks' McMillan dismisses resignation report, will decide future after season
Atlanta Hawks head coach Nate McMillan is hoping to move past a report from The Athletic's Shams Charania that states he has strongly contemplated stepping down from his position amid the team's discouraging start to the season.
Charania also reported Friday that the 58-year-old isn't expected to imminently tender a resignation and that the team appears set to let him go after the campaign unless there's a sharp second-half turnaround.
McMillan was dismissive of the report while speaking with media Friday, but while he said he has never spoken to Charania, he didn't explicitly deny it. However, he stated any decision regarding his coaching career, including possible retirement, would only be made once the season is over.
"Look, at the end of the year, I'll do as I've always done. At the end of the season, I'll talk with my family and see if I still have that flame, that fire, to continue next season, but that's the end of the season," McMillan said, according to Reggie Chatman Jr. of 11 Alive News. "All of us think about retiring, but that's at the end of the season.
"We're going to move on past that story. We have a race to prepare for. We're going to try to get our guys healthy and make another run at the playoffs. But the things that were reported ... I'm here to coach this team. I've talked to (owner) Tony (Ressler) many times, and our goal is to make the playoffs, and that's what I'm working toward."
Hawks CEO Steve Koonin vehemently denied Charania's report, referring to it on the radio as "trash journalism," according to 92.9 The Game's Mike Conti.
"This is made-up stuff," Koonin said on the "Dukes and Bell" show Friday. "I am literally calling Shams out. It is just hack journalism. Hack."
McMillan joined the Hawks in November 2020 as an assistant to then-bench boss Lloyd Pierce. He was named interim head coach the following March when Pierce was dismissed.
He immediately turned Atlanta around, going 27-11 in the second half of the 2020-21 campaign. He helped the franchise reach the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 2015, leading to the removal of his interim tag. In his second season in charge, the Hawks finished 43-39 but were bounced in the first round by the Miami Heat in five games.
The Hawks are 17-18 in 2022-23 and are languishing in the East's play-in race. They're currently only 1.5 games behind the sixth-place Indiana Pacers but are also just two games clear of falling out of the postseason picture entirely.
Charania previously reported McMillan has clashed with franchise star Trae Young in recent weeks, further complicating an already problematic season.