On September 30, 2014, Steve Kerr presided over his first practice as the head coach of an NBA team. Kerr was now the man in charge of the Golden State Warriors, a position he accepted without the benefit of any prior coaching experience.
Kerr looked ahead and saw the faces of stars Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green staring at him, waiting for the rookie to implement his training plan on that first day.
“It was a bit of a spectacle, to be honest. I had these plans with the coaching staff beforehand, but it was like the first day of school, except I was a brand new teacher,” Kerr recalls with a laugh about his first day as coach of the Warriors. “We have to overcome obstacles and smooth things over. But I remember the first two days were a bit chaotic. I was trying to do a lot of things. I quickly realized that you didn’t have as much time as you thought to solve each problem. And that’s a big part of it.
If JJ Redick gets the Lakers head coaching job that appears destined to become his, according to people not authorized to speak publicly on the subject, having the right staff will be beneficial since he has no coaching experience. ‘coach.
Kerr won five NBA championships as a player. He became a minority owner of the Suns upon his retirement, then president of basketball operations and general manager of the team. He left that position and joined TNT as an analyst until leaving that position in 2014 to become coach of the Warriors.
What he quickly learned in early training sessions and in matches throughout his maiden journey as coach was to rely on his highly skilled and experienced squad.
Kerr turned to former coach Alvin Gentry and Ron Adams, considered the savant of NBA assistant coaches at the time, for advice.
“I was lucky to have Ron Adams and Alvin Gentry with me. Although I shouldn’t call it luck. I hired them on purpose because I knew I would need their expertise,” said Kerr, who won the first of his four NBA championships during that rookie season. “And they’ve been great, they’ve been fantastic and helped me through this transition process.”
The Times spoke to five former players who became head coaches without having been on the bench in that role and each insisted it was important to have wise assistants to guide them.
Redick, who played 15 seasons in the NBA, is an analyst for ABC/ESPN and has his podcast “Mind the Game” with Lakers superstar LeBron James.
“If JJ gets the job, JJ will be out of the game for a few years and will have an opportunity to be around guys in other settings,” said Derek Fisher, the Crespi High coach who won five NBA titles with the Lakers before becoming a coach for the first time with the New York Knicks in 2014.
“For example, he has a podcast with LeBron. That didn’t necessarily exist at the time I was making that transition. But it’s a good example of the difference between that, even for a guy who maybe doesn’t have coaching experience. Either way, it’s really the relationships with the players that determine your success to a large extent. So if you’re in a position that you can lean on, that helps cushion the experience part. This is something that grouping people on staff can help make up for the lack of coaching experience.
Doc Rivers’ desire to coach came after 13 years in the NBA as a player and three years working for TNT after retirement, with calls from legendary coaches Pat Riley and Chuck Daly sparking his interest.
Doc Rivers said he made sure when he took his first head coaching job to hire two former NBA coaches as assistants.
(Darron Cummings/Associated Press)
Rivers, currently coaching Milwaukee, accepted the job with the Orlando Magic in 1999 without any experience. But he had former head coaches Dave Wohl and Johnny Davis at his side.
Rivers recalled how, a few games into his freshman season, he wanted to change his offense.
Wohl and Davis told Rivers that “you can’t do that” because they had installed a new offense in training camp.
Still, Rivers insisted.
“I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll do it.’ And they were all against it, and I did it,” said Rivers, who was selected coach of the year in his first season. “It changed our team because it fit who we were. It took courage. So that taught me a lot. You will be wrong sometimes, but you have to be wrong intentionally and you have to be willing to take risks. I thought that was the biggest lesson of this year.
Mark Jackson was a point guard in the NBA for 17 seasons before joining ESPN as an analyst. Still, Jackson aspired to become an NBA coach, believing that his time as a point guard made him a coach on the court that would translate even if he lacked experience on the bench.
“I wouldn’t say you have to learn as you go,” said Jackson, who took over the Warriors in 2011. “There are certain things you have to learn that you didn’t do as a player. Now you make decisions, decisions you never thought about, like: “Do we stay overnight? What time is practice?” ?How long have we been practicing? I’ve been fortunate to have good people around me, as far as my staff goes, including Mike Malone and Pete Myers, guys who have been assistants for a long time. made life easier.
Warriors head coach Mark Jackson, hugging guard Stephen Curry after he was eliminated from the playoff game against the Clippers, said becoming an NBA coach with no experience brings a lot of decisions you never have to make. thought outside of matches.
(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)
When Vinny Del Negro first became coach with the Chicago Bulls in 2008, he hired former head coaches Del Harris and Bernie Bickerstaff to show him the ins and outs of being the man in charge.
Del Negro also took another approach to help with his learning curve.
“When I got the job in Chicago, I went to coach the team in the summer league,” he said. “I started immediately. I needed it. Every day that you do it, every game, you get a little more comfortable and you understand things a little better and you learn your players, and you know things that you can do better every game. This is what you do every day. »
As he began thinking about coaching, Kerr said he spent years preparing for job interviews and the type of coaching philosophy he wanted to develop.
Kerr said some of the best advice he received about becoming a coach was from former Knicks and Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy.
“I asked him for advice and I said, ‘If you were me and you were just starting to prepare for an interview and become a coach, what would you do?'” Kerr said. “And he said, ‘Every time you stop and think about what kind of coach you want to be, write it down.’ Whatever you think, write it down.
‘Before long, you’re going to collect your thoughts, you’ll have them on paper, you’ll be able to look at them, think about them, adapt them and develop a philosophy that you can present to someone.’ And that was the best advice I was given.