Here’s the thing: It almost never — ever — ends well. For any of them. That’s part of what makes the business of coaching so brutal. It doesn’t always end acrimoniously, but it rarely ends completely amicably. Tough gig. Start to finish.
Every now and again you can get an ending like Joe Lapchick’s, carried off the Garden floor by his players on March 20, 1965, after beating Villanova, 55-51, to clinch the NIT championship. Tony LaRussa left the Cardinals after winning the 2011 World Series and has yet to manage another game.