So whom does this sound like? Successful college coach tired of the recruiting and eager of a payday. Knowledgeable, defensive-oriented and respected. Ready to hang around and talk hoops with the big boys.
Now is that Lon Kruger or Tim Floyd? Maybe John Calipari or Rick Pitino? Leonard Hamilton or P.J. Carlesimo?
It’s Mike Montgomery, the successful, respected, knowledgeable coach of Stanford who is expected to sign a four-year contract Friday to replace Eric Musselman as coach of the Golden State Warriors.
Better watch out what you wish for.
Perhaps it will be different for Montgomery, whose name popped up as a surprise choice after Musselman was fired Thursday. Also, former Bull Rod Higgins was named top aide to Warriors general manager Chris Mullin.
“This was a difficult decision,” Mullin said in a statement. “This team certainly showed some progress the last couple of years and Eric should be given some of the credit.”
Musselman was actually pretty good, a tough Flip Saunders-type from the CBA who had the Warriors at their most competitive in a decade. Don’t feel sorry for him. He gets paid $1.5 million for next season from a three-year, $4.5 million contract.
His dismissal was no surprise, though, because his demanding style had him clashing with players. Mullin didn’t hire him, and Musselman didn’t endear himself to Mullin by not favoring players Mullin helped bring in, like Mike Dunleavy and Mickael Pietrus.
Musselman also was a victim of Hubie Brown and Memphis. It’s popular among non-playoff team owners these days to wonder why Brown and the Grizzlies with “that talent” could make the jump to 50 wins and they couldn’t.
Mullin recently took over for Garry St. Jean and is a highly regarded young executive. And Montgomery certainly is popular in the Bay Area after transforming Stanford into an elite basketball program despite its high academic standards.
Stanford this season had its third No.-1 NCAA tournament seed in five years. The Cardinal won its first 26 games this season and finished the regular season ranked No. 1 at 29-1. Montgomery has a career record of 547-244, including eight seasons at Montana.
But Montgomery was said to be growing frustrated by the defections of several players to the pros and Stanford’s uncompromising standards, which are even more rigorous than Duke’s in terms of allowing no athletic exceptions. He was an assistant on the USA Basketball 2002 World Championships team that finished sixth, which gave him a taste of NBA life.
Montgomery has been a by-the-book coach with no scent of scandal, but he’s regarded as cool and impersonal. His reputation is for being meticulous and attentive to detail, which often works better in college.
At Stanford he’d ask players to run through a wall and they’d ask “How fast?” And you didn’t have to explain the plays twice. Or more.
Perhaps no one will be taking a tougher road to the pros, from academic Olympus to, well, the NBA.
The players who come to Stanford–motivated, intelligent and worldly–don’t have much in common with the average NBA player. So it’s a huge jump for Montgomery and the Warriors.
Greatness requires risk. But when you reach for the sky, sometimes you only bounce it off the back of the rim.
