The disarray of Jason Kidd’s failed power play and abrupt departure has lent itself to a new era in Brooklyn.
One built upon hard work and determination, paying dues, applying a lifetime of basketball lessons and waiting for opportunity.
Meet Lionel Hollins, a basketball lifer who will be introduced as the Nets new head coach at a press conference on Monday.
A world champion as a player, winner as a coach and success story as a father and husband, Hollins comes to Brooklyn after a year away from the sport, a year he used spending time with his family and four children — including following his youngest son, Austin, finish a solid career at the University of Minnesota — while waiting for another opportunity.
“This is a perfect example of how dreams come true,” NBA Hall of Famer Bill Walton said of Hollins, his good friend and former teammate with the 1976-77 champion Trail Blazers. “He’s a guy who can inspire people to care. The success he will have in Brooklyn is a direct reflection of all his life experiences, from tough times as a child to incredible growth as a human being. He was able to use basketball to make a better life for himself, and now he’s at the pinnacle.”
With Kidd on his way out, Brooklyn quickly zeroed in on Hollins, hiring him mere hours after Kidd was introduced as the Bucks new coach.
Hollins is coming off an impressive five-year run in Memphis that included three straight playoff appearances and was capped by a franchise-record 56-win regular season and a berth in the Western Conference finals. With the Grizzlies, he molded a young team mired in mediocrity into a western power, developing Mike Conley into an All-Star point guard, getting the most out of veterans Tony Allen and Zach Randolph, turning Memphis into a defensive dynamo.
“I played for some excellent coaches, some championship coaches. He was an upper-echelon coach, I would say,” former Grizzlies player Keyon Dooling said. “His system works. His players play hard for him. The team was always prepared, the team always played hard. The team really responded well to him.”
Nevertheless, Hollins’ contract wasn’t renewed after the 2012-13 season, the result of clashes between the longtime coach and the analytics-oriented front office.
His oldest son, Lamont, said his father handled that disappointing news the same way he dealt with his struggles to become an NBA head coach. He took the news graciously, accepted it and moved on.
“Whenever we had talks, his response would always be, ‘It’s part of the game,’” Lamont, 42, recalled. “‘I don’t like the situation, I wish it was different, but that’s the part I can’t control.’”
The 60-year-old Hollins was described by those close to him as demanding, intense, knowledgeable and passionate, but his greatest strength may be his consistency. He’s the same during a winning streak as he in a losing streak, wanting the most out of his players, yet not overbearing. He’s not afraid to give tough love.
Lamont sees former members of the Suns in Arizona — one of his father’s many stops as an assistant coach — from Charles Barkley to Dan Majerle, and they still rave about his dad, he said.
“He has no agenda,” Lamont said.
Hollins got into coaching immediately after his 10-year NBA career, serving as an assistant coach at his alma mater Arizona State in 1985. He reached the NBA coaching ranks three years later, working under Cotton Fitzsimmons and Paul Westphal in Phoenix, spending seven years there. He served under Scott Skiles in Milwaukee for a year, coached in the United States Basketball League and International Basketball League, was given interim head coach status twice with the Grizzlies, before he was given the reins to his own team in 2009.
He often talked to his family, particularly Lamont, about his journey. He desperately wanted the opportunity to prove himself, to use the vast knowledge he gained by playing for legendary coaches such as Jack Ramsay, Lenny Wilkens, Chuck Daly and Billy Cunningham, but he never let it get him down. His life was basketball and he was enjoying every minute of it, even if that would be a lifetime as an assistant coach.
His chance eventually came, and he made the most of his time with Memphis. Now comes another opportunity, in Brooklyn with a veteran team, the kind of team those close to him say he’s best with.
In his year away from the sport, Hollins never really left it. He would visit Lamont in Arizona, and they would spend their evenings around the television, flipping back and forth from one game to the next. He was sitting in his son’s living room, but he may as well have been on the sidelines, barking out instructions.
“He’s always thinking about the game.” Lamont said.
Hollins grew up in Las Vegas, raised by his mother, Barbara, who passed away when he was 13. He worked from a young age to support his grandmother and two younger sisters. He used basketball to make a better life for himself, becoming a junior college All-American at Dixie Community College in Utah and an All-American at Arizona State, and wound up the sixth overall pick in the 1975 draft by the Trail Blazers.
He played point guard for five teams, won an NBA championship in his second season with the Trail Blazers — who retired his No. 14 jersey in 2007 — was a two-time all-NBA defensive team member and an All-Star once. He could score, took pride in his defense and could create for others, but Hollins’ greatest strength had nothing to do with a jump shot or a quick first step.
“His head,” Cunningham, the former Sixers coach, said, when asked his greatest strength. “Between the ears made Lionel the player he was. He could see one step ahead of what was going on.”
He was a student of the game, studied film like other players study nightclubs in road cities and listened intently to teammates and coaches from the moment he broke into the league. He quickly bonded with Walton over their love of fitness, beginning a lifelong friendship.
Wilkens came under fire Hollins’ rookie year for playing him, a decision that was part of the reason for his ouster. But Portland won the title a year later, with Ramsay at the helm and Hollins playing a major role.
Walton can still remember that steely glare of confidence he would see in Hollins’ eyes prior to tipoff, and it rubbed off on everyone else.
“He defined competitive greatness,” Walton said. “He was always at his best in the biggest of moments. Nobody ever had any concerns whether Lionel was going to be there in the biggest moments. He loved the responsibility, loved the pressure, loved being the guy who had to get it done, and he’s so capable of being that person.”
It’s why Walton sees Hollins’ hiring by the Nets as a slam dunk.
The task is daunting in Brooklyn. There are injury concerns about two of the team’s stars, point guard Deron Williams and center Brook Lopez. There is no telling what future Hall of Famers Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce have left, or if they will even return. The Nets don’t figure to be able to add much in free agency.
Yet, Walton sees this as a perfect marriage, an organization like the Nets willing to spend big, and a coach in Hollins who worked wonders in Memphis, coming one round shy of the NBA Finals.
“He will challenge these players to be better than they are,” Walton said. “He will help them become better, if they accept the notion they will never learn what they don’t want to know.
“If they want to become excellent championship basketball player, Lionel Hollins is the guy who can take them there. Lionel Hollins can take these guys to the promised land.”