On September 30, 2104, Steve Kerr led 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 any previous coaching experience.
Kerr looked ahead and saw the faces of stars Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green staring back at him, waiting for the rookie to lay out his coaching plan on that first day.
“It was a bit of a show, to be honest. I had these plans in advance with the coaching staff, but it was like the first day of school, except I was a brand new teacher,” Kerr recalled with a laugh about his first day as coach of the Warriors. “You have to get over the bumps in the road and smooth things out. But I remember the first two days being a bit chaotic. I tried to do many things. I quickly realized that you don’t have nearly as much time as you expected to tackle every problem. And that’s a big part of it.”
If JJ Redick gets the Lakers head coaching job that seems destined to be his, according to people not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, having the right staff will be an advantage since he has no coaching experience has.
Kerr won five NBA championships as a player. After retiring, he became a minority owner of the Suns, then became president of basketball operations and general manager of the team. He left that position and went to work as an analyst at TNT until leaving that job in 2014 to become coach of the Warriors.
What he quickly learned during the first practice sessions and during the matches on his first journey as a coach was that he had to rely on his very capable and experienced staff.
Read more: JJ Redick gets his chance this weekend with an in-person Lakers interview
Kerr turned to former coach Alvin Gentry and Ron Adams, then considered the savant of assistant coaches in the NBA, for advice.
“I was lucky to have Ron Adams and Alvin Gentry with me. Although I can’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 that rookie season. “And they were great, they were fantastic and helped me through that transition process.”
The Times spoke to five former players who became head coaches without sitting on the bench in that role, and they were all convinced that wise assistants are important as guidance.
Redick, who played 15 seasons in the NBA, is an analyst for ABC/ESPN and hosts his “Mind the Game” podcast with Lakers superstar LeBron James.
“If JJ gets the job, JJ will have been out of the game for a few years and he’s had a chance to hang out with guys in other settings,” said Derek Fisher, the Crespi High coach who won five NBA titles with the Lakers before he first became a coach with the New York Knicks in 2014.
“For example, he has a podcast with LeBron. That didn’t necessarily exist when I made that switch. But it’s a good example of how different that is, even for someone who may not have any coaching experience. It is really the relationships with players that largely determine your success. So if you’re in a position where you can lean on that, it helps ease the experience part. That is something that the collection of individuals on the staff can help make up for the lack of coaching experience.”
The lure of becoming a coach for Doc Rivers came after 13 years in the NBA as a player and three years with TNT after his retirement, with calls from legendary coaches Pat Riley and Chuck Daly piqued his interest.
So Rivers, currently Milwaukee’s 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 he wanted to change his offense a few games into his freshman season.
Wohl and Davis told Rivers “that can’t be done” because they had installed a new offense in training camp.
Still, Rivers remained persistent.
“I said, ‘Yes, I’m going to do it.’ And they were all against it, and I did it,” said Rivers, who was named coach of the year in his first season. “It changed our team because it fit what we were. It took courage. So that taught me a lot. Sometimes you will be wrong, but you have to be willing to be wrong and you have to be willing to take risks. I thought that was the biggest lesson of that year.”
Mark Jackson was a point guard in the NBA for seventeen seasons before joining ESPN as an analyst. Still, Jackson longed to become an NBA coach, thinking his time as a point guard made him an on-court coach who would translate even if he lacked any 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 haven’t done as a player. Now you make the decisions, decisions you never thought about, like: ‘Should we stay overnight?’ Do we leave after the match? What time is the practice? How long do we practice?’ I was fortunate to have good people around me as far as my staff, especially Mike Malone and Pete Myers, guys who were long-time assistants. They have made life easier for me.”
When Vinny Del Negro first became coach of 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 a different approach to help his learning curve.
“When I got the job in Chicago, I started coaching the team in the summer league,” he said. “I just jumped in. I needed that. Every day you do it, every game, you get a little more comfortable, you understand things a little better and you teach your players, and you know things you can do better every game. That is what you do every day.”
When he started thinking about coaching, Kerr said he spent years preparing for job interviews and what kind of coaching philosophy he wanted to develop.
Kerr said the best advice he received about becoming a coach came from Jeff Van Gundy, a former Knicks and Rockets coach.
“I asked his advice and said, ‘If you were me and you were just starting out and you wanted to prepare for an interview and prepare to be 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’re thinking, write it down.
“Soon you’re going to collect your thoughts, you’re going to get them on paper, you can look at them and think about them, adapt them and put together a philosophy that you can present to someone.” And it was the best advice anyone gave me.”
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
