When it comes to coaching tenure, Gonzaga’s Mark Few offered perhaps the ultimate perspective on longevity at one institution as he reflected this week on Erik Spoelstra.
“I coached against him when I was a lowly, lowly assistant at Gonzaga,” said Few, who is assisting Spoelstra this week with the USA Select Team amid Olympic preparations in Las Vegas. “I had an opportunity to coach against Erik Spoelstra when he was at the University of Portland. And he was a great little player there, and super smart and super tough.”
That was back in the early ’90s, when Few was just getting started with the Zags.
From that role, Few became coach of the Zags in 1999, in that position ever since.
Just as Olympic coach Gregg Popovich has been in the lead seat with the San Antonio Spurs since 1996, and Olympic assistant coach Jay Wright has been coach at Villanova since 2001.
With Spoelstra having served as Miami Heat coach since 2008 and having been with the Heat since 1994, the staff USA Basketball has assembled is largely a study in cohesion and continuity.
“I think common sense tells us that competent continuity will serve you well,” Popovich said. “And I don’t think it really matters what business you’re talking about.
“If one can have continuity, in the long run it bodes well for success. But it takes judgment on the part of bosses, whether they be owners or general managers, whoever it is, to have that sort of wisdom to make those choices and have the courage to maybe go through the bad times at the beginning for good times later.”
Although his USA Basketball work is almost done, with the Olympic roster moving on to exhibitions against international rosters and then on to the Tokyo Games, Spoelstra said he has relished the collaboration.
“It’s a great basketball and human collaboration experience,” he said, “a lot of incredible basketball minds in the coaches meetings. And then on the court, it was really fun to get to work with the Select players. It’s a great collection of really young, talented, ambitious guys.”
A member of Popovich’s Spurs roster, Select Team guard Keldon Johnson said similarities between Popovich and Spoelstra are apparent, even with Spoelstra, at 50, 22 years younger than Popovich.
“They definitely preach the same things, just making the right decision and having a plan when you make that decision,” Johnson said. “They’re definitely similar, but they definitely have their own way of getting to you and telling you things.”
Popovich said it has led to unique meetings of the minds.
“I got a great staff,” he said. “I’m learning something every day from them, and so are the players. So it’s like a real special situation to have all that talent in one place, to be able to discuss and argue and come up with solutions on a day-to-day basis.”
With coaches ingrained in systems for collective decades.
“Everybody always asks on the collegiate level, ‘How can we be the next Gonzaga?’ And I talk about continuity, and how important it is,” Few said. “And I look at San Antonio and how solid they have been, and just that franchise that you hold up there and you want to emulate. Look at Miami, the same look. You’re in awe of the success they’ve had. The culture? I think they both talk about those cultures.
“Jay Wright and I talk about that a lot. He’s been at Villanova forever, also. And I think that part is lost in our hurry-up-and-fix-things, and hurry up to change and get the right answer. It’s kind of society. It’s where we’re at. But in most cases, instant gratification isn’t the answer for long-term success.”
As for assisting Spoelstra, Few, 58, said the University of Portland Pilots guard is now all grown up.
“This week’s been awesome, because he is a great basketball coach,” Few said. “In every Xs and Os, he’s A-plus. How he delivers his message is A-plus. How he reads and feels things that are happening in real time is A-plus.
“And yet, he’s at this thing learning and asking questions, from the lowly college guy here. Awesome. Just an incredible person, incredible coach.”
