To anyone that feels the need to defend or spin the Valai hire, how many other candidates do you think we interviewed first? I’m guessing it was zero. Nothing on his resume suggests he’s worthy of being handed the job without taking a few swings at coaches with real skins on the wall. He was going to say yes, even if 7 other candidates passed first, but Herman and Ash couldn’t be bothered to make the effort. Herman runs his entire organization the way small minded businesses were managed in the 1950’s. Well run organizations set a hiring bar (e.g., candidate has to be better than 50% of the people in this job, etc.) and consistently hold out until they find candidates that exceed it. Tom seems fine gambling on the buddy system, which is going to fail at an exponentially higher rate. Is it possible that Valai is a rising star? Sure, but the odds are against him. Call it a 10% chance that he ends up being elite. Why not hold out for a coach that is a) already elite, or b) has enough experience to suggest that the odds of becoming elite are higher?