The 1985-86 Celtics Bred Coaches
When Minnesota played Dallas on Tuesday night, there was a more interesting storyline beneath the Mavericks comeback and the Timberwolves meltdown. On either bench sat former Celtics teammates Kevin McHale and Rick Carlisle, currently head coaches of their respective squads.
Now certainly former teammates have faced off with one another on the bench before, but the fact that both McHale and Carlisle were members of Boston’s 1985-86 championship team is what’s intriguing. I don’t know what head coach K.C. Jones was preaching, but a Celtics squad that finished with a record of 67-15 and an NBA title was listening.
In addition to McHale and Carlisle, Larry Bird, Danny Ainge, Dennis Johnson and Sam Vincent have all drawn the X’s and O’s for an NBA team.
“That was a team that had a bunch of guys that really knew how to play basketball,” McHale said. “Later on in my career, when you had new guys come in, you realized how blessed you really were. Because you’d say, ‘Hey, let’s change this coverage,’ and they’d look at you like, ‘What?’ And you’d say, ‘Oh, boy.’”
The list doesn’t stop there. Although they were never at the helm of an NBA squad, Jerry Sichting is currently an assistant alongside McHale for the Timberwolves and was once an assistant for Marquette; and Scott Wedman has coached in both the ABA and CBA. Also, while Robert Parish has never officially coached, he remains active as a consultant and mentor for the Celtics.
That leaves you with the legendary Bill Walton, David Thirdkill, Greg Kite and Sly Williams. Not bad.
Will there ever be another team with so many NBA coaches?
Source: Pioneer Press
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January 2nd, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Caribballin says:
gotta love the GMC truck
January 2nd, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Rich says:
1988-89 Pistons:
Isiah Thomas (Head Coach Pacers,Coach/GM Knicks)
Joe Dumars (GM Pistons)
Bill Laimbeer (Head Coach/GM WNBA Shock)
Rick Mahorn (Asst Coach Hawks, WNBA Shock)
Mark Aguirre (Asst Coach Pacers/Knicks)
Adrian Dantley (Asst Coach Nuggets)
January 2nd, 2009 at 2:50 pm
... says:
I don’t see that kind of thing happening again… or at least not any time soon. I don’t feel like people study the game like they used to. Especially like those Boston teams. If anything did come close to that, it would be a college team… like Duke. A program with a tradition of playing high IQ basketball. Great coaches like Coach K develope into a mentor and not just a coach. Players sort of want to be like them.
January 2nd, 2009 at 2:51 pm
wanabballer says:
lol WNBA coaches shouldn’t count…
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:03 pm
CitizenB says:
How about former Riley players:
Byron Scott- LA
Doc Rivers- NY
Terry Porter- Mia
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:04 pm
CitizenB says:
Patrick Ewing- NY (Assistant)
Keith Askins- Mia (Assistant)
January 2nd, 2009 at 3:25 pm
srb says:
larry’s pants in this picture are fly sho nuff
January 2nd, 2009 at 5:01 pm
Jim says:
As the posters above me aptly proved, no, that won’t happen again.
One problem though: that bunch of many coaches has many many seasons under its belt, with just one Finals appearance, if I am right. Carlisle, and to a lesser extent Ainge, were good but it never lead to a whole lot of postseason success.
I am glad to see Celts Fan riding between his parents though.
January 2nd, 2009 at 5:13 pm
marcus says:
“gotta love the GMC truck”
awesome.
January 2nd, 2009 at 5:54 pm
JCARR says:
Larry is a pimp!
January 2nd, 2009 at 6:40 pm
vinny says:
they might have become coaches-but there werent all that great as coaches!! Larry Legend was a good coach. Ainge got a towel thrown in his face,lol.
January 2nd, 2009 at 8:44 pm
Helen says:
lol WNBA coaches shouldn’t count…
LOL – fortunately wannabe comments don’t count… Coop and Bill are doing just fine without yahoos like you. Enjoy the nba yawn fest, y’all… Celtics rule!
January 2nd, 2009 at 9:02 pm
SteveNash says:
Larry Birds pants are Legend
January 2nd, 2009 at 9:02 pm
SteveNash says:
the lady in front looks like she is having a great time…
January 3rd, 2009 at 1:17 am
jzsmoove says:
does anyone know if this is the same david thirdkill that played in the PBA for Tanduay before? i remember him as a kid, he used to torch the best locals. awesome international talent at the time.
January 3rd, 2009 at 2:50 am
A. Winthrop says:
1980 Sixers: Doug Collins, Mo Cheeks and Lionel Hollins were all NBA coaches. Plus, Al Skinner, current Boston College coach.
http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/h/hollili01.html
January 3rd, 2009 at 7:30 am
derf says:
Yes jzsmoove, he is the same David Thirdkill who played in the Philippines. Awesome guy. but just a role player in the NBA.
January 3rd, 2009 at 11:14 pm
Paul says:
1984-85 Lakers
Magic Johnson (former NBA head coach)
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (former NBA assistant coach)
Byron Scott (former NBA assistant coach, current head coach)
Bob McAdoo (current NBA assistant coach)
Michael Cooper (former assistant and head coach in BOTH NBA and WNBA)
Mitch Kupchak (current NBA GM)
Kurt Rambis (current NBA assistant and former NBA head coach)
January 3rd, 2009 at 11:19 pm
Paul says:
1984-85 Lakers
Ronnie Lester (at one time was assistant GM in NBA, not sure if that’s still the case)
January 4th, 2009 at 2:28 am
Aron says:
Good work fellas. I still think the Celtics record won’t be broken.
What about for current teams? Any squad with insane coaching talent?
January 17th, 2009 at 8:21 am
lombuck says:
You forgot to mention the late Dennis Johnson in the list.