Byron Scott is the new head coach of the JCC basketball team, the Lady Shofars, after getting fired by the Hornets.

If there is one person who should believe in karma, it’s former New Orleans Hornets Coach Byron Scott.

In just the first game in the post-Scott era, New Orleans did not get the “fresh start” it thought it so deservedly needed. Guard and franchise player Chris Paul sprained his left ankle in an 86-78 loss to the Portland Trailblazers and is expected to be out 1-2 weeks.

An overwhelming majority of fans, NBA owners and personnel thought the 2007 NBA Coach of the Year got the raw end of the deal, following the immediate aftereffect of his team’s paltry 3-6 start, which led to his demise.

Although the Hornets had the third-most difficult schedule at the time of Scott’s firing (.581 opponents winning percentage), Team president Hugh Weber was looking to go in a new direction.

“We appreciate Byron [Scott] and what he did for the New Orleans community,” Weber said in a press conference, “but New Orleans is a winning city and we weren’t winning games. It’s pretty embarrassing for a basketball team to have fewer wins [3] than its neighboring football team.”

The Saints are 8-0 this season.

Scott was disappointed in the abrupt decision, but spent little time on the market after Rabbi Ben David, a member of the Shimon and Sara Birnbaum Jewish Community Center In Bridgewater, N. J., convinced him to take a job as a head basketball coach because it would “be a great learning experience for him.”

“It’s an exciting day for New Jersey and all of Bridgewater,” Rabbi David said. “While we were hoping to acquire someone who has a little more experience coaching at the JCC level, this is certainly a positive step.”

The last time Scott was in New Jersey, he was packing his bags after getting fired for a “slow” 24-22 start in the 03-04 season, following two consecutive NBA Finals appearances. Nonetheless, he was elated to find out that he would make his return to the Garden State by taking over the reins as head coach for the JCC under-16 women’s basketball team.

“These girls finished in third place last season, which is an amazing accomplishment, but I’m looking forward to helping them improve even more,” Scott said. “As soon as Tracy Cohen gets her braces off, we can really start getting into gear.”

The Shofars finished 3-3 last year, good for third place in the five-team league.

Scott is optimistic that as long as he doesn’t win a JCC Coach of the Year Award, his job will most likely be secure. Over the past seven years, every year, the recipient of either the JCC or NBA Coach of the Year Award has been fired (see chart at end of article for more details).

“I just have to focus on the present,” Scott said. “The NBA and JCC League are two entirely different entities, despite a very similar mentality and physicality.”

The Bridgeport JCC cannot offer any monetary salary to Scott, but it will be able to offer him something of even greater significance.

“They said that I will get 50 percent off of all Shabbat dinners as long as I’m head coach,” the former Lakers star said. “I’ve never had a Shabbat dinner before, but I hear they have this amazing bread that looks like Princess Leia’s hair. I think you are supposed to ‘holla’ in the air every time you’re about to eat it or something like that.”

There are five Shabbat dinners that overlap the season.

With Hornets superstar Chris Paul getting injured in 100 percent of the games he’s played without his former coach by his side, perhaps it was a blatant sign that basketball teams should simply never fire Scott.

Meanwhile, the Nets have won as many basketball games this season as the New York Jets.

Game Notes:

Over the past seven years, every year, the recipient of either the JCC or NBA Coach of the Year Award has been fired

2009 JCC Coach of the Year Noah Goldstein was forced to take a leave of absence after a summer league game, when he joked during a press conference that he would think about scheduling a game on Shabbos for the right amount of money.

Bengals receiver Chad Ochocinco was fined another $25,000 for a Taco Bell stunt

When it comes to getting monetarily punished for unsportsmanlike conduct in the NFL, the old saying goes like this: “Get penalized once, shame on them. Get penalized twice, shame on you.” But the pundits may have to come up with new words of wisdom for former Oregon State standout Chad Ochocinco.

The fines for Ochocinco continue to accumulate after his latest escapade with the Taco Bell in Cincinnati, Ohio.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said he was appalled that just one day after Ochocinco was fined $20,000 for jokingly offering a referee a dollar bill during a replay challenge against the Baltimore Ravens, that “Chad would have the chutzpah to pull another stunt like this.”

As part of the Comish Vanquish World Hunger Act initiated by former Commissioner Paul Tagliabue in 1994, every week during the season, the current NFL commissioner volunteers his time at a restaurant in one of the cities that holds an NFL franchise.

Goodell chose Cincinnati’s Taco Bell on Montgomery Rd. to be his charitable restaurant for the week. Purely by coincidence, that destination is also Ochocinco’s favorite hot spot for food.

The commissioner took on the role of window server for the day, but that’s when the controversy started.

“He [Ochocinco] came up to the window and bribed me to give him a free taco and a Coke,” a disappointed Goodell said. “He said on the intercom that he would give me three dollars for the items, which put me immediately into shock. I thought a man of his caliber would have enough professionalism to not repeat this bribing act again.

“Going into this, I was not aware that Chad [Ochocinco] visited here frequently. While this did occur off the football field, I had to bring it up with the NFL and it was their decision to follow through with the fining, mainly because it was his second offense.”

Within just one week, Ochocinco has been fined $45,000 for offering four dollars.

“It’s sad that on my day off, when helping for an altruistic cause that these circumstances took place,” Goodell said. “I surely hope this is the last time we hear of any bribes.”

Ochocinco was not available for comment, but his agent said they will fight the ruling and that it was “all a misunderstanding.”

To see some of Chad Ochocinco’s celebrations throughout his career, click on the link below:
Ochocinco Celebrations