> Geeks who didn't even stand near professional sports should really shut up about anything sport related, lol. I would really like to see professional, established coach running around with young prodigies on a peak of their biology.

Player-coach used to be a thing in professional sports a long, long time ago. There's a reason you don't have it anymore. A coach can't be expected to take the long-term view while also expecting to contribute. Most examples were players near the end of their career and they didn't tend to do very well.

The only place you see it is in fun adult leagues. Perhaps the message then is that Coinbase wants to be less professional and more amateur-like?

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draftsman 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Your comment reminded me that this still happens in the NBA. At 43 years old, Udonis Haslem seldom played minutes towards the end of his 20 year career with the Heat. But they kept him on as a “player-coach,” in that he was a mentor to the younger players and assisted in their coaching. Kyle Lowry is another current example of this “player-coach” role, currently on the Sixers.

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htrp 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Haslem played 72 minutes the entire 82 game season. That's like the Engineering manager who ships a PR once a year.

	▲	GrooveSAN 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		And to continue with the analogy, he neither replaces the coach, nor the actual team players. He just sits on the bench, paid for his - additional - role. Exactly the contrary of the Coinbase manager-IC, which is supposed to replace 2 jobs in 1.

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cloche 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Thanks for the examples. I didn't realize this still happened. I don't follow basketball much - more hockey for me with some baseball. It sounds like those examples jive though - they're players in the twilight of their career who still bring a lot of value being in the locker room but maybe aren't ready to fully retire or move to coaching full time.

Actually, these scenarios happen in hockey as well. Teams will pick up character guys who have been through it all who are expected to contribute more off ice than on it. Corey Perry is one who comes to mind lately but they're never given a "coach" title. It's entirely possible though that these players may be expected to be a go-between guy between the coach and younger players to help them manage the pressure or to help with encouragement. They're definitely not getting prime minutes though.

I guess that would possibly be the same expectation of a manager who still codes. I can't see them doing anything critical. It's likely picking up some minor bugs or nice-to-have, low priority feature work. I was a manager before and while I didn't reach 15 reports, I was up to 12 at one time. There's just really no focus time that you need for coding. Maybe that's a bit different with AI but even then you still need to find time to make changes and validate. And that's time that takes away from other higher impact things that you could be doing for the team.

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dekayed 30 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

We already have these in the industry. They're Staff+ Engineers and Architects. It's generally the norm to not be cranking out code at this level, but they make sure everyone is moving in the right direction, assisting managers, and mentoring juniors.

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xdavidliu 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I think the CEO was more talking in the line of Bill Russell or Maximus from Gladiator, not final-year Haslem

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FireBeyond 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It happens, but these days is quite rare, and usually something reserved for a player is of Hall of Fame or close caliber, who has been an institution for the franchise, and is generally slated for a full-time coaching role post retirement.

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orochimaaru 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I think Netflix started the sports team analogy for their hiring (and firing). But they don't put forth a "you're a part of the Netflix family". They're open about the work culture you're going to be stepping into.

And I don't think they're trying this thing that Coinbase is trying either.

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Worf 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Reminds me of how kings used to (I think, I'm bad at history) actually fight the battles themselves. Now the head of state, the head of government and the other top people don't fight themselves. Even the admirals only plan and command, AFAIK.

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strken 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Player coaches would be redundant given that most sports already have captains, wouldn't they?

	▲	Jagerbizzle 35 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Captains can't decide to substitute/bench one of their teammates in the middle of a game.

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cyanydeez 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

In sports like Football where CTE is king, there's just not gonna be enough qualified personnel to coach.

	▲	jasonfarnon 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		No. Few college or professional coaches weren't themselves college or professional players. Think of all those assistant coaches, QB coaches, DB coaches etc.--all players. Mike Leach comes to mind as a rare counterexample.