Advice for Redick if the Lakers hire him
On Sept. 30, 2014, Steve Kerr presided over his first practice as head coach of an NBA team. Kerr was now the man in charge of the Golden State Warriors, a job he took without the benefit of any previous coaching experience.
Kerr looked out before him and saw the faces of stars Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green staring back at him, waiting for the newbie to put his coaching plan in place on that initial day.
“I had these plans with the coaching staff beforehand, but it was like the first day of school, only I was a brand new teacher,” Kerr recently recalled with a laugh. “... I quickly realized that you don’t have nearly enough time as you thought you would to address every issue. And that’s a big part of it.”
If JJ Redick gets the Los Angeles Lakers’ head coaching job that seems destined to become his, having the right staff will be important since he has no coaching experience.
Kerr won five NBA championships as a player. He became a minority owner of the Phoenix Suns upon retiring, then the president of basketball operations and general manager of the team. He left that post and to join TNT as an analyst until leaving that job in 2014 to become coach of the Warriors.
He quickly learned to lean on the deep experience of his assistants, former head coach Alvin Gentry and Ron Adams, considered the savant of assistant coaches at the time in the NBA.
“I was lucky I had Ron Adams and Alvin Gentry with me. Although I shouldn’t call it luck. I purposely hired them because I knew I would need their expertise,” said Kerr, who won the first of his four NBA championships as a head coach in that rookie season. “And they were great, they were fantastic and helped me through that transition process.”
Redick, who played 15 seasons in the NBA, is an analyst for ABC/ESPN and has his “Mind the Game” podcast with Lakers superstar LeBron James.
“If JJ does get the job, JJ has been out of the game for a few years and had 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 he became a first-time coach with the New York Knicks in 2014.
“Like, he has a podcast with LeBron. That didn’t necessarily exist when I was making that transition. But it’s a good example of how different that is for even a guy that may not have previous experience coaching.
“It’s really the relationships with players that drive your success to a large degree anyway. So, if you’re in a position where you have that to lean on, it does help cushion the experience part.”
Doc Rivers’ desire to become a head coach came after 13 years in the NBA as a player and three years working for TNT after his retirement. Calls from legendary coaches Pat
Riley and Chuck Daly sparked his interest.
So Rivers, currently the Milwaukee coach, took the job with the Orlando Magic in 1999 without any experience. But he had former head coaches Dave Wohl and Johnny Davis by his side.
Rivers recalled how a few games into his first (Best-of-7; x-if necessary) BOSTON 3, DALLAS 1
G1: Boston 107, Dallas 89
G2: Boston 105, Dallas 98
G3: Boston 106, Dallas 99
G4: Dallas 122, Boston 84 Monday: at Boston x-Thursday: at Dallas, 8:30 x-Sunday, June 23: at Boston, 8
For the results of Monday night’s Mavericks-Celtics game, go to 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 was insistent. “I said, ‘Yeah, I’m going to 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 what we were. It took guts. So, that taught me a lot. You are going to be wrong sometimes, but you got to be willingly wrong and you got to be willing to take chances.”