Last night, the Rockets list whittled down from 85 potential coaches to 84, as Houston assistant Elston Turner withdrew his name from consideration to be the next Rockets head coach. The Houston Chronicle’s Jonathan Feigen broke the story, and here’s what Turner’s agent had to say about it:
“Elston is taking himself out of the running as a candidate for the Houston Rockets’ head coaching position for reasons we choose not to explain,” said Warren LeGarie, Turner’s agent. “If circumstances should change in the future, we would have to look at this situation again.”
Turner, 51, confirmed the withdrawal of his name.
Rockets assistant Jack Sikma is still in the running for the position, so it’s still a possibility that the position will be turned over to someone currently in the organization.
Reading between the lines here, perhaps Turner considered himself as part of Adelman’s “camp” and there was a divisive issue like say, the data the Rockets front office wanted the coaches to use. If Turner didn’t want to use that data either, then it makes sense that he would step aside and let the Rockets focus on someone else.