Musselman's persona clicks with Maloofs
http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/14263917p-15076745c.html
At the precise moment Saturday that the new coach of the Kings plunged into the crowd at Arden Fair mall, glad-handing the ticket-buyers and posing for cell-phone photos with superfans, the understanding took hold that a new paradigm had reached Sacramento.
Eric Musselman will coach, absolutely. But it may well be the other things he's willing to do that make him such a fit for the Maloof family who hired him. Just a couple of hours after being formally introduced as Rick Adelman's successor, Musselman engaged the mall attendees in the kind of give and take that made the more private Adelman uncomfortable. He made goofy faces. He mugged for the cameras. He smiled, laughed, shook hands.
If he can do all that and win NBA games at the same time?
Pure gold.
"If you took all of the qualities that Joe and Gavin and their family would look for in a job candidate and punched them into a computer, what would come out would look a lot like Eric Musselman," said Jerry Reynolds, the longtime team executive and broadcaster.
In fact, Musselman's qualifications for the Maloofs go well beyond his professional résumé, which includes a lifetime spent in basketball and an up-and-down two-year stint as the head coach at Golden State.
Lean, athletic, workaholic and confident, Musselman, 41, is close to the ideal front-man for a Maloof group of companies that has been inexorably skewing younger, hipper and more modern, from the family's Las Vegas casino/hotel to its Hollywood production and music ventures.
"We have somebody that I think we can relate to," said Gavin Maloof, who noted that his family -- four brothers, a sister and mother Colleen Maloof -- voted 6-0 in favor of Musselman's hiring.
Musselman is a noted professional obsessive -- he once said that when every other NBA coach is asleep, "I can probably guarantee you that I'll be up" -- and that fits with the family's evaluation of itself as hard-working above other attributes.
Gavin Maloof said Musselman impressed executives in his first interview by placing two binders the size of phone books in front of them, each of them detailing the Kings' players' strengths and weaknesses and his own approach and practice ideas.
For his second interview, in which the full Maloof family was to participate, Musselman took it a step further. When the family's matriarch sat down, the prospective coach had personalized the books, with the printing "Prepared For Colleen Maloof" on the covers.
"He's certainly among the best and the brightest," said Geoff Petrie, the Kings' president of basketball operations.
Musselman's self-confidence is legendary. Despite having only two years of NBA head-coaching experience and going a collective 75-89 with the Warriors, he markets two videos to coaches based upon his standing as "one of the best motivators ever in the CBA and USBL," a reference to years logged in the minor leagues of pro basketball.
He said Saturday that when he emerged from his first interview with Petrie and Joe and Gavin Maloof, he called his agent and told him, "I got the job."
Musselman felt that his connection with the Maloofs was that immediate and that strong, but the scene also connotes his deep belief in himself. That part of his personality alternately inspired and annoyed NBA players during his stint in Oakland from 2002 to 2004.
The Warriors improved immediately upon Musselman's arrival, going 38-44 in 2002-03 after not having won more than 21 games in five consecutive seasons. But injuries, player sniping and a sense of fatigue at Musselman's abrasive style led to his dismissal in 2004 by new general manager Chris Mullin.
"We don't have enough time" to detail all the things he learned from that experience, Musselman said, drawing a laugh from the crowd at his introductory news conference. He said the most important was the notion of "touching each player every day," finding a way to connect with the modern professional regardless of the playing time he is receiving.
The Golden State years did nothing to derail either Musselman's sense of self or his work ethic. He is a basketball lifer, the son of a coach, the late Bill Musselman, who learned his business from the ground up -- another commonality with the Maloof siblings, who worked in various capacities in their father's company before taking over and diversifying it.
Musselman, who spent the past two seasons as an assistant in Memphis, also is something of a techno-geek, with a fondness for the kinds of advanced software programs and laptop presentations that Petrie favors.
Still, Musselman said, unless it adds up to victories, there will be no smooth ride even in a basketball-frenzied city like Sacramento. "I think the only way to win over fans in any city is to win basketball games," he said. "I think the respect of the fans will come when they see how hard we play every night."
http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/14263917p-15076745c.html
At the precise moment Saturday that the new coach of the Kings plunged into the crowd at Arden Fair mall, glad-handing the ticket-buyers and posing for cell-phone photos with superfans, the understanding took hold that a new paradigm had reached Sacramento.
Eric Musselman will coach, absolutely. But it may well be the other things he's willing to do that make him such a fit for the Maloof family who hired him. Just a couple of hours after being formally introduced as Rick Adelman's successor, Musselman engaged the mall attendees in the kind of give and take that made the more private Adelman uncomfortable. He made goofy faces. He mugged for the cameras. He smiled, laughed, shook hands.
If he can do all that and win NBA games at the same time?
Pure gold.
"If you took all of the qualities that Joe and Gavin and their family would look for in a job candidate and punched them into a computer, what would come out would look a lot like Eric Musselman," said Jerry Reynolds, the longtime team executive and broadcaster.
In fact, Musselman's qualifications for the Maloofs go well beyond his professional résumé, which includes a lifetime spent in basketball and an up-and-down two-year stint as the head coach at Golden State.
Lean, athletic, workaholic and confident, Musselman, 41, is close to the ideal front-man for a Maloof group of companies that has been inexorably skewing younger, hipper and more modern, from the family's Las Vegas casino/hotel to its Hollywood production and music ventures.
"We have somebody that I think we can relate to," said Gavin Maloof, who noted that his family -- four brothers, a sister and mother Colleen Maloof -- voted 6-0 in favor of Musselman's hiring.
Musselman is a noted professional obsessive -- he once said that when every other NBA coach is asleep, "I can probably guarantee you that I'll be up" -- and that fits with the family's evaluation of itself as hard-working above other attributes.
Gavin Maloof said Musselman impressed executives in his first interview by placing two binders the size of phone books in front of them, each of them detailing the Kings' players' strengths and weaknesses and his own approach and practice ideas.
For his second interview, in which the full Maloof family was to participate, Musselman took it a step further. When the family's matriarch sat down, the prospective coach had personalized the books, with the printing "Prepared For Colleen Maloof" on the covers.
"He's certainly among the best and the brightest," said Geoff Petrie, the Kings' president of basketball operations.
Musselman's self-confidence is legendary. Despite having only two years of NBA head-coaching experience and going a collective 75-89 with the Warriors, he markets two videos to coaches based upon his standing as "one of the best motivators ever in the CBA and USBL," a reference to years logged in the minor leagues of pro basketball.
He said Saturday that when he emerged from his first interview with Petrie and Joe and Gavin Maloof, he called his agent and told him, "I got the job."
Musselman felt that his connection with the Maloofs was that immediate and that strong, but the scene also connotes his deep belief in himself. That part of his personality alternately inspired and annoyed NBA players during his stint in Oakland from 2002 to 2004.
The Warriors improved immediately upon Musselman's arrival, going 38-44 in 2002-03 after not having won more than 21 games in five consecutive seasons. But injuries, player sniping and a sense of fatigue at Musselman's abrasive style led to his dismissal in 2004 by new general manager Chris Mullin.
"We don't have enough time" to detail all the things he learned from that experience, Musselman said, drawing a laugh from the crowd at his introductory news conference. He said the most important was the notion of "touching each player every day," finding a way to connect with the modern professional regardless of the playing time he is receiving.
The Golden State years did nothing to derail either Musselman's sense of self or his work ethic. He is a basketball lifer, the son of a coach, the late Bill Musselman, who learned his business from the ground up -- another commonality with the Maloof siblings, who worked in various capacities in their father's company before taking over and diversifying it.
Musselman, who spent the past two seasons as an assistant in Memphis, also is something of a techno-geek, with a fondness for the kinds of advanced software programs and laptop presentations that Petrie favors.
Still, Musselman said, unless it adds up to victories, there will be no smooth ride even in a basketball-frenzied city like Sacramento. "I think the only way to win over fans in any city is to win basketball games," he said. "I think the respect of the fans will come when they see how hard we play every night."
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