When the Phoenix Suns fired Earl Watson after three humbling losses to start the season, it brought an end to a remarkable stretch of stability in a famously volatile profession.
The N.B.A. went a full 532 days without one of its head coaches being dismissed, stretching from Dave Joerger’s ouster by the Memphis Grizzlies on May 7, 2016, to Watson’s demise on Sunday.
It’s a number as shocking, in its own way, as the sight of six participants from last February’s All-Star Game — as well as a perennial All-Star in Chris Paul who missed that game through injury — changing teams in the zaniest of N.