It was nearing midnight in the East now, and J.B. Bickerstaff, on his drive home, spoke softly so his young daughter wouldn’t awake in the backseat. This had been a long, surreal and sobering day, punctuated with a crazy shot and a magnificent overtime victory.

At the end of a night that had turned out to be an unforgettable beginning to his head-coaching career, John Blair Bickerstaff, 36, found himself thinking about the cruelty of endings.

After all, he’s the son of Bernie Bickerstaff, a gentleman of the coaching craft, a lifer. Coaches’ sons have littered the NBA landscape, but few were NBA coaches’ sons. Some coaches have been around basketball their whole life, but few, if any, had their diapers changed on NBA training tables.

Rockets interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff instructs his players Wednesday night. (AP) More

“It isn’t just getting fired in this business, but the ridicule that comes with it, the fans, the kids at school,” J.B. Bickerstaff said late Wednesday night on his drive out of the Toyota Center, out of a 108-103 overtime victory over Portland. “My dad always took over teams, except for Washington, that were rebuilding, and you hear the taunting, the jokes, negative, awful things about the person you love. That hardens you at a young age.

“You learn what it feels like to have to move, change schools and there’s always that stigma that you were fired. Whatever opportunities come next, you were fired. I know what that feels like.

“I know that burn.”

The Rockets needed a transformation on this young season, needed the core of a Western Conference finalist to restore its basketball dignity. The Rockets were 29th in defense and 3-point shooting – two constants a year ago. As much as anything, the Rockets ranked 30th in running back on defense, on busting butt, on giving a bleep. This pushed ownership and the front office to fire Kevin McHale on Wednesday morning and promote Bickerstaff to interim head coach.

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“I thought we were going to turn it around together, Mac and the staff,” Bickerstaff told Yahoo Sports.

He’s been fiercely loyal to McHale, the way McHale has been to him. Bernie taught J.B. the value of loyalty because that’s what he had always been in the league. McHale gave J.B. a job with the Rockets 4½ years ago, along with promotions and raises, and bigger and bigger responsibilities. McHale never stopped telling people that the younger Bickerstaff deserved a chance to be a head coach in the NBA.

“He did everything in his power to protect me, to protect my family,” Bickerstaff told Yahoo Sports. “He went out on a limb to support me.”

McHale is a beloved, respected figure in the NBA. In a business of jealousy and pettiness, McHale separated himself with sincerity and good cheer. His strength wasn’t breaking down game film or diagraming plays on the board. He could live with mistakes, forever staying on the bigger picture. The genius wasn’t so much in the details, but the delivery. McHale was a presence.

“Mac is a uniter,” his old Rockets assistant, Kelvin Sampson, told me once.

Only now, the Rockets’ players were getting over on McHale, coasting on that Western Conference finals run. What had been McHale’s greatest strength had become something of a detriment with a team on the skids. Houston needed details and discipline to dig itself out.

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