New Orleans Pelicans Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations Joe Dumars says that the way new head coach Jamahl Mosley engages with players on the practice court stood out in the interview process (former NBA player development/assistant coach before becoming a head coach with the Orlando Magic).
(via New Orleans Pelicans):
“Sometimes when coaches are in this league and they’re an assistant coach, there’s certain things they do and the way they carry themselves. Then they become head coaches, and they kinda give that up. We talked about this: one of the rules in a lot of buildings in the NBA is in the summertime if an assistant coach is in their office, as soon as they hear a ball bounce, drop what you’re doing, get on the court. There’s a player out there, you need to be on the court with the player. He still does that as a head coach.
“So for me, if you asked one thing that stood out: he never gave that up. That’s important because if you’re [here] in the summertime and your head coach come out, and you end up going through an hour workout and he’s the guy that’s putting you through it, what you’re doing is building real deep relationships at that point. So I think more than anything, that probably stood out to me just in our conversations.”
