When I was coaching at Kentucky - I was a grad assistant and I just got through playing and we won the NCAA Championship in 1978, so I stayed after I got through playing - we had Japan's national team coach Mototaka Kohama come to Lexington to spend the year and study basketball. He and I became great friends, so we hung out together.
Make or miss, you still have to shoot the same shot with confidence.
Fred VanVleet's story - here's a kid who's not very fast, not very tall, undrafted, had every excuse to not make it big and here he is and he's gonna be one of the top free agents.
When I first became a head coach, even back in Minnesota, I'm going to go with the known and leave the unknown alone.
Black, white and brown people have to work together to find new answers. The only way we can stop the systemic problems that people of color have faced all our lives is through honesty and transparency.
I totally can relate to guys going in for job interviews, and not having a tie, not having a white shirt, and that type of thing to wear. That's why I think as coaches we can do things to help. We have plenty, we as NBA coaches and players are all very blessed to be in a profession so that we can provide for.
Help me help you help yourself is kind of the motto I have.
The NBA made a big move to become more stylish and business-oriented a few years back, and it's made a big change.
I have a favorite poem. From Rudyard Kipling. It's called 'L'Envoi.'
My grandfather Urey was my hero. He worked three jobs. He had a dry cleaner's factory job in the day and a dry cleaner's factory job at night and when that was done with that, he mopped floors in a restaurant.
Growing up it was humble beginnings.
Fifty-four years ago, I was an 8-year-old boy living in rural Kentucky when the schools were desegregated. I walked into a white school where I was not wanted nor welcomed.
When I first became a head coach in Toronto, I was more of a dictator, wanted to do everything, all the development, defense, offense, whatever it was.
I'm quite sure there are other things that I could have done in life whether it's working for Humana, teaching in college, high school teacher. Coaching stuck.
I love watching players improve - even as a Little League coach.
The unwritten rule in college basketball is the black assistant goes and gets the black players. Don't worry about the X's and O's. Just recruit.
You can't allow yourself to get typecast as a recruiter, because that label sticks and carries. I fought it. I made myself learn the game and teach the game.
I hope I can stand up and be an example that helps change the narrative: 'He understands the game from a technical standpoint. He can teach the game. He can change an offense. He can put in a zone. He can do more than recruit.'
To me, there's no honor to say, 'I'm going to start.' As long as you're getting minutes, you're closing games, that shows more of the value to the team than to say you're a starter.
It's a different animal when you're in the NBA. You come in this league and you've got 7-footers who play 7 foot who are going to protect that rim come hell or high water.
