The coach-player dynamic is so weird in the NBA. On one hand the coach is technically in a position of authority and often act as a father figure for these teenagers and twentysomethings who mostly didn't finish college and are constantly away from home and are getting used to being famous (sort of) for the first time. And the guidepost to all this chaos is some short old man in a lame league-mandated quarter zip barking up (usually literally) at them. Of course it is fertile soil for all sorts of weird inappropriate Freudian attachments.
On the other hand, the coach really is at the beck and call of the star players, who often earn more money, garner more public sympathy, and have longer tenures on teams. The NBA coach's only power, really, is that of yapping. The number one leading cause of death for a HC is a mysterious mutiny, "losing the locker room." It really isn't possible for a coach to exploit their position of power in those cases because they really don't have much of it.
Anyway something to consider in your next power imbalance agegap coachplayer RPF.
