LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Let's begin with a check of the scoreboard:
632 wins and 662 losses.
That's the combined NBA coaching record of Billy Donovan, Rick Pitino, John Calipari and Jerry Tarkanian, the last four guys who made the move that the Los Angeles Lakers are reportedly asking Danny Hurley to make from his back-to-back national championship program at the University of Connecticut to the NBA.
I could have tossed in the lovely NBA records of three other guys — Michigan's John Beilein (14-40), UNLV's Lon Kruger (69-122) or Stanford's Mike Montgomery (68-96) — who got their NBA shots because they took teams to the Final Four.
But why pile on?
The record is the record.
And the story is the story.
If your intention is to buy your way to an NBA championship, spend the money on players, not coaches.
The stuff that works in college does not translate to the NBA. I'm not talking about the screaming and the stomping and being the lord of the franchise, although you can put it on the list, if you like.
I'm talking about the player development and motivational tactics and recruiting acumen. At UConn, Hurley has done a dazzling job of putting together a team with guys who are about the right things, prioritizing winning over the stat sheet.
That's not high on the list of priorities in the NBA. It does not work. It fails — usually spectacularly.
Neither Beilein nor Tarkanian made it through one season.
At Kentucky, Pitino had the Wildcats primed to crash the Final Four every season. He was this close to being an unstoppable force.
At Boston, a franchise that knows how to win the way the Lakers know how to win, Pitino never made the playoffs. (And I'd argue that Pitino is every bit the coaching master Hurley has been at UConn. And, yes, he had modest success with the Knicks.)
Calipari never won a playoff game in less than three seasons with the New Jersey Nets. He went 3-17 in his walk-off season.
Do you know how long it took Calipari to lose 17 games at Kentucky? Seven games into his fourth season.
Calipari is now at Arkansas, not the Cleveland Cavaliers or Orlando Magic. There was never any chance Calipari would leave Kentucky for an NBA job, because, in the NBA, he could never be guaranteed to have the massive talent advantage he had in nearly every game at Kentucky.
The two guys who have come closest to making it work in the NBA are Donovan and Brad Stevens, who did remarkable things at Butler.
Until Hurley scored at UConn, Donovan was the last coach to win back-to-back NCAA titles, scoring at Florida in 2006-07. He waited until 2015 before making the move to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Thunder looked primed to plan a parade. They won 55 games and made it to the Western Conference Finals and had a 3-1 lead over Golden State and Steph Curry.
Donovan had prime Kevin Durant. He had prime Russell Westbrook. He had prime Serge Ibaka.
And the Thunder still lost the final three games and blew that series to the Warriors.
Donovan is a wonderful coach and a better person. He just completed his ninth NBA season. You know how many more playoff series Billy Donovan has won?
That answer would be zero.
He's lost his last five, the last one being in 2022. Three of the last four teams he's coached have delivered losing seasons in Chicago, where he does not have prime Durant, Westbrook and Ibaka.
That brings us to Stevens, who actually serves as the No. 1 success story of guys who made the move from college kingpin to NBA, a climb I didn't think he'd be able to deliver.
Stevens led the Celtics for eight seasons, posting five winning records. His teams split seven of 14 playoff series, losing in the Eastern Conference in 2017, 2018 and 2020.
In 2021, Stevens turned down a lucrative offer to become the coach at Indiana University, perhaps because he knew he had another job lined up. Stevens left the Celtics bench to become the team president.
His final Boston team slumped to 36-36 and was bounced from the NBA playoffs by Brooklyn in five crisp opening round games. Now, the Celtics are four wins from their 18th NBA title while being led by Joe Mazzulla, a guy with Division II and G-League coaching credentials.
Mazzulla is not Hurley. He doesn't have to be. In the NBA, being a master of college coaching is not what wins.
Copyright 2024 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.
