BASKETBALLWEATHER is back with a confession, I did not see the Victor Wembanyama game last night where he erupted for 38 points but I did see the highlights of him backing up KD, where KD looks like the shrimpy kid on the bus who no one ever wants to sit next to. I know they say Wemby is 7’3’’ but he looks a lot taller than that when he’s playing against 6’11’’ Kevin Durant. I’m not sure what that says about physics but it’s can’t be good.
Wembanyama was the most hyped basketball player since Lebron James, and after 5 games, as crazy as it sounds, it looks like the hype may have been too conservative. If it was, we’re about to witness the birth of something extraordinary right in front of our eyes, and with all of the crazy shit going on in the world right now, that’s definitely something to look forward to.
So is something I read the other day about coaches.
For all of the cash going around the NBA right now, it seems like salaries for NBA coaches had sort of stayed stagnant in comparison to players, until now.
Apparently everything changed this past summer when Monty Williams, a solid coach, but certainly not a championship coach, signed a deal to coach the Detroit Pistons.
Monty was on the fence about continuing to coach because of his wife’s health issues but was offered such a large sum that it became impossible to say no.
Gregg Popovich was the next coach to sign big this summer, extending his contract with the San Antonio Spurs, well into his 80s, so that he could coach the aforementioned Wembanyama.
Wembanyama just won the lottery of coaches, because the coach in this case, one of the greatest to ever do it, has coached other Hall of Fame players, but by all accounts also seems to be a stand up dude who cares deeply about his players. Not just the superstar players like David Robinson or Tim Duncan, and now Victor Wembanyama, but every player in his locker room, down to the bench warmer.
THATS FIVE GOLD STARS
I’m not sure what the exact digits are of Popovich’s contract but it’s more than Monty’s, and that dude is getting paid almost $160K per game. That’s a lot of money to help young men play basketball.
Now the point of all of this is not to gush about “numbers,” but to recognize that coaching, which some people think isn’t that important, actually kinda is, and not for the reasons you might think.
Many years ago I got into an argument with someone about this over ribs. They thought that coaching was a frivolous part of basketball, that most pro teams could essentially win with just about anyone coaching them, and that the kind of coach you had made very little difference, at the end of the day, to winning.
I do think it’s suspicious that the teams who win championships are almost always the ones with the best player. I feel pretty strongly that any decent coach from high school could win with great players like Lebron James, Antetokounmpo, or Jokic, but I’m not sure just anyone can sustain what is necessary to win over the course of an entire 8 month NBA season. That’s where the skill comes in.
Coaching is really about all of the other stuff that happens during an 82 game season. The slog of travel, the egos of players, the encouragement, the sharing of defeat, agony upon agony in the marathon of the NBA grind.
If these salaries show anything it’s that teams and owners recognize the value of a good coach.
Monty Williams is a great coach because he instills his players with strong values that teach them to play like winners, even if they don’t actually win at the end of the day. Monty has never even won a championship, and yet there he is being paid like someone who has.
What that says to me is that teams value the leadership a coach brings to the table.
That isn’t to say winning isn’t important. In today’s NBA, like everywhere else, winning is more important than ever, but even in a cut throat environment like the NBA, a good coach is something far more important than X’s and O’s.
Again, it goes back to that thing my friend was saying way back when, coaching can only do so much, that at the end of the day players are going to be the ones who decide games, and all of the other competitive jazz. But Coaches are not just there, someone has to steer the ship when it’s not game time. That’s why I think salaries for coaches have caught up. The people signing the checks realize that the job of managing a team is just about impossible, and it takes a special kind of leader and person to be able to do that in the modern era.
Coaches are basically miniature CEOs. Tiny Presidents. Little moms and dads.
So for someone like Victor Wembanyama to end up with a guy like Greg Popovich as a coach, that’s a great thing for his jump shot, sure, but more than anything, he’ll get the support and guidance he needs to continue becoming a solid human being. That influence is going to impact Victor, and through Victor, the rest of us, a lot more than anything he ever does on the basketball court.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to BASKETBALLWEATHER to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.