After Roller-Coaster Series, Why Pistons’ J.B. Bickerstaff Calls Jamahl Mosley Firing the ‘Wrong Choice’

Mosley got the boot after Orlando blew a 3–1 series lead vs. Detroit and were eliminated from the playoffs over the weekend.

Bickerstaff and Mosley are close friends off the court. | Fernando Medina/NBAE via Getty Images

The Magic are going through a tough time at the moment.

Not only was the team eliminated from their first-round playoff series vs. the No. 1-seeded Detroit Pistons over the weekend, but they are now without coach Jamahl Mosley, who was fired from his post on Monday morning.

Speaking with Stephen A. Smith on Mad Dog Sports Radio on Monday afternoon, opposing Pistons coach (and close friend of Mosley’s) J.B. Bickerstaff lamented his counterpart’s dismissal while emphasizing his belief that Mosley will surely land on his feet.

“Organizations obviously have the right to make their choices,” Bickerstaff told Smith. “I feel like this is a wrong choice, to be honest with you. Jamahl did a heck of a job taking that organization and that team from lottery to playoff team, year in, year out. I don’t think there’s been a team whose star players have been injured more than his star players were injured. And for him to be able to hold the ship down and make it to the playoffs year in, year out says a lot about his ability to coach [a] team, build character, develop players and create culture and environment.

“So I know he’ll get a job, and the next job, [whatever] franchise he goes to, will be better off for it.”

Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff and now-former Magic coach Jamahl Mosley are close friends. | David Reginek-Imagn Images

Mosley led the Magic for five seasons, during which the team compiled a 189–221 regular-season record and advanced to the playoffs in 2023–24, ’24–25 and ’25–26. They would lose in the first round all three times.

As Bickerstaff alluded, star Orlando players Paolo Banchero, Jalen Suggs and Franz Wagner all missed significant time with injuries during the 2025–26 regular season. Wagner then strained his right calf during Game 4 of the playoff series vs. the Pistons and did not play again; his absence was almost certainly an outcome-deciding factor.

“You hope that organizations hold everybody accountable to the same standard that they hold coaches to—not just head coaches, but down to players, as well,” Bickerstaff continued on Monday. “Because there's a lot of people who want to point fingers and blame, and part of our job as coaches is to take that, but we need to make sure that we hold everybody accountable and hold everybody to a standard.”

That Bickerstaff would defend his friend comes as no real shock—the pair are so close they vacation together (and also mutually agreed it would be best not to speak to one another until after the series was done).

But it’s also true that, considering the Magic’s difficulty in taking that next step, Mosley’s future with the team had been a question mark for a while now. It just stinks for Bickerstaff that, although his win earned him an extension with Detroit, his friend resultantly got the boot.

Next up for the Pistons: Game 1 vs. the Cavaliers at 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday.

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