Follow the bouncing NBA coaches.(Chicago Tribune)

Byline: Rick Morrissey

In order to follow professional sports these days, you need a photographic memory to keep track of which player has bolted which team through free agency. It also doesn't hurt to have an air-traffic control tower.

We've been getting almost hourly reminders that arrivals and departures are part of the game, though it is NBA coaches who have been doing all the reminding.

Detroit's Rick Carlisle, whose coaching ability had as much to do with the Pistons' appearance in the Eastern Conference finals as anything else, lost his job Saturday. He had back-to-back 50-win seasons, so you can see why he had to go.

Bits of information have been leaking out as to the reasons for the firing, most of them having to do with Carlisle's alleged abrasiveness. Players didn't relate to him, he rubbed the owner the wrong way and blah, blah, blah.

Oh, did we mention Larry Brown had become available? Yeah, that too. Brown had quit the 76ers a few days before, and if the Pistons canned a successful coach on the heels of the Brown news, well, strange things sometimes happen. Word is that Brown will be announced as Detroit's head coach Monday. What an astonishing coincidence.

Washington recently installed the hurry-up offense, too, firing the doomed Doug Collins in the hopes of attracting Brown. Keeping to their organizational track record, the Wizards lost there too.